Lake Erie fishing report for the week September 3, 2017: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: September 03, 2017

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[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on September 03, 2017 at 07:47:42:

September! And just like the song sung by the group “Europe”, It’s the final countdown! Four weeks. That’s all that I and “The Trophy” have left in the 2017 charter season. What started with the boat getting splashed way back in the end of April of this year has rapidly fast forwarded to this moment. I think in past reports I’ve described it as a real blur. And it has been for me. The days, weeks and months have just flown by. It has been a good year all in all. Even with the onslaught of young Walleyes keeping us busier then busy the entire year and even still now. Weather as always has been a real challenge in 2017. And this past week was certainly no exception.

In fact, this past weeks weather on the big lake was about horrific. Other then Wednesday which was the gem of the week every day besides Wednesday was nothing but wind, wind and more WIND! Ugh! It started with Mondays super stiff south winds. I HATE a south wind! You clear the gap and head out in a seemingly nice lake. With each mile as you head out it gets choppier and choppier. By the time you get close to where you need to fish you are already in heavy seas and now forced to troll with the wind and the waves on the tail and now getting forced further and further from shore and with each mile that slips by the waves just start stacking up and grow taller and taller. What appeared as a nice lake when you left is now a nightmare. And you know that sooner or later you have to turn around and come back home. Head on. Right into all that crap! And that is exactly what happened to us on Monday. With south winds well in excess of 20 to 25 mph the lake got ugly in a big hurry well offshore. With the way things were shaping up that morning I just pulled the plug early on the trip and cried uncle before we got so far out that I would have had to beat into 6 footers head on all the way home for 20 miles. Even with the 10 miles that I did have to come back in, it was a very tough sled ride! What a disappointing day.

I wake up Tuesday, same thing. Ugh. Stiff south wind. This time, convincing myself that it wasn’t quite “as bad as yesterday” we stuck it out and somehow, some way managed to limit out before we were so far offshore that it took us the rest of the day to crawl our way back home. We only had to come home in 3 to 5’ footers. Only! Ha! Wednesday had me scratching my head wondering, is this even the same lake that I fished on the last 2 days? A beautiful lake and the Walleyes were on FIRE! Home early too with a GREAT load! Thursday was the exact opposite and back to crap. Strong north winds this time. I’ll take that however over a strong south wind. Let me know how bad its going to be right out the gate so I can decide right away if we want to do this or not. Which we did. We took it straight out exactly 20 miles in 4 footers and just aimed it for home. Fishing was good and it was reassuring that with each passing mile that we fished that we were getting closer and closer to home. Friday? Forget it! With a northeast wind blowing a sustained blistering 25 knots and higher, we didn’t even attempt it. Saturday the wind curled around to dead out of the east and continued to howl, especially the first thing in the morning before easing a bit. With the right crew for the day and my wife acting as a first mate, we were the only boat from River Marine to go for it. After a long boat ride east, we spun it around and smoked 35 Walleyes in no time flat! Everybody had a ball despite the steady 4 foot seas and it was the first time this year I even got some Walleyes for myself!

Sunday, the next day again proved to be another no-go. Without much wind at the marina nobody was more surprised then me after sticking our noses out into the lake about a quarter mile to find our selves in a horribly heavy sea of about 8 footers with the wind dead out of the west. It took all my skills as a captain and perfect timing just to swing the boat around and scurry for shelter. Yet another lost day in a very tough week and right now Mondays forecast for the big holiday looks equally bleak at this point. That would make 4 days lost to the weather in about a weeks time. And a couple other of the days that we fished coulda/shoulda been blow days despite us sucking it up and going anyway. What a week. Despite these pictures in this report featuring our nicest Walleyes that we captured this past week, the bulk of our fish once again consisted of the same ole, same ole. Mostly just “good eaters” Walleyes of legal size in the range of 15” inches to 20” inches or so. But every now and again we would turn around and hook and land a real bruiser! We sure had some monsters this week! Just not a lot of them. I can’t help but keep envisioning what all these 15” to 20” inch fish are all going to look like next summer. It should be SWEET! So tomorrow is Labor Day. Man, what a fast summer! And next weekend I have a couple of Perch charters scheduled already that I need to run. I am not really looking forward to that knowing that the Walleyes are still on fire out there. But we’ll see what happens. Probably be another long boat ride to Conneaut just to catch Perch. Thus far everybody that I have talked to has told me that it hasn’t been all that great although I have seen a few big cooler fulls back at the fish house. All we can do is try I guess. If it’s not any good, I suppose we can always throw a few Dipsys out and top the cooler off with a few Walleyes. We’ll just have to see how it all plays out. Four weeks. The final countdown! But who's counting! Happy Labor Day everyone!

Capt. Walt
Trophy Charters





[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

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