Re: New Angler - Vermilion
There are a lot of factors and options here. First, find active and suspended fish. My experience has been that the fish that are appx 13-20 feet down are usually active. If I were drifting and casting and/or trolling spinning rods, I would have confidence in casting deep running crankbaits or crawler harnesses. There's a way to capture the egg sinker that helps tremendously. I use 3/4 ounce or one ounce. Bottom bouncers often work well too.
If you want to text for a little more info exchange...feel free. 607-857-4628.
Don
Re: New Angler - Vermilion
Hey Don, thanks for the tips and advice. What do you mean “capture the egg sinker”?
Re: New Angler - Vermilion
For casting, I tie the spinner rigs only about 30" long. Tie the loop extra long...maybe 2 1/2 inches. Also, put a small bead in the loop to protect your knot. Slide the loop through the egg sinker and attach to a snap swivel. Now your sinker is captured and won't slide up the line. You can cast as hard and far as you wish without ripping off the worm off of course.
Let the rig hit the water. Count down in seconds anywhere from 5 to maybe all the way up to 15.
Mix it up as you experiment different depths. Close the bail and reel in to determine the depth you will catch fish at. If they bite at 9 or 12 seconds for example....there ya go.
You'll catch them at Vermillion doing this. Good luck!
Re: New Angler - Vermilion
I would recommend try fishing with people that know what they are doing.Going out on a head boat out of port Clinton will help you casting.If want to learn to troll go out with Juls or Pork chop charters.Some good reading on casting is go to Coe Vanna fishing charters website and scroll down to walleye fishing techniques and read that article.
Re: New Angler - Vermilion
I definitely agree with Bob on his points. If you want to try a headboat, I highly recommend the Fisherman's Wharf Guys in Port Clinton. We have had many good trips with them in past years. Also you can buy their hand tied worm harnesses and egg sinkers. Cheap prices.
They even have a captains log portion of their website where they publish all of their daily fishing catches.
Re: New Angler - Vermilion
If I'm fishing in 40-48FOW, will a 2oz sinker be enough? How do I know how deep I am?
Re: New Angler - Vermilion
I have a couple reference charts that'll help you. Idk how to attach files on here. If you want to text me, I'll send them to you.
Re: New Angler - Vermilion
Quote:
Originally Posted by
nmattx
Just started fishing Lake Erie this summer. Currently have a 7ft Medium-Heavy rod, fast action. I have tried fishing Lake Erie a few times this summer (weekends) and haven't had much luck. I do not have any planers, boards, down riggers, etc nor do I plan on using them this year.
With that being said, what do some of you recommend using? Spoons? Worm Harness? Erie Dearie? And how should I rig it? I thought about using a 2oz weight and having a lead off the top of it with a flutter spoon or worm harness? Plan on maybe drift fishing and or just cruising along about 1.8mph in 40-48FOW. Or should I just throw some 3/4oz spoons out, let them sink and slowly reel in? Am I on the right track?
Any tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated. My biggest concern is knowing how deep my lure is without a line counter.
well you can definatly cast for them I would get a few bottom bouncers to drag along. if you want to troll all you need is a few dipseys easy to use especially if the lake is flat and no wind to drift.
Re: New Angler - Vermilion
We fished yesterday off Vermilion in 43-46 fow.The four of us caught 23 fish that weighed 45 lbs.The majority of fish were caught on our dipseys pulling 3 spoon harness and one double willow worm harness.Was catching 3 setting at 85 and 1 setting at 65.Also had 2 inline boards out that caught a few fish.Had a gold bandits out with 50 ft than 2 oz weight and another 100 for total of 150.Got the biggest at 25". I would guess that bandit was around 30 ft down while our speed was 2.5 mph.A good rule of thumb when adding weight is you add 4 ft of depth for each ounce of weight.So our 2,oz weight added 8 ft of depth to that bandit.
Re: New Angler - Vermilion
All good advice.
Start with the basics. I assume you have a fish / depth finder? The first task is to find walleye. Get a general or specific location to try first, such as the reports on this forum. Once you get there, watch your fish finder for good walleye marks (if you don't know what those look like, watch some online videos or read some online articles, or ask someone to show you). Once you find a location with good marks, see the depth those fish are at, and get your lure in that "fish zone". Drifting is fine, and you can use a variety of lures, from "mayfly rigs" or "crawler harnesses" to the 'ole Erie Dearies or weight forward spinners to the newer jerk baits. Use the countdown method to start the lure in the fish zone and try to keep it there as long as possible. Try different depths around the fish zone depth. When you catch your first walleye, remember what you did. How many seconds you counted before starting the retrieve. How fast you were retrieving. Etc. Repeat the best you can. Once you "dial it in", meaning you know what depth the active fish are at and you know how to get and keep your lure there, just keep fishing that way. If the action stops, look at your fish finder and see if the fish have changed depth, or they have left the area. Make whatever adjustments you need to - adjust the fishing depth, the lure, the retrieve, or move to find active fish again. It will take you a lot of time and practice to get all of this down. Don't get discouraged if you aren't very successful right away. It will take a learning curve. We all had to do it. And remember the most important thing: you have to have active walleye around you or no matter what you do you won't catch any!
Re: New Angler - Vermilion
Thank you all for the advice. Going to try the dumping grounds some I think. Heading up Wednesday the 3rd for the weekend.
