OhioFisherman

Ya John the price of some of the lures out there seems pretty scary! You're prices up there were even more so, even with the exchange. LOL. one of the nice things about fishing with a bass club or even with other good anglers was you could see what they were using and how the were using it. My brother turned me on to the hot n tots and wiggle warts, they were great Lake Erie walleye lures here, but those wiggle warts also turned into a very good bass lure all over,. don't remember ever catching a bass on a hot n tot. Some of those Strike King deep divers also look like a lure that would also work for Erie walleyes? They seem to have a good action and a good history for bass.

https://www.facebook.com/Brownbeartacklebox/ This place may have the spinners you are looking for, it's near your destination?

Never had a bill actually break John, but some would loosen up from the plastic and fill with water. It must have been an issue with them for a while because I know they were made with a plastic bill at one time. On Erie? http://erieoutfitters.com/index.php?cPath=25_85&osCsid=luti1v4qatqa49bekskrg0b2u7 They host the fall brawl here, and what they are selling for walleye lures also have to produce sales?

If it's any help? http://www.hotbitefishingcharters.com/top-ten-crankbaits-lake-erie-walleye-2/ The Blue Pike - Walleye days on Lake Erie were over when I was a kid, but all the people that used to fish for them always seemed to have a bunch of Flatfish in their tackle boxes, or Benos. Storm wiggle warts and Hot n tots always caught fish for me back in the 1980's years of the hot bite. I preferred the Wiggle warts because the bill was molded as part of the lure, the hot n tots had a metal bill that would break loose and allow them to fill with water making them useless. Bandit crankbaits like the 200-300 series worked too, but the wiggle warts seemed to have the edge most days. Probably depth control and the ability to keep a lure running at the depth were they are hanging out on any particular day is more of an issue? Caught Erie walleye casting blade baits, lipless cranks, and tubes, LOL, just lucky enough to stick them in their faces!

Obviously from what I read and have experienced in the past not all the Walleyes migrate or go very far if they do. The number of boats out fishing for walleye here looked like new islands from a distance, and the follies didn't end at the launching ramps, some carried them onto the water.

LOL John, shorter hours of daylight must be triggering the migration this year? I don't feel cooler temps yet! 3 days pushing 90 this week here, and you are welcome to share!

I can't picture a farmer harvesting corn off the ground, the machines I have seen them use don't appear to be set up to operate like that? Labor costs to do it by hand would break them? Because of the very wet spring here the corn crop is down by an estimated 35%, some fields never got planted. Have a great time traveling!

Usually this time of year they are moving shallower, the migration from the eastern to western basin. It stormed here too, sounded like someone shot off a cannon right outside my bedroom window when it started.

LOL, we usually trolled Wiggle Warts or Hot n Tots on a long line, some bites you didn't feel, you just saw a walleye water skiing behind the boat. It was usually pretty hard to get me to Walleye fish on Lake Erie, I had a lot of other options.

Not sure of their exact method of determining the catch per hour Lucas, if they are asking all anglers fishing for them I would expect some to do worse than others. Just curious? What were you using for lures? I know things have changed since the last time I targeted walleye on Lake Erie.

https://www.cleveland.com/sports/2019/09/lake-erie-walleye-fishing-golden-era-officially-returns-with-record-catches-big-hatches.html?fbclid=IwAR3P1mOqmGyrKxIxkVGxqzzIuMM0PBf9VtSpsCG2vLfcQwBE8Tqyyzo2O24 https://www.cleveland.com/sports/2019/09/lake-erie-smallmouth-bass-biting-around-where-else-the-bass-islands-fishing-report-for-sept-13.html?fbclid=IwAR0Lgi7XAEMk-MYglH7LlDhAnkcMc3ZeuVJVrWMfQHkITI0NPaac-Z0jqcw Pelee Island on the north side was always known as a smallie destination too, has that changed?

I recall seeing Perch eyes used for bait here too, as long as you are keeping that Perch to eat would it be an issue? If there is a stream in you area? Small creek chubs, dace or darter minnows might work as well?

How does the fuel line to the tank look? I am guessing it is an older motor? might have pin holes and be sucking air?

Just my experience is that perch will eat almost anything if they feel like it. Different laws here in Ohio, but as a kid we would buy a buck's worth of minnows and when they ran out scale a perch or other fish and cut strips of it with the skin on for bait, it worked. Worms, but you might end up feeding the gobies and every other fish out there. Not sure what they sell as bait in your area, here some bait stores sold maggots and wax worms as pan fish bait, possibly a leech? I have caught Perch up north that were spitting out crayfish, so small uncooked shrimp might work, a small piece of bologna or hot dog? I have seen videos of people using them to bait minnow traps. In my younger years when the lake front bait stores here couldn't get enough Emerald Shiners they sold Fathead minnows as bait, I never had much luck on those anywhere! The trend now seems to be hatchery raised small Golden Shiners,

Today? every day is different! It was like 72 here Monday, then hovering around 90 Tuesday and Wednesday, and back to the lower 70's today, unstable weather can throw the bite and fish location off, deeper fish might be less affected by the changes.

2019 Fall Brawl They call it the fall brawl, no summer slam as yet! Of course location of the Tackle shop and fall fish migration have a lot to do with it. Like 400 new participants in the past week? I am guessing that will continue!

Swine Fever Is Killing Vast Numbers Of Pigs In China : The Salt : NPR Stuff like that keep's happening and we all might have to become grazers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coregonus_hoyi Lots of chubs in our streams and rivers too, but J has it right a different species than them, and a much different look. Many years ago I went to buy some minnows at a bait store in PAB, in the mix of big minnows and chubs was was a mooneye, never had seen one before and I passed on it even though it looked good for bait, just didn't know if it was legal for bait, and I didn't have much confidence if they did either.

If it is any help, https://www.interlochenpublicradio.org/post/chub-fishery-disappearing This is from the American side of the Great Lakes, but I assume the effect covers both sides? " The number of chubs has decreased more than 99 percent in the past 20 years. " That will make them harder to find? https://eatwisconsinfish.org/fish-list/chubs/

Ya, look how badly people get torn up by 120 pound dogs?

What has your weather been like? colld fronts rolling in can affect the bite, colors? it can make a difference, with soft plastics like worms or lizards I usually had two rods set up with the same bait, one light, one dark. Depth, I have caught largemouth at Pointe Au Baril in 20 feet of water hanging out with the small mouth, the only reason I could think of it happening was food, cooling temps, but not that cool? Jig and soft plastic? Fall is sort of strange at times, especially if you are having wide temperature swings.

jimmer, has the fishing pressure changed? Has stocking walleye changed if applicable?

From a biological view http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/archive/discuss/index.php?topic=588.0 Most of our fish spawn in the spring and they need a good amount of time to develop the eggs, fattening up in the fall helps.

I think they do put on the feed bag in the fall, shorter daylight hours, cooling temps are a signal to wild things? Some bodies of water are capable of a much bigger feed bag than others? The falt blowing so bad you couldn;t l brawl walleye tournament on Lake Erie last year, the entries got bigger as fall progressed? Smallie fishing on Lake Erie seemed to get better once October hit, maybe not numbers, but certainly average size, LOL if it wasn't blowing so bad you couldn't get out. I always had better success at Pointe Au Baril after the first frost here, looks a way off though.

LOL, ya they drove out because they saw other vehicles out there, looking for sea shells or something, and didn't know there were places to avoid. Early 1960's, and he had his 1961 Chevy Impala buried. I guess people there were used to that so he didn't have much of a problem getting a tow out. Saw pictures of the tides, crazy!