“Lake Erie walleye fishing in 2018 promises to be spectacular” was the lead title in a story written for rockthelake.com by Laura Johnston back on March 30th. Most of the 2015 walleye hatch–one of the largest ever on Lake Erie–is now big enough to keep, under Ohio law. And the excitement is justified! “It’s going to be one of the best walleye seasons we’ve had in a long time,” said Travis Hartman, Lake Erie program administrator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. “I think this is absolutely going to compare, or be better than the 80’s, or 2006-07”. Would all the hype come true for the walleyewisdom.com fishing team two-week trip to Lake Erie May 12-26? YES!! After a quick overnight on May 11, Tracy Hayward and I left Saturday with the red Ranger 620 for the longest stretch of Lake Erie walleye fishing we’ve ever experienced. I had reserved the two week stay for Bays Edge Townhouses back in December. We had a fall fund raiser at our church, St. Paul’s United Methodist, and I donated a week of walleye fishing to the highest bidder. Church friend, Gary Lindsay, won the bid to fish with Tracy and me! Gary’s son, Nathan, was able to come from Syracuse and join us for a day during the week. In addition, new friend Jim Wessels from Manchester came with his Ranger 620, his daughter Alicia, and nephew Jason Webster for a week of fun fishing. We started fishing on the 13th and were able to be on the water every day except the 18th when we had a small craft advisory because of wind and waves. Canadian friend Jim Lyon arrived on the 16th with his Ranger 620 so Tracy started fishing out of Jim’s boat while I entertained the Lindsay’s. Jim’s crew and the Lindsay’s left on our “blow day”. Tracy, Jim, and I managed to get some “shopping” in at Cabela’s in Avon plus Lake Erie Outfitters in Sheffield to fill in our time. The second crew of anglers arrived on Sunday–Chris Speicher from Chicago along with Tom and Mike Harrison from Chicago. Chris’s friend, Dave Zapf, arrived the 22nd. Tom and his brother fished until Tuesday while Chris and Dave fished all week with me. Tracy hung out with the Canadian. How did we do? We caught our limits EVERY day except for the day after the wind turned the Lake into a chocolate brown! We caught most of our fish around Kelly’s Island–first on the south side of the island our first week then the west side the following week. We did do some exploring on the west side of the Bass Islands and up north by the Canadian border during the two weeks without much success. Jim Wessel’s group did well pulling Bandit deep divers and the Berkley #11 Flicker Minnows. We found those baits working in Jim Lyon and my boat, too. I bought some jointed Rapala Husky Jerks, #12, at Cabela’s and we caught lots of fish running those baits higher in the water column off Offshore Planer Boards. Jim Lyon caught some nice ones over 25 inches long with his biggest just under 30 inches. Chris, Dave, and I caught our biggest fish on our final day, the 25th, in front of Marblehead Point. We caught a 25 plus one nearly 30 inches long! I let Chris and Dave be “in charge” of our fishing our last day so I could just relax and pull in a few fish! Oh, I forgot to mention the daily limit is six walleyes per angler with a possession limit of six per day of your stay. We caught some huge catfish along with monster sheephead during our stay, too. Nathan caught one of the biggest cats I’ve every pulled from the Lake! Most of the fish we caught and kept were between 16-23 inches long–perfect eaters. And, as the lead sentence mentioned, the Lake is full of fish right at 14 1/2 to 15 inches long! Thanks to everyone who came and fished with me during the two weeks and a special thanks to Jim Lyon for helping solve some boat electrical issues on my Ranger. Check out www.baysedge.com for info on where to stay when fishing out of Port Clinton. Finally, a very, very special thanks to my wife, Sue, for allowing me to spend two weeks away from home! Plus–our daughter Amy’s boyfriend, John Berry, called me when out on the water and said he was letting me know he was buying an engagement ring and asking Amy to marry him–she said YES! Hope you enjoy the pics of our fun fishing trip at Lake Erie! Spike
