Lake Erie Walleye Trip

Went on my first walleye fishing trip with 5 other guys and the fishing was incredible! We went from Port Clinton to Put In Bay island on the Ferry and stayed on the island. Was down Friday thru following Friday, couldn’t get out one day due to winds and ended up with 233 walleye. The fish size is what is so impressive. Most were 24-28” and some heavy pigs in the mix. We trolled deep running Bandits in 30-40 FOW anywheres from 40-120’ back running 9 lines with planer boards.
You folks that live close to Erie sure have a great fishery there!

Dave

Looks like a great trip.

My best was out of Clinton. Prefer drifting but you got to go to them.
Yes Erie can spoil a guy.

Cheek meat at Daves tonight.

Funny you say that because I was the guy that pulled all the cheeks out before removing the fillets.

Dave

2X Wow.

Used to fish the Fall and Winter tributaries.
Before it got pouted by internet.
Big salmon and trout on light fly gear.
To go so now I would need a guide with leased access.

looks like a great time

Thanks for sharing.

That is a fish fry. WOW!


Mac

Looks like a great time and a lot of great meat to go with it. I got to fish Lake Erie once. It was a great time and experience. Only time I've ever fished for walleye.

Awesome. Looks like you had fun.

Awesome trip. Did you go guided?

Really Nice

I guess you have no slot size limit there.

Nice haul.
Fished the pickerel out of Sandusky years ago,around 85 I think.
Drift fishing and count down an erie dearie.
Had a pile of fish after a couple hours.

I offered to fillet them,but there was a place on shore that filleted all the fish for us while we pulled the boat out of the water.

Awesome pics Alex, been there twice. Some of the best walleye fishing around

Do you have a cheek spoon ? Some of the old grapefruit spoons with those jagged ends work great ?

Looks like a good time on the water.

Not a dull moment on the boat with that type of action Dave. Nice to have a planned trip work out the way one hopes for.

Bryce

I don't say this often when it relates to walleye fishing, I'm jealous.

Eerie is definitely on the bucket list, preferably on the ice or April

No place on earth like it.

I’m only an hour and a half away but have never fished it. I’ve really got to get out there some time. I’ve heard really good things about the smallmouth too

My Dad is up on the Detroit river now. If he saw those pics he would be jealous. They are not doing near that good. Their fish are averaging 16" (great eaters). And struggle to get their limit a day.

Hopefully you saved the wings along with the cheeks?
I'm about 1 1/2 hours south and make it up there a few times a year.
Best walleye fishery anywhere (imo).

Nice pictures, thank you for sharing them!

Did you try casting/jigging or troll the entire time?

I always laugh when people think Minnesota or the Dakota's have good walleye fishing. It's a joke compared to what Erie offers, then if you want REALLY BIG ONES you've got to keep going east a couple hundred more miles from Erie.

Erie should be unbelievable for the next decade based on recent hatches.

Anyone who says head North or West to walleye fish, just assume they're clueless.

My cousin ran a charter service out of Port Clinton. I got spoiled real fast on those free trips. Then he moved to Florida.
The one thing I will say, is your boat wasn't big enough. Erie can turn bad In a heart beat.

I'll try to answer the multiple questions.

We did not hire a guide. Two of the guys had fished from the island previous years and had some knowledge, I was in their boat.. A third guy fished walleye circuit as an amateur and had a lot of connections but was his first time on Erie. On the Island there was 5 other groups of guys fishing from our area back in Wisconsin (Chilton, New Holstein, Kiel, Potter, St. Nazianz) and a good amount of texting and phone calls were being made on the water to help each other get on fish. I quickly learned you might share how deep and what color lures were working but hold back on location until your close to limiting.

The other boat did jig one day and kept 8 fish, all 16 - 20" males before finishing limit by trolling.

I believe there is a 15" minimum size limit but no slot.

A cheek spoon sounds interesting. I just used a fillet knife and my thumb to remove which went good with lots of fish to practice on.

We did not cut out the wings, maybe something to try next year and fry them up right there.

The boat was 20'4" and I would say was typical size for the amateurs that were out there. Could we fish in all weather, no but I didn't see many out of state vehicles pulling the size boat that guides had on the water. Our second day out (Saturday 4/16) the other boat limited out, we were stuck on 16 and stayed out too long. Wind increased and the 3-4' footers grew, we launched on West end and were in 8-10' rollers motoring our way back from North of Kelley's to get there. Getting the boat on the trailer was an adventure.

It was a trip I heard many friends talk about and was a bucket list for me that will turn into an annual trip God willing.

Dave

We fished out of a 30 footer. And 3 foot waves were considered walleye chop. LOL
We mainly drifted and dragged Erie deris (sp)
Head boat fishing Is always a option when the weather gets bad. It gets a bit crowded but they will put you on fish.

Nice.way to go.

How long will it last when 6 guy's take 233 fish in 1 trip?????

I do not know the guys who fished this trip.
However, I do know Lake Erie and it’s walleyes.
I personally have seen this quality of fish production for 40 years. It has lasted and will last as long as the fish have good hatches - not every year, and water quality is good.
This fishery is rated in tons of fish allocated to the individual states and province on the lake.
This is not like an inland lake.
There are regularly very large fish - ten pounders and up that are kept and eaten.
They make the best chowder.
These are summer fish, not spring fish full of eggs.
When trolling deep water later in the year, pulling fish from the deep water will cause a distended swim bladder caused by the rapid change in water pressure. Survival rate for released fish is very low.
The largest that I have caught was in early June from shallow water so no swim bladder issues. It was a 33” walleye that was measured in the water and was released.

At least another 15 years. We have had some of the best walleye hatches ever the past few years. There is over 100 million walleyes in the system currently.

Truer words were never spoken !!!

walleyed

MN has good walleye fishing but I'm biased lol.

I'd rather get a colonoscopy than troll cranks.

I need to make time to ice fish Erie