Sept 1 thru present report

Been a while since I posted on here thought I would give a report on how we have been catching fish in Sep and Oct in Lorain. When we came back from NY salmon fishing we fished our first trip in Lorain and headed deep. We found a school of fish in 60-65’ of water and we ended up basically fishing a stretch of water from the NW corner of the dump on a NE line out to 65’ of water for 7 weeks. The fish would move shallower and deeper here and there with wind and current. We would have to change the angle we fished this area with all the different wind directions but we caught limits of walleye every single trip we ran in 7 weeks. We ran dipsy divers on settings 1/2/3.5 some days the fish were on the bottom or close and some days they were very close to the surface. We ran standard size spoons, rapala J-7, and ripplin red fins. Some days they would eat them all some days one prevailed over the other and we would switch heavy to what they favored. The first weeks of September we ran down riggers when the fish were in the 60-65’ water and ran the same lures with success. Had to play with the leads, some days they wanted 50’ some days they wanted 10’ the action changes a bunch on those lures with the lead before release don’t be afraid to try different leads. It is a bit easier when you have 4 riggers… the off shore planer boards where mostly jet 40 divers with standard spoons. On one side we run dreamweaver tripzdiver brand, on the other side we run big fish true trip diver brand. The reason we do this is they have a very different rattle to them the tripZ has bigger BB and has a deeper rattle. The true trips have very small BB and has much lighter higher pitched rattle some days they favor one over the other, do not mix these on the same side you will get tangles the do not pull or run same depth. Hard to believe but some days this matters. We also ran flicker minnows on the boards especially when the fish where high in the water, sometimes no weight and sometimes with off shore guppy weights. Depends on were we marked them. They smashed them when they where up near the surface feeding hard. The key to deep water fishing is to really trust your electronics. If the fish are not on the graph there aren’t any fish there, the graph tells you where to put your baits trust the graph and what it is showing you. There where more bug hatches than I have ever seen on the lake in deep water during this time and it was critical to finding and catching these fish. The bug hatches are easy to find and mark on your graph and many of my customers would say look at those bait balls of fish on the graph. They where big balls of bug larva floating to the surface. The depth was key. Run your baits along the bottom of the ball of larva. The fish are just below the bait ball feeding up. The wind just won’t stop this year it has been a terrible wind year for sure as it is ripping out there as I write this. We had a lot of fun catching all those fish out there the past 7 weeks and the action was pretty fast most days non stop catching. Best of luck to you all thru the fall, be safe and pick your days to catch that big one. We still have openings for some of the best fishing of the year in November and December. If you would like to come out and fish with us give me a call. We have full day trips with grilled lunch and we can stream the football games too. 419-635-8003.

Several great tips in there! Thanks for posting!

capt sam your the best! thanks so much for the tips! stay safe out there and a very wet net! :cool: