Each spring I watch the weather reports for the western basin of Lake Erie for signs that there will be an opportunity to fish for 3 or 4 days with light winds. On Memorial Day the forecast for Erie was great for the rest of the week. I reached out to my friend Larry Johnson and asked if he wanted to go. All he said was ‘YES’. ‘Pick you up at 6am tomorrow’ was about all he needed to know!
From my home in eastern Iowa, it’s 7 hours to the Port Clinton area of Lake Erie. Upon arriving we checked in at Little Ted’s Cottages and headed to the Mazurik boat access. Little Ted’s is a great choice for a place to stay. They have cottages that can sleep up to 6 or 7, a fish cleaning set-up, and are only a mile from the Mazurik ramp.
At 3 pm May 26th I pointed my Ranger north in the direction of Kelly’s Island. 3 weeks earlier I had fished mostly on the west side of Kelly’s and had found a great bite. This time we found fish on the north side of Kelly’s. I wasn’t marking a ton of fish, but I didn’t want to run all over since it was late in the afternoon. Larry had never fished big water for walleyes before, or ran boards. He proved he was a quick study and soon was setting lines like a pro. Since Ohio now allows 3 lines per person, my go-to setup is to pull 3 Bandits on each side of the boat at a range of depths with speeds at 1.7 to 1.9 mph. We started out with the Bandits at 50, 65, and 80 feet back. Per the Precision Trolling app, this put the lures at 13, 15, and 17 feet down. I manage my speed by locking my 9.9 HP kicker down for most of the propulsion and use my bow mounted electric for all of the steering. I recently installed an iTroll system for fine tuning kicker speed. The iTroll made it much easier to control the kicker and something I’m glad I added.
It wasn’t long before I saw an Off Shore board pull back, and it was time to hear ‘Fish On!’ Since this was all new for Larry, it was really fun watching him learn how to read the boards and get his 3 lines set up properly. It was a trial by fire for him because at one point we had 4 fish hooked up at once! One tip I’ll give is to bring two nets since it’s not unusual for the Bandit to get tangled in the net. We managed to get all four fish in the live well, and set up for another pass. After about 2 hours we had our limit of six each so we headed back to clean fish and settle in at Little Ted’s.
This was the second time I had brought a friend who had never experienced this type of fishing. Two years earlier, my close friend Mark Anderson went with me. After the first couple of hours I remember him saying ‘You said the fishing would be good and I hoped it would be, but I really didn’t believe you! Now I do!’. Mark died in a tragic accident a year later, so moments like those are something very meaningful for me. Larry was getting a chance to experience it for himself.
Over the next two days we explored more of the water around the Bass Islands and Kelly’s. We found two large clusters of charter boats in the area. One was centered between the monument on South Bass and Kelly’s, and the other between the Canadian border and north side of Kelly’s. I really dislike fishing on a pack of boats so I always try to find fish somewhere else. This time we found a good bite on the north side of Lucy Point off of Middle Bass Island. Overall the fish were scattered and you had to keep moving to find an active pod of fish. We checked the water on the west side of North Bass and near Rattlesnake Island and found it was a little too dirty for my liking. My best lure was a Blue Chrome Deep Walleye Bandit. After several trips to Erie if I had to take just one color it would be Blue Chrome.
On our last morning, the weather was starting to change with winds forecasted to get stronger at noon. We again only fished near Kelly’s to not have to deal with miles of rough water. We only had bites on our shallower running lures so we moved 4 lines with Bandits to 40 and 50 feet back. I also ran 2 Walleye Nation Creation (WNC) Reapers at 35 feet back. Reapers haven’t been on the market long. I found they dig a little deeper than the Bandits and Precision Trolling showed they would run 13 feet down at only 35 back. No surprise, their version of a blue chrome also brought fish to the boat. I’ve known Ed Stachowski for a long time who is on the pro staff for WNC. As soon as I saw he was having great luck with the Reaper I had to buy a few.
On this particular trip I also had good luck off the water. Larry and I have a routine where we flip quarters to see who buys. Larry was the ‘winner’ four out of five meals. Breakfast or dinner is REALLY good when Larry gets to pay for it!
Next up for me is to try my luck going after king salmon on Lake Michigan. Over the winter I was inspired to gear up for salmon after watching an episode of The Next Bite where they just killed them out of Sheboygan, WI. Now it’s time to see if I can get it done.
