Following the Lake Erie episode of IDO… I along with many others found an exciting level of interest in Lake Erie. I asked a lot of questions, read all the reports and other threads here on IDO, and the momentum built. It’s common for me to get interested in a trip like this, and then never go… letting work get in the way. This time I was short on excuses; Work was done. I had a decent amount of info. The trip was 5.5 hours each way. Temps into the 40’s, no wind to send the ice I was on up to Canada (one of Randy Wieland’s comments, TY for that thought, my wife liked it as well).
I drove over Sunday Mar 8th, arriving to the area before dark to look at the landings, and gain a little comfort before driving the atv out in the dark the next morning… yup, I was still a little nervous. Monday I was out of Magee an hour before sun up… and sort of followed the freight train of guys out for the first two miles. Many of them headed out further, I stopped at 3.7 miles at 22 fow, in an area I planned on, near a little shove ice. First drop down with my #5 jigging rap, and three minutes later my first 22″ walleye was iced. By 8:30 I had 6 fish caught… two groups of locals next to me of 3-4 guys each had two fish total. I was using small raps or a tumbler spoon (TY Andy Fiolka – it caught the biggest fish), and the smallest minnows in the bucket compared to much larger offerings used by others. All the fish were worked into biting, none just ate. The fish had been going back down the hole… as it was pretty fast, and the limit was four… I wanted to fish all day and never expected action like this.
Then – it started to slow… I kept two, and by noon, it was a dead sea. I moved around, covering a 6-7 miles, marking very little. As fast as it was early, it was dead now. I ended the day having iced 11.
Tuesday I was out even earlier, fishing well before sun-up, leaving the shack in the truck so it was easier to run and gun. Warm temps had plenty of water on the ice, so anything in the shack was just getting wet. I covered about 16 miles, drilled a bunch, kicked open a lot of other holes, and landed two of the six fish I marked by about one in the afternoon. From everyone I talked with, I had a decent day. A DNR agent I talked to had checked over 40 fisherman and said only a couple had two fish, most one or none.
A lot of locals I spoke with talked about better fishing south by the islands out of Catawba, closer to where I stayed in Port Clinton…. and it made sense. Fishing between the islands should make it easier to target the moving/ channeled fish, and there were some reefs and such there to fish, vs the many miles of flats I was on. But, every time they told me how good the area was doing, they also added comments like, “just be careful of this area, or that channel, or the thin ice by xxx”. Being I was there alone, had no time to study the area… I did the smart thing and stayed out on the flats.
It was a great experience… and as everyone has said, the locals are very, very cool. I even had a group come and offer to have me join them for lunch, as they knew I was alone. With the warm weather, being on my own, I opted out of fishing on Wednesday. Figured I had thoroughly enjoyed it all, and even though the ice looked ok, I had enough to call it and head home safe and sound.
When it was done… I had caught 13 fish in the day and a half, many coming in the first half day. Two of them just shy of 10#’s (so cool seeing them come up to the hole). I had a good ride both ways… and a safe trip knowing I would be back if good ice returns next year. Maybe even for the great open water bite everyone there talked about at ice out, by early April…. and man did they talk about that!
A special TY goes out to “steuben1” for sharing his info (and last minute text messages) along with all the others!!! I wouldn’t have made this trip if it wasn’t for everyone that shared in the threads on this site. My only ice fishing of the season, and what a trip.
Cool side note… got home Wednesday, pulled the boat out Thursday and fished open water fished in Lake Michigan for brown trout… landing five (small but still fun). What a week, two Great Lakes fished. Ice on Erie, then open water at home, and catching fish to make it even better yet. A perfect, refreshing break from work, and reminder to get out and enjoy life!
Attachments:
Erie1.jpg
Erie2.jpg
