Fishing report for the week of July 22, 2012.: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: July 22, 2012

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[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on July 22, 2012 at 08:23:09:

Weather and Walleyes ! The Walleye fishing last week remained really GREAT. The weather several of the days last week, well not so much. In fact, everyone found themselves with a unplanned day off on Friday when relentless north east winds had the lake churning with 5 to 7 foot waves. Just too much for even the hardiest of crews or the biggest of charter crafts. With the right crew and a nice sunny lake when things don’t seem quite so ominous, “The Trophy” can be found out there amongst the white caps trudging along in maybe 3 to 5 footers capturing Walleyes the best that we can with the conditions on hand. But when it gets much above that, well I don’t care who you are or how tough you think you are it just becomes unfishable and just not very smart to be out there. I try not to cancel on a whim. It’s not good for the guys that have waited a year to go again and certainly not good for me. But it is what it is. In 26 years of chartering, I’ve lost hundreds of days where I had no choice but to cancel. I can add another day to that list...

And several other days were marginable last week where we fished under less then ideal conditions but the Walleye didn’t seem to mind it. The great fishing that has been taking place the last few weeks is still continuing for us with spectacular limit catches of huge Walleyes ! It was just more challenging with the choppy seas and threatening thunder storms bearing down on us a couple of the days. We just worked that much harder and faster aboard “The Trophy” to get the job done and boy did we ever. I am blessed this time of year with the heart of my schedule and my longest running guests coming back now for their yearly fishing outing. Many groups are guys that I have had for well over twenty years now. There isn’t too much training or coaching that I have to do. We just go to work and “get er done” Most just want to know “how far back ?” and jump on it. Guy’s are running wire lines out... others are setting the boards out while someone is watching and setting the Dipsys to whatever count I tell them and we’re off to the races. I have everyone help watch for boats. We work well together everyday as a team. It’s really not all that tough when they are “biting” ! lol

The best Walleye fishing still remains in the 7 to 10 mile mark off shore. Seems like 66 to 70 foot of water is holding the most fish right now. The Walleyes are holding pretty steadily in the 45 to 55 levels below the surface. If anything, some of these fish seem to be coming up even higher over the coarse of the day. Just the opposite of what you would think. Several days when the action started dying off for us, we just shortened our leads up a bit to bring the lures up a little higher and then finished strong. Another thing I noticed last week with the water temperatures now approaching record warm was that these fish are really liking the trolling speeds much faster. I mean, REALLY fast! We trolled at times to speeds from 2.7 to 2.9 miles per hour and couldn’t keep a lure in the water with Walleyes hanging themselves everywhere ! It’s funny to see these fish pop right to the surface at these speeds like a cork back there and ski all the way in. Maybe not quite as sporty as when we are slow trolling and the fish are digging down deep as you bring them in but certainly effective here as of late and that is the name of the game. The one thing that I really like with the fish popping up like that is that there are hardly any tangles when they do that as they easily clear the other lines that are still down deep.

So Saturday morning rolls around and I’m like, did yesterday even really happen ? The lake at 4:30am is flatter then flat. And we go out and just can not keep a line in the water! Absolutely nothing changed and if anything, things just got plain better ! I don’t remember a trip where we had as many multiple hook ups as we did on Saturday. I think three different times we had five fish on all at the same time ! And with my superior coaching and a little bit ( actually a whole lot ! lol ) of luck, I don’t think that we lost even a single fish or tangled a single line out of all of that! Pretty amazing stuff ! What a great day of fishing ! And again, I don’t see anything changing any time soon. There are just too many fish out there right now and they are all mighty HUNGRY ! And “The Trophy” is here to serve up whatever they want to eat! Stay tuned...


Capt. Walt
*I am reminding all of my upcoming trips that we REALLY need to get off of the dock by 5:00am. These central basin big Walleyes in this real clear water are really squirrely and 90% of the time they feed like crazy right at dawn and then it drops off dramatically with each passing hour. WE DO NOT WANT TO MISS OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY if you want to catch a nice load ! It’s really just that simple. Also please MAKE SURE that you have your fishing license ahead of time before arriving in the morning. There are no provisions for licenses at the marina. Any questions, call my mobile # 216-387-2656





[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

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