Lake Erie Walleye Fishing

When is the best time to fish for big walleyes around the spawn? Will also be looking to hire a guide,please recommend. Trying to plan a vacation for next spring.

Hi Justin,

The best time for big pre spawn walleyes is March. Although with that being said weather in march is risky, as with early early April. The difficulty with Lake Erie is wind, you get over a 15 mile per hour wind out of any direction other than south you are going to be fighting 3 to 5 foot waves with your 6 foot rollers. Add that with water temps in the upper 30’s and lower 40’s and it becomes rather dangerous. I feel for you because you are coming from Wisconsin and is a drive.

So the question you need to ask yourself is do you want a crack at that true pre spawn trophy or do you want to catch those fish as they are spawning and may catch one or two pre spawn fish, were you will catch several females but 80% will be spawned out.

Honestly if you want the best fishing possible where you can jig fish the flats and reefs and troll the open water outside those complexes I would push for the 2nd week of April.

If you are on a True trophy hunt I would say the last week of march, but weather may keep you at the dock with ice still on the lake and or wind.

http://www.julswalleyefishingadventures.com/About-Us.html

As an active follower of the http://www.walleye.com site, I second Randy’s suggestion above. You’ll see some of the very good info she is posting as you browse the forums on the we tern basin.

Go back to like late February and start running through the reports and threads – you’ll find conversations on everything you can imagine relating to your questions. Keep in mind, this was a far more mild winter than the two previous where ice was still being walked on in early March. I made a first trip out there this spring, and that came after canceling a first week’s plan. It really is helpful to have flexibility due to weather. The fish are there then – all comes down to getting to them in acceptable conditions.

Juls is a good captain, but there are many more than just her. I fish lake Erie a minimum of 40 times a year. If you come down this way hit me up I fish all 90 miles of shore line in Ohio waters. Not sure if you are bringing your own boat or relying on just a charter captain. In any case lots of choices.