Lake Erie. Anyone here fish it?

[glen]

Doesn’t anyone on here fish Lake Erie?

6 walleye limit any size for sport fishing lic.  
where can you get that.  

[BillM]

Haven't in a long time but Burwell always used to be the hot spot back in the day.  Erie is littered with walleyes.   Should have no problems finding a Lake Erie walley related group on Facebook for info.

[glen]

It’s three hours to get there or I’d go by myself.   
my son wants to go but he’s busy at work.  

[Cosmos]

I fished Port Stanley, Burwell,  Nanticoke - all good spots. Walleye fishing is on fire now.

[glen]

I’m thinking about port burwell. It looks like the closest and best drive.  
I’ve never fished it.  How many miles out to 50’ deep?  

I might start fishing Owensound for salmon first though.  

[CrowMan]

Lake Erie is a Walleye factory. The 2024 survey numbers indicated over 80 MILLION Walleye of catchable size (2 years old or older).

I grew up fishing Lake Erie. My grandparents had a cottage on Pickerel Ave in Long Point, backing onto one of the "cuts". We mostly fished Bass and Pike, but if we wanted a Walleye dinner, we'd haul the boat over to Port Burwell and fish a few miles out. The fishing has only got better since the 70's and 80's.

I fished with a buddy last July out of Burwell, and we limited out within 90 minutes. Plenty of fillets to take home in a short time...but it felt more like harvesting than fishing.

I have to say, I much prefer to catch Walleye from a northern Canadian Shield Lake. There's just something about the pink granite and towering White Pines. The call of the Loon and the slap of a Beaver's tail add to the atmosphere. Frankly, trolling for Walleye on Lake Erie isn't that much fun...they're not the best fighters to begin with, and with heavier trolling gear you often just skip them in. I prefer to jig for them on light spinning tackle and zero in on structure...part of the challenge is finding them. You feel the bite, and you at least get a few head shakes on the way up.

Besides..there's no islands to stop at and have a shore lunch on Erie..a crackling fire, sizzling fillets and potatoes, along with a can or two of beans is all part of the experience.

Catching isn't everything. 

ps...hooking a few bonus Steelhead when trolling Erie does make it a little more exciting..

Edited July 23 by CrowMan

[petersaban]

So many fish on Erie, I jig for them now instead of wrenching in on trolling gear. Need somewhat of a calmer day, spot lock on a school and jig away. Livescope really helps but I had no problem in the past using 2D. Let me know if you looking for a company---I have all the gear and will cover launch and gas fees.

[Headhunter]

I got out on Tuesday out of Port Glasgow for a few hours... well it would have been longer but we were limited out in just over two hours.

If you can't catch fish on Lake Erie, it might be a good idea to find another hobby!

Some details:

-find 58 ft of water (about 5 miles)

-you want your baits tracking in the 25-30ft range. We did well with 5 colours of lead core running Ripplin Redfins and spoons off of Dipsey's at 100ft.

I hadn't been to Glascow since the 80's and wow, what a set up they have there now! Four good launches ($25), clean bathrooms, fish cleaning station, restaurant ($$$) and marina. 

HH

[HTHM]

I've gotten 3 limits in as many days over the past weekend out of Port Maitland. 

[Headhunter]

My brother and a couple of friends got out this past Thursday. Yes, they got their 18 pickereyes in less than two hours, but this fish was the highlight of their trip.

Caught on a dipsey, 90ft out and a trolling spoon. It ripped 100ft of line in the first run and took them 20 minutes to finally get in the net. They knew it probably wasn't a pickereye, maybe a sheepy, but no one in the boat considered this!

HH

PS... My brother is 6ft 2in

PSS... I forgot to mention that the spoon used is called a greasy chicken wing! LMAO!

Edited August 16 by Headhunter

[glen]

Open water channel cat.  Nice catch.  
 

[LeXXington]

Fishing Lake Erie, Weather report light winds, clear -- you arrive 5 foot chop... Weather report 30K winds and rain.. you arrive sunny and calm..    Great fishing LOL

 

[CrowMan]

6 hours ago, Headhunter said:

My brother and a couple of friends got out this past Thursday. Yes, they got their 18 pickereyes in less than two hours, but this fish was the highlight of their trip.

Caught on a dipsey, 90ft out and a trolling spoon. It ripped 100ft of line in the first run and took them 20 minutes to finally get in the net. They knew it probably wasn't a pickereye, maybe a sheepy, but no one in the boat considered this!

HH

PS... My brother is 6ft 2in

Nice cat ! When something peels drag on Erie, I'm usually thinking Steelhead..

[glen]

How are the Lake Erie rainbows for eating?

[CrowMan]

21 minutes ago, glen said:

How are the Lake Erie rainbows for eating?

Great when smoked...but what fish isn't.. the Mennonites would come down to the Port Burwell pier to catch Sheepshead for the smoker...I'm not sure of the recipe but they were quite tasty.

Best tasting Steelhead in the Great Lakes are from Superior....Huron/G'Bay is a close second.

Edited August 17 by CrowMan

[glen]

I baked a GB rainbow  three years ago and it was delicious.  
 

[dave524]

When working at Long Point back in the 70's we would surf cast for channels , 9 foot heavy spinning gear and pyramid sinkers, on the Lake Erie side of Hastings Ave. in the evening . Hope the statute of limtations has run out as one of the guys brother was a commericail fisherman and he would take them at 30 cents a pound, often over a 100 pounds on a good night, best I caught was 17 1/2 pounds. Good times with a beach fire, lawn chairs, sand spike rod holder and the clip on bell bite indicator

[petersaban]

We fished Nanticoke Friday evening and got a quick limit jigging paddle tails and blade baits. It's crazy the amount of fish out there, schools of 6-8 fish would come through every few mins. Just amazing to see on livescope. It was too nice to head in so we trolled for a bit at high speed and got a bonus steelhead

[AKRISONER]

glad to see erie is so loaded with eyes that it will maybe push some of the pressure up on g bay back south again. Things were getting pretty nuts during the covid run, definitely a lot less boats last year.

 

Everyone keeps raving about how good erie is firing at the moment for eyes...so it must be legit. I keep seeing guys with stringers full posted everywhere.

Edited August 18 by AKRISONER

[glen]

Thank you to everyone who posted more info.  
I’m not sure if I can make it down again this year.  
hopefully it will still be good next year.  
 

[Headhunter]

1 hour ago, AKRISONER said:

glad to see erie is so loaded with eyes that it will maybe push some of the pressure up on g bay back south again. Things were getting pretty nuts during the covid run, definitely a lot less boats last year.

 

Everyone keeps raving about how good erie is firing at the moment for eyes...so it must be legit. I keep seeing guys with stringers full posted everywhere.

My brother knows a biologist that works Lake Erie. They have had 5 explosive year classes in a row. Each year doubling the previous years output. Surveys suggest that there are 88 million pickereyes in Lake Erie. There will be pickereyes for many years to come!

HH

[Essox]

We do good on Erie. We troll with 3 ways, with weights ranging from 2 to 6 oz's. This is due to the depth the fish are at which ranging from 20 to 60 feet of water. pretty easy fishing just trolling at say 1.5 mph. Erie''s the only lake I know that still produces in the heat of summer. Once you start seeing fish or just look for an area where a lot of other are obviously trolling. Mostly eater size 15" to 20", but an occasional a 6-10 pound walleye is caught but that's more of an exception. Also with Erie you never know what caan bite last year we got a big musky and a 20 pound channel catfish. Also an occasion Laker is caught as well. Tons of sheepsheads, silverbassand perch. Goodluck if you want PM me,good luck

[floater]

I've been looking for a place to stay on the north shore of Erie. Can anyone recommend a place near Nanticoke or anywhere near by? Thanks

[petersaban]

Call some of the motels in Port Dover, that might be your best bet. There's a marina in town for launching your boat and you'll be fishing in in close proximity to Naniticoke

[Rustic-Fisher]

I was down there a few weeks ago for my son and the Jr Bassmasters qualifier tourney 

We trailered two boats just in case there was an issue. 
 

I took my rig out while the boys were fishing the tourney , about 7 miles off turkey point and trolled a deep diving crank bait , first time there and I had no clue what to expect . 
I literally had a limit of walleye in 45 min .

It was insane !

NOW .. I made the run in the Am and the lake blew up fast . I run a 188 tiller with a 90 SHO yammy and a back up 9.9 kicker . Ride back in was insane for me , watch the weather man .

What a great fishery Erie is !