On Easter Sunday eight of us headed down to Port Clinton Ohio to tackle some of the largest walleyes in the states on Lake Erie. What had happened the first two days was Lake Erie tackled us 
With high winds on Monday, and waves reaching the 4 foot mark, and on Tuesday the waves were topping the 6-8 foot mark we decided to head to the Detroit River for some hand lining on Wednesday. Ron and Butch made the trek with us (Dee Zee and I) up to Detroit Michigan and put in at Elizabeth State Park. As Ron and Butch were running 3-ways pulling cranks and crawlers others were vertical jigging with minnows.
Some real nice fish were caught by a lot of people on this day. The fish seam to be staged either heading out to the lake or up the river to spawn I’m not sure. But the fish were there non-the less. In my boat we were pulling cranks and crawler harnesses with a 3/4 pound weight and a pound and a quarter weight with the cranks back both 15′ and 20′.We found fish in the 17′ depth off the break by pulling real slow at around 1.2 – 1.6 / gps. The Rebel Minnow took the first fish in our boat with a 20′ lead back. These shallow running stick baits work ideal for headlining, they have an excellent color pattern and the action fooled this walleye into having a meal.
Another real effective tool for hand lining is live bait rigs. I made up some crawler harnesses and after a couple of modifications we got one set up to take this monster Detroit River walleye on Dee Zee’s line. Dee Zee had a 3/4-pound weight with I think lead to foxing this nice walleye into taking the fat crawler on the crawler rig. Well-done Steve.
Steve and I had time on pool 4 last year and did some hand lining and we both new that we would do this again but had no idea at that time that we would be on the Detroit River doing it. Steve, you have a natural knack for them walleyes no matter what presentation your using. I had a great day and look forward to doing it again next year…
Isn’t that just my luck, I get stuck at Fort Mccoy, getting poked and prodded, and ecnook gets to spend HIS weekend chasing big ‘eyes. Jealousy abounds!
Hey dave,
Did you remember to tell them how happy you were to be invited along to fish with them and thank them…………..Every hour or so! LOL
Glad you guy’s had fun, wouldn’t expect anything else. I’m on my way out tomorrow afternoon, not getting much accomplished around work, minds elsewhere thinking about fishing.
Did you pull crawlers on Erie?
We did pull crawlers on Erie but to no avail. The were hungry for the cranks !!
Nice trip Dave,
sounds like a week long guide trip, how great would that be?? Jack.
I’m already planning next years trip…Oh yea..Did I say thanks Dee Zee ?
Nice report buddy!
I had an absolute blast sharing my boat with you. You’re a great guy!!!
Oh yeah…. sorry about getting my handline chopped off by my kicker motor. I guess that last beer did me in and I was day dreaming or something!
All kidding aside, Dave brought all his handline gear and was nice enough to show me all the ins and outs from this specialty technique. Handlining catches fish….period!
They will be waiting for you…..next year! 
Dave hand tied some very nice looking spinner/crawler harnesses with quality hooks and a variety of blades colors, shapes, sizes, etc….These did the trick! Nicely done. After all that, he was nice enough to forget them in my boat!
Put them bad boys to good use buddy…And turning you on to hand linning is the least I could do, you turned me on to all your gear for planer board fishing on Erie…what an arsenal of cranks !!
LOL! Dave………… we oughta take that pic with your tongue and make you a poster child for “Crazy Dave’s” products!
My question is…………… if it was that famous “last beer” that turned DeeZee into a day dreamer, was it the same deal that made your tongue numb? 
Just funnin’ ya!
It’s actually a great shot! It’s hard to capture emotion in a picture and there’s no doubt you were having a VERY good time at that moment. 
Nice report! I was wondering about the trip………. When are we going to the Columbia? Mmmmm? MMmmmmm???
Oh, yes…Welcome back…
Tight lines…
Nice job Dave, looks like you need a beer in that photo.
Hey Dave looks like you and Steve had a great time. Wilk71 and myself are leave today after work for a week. Was there a crank that stuck out this yr. We are leaveing Port Clinton to stay on Put-in-Island.
Looks like we will run into those bigg wave ourselfs.
Thanks
My crawler harnesses worked out best for us on this day….We didn’t catch a fish on cranks at all..Good luck and have fun !!
The first picture in Dave’s report is a pic of Ron Zimmerman and his buddy Butch. Ron had some trouble with his Envinrude 9.9hp 4 stroke kicker motor early in the morning when we got on the water. After just traveling 13 hours to fish in the Detroit river, the last thing you need is motor trouble. After some phone calls and several dealers claiming not to have anytime to look at the motor, he finally got ahold of David Zammit and Eric at Lockeman’s Hardware and Boats Inc. in Detroit. They not only got Ron and his rig back on the water immediately upon short notice but actually called the next day to make sure everything was running right! Now thats service!!
I cannot say enough good things about a business as established as this one to take time off their busy spring schedule to get an angler back on the water at moments notice! Way to go guys and we all thank you as anglers on the water and appraciate this quality of service and personable business.
If any of you that are in the Detroit, MI area and are looking for a top notch OMC dealer, take a serious look at Lockeman’s Hardware and Boats Inc.
Lockeman’s Hardware and Boats Inc.
7630 West Jefferson Avenue
Detroit, MI 48209
ph. 313-842-0268
http://www.lockemans.com
Thanks again guys!!