Meat Run

Just got back from 3 days on Erie. What a magical place! Absolute beat down… Limited out everyday in a couple hours.If you ever want to feel good about yourself as a walleye fisherman, just go to Ohio. Fished out of Port Clinton and found fish all over from the Islands to the reefs. Mainly trolled and found our best baits to be chromeish Bandits 60-100 back unassisted and P10s 25/25 with a 2oz. No real big fish (biggest just over 28) Average fish was probably 23. Saw the IDO rig out there too, cant wait to see if they got some hogs! Freezer is full for the year.

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eyecatchum wrote:

Freezer is full for the year

They don’t require you to leave some of the skin on? You might want to vacuum seal those filets instead too. They ain’t lasting a year the way you have them now in the freezer.

Nice fish BTW

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>eyecatchum wrote:</div>
Freezer is full for the year

They don’t require you to leave some of the skin on? You might want to vacuum seal those filets instead too. They ain’t lasting a year the way you have them now in the freezer.

Nice fish BTW

Looks like each bag is filled with water. That will outlast vacuum sealed bags.

I’d watch your own bobber…

Nice bag of cheeks.

there must be a lot of people that don’t know that if you freeze fish in water, it will last a long long time and taste as fresh as the day it was caught. i see so many people that will only eat it fresh caught.
can we trade lake Superior for Erie?

I don’t ever see anybody else leaving skin on down there. To be completely honest, I’m not positive on the regs, but what else is anybody catching down there right now?

And I have a vacuum sealer and have done the Pepsi challenge. Frozen in water with air sucked out is the way to go!

Was on Erie ice fishing this winter. The fillets we ate while there-no skin. The fillets we brought home had a piece of skin on, date caught, how many in package. These were frozen. Fresh not frozen fillets for transport I can’t tell you the correct way.

Angler II wrote:

Looks like each bag is filled with water. That will outlast vacuum sealed bags.

I’d watch your own bobber…

My apologies. Didn’t notice that.

Unless it changed the limit was 4 per person until mid may when it would change to 6….we wait and go once it is 6 to maximize the amount we can bring home. The hatch on that lake has only been getting better, probably because we put all the 30″ plus fish we catch in the frying pan….fishing will be even better in about 10 years.

They got rid of the restricted season two years ago. It’s 6 fish all the time now. Heard they might be upping it to 8… several years of ridiculous hatches. They’re worried the walleyes might crash the bait fish population. The good ol days of Lake Erie are right now.

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Michigan DNR was worried of a baitfish crash on Saginaw Bay.
Limit there is 8 eyes a day. I don’t know what Michigan possession limit is.
Erie possession limit is 6 fish a day for as many days you are there.

eyecatchum wrote:

Saw the IDO rig out there too, cant wait to see if they got some hogs!

We had a very similar trip. Incredibly easy limits and almost unbelievable average size. No hogs for us just lots of four to eight pounders. Our best baits were the scatter rap tail dancers at 160 ft back and number 12 Deep husky jerks on a 30-30 program with a 2-oz snap weight. Top color was blue chrome by a large margin. Our best rolling speed was 1.4 mph.

Everyone should go to Lake Erie in the spring at least once in their lives. Getting a chance to troll through a school of walleye that’s over a mile long is something you’ll never forget!

Glad you had a good trip too James! The population explosion out there seems to be a double edged sword… It’s easier than ever to get your limit, but big fish seem to be less common. Not sure if it’s because the smaller fish beat them to the punch, or there’s actually less of them?

eyecatchum wrote:

Not sure if it’s because the smaller fish beat them to the punch, or there’s actually less of them?

There’s definitely less of the trophy caliber fish. Just look at the tournament weights over the last two years. This last year if you had a 5.5# average you’re doing good. 5 – 10 years ago if you didn’t have bags of 29″ – 31″ (9+Lb) fish you weren’t in the running.

But those big fish days are just around the corner!

What’s going on out there is a very good example of the cyclical nature of fish population size structure. Right now Lake Erie is in between two huge population spikes. The number of trophy sized fish are lower than normal because recruitment during the years between the huge spikes was lower than normal. Essentially if you start out with fewer small fish, ten years later when fish from that spawn would be reaching trophy caliber size… there’s just not many of them available because the starting population was smaller.

Now, Erie is riding the wave of a couple enormous year classes that represent all the 22″ – 26″ fish +/- and inch or two. The strength of those year classes is really coming on strong. The next 2 – 4 years on Erie will be some of the best walleye fishing any of us has ever seen as those 26″ fish grow into 28″ – 30″+ fish!

How long of a drive is it down there? Never kept fish I caught out of state. How do the regs work? Looks like a lot of fish in the pictures to keep in MN. Absolutely not judging just trying to understand how keeping fish from another state works

crappie55369 wrote:

How long of a drive is it down there? Never kept fish I caught out of state. How do the regs work? Looks like a lot of fish in the pictures to keep in MN. Absolutely not judging just trying to understand how keeping fish from another state works

Label them from out of state with a date and you are good. Obviously you have to have the fishing license

James Holst wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>eyecatchum wrote:</div>
Saw the IDO rig out there too, cant wait to see if they got some hogs!

We had a very similar trip. Incredibly easy limits and almost unbelievable average size. No hogs for us just lots of four to eight pounders. Our best baits were the scatter rap tail dancers at 160 ft back and number 12 Deep husky jerks on a 30-30 program with a 2-oz snap weight. Top color was blue chrome by a large margin. Our best rolling speed was 1.4 mph.

Everyone should go to Lake Erie in the spring at least once in their lives. Getting a chance to troll through a school of <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye that’s over a mile long is something you’ll never forget!

Blue chrome jigging raps was the hot color ice fishing.

This is a bucket list of mine.

James Holst wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>eyecatchum wrote:</div>
Not sure if it’s because the smaller fish beat them to the punch, or there’s actually less of them?

There’s definitely less of the trophy caliber fish. Just look at the tournament weights over the last two years. This last year if you had a 5.5# average you’re doing good. 5 – 10 years ago if you didn’t have bags of 29″ – 31″ (9+Lb) fish you weren’t in the running.

But those big fish days are just around the corner!

What’s going on out there is a very good example of the cyclical nature of fish population size structure. Right now Lake Erie is in between two huge population spikes. The number of trophy sized fish are lower than normal because recruitment during the years between the huge spikes was lower than normal. Essentially if you start out with fewer small fish, ten years later when fish from that spawn would be reaching trophy caliber size… there’s just not many of them available because the starting population was smaller.

Now, Erie is riding the wave of a couple enormous year classes that represent all the 22″ – 26″ fish +/- and inch or two. The strength of those year classes is really coming on strong. The next 2 – 4 years on Erie will be some of the best <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye fishing any of us has ever seen as those 26″ fish grow into 28″ – 30″+ fish!

When I first started going out there we wouldn’t keep anything under 25″. We have had to lower it each year and now we are down to 20″. Hoping to start raising it back up again.

Can’t wait!! Heading out to Port Clinton on the 15th. Just praying for some days of good weather! It really is a magical place!

I’ve had visions of fishing Maumee Bay in the spring (late march/early April). It appears to be shallow flats. Would love to use casting lures (blades,rippin raps, jig-plastic) instead of trolling…. catching 50 this way versus 100 trolling would be fine by me.. Anyone do this before?

Trolling out of Port Clinton…… What depths are you targeting this time of year and into April?? mile long school seems like something to cast to?

There are plenty of guys who jig out there. As you get into peak spawn, it gets really good on the reefs. I have limited out in under an hour many times doing that. Blade baits and hair jigs are most common but anything will work. Right now, most guys jigging are doing so with a vexilar off the side of the boat in open water because there aren’t a ton of fish up on the reefs yet. That will change quickly.

I choose to troll over jig for the most part because your average fish is much bigger. Big girls do get caught jigging, but it’s mostly the smaller males.

This trip has been on our radar, we’ve just made excuses with work each Spring. There are a couple buddies who are on-board, but we want to do it with a guide first before towing boats there ourselves.

For those who do go or have went, who would you recommend for a guide? I’d love to go with 1 or 2 buddies for 2 or 3 days of fishing. Even if it gets spendy, a quality experience would be worth every dime.

What date range is our best bet for action and size? Again, we’d be looking to book for this time in 2023 if that’s an option.

Thanks for the suggestions

@buckybadger,
We’ve always gone the 2nd or 3rd weekend in April. Sometimes its right at prime spawning or slightly after. Trolling usually gets you bigger fish as mentioned above. We’ve done the jigging thing in the crowds of boats on the reefs but don’t enjoy it as much.

We’ve always hauled our own boats out. But if I was looking for a charter, I’d look up Captain Juls. I’ve been following her for quite some time & she definitely knows what she’s doing. She posts a lot on the Bookface (Lake Erie Fishing Charters with Juls Walleye Fishing Adventures) as well as Walleye.com, in the Lake Erie Western basin threads.

Get your buddies together, set a date, and GO! You won’t regret it. Unless, you get absolutely horrible weather like we did 3 years ago. Giant Nor-easter came in, Flooded Port Clinton and turned ALL the water into Chocolate milk.. 7 days out there, only could fish two of them because of small craft warnings. Got skunked.. went home a day early with our tails between our legs. But that was the only time it really sucked out of the 6 times I’ve been out there.

Buddy is in Med School @ Michigan. Thinking of flying out late April for a few days. Is there any shore fishing options in the Maumee area? Might call a few guides out of Port Clinton but not sure if they would be already booked. Nice haul OP.