Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Lake Erie Walleyes

Went out last night for the first time this year for walleyes.

"The night of the #13 Repala"!!

We got 12 nice fish between 2 and 5 pounds in 2.5 hours.

Just talked to two buddies, one limited out, and the other got 10 jumbos !!

Let the games begin !!!!

Nice catch, and even better on the table. Erie is on my bucket list!

Yes, Erie is pretty much a Walleye & Perch factory.
10 pound Walleyes are pretty common, my best is 13.4 pounds.
I really enjoy getting out there...

Nice job!

This does my heart good. I happened to live in the Cleveland Suburbs when the Cuyahoga River caught fire...it was so polluted. And you literally weren't allowed to swim in Lake erie...it was a cesspool.

Glad it has had this turn around!

We were going to go out Monday night, but 'couldn't wait. Fought the crowds, and brought home 12 more last night.

Hope to get back out Friday. The neighbor's kid wants to try catching a few...

dvdegeorge, between Erie and Ontario, do you think we might be a bit spoiled?

There was a guy at the dock last night from Georgia. Said he comes up once a year for a week for the bass fishing. He said it was the best in the U.S., and he tried from Texas to NY.

Now if we could just get rid of the azzhat politicians....


I remember that river fire (June '69), now it's so clear when we fish we can see the glowing eyes from the walleyes 10 to 15' down.
Quite a change....

BGunn you make me so jealous with that walleye and perch action you post every year. I'm gonna make my way up there one of these days.

Went on a solo trip this morning.
The night bite is about over, and the good daytime fishing is about 2 or so weeks away. I just wanted to get out on a nice day and wet a line.

I got this brown where I usually get walleyes, I throw back all trout and salmon, so I didn't take the time to weigh or measure this one. They die pretty easy after the fight to the boat if you keep them out of the water very long.
That lure is 4.5" long...



I missed a REALLY nice walleye just short of the net (you know, the big one that gets away )
He just twisted the right way to drop the lure about 2' from the net. Like they say, "It's all fun and games until someone looses a walleye"!! There was some *&%#@%!* going on in the boat after it slowly swam away...

Right after that one though, I got this 8.5 pounder on the same lure that the trout took.....



I picked up a small 1.5 to 2 # smallmouth and threw it back. We get a lot of those up to 6 or 7# all summer long by accident.


Then I lost another one! I was putting on an inline planer board, and as I was clipping it to the line I got a nice hit. By the time I took the board back off, slowly let the line out not to give the fish any slack, then pick up the rod.....
Well you can imagine how that Mongolian "C.F." ended...
Oh well...


A few minutes later this weird one hit a lure.




I thought it was a female with a load of impacted eggs, but when I cleaned the walleye, it was just a weird looking fish with a big belly. Must have been hanging around with some bass down there !!

More nice fish! And that last one has a nice figure. .

I am headed up in 2 weeks. hope we have the same kinda luck

Looks like a lot of fun and some great meals.

They usually do better in Ohio than what we get here as far as numbers go.
Check here...

http://community.walleye.com/forumdisplay.php?5-Lake-Erie-Fishing-Reports

Went out yesterday. Day bite still off (but some small signs are showing up that it will start soon).

We got 4 walleyes, 8.25, 8.5, 8.75, and a 4 pounder.

Here's my partner with his first daytime walleye of the season...




I think we are about a week from the good daytime bite, and the limit of 6 fish per man will be not uncommon to see.
The walleye fishing on Erie just keeps getting better. In 2015 the TAC (total allowable catch) was 4.114 MILLION fish.
It's been raised to 4.937 million for 2016 because of the increase of walleyes in the lake...

Very nice, how were these fish caught?
Were you using downriggers, planer boards, or just trolling
lures? Iv'e never fished Lake Erie but would like to do that at some point. I spend the summers in N C PA and could easily
run up there for a trip. It seems most of the talk is about
Ohio, but I see you are from N Y and I assume that's where you fish?

I fish all NY, but Pa. is at least as good, if not better in the summer.
Here's the launches in Pa.

http://www.fisherie.com/Marinas

We fish leaded lines, inline weights, or dipsys to get down.
Stick baits ( Reaf Runners, Renoskys, Challengers), and worm harnesses work best for us.
Inline planers are almost always used. Some boats have the bigger planer board setups.

Look at some of the fishing boards to see how deep to fish. Here's a good one..

http://community.walleye.com/forumdisplay.php?5-Lake-Erie-Fishing-Reports

Do it, you'll like it !!

Any of you using Spinning gear? Like to know what rod/reels/lines you enjoy. I see rods labeled "Walleye" "Steelhead" etc. Wondered what makes them unique, beyond power/action?

Trolling is almost always a line-counter type reel for repeatably getting exactly the depth that's productive that day.

Spinning reels (and casting reels, and spincast reels) are great for jigging, or 3-waying in shallower water (6 to 40'), and are very productive.

For rods, I look at the rod weight & tip action way more than if a rod is marked "Walleye" or not.

For trolling, I like 8 or 8.5' Med action Okuma blue diamond rods, and Diawa Saltist reels in different sizes for different amounts of leaded trolling line, or straight fireline..

Jigging, or 3-ways, 7' St Croix rods Medium action with a fast tip.
Reels, a good Pflueger, or Shimano spinning or casting reel.

I use a TON of Berkley FireLine and Seaguar fluorocarbon in different weights for backer, main line, and leaders.

We do have some world class fishing here, and this is one of the reasons I feel fortunate to live in WNY. Lake Ontario for trout and salmon,Erie for small mouth and walleye.1000 Islands for a mix of bass,pike and musky.
Throw in the Finger lakes and the creeks,streams and rivers and it's a fresh water fishing paradise
Unfortunately due to my lab sick and passing and having a new lab pup,I've not fished in near 3 weeks. Hope to get back on the lake very soon and get Raven the new pup some boat and fishing time

I used to fish for walleye on Lake Erie after work in the summer during high school. I worked construction and my boss had a boat. When the weather got real hot, we'd start early, quit early and go fishing. This is back when the walleye population just started to rebound and perch were still pretty scarce. We even made our own planer boards. Conditions on Lake Erie can change almost instantly. It's like no place else I've ever been. We had a few wild rides.