What a season.

I was planning on a last trip to Huron this week, but because of the weather reports and the fishing reports that indicated Huron wasn't really happening I put the boat up for the season. Just my observation, I've only been fishing the western basin for about 10 years. I start from Monroe, MI in the spring and work my way east to Huron over the course of the season. Usually, there have been productive trips right up to Thanksgiving. This year was an exceptiion as the last really good trip I had was mid-June. Has anyone else had an off-season like this? I blame the weather and the water temps.

Yes bad year. Dock is on the Portage River. Boat has essentially been sitting in the mud since mid August. Worst year I can remember in the last 10 years

The early walleye jig bite was not great for us, but better than nothing.
The perch bite was strong but keepers were far and few between.
We did better than usual trolling for walleye - maybe because we fished farther east (Huron / Lorain) than in the past.
Still hoping for another perch trip and maybe one more limit of walleye yet this year.

For me, the walleye bite was excellent, perch started out good in mid July, but quickly turned into a season of dinkies. The bite was slow and many throw backs, but the few keepers were nice size, probably averaged over 9.5" ....having been on western lake Erie for well over 60 years, I do believe we are coming to a low water cycle, which happens about every 7-8 years. With a record number of days with east/ NE winds and low water levels to date.....bet we are on a low water cycle. Probably will be low the next year or two before it starts rising again. Waiting on next year, have a great winter !