Lake Erie Personal Beast

I was lucky enough to head out to Erie with James, Cal, and crew for some pretty incredible fish.

Attached is a mammoth walleye, tipping the scales at 12lb 5oz as my biggest eye to date.

Every bit of this fish was the trophy I thought she’d be immediately upon hookset. She rose to a #5 chrome blue jigging rap tipped with a shiner head twice, finally committing about 5 feet off of bottom. The rod-tip slowly sprang downward then up slightly, a sure sign of an engulfed bait, and I really drove hooks into her. She didn’t move much at first, but really picked up the fight about halfway up from bottom where she ran up, then down twice, and with serious headshakes tried her best to put slack in the line. Then she stayed 3-5 feet below the bottom of the hole for awhile as we paused in a stalemate. I didn’t want her coming to the bottom of the ice green and she did NOT want to go to the light!

Meanwhile, Cal has cleared my ducer, allowing me to engage back reel as he sat above the hole directly and did his best to help me turn her. At this point, we both knew what we were dealing with, and knew that this was the moment of truth where hurried fish get lost. She really didn’t budge much for what felt like minutes, though I knew was mere seconds, but Cal was able to get a great look at her down the hole and offer what help he could. More importantly he was checking to see how good a hook I had into her and that the bait wasn’t about to grab the bottom of the ice. As it turns out, he didn’t need to, with that jigging rap being buried below her tongue and side of her jaw. This fish was touching dorsal and pectoral fins on all sides of an 8″ hole, which is impressive in/of itself.

It was an incredible fight and an experience worthy of her size, and I’m just lucky to have played a part in it. Credit for the great photo goes to Ben Larson as always!

Joel

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Congratulations!!!! Very impressive.

Loved the read… and yes, it made me want to run out and take a shot at something that special. Thanks for sharing.

Question, see your box there… you guys have any luck with rippin raps?

A fish of that weight there, does it also run like 30 plus inches as well?

Seen on the news last night much of Erie is ice covered… one of those years where ice is about as good as it gets I suspect.

Dandy fish Joel.

Great fish Joel, that had to have made every bit of the long drive worth while. Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

WTG Joel! It’s great to have a helper around on a fish like that. Cal. That is a great pic with the fish and equipment. My hats off to you guys. How were the numbers on Erie? Lots of smaller fish or just 2/3 bites a day but big fish?

Sweet fish!

Cool, thanks for sharing. Nice photo too, it will look good all framed and on the wall.

Awesome, Awesome fish Joel. Way to get it done and congrats on the new personal best! What a beast and through the ice to boot.

Congrats and thanks for sharing the great story with us.

Dave

Congrats Joel! What a hog!

Beautiful fish!

Congrats Joel! Way to stay cool in the heat of battle.

FDR

Great fish…hope to see it on the show.

Bet that warmed ya up a bit. Congrats on a magnificent fish

Lake Erie’s eye’s and smallmouth are likely the biggest on the planet. Great Fish.

Incredible fish bud!

Nice fish, just a hogzilla! Even better product placement. LOL

Awesome fish Joel. Glad to assist any time on a fish like that. Getting that big mama’s head turned up the hole was very intense.

Sweet fish Joel! A PB that will probably take you some time to one-up. (unless you go back to Erie that is ;)) Sorry to hear about the rod case. Good thing is, with the way most of the locals are, you actually have a chance of getting it returned!

What a beast! man that lake is just sick at producing pigs! what’s the guess as to how much longer that year class can survive?

From what I have “read” these fish grow very quick, and there have been decent year classes consistently that good things are expected to continue.

Wow! Very impressive joel!

Chuck Melcher wrote:

Seen on the news last night much of Erie is ice covered… one of those years where ice is about as good as it gets I suspect.

I would suspect two good years of ice on Lake Erie is the exception and not the rule.

What a rush,…congrats Joel.

Awesome fish Joel !! Congrats bud !

I’m not a fan of 10″ holes but that would be one time I would gladly welcome a bigger hole! Nice fish Joel!

Personal “Beast” says it all!

Awesome fish….congratulations! I see that you did well on the chrome blue jigging rap. we’re you guys able to get any fish going on the rattle baits at all? I am hoping to get over ther for a few days this week. It’s going to be my first time on the ice there and I can’t wait!

Kenneth Powers wrote:

Awesome fish….congratulations! I see that you did well on the chrome blue jigging rap. we’re you guys able to get any fish going on the rattle baits at all? I am hoping to get over ther for a few days this week. It’s going to be my first time on the ice there and I can’t wait!

Don’t waste your time with those rattle baits , all you need are a few jigging raps and little Cleos , unless you wanna mark a bunch of junk fish

Wow Joel!! Amazing fish!! Congrats on that beauty!

Very nice!