Lake Erie Port Clinton

Well with the Bay of Green Bay still pretty much locked up with ice and not being able to get out to some of our favorite walleye haunts we decided to hook up the new boat and head east out to Port Clinton Ohio to fish on Lake Erie for a couple of days.

We arrived late friday afternoon and the weather was beautiful with temps in the 50 degree range mostly sunny with light winds we were excited to get on the water. Our technique for the afternoon was to troll deep diving Rapala Husky Jerks searching for roaming schools of pre spawn walleyes. When we got to the areas we planned to fish we were greeted with muddy water. We began to search for cleaner water but we could not find any clean water close by but we did find an area with water that was less muddy that had all kinds of big marks on the locator. We began to put out our trolling spread which consisted of 6 planer boards. We did not even get our 6th board out and we had a fish on which ended up being a very nice pre spawn female walleye. Unfortunately we continued to fish until dark with out another fish.

Checking satellite views that night we found a large area of clean water to the west a few miles from where we were so we decided to head to the clear water the next day and try some jig fishing. When we arrived to that location the next day south east winds blew all that muddy water in that location and there we were in muddy water again. With close to 100 boats fishing that area we tried fishing that area for an hour or so and never saw one boat catch a fish and I know better than to continue to fish muddy water so we searched for cleaner water and found some with in a couple of miles from where we were.

Shortly after getting into the cleaner water we located some walleyes but they were biting very light. We were using hair jigs in the colors of purple and chartreuse and all of our fish came on the stinger hooks. I catch lots of fish casting hair jigs with out using any bait but this day they would not hit the jigs casting them they only wanted them dragged going with the wind. When we arrived to shore most anglers reported having a terrible day with no fish to 1to 3 fish all day long once we located fish in clear water we were able to catch our limit of 12 fish in a couple hours. Bring on the warmer weather!!

Paul Delaney
www.lateeyessportfishing.com

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Paul Delaney

As owner/operator of Late-Eyes Sport Fishing Guide Service, Capt. Paul Delaney practically lives on the water and ice of Door County, Wis. No matter the season, Paul’s clients pull big fish from the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan. His Full Bio ›

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  1. Paul I’m just curious did you weigh her? Way to go on a tough bite. I have several friends on fb that I know really struggled last Saturday.

  2. For most last Saturday was a very tough bite and even for us all of our fish came on the rear stinger hook I know the key to our success was definitely finding cleaner water. I was so surprised by the number of boats that continued to fish muddy water all day long.

    Paul Delaney
    http://www.lateeyessportfishing.com

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