Welcome new staffer and pics!

First, allow us to welcome Jason Glatz as our newest FTL Field Staff Reporter! Welcome aboard Jason. He fishes Eerie heavily as well as the in-land lakes in Ohio so can look forward to his insight and experience here on FTL.

And just to give you and idea of the size of fish we’re talking about here…. check these out!

Again, welcome aboard!

FTL Webstaff

Wow… what pigs! Great pix… and welcome to you Jason! Great to have you here on staff! Hawger

I fish Mosquito Lake, Lake Milton, and West Branch during the week afterwork and Lake Erie on the weekends. I also try to make a few trips to the Ohio River each year. With winter fast approaching my season is winding down.

I do ALOT of big water trolling (riggers, dipseys, and jets) on Lake Erie, and quite a bit of snap weight and leadcore trolling on the inland lakes. If anyone has any questions I’ll be more than happy to answer them.

Jason, I am just wondering …what are jets? I am hep to your other terms but that one I am not.

Also, In the fall wnat patterns do you fish on big water. Do the eyes relate to any rivers in fall there? Where are the fish right now on Erie. Where do you fish out of on Erie this time of the year? I know that in Lake Michigan, there are vast eye runs on the rivers in the spring. What about for you there?

Can you tell us a bit about Mosquito, Milton, and West Branch? Where is the best ice spots?

I am so excited to learn more about your area and have only been there once! Hawger

Dave,

Jets are made by Luhr Jensen, they are a diving appliance that is designed to run straight behind the boat and dive to a specific depth. They make them in 10,20,30,40, and 50 depth models. All you do is attach them to the swivel on the end of your line, then attach a 6-8ft leader to the other side of the jet, then attach your lure to the end on the leader. Jets work great off of the Mast/Ski style planner boards with either spoons or crawler harnesses. Here is a link to one of there technotes

http://www.luhrjensen.com/tr_jet_diver.htm

Right now the walleyes on Erie are stacking up off of Huron and Vermillion. We were marking so many fish on Saturday the screen looked like it was in demo mode. The only bad thing is that we had gale force winds with waves in the 8-10ft range the whole week before. The water was extremely muddy. Hopefully the wind will cooperate and it will clear up. Once that happens they should really turn on. Scorpion spoons and Reefrunner deep divers are the ticket this time of year. They will work all the way to ice up…

Eye runs in spring for us happen on the Maumee River, I have never been there but I here the fishing in phenomenal.

Mosquito is an awesome lake for numbers. There are tons of fish in the 14-21” range, its not uncommon to catch 60-70 walleye a day. Mosquito also has a very STRONG population of crappie with a lot in the 12-16” range. Jigging & rigging work pretty well, but trolling small rapalas with leadcore will catch the big ones. Last year it caught my partner and I a 6 ½ pounder. It’s a shallow lake, the fishing is awesome in the spring but tapers off quickly as the waters begins to warm.

Lake Milton is a decent walleye lake. The bad thing about this lake is that it has a 15” length minimum, that makes every eye you catch 14 7/8”. The lake is basically a damed up river. I usually fish the area where the river dumps into the lake. There are a lot of humps and flats that hold fish. Personally I don’t think its as good of a walleye lake as Mosquito.

West Branch is a challenge, it holds a lot of fish but gives a lot of anglers a tough time. The boat and jet ski traffic gets really bad as the water warms so I usually fish it in the evenings after work. Jig & crawler or lindy rigging works great for eyes on this lake. Work points and deep under water humps.

Ice fishing….

I would have to say ERIE, take a fly-in trip to South Bass and hook up with one of the guides. Or, bring a snowmobile, GPS, and shanty and drive out from Catawba State Park. If you don’t want to fish the big pond, go to to Mosquito, they catch a lot of eyes and some HUGE crappie through the ice…

If you want some more detail or if you are planning on coming out here again let me know…..

Jason

Man… sounds like you have some great places to fish there. Yep, I will try to make a trip to Erie next year and will be looking you up when I come.

Thanks for the xtra info on your area lakes too.

Hawger

If anybody wants or needs any information (Lodging, Ramps, Baitshops, Etc….) for the Ohio Waters of Lake Erie or for any of the Northeastern Ohio Reservoirs Let me know and I will help you out…

Jason

Jason,

Any chance you can come to the FTR Get-together? I can put you up on our couch for a couple af days! Hawger

I’d like to introduce myself ( I was here once before under a nickname) and to say “Hi” to my friend Jason G. Jason is a knowledgable “Big Water” angler with Lake Erie as his backyard. He can and will give the best, up-to-date info on the tremendous Walleye angling on Erie. His nickname, however, leaves those of us who know him wondering just a little. I fish mostly the inland Ohio lakes and will be glad to share any info on those waters with any FTL members who are interested.

Jim… Glad to see you found the site!!! I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

Please feel free to post fishing reports for the inland lakes down in your neck of the woods!!!

How’s Tappan, is it thawed enough to launch a boat??

Thanks Jason. Some of the GFO guys launched on Tappan today. They didn’t catch much but reported that ther was little floating ice left on the main lake. You can put a small cartopper in at Piedmont now. I’m heading there tomorrow for some Saugeyes. I’ll post the results. The rumors are that there is open water at Atwood down by the dam and ramp.

Hey Jim, glad to have you! What a deal… we are excited to hear all about your area. Whazzzhotttt?

Hawger

Our ice season is shot all to heck now and the area lakes all have open water. Tappan Lake holds good numbers of Saugeyes and the average size is very good. Lacking main lake structure the Saugeyes don’t concentrate in the Winter. Instead they scatter in the main basin and can be picked up by trolling slip sinker rigs with floating jig/Fatheads combos in 20 to 25 feet of water.

Atwood Lake has the best “Big Fish” population of all of our local Saugeye lakes but, it too, has a poor Winter ice bite for the same reasons as Tappan. It is a good Winter Crappie lake however. Ditto for the poor ice bite at Clendenning Lake. The Fall bite is great at all of these lakes and there was a new Ohio State Record Saugeye caught at Clendenning this November. It weighed 12.83 pounds. There are strong rumors right now of that being broken by a monster from Alum Creek but, so far, it hasn’t been confirmed. By “monster” I mean that this fish, if it’s true, could be near the Fort Peck World record. I’ll post any info that comes up.

Piedmont Lake is our best local Ice fishing lake for Saugeyes. It has good main lake structure, in the form of submerged hard-surfaced roadbeds, that hold numbers of fish throughout the Winter. Last Winter the numbers were up and the size was down but it was just the opposite this season.

Local Walleye lakes have a good ice bite and good open water fishing in milder Winters. Salt Fork and Seneca Lakes are the two closest of these lakes. Lakes North of here such as Berlin and Mosquito have traditionally good Ice fishing seasons for Walleyes. The bite at Mosquito this year was good but short lived.

I didn’t go to Piedmont today. One of the guys that went called me to say that there were 4 boats on the roadbed but no fish were caught. That’s a surprise to me. They reported a glut of small Shad with no signs of Winter kill. Might be a tough year if that’s true. I’m still going to try to get down there this week sometime and will post the results.

Thanks for the inland reports Jim!!! I can’t to get the boat back from the cover shop and start hitting Erie!!! Spring will be here in a few weeks! I can’t wait for April!!!

Awesome reports Jim! I began reading and noticed your user mug wasn’t appearing along with your posts and since you were so kind to share some info from your neck of the woods, I felt more than motivated to make sure your user pic worked the way it should.

The next time you post your mug shot will post along with all the great info you’re sharing.

Thanks! I couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t show up.

I ran a query to update the database so all your past posts also have your mug attatched. Welcome and thanks for the reports!

Thanks for the welcome. As the bite picks up here I’ll try to keep up to date. Maybe in the future some of you will be coming down this way and I can put you onto a hot inland bite. I know that Jason can steer you to the “Hawgs” on Erie.