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New to Walleye.com looking for advice. I have fished walleye's on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers for years. I have been to lake Erie on charters in the past. I recently purchased a 17' Crestliner 1700 fish hawk. I'm thinking about bringing it to lake Erie this summer and try some trolling.
Is this boat big enough for the big lake? And when would be the best time to hit the western basin?
if you watch the weather and dont take any chances you,ll be fine. i fished the western basin many times in an old 16 ft glass boat. then i found an old cherokee aluminum 18 fter and it was an awesome boat for the western basin. i would have even used it on the central basin but had already upgraded to a 20 ft sea ray by the time i started fishing the central basin. i now have a 21 fter now and i still watch the weather. the boat can take rougher water than i like to fish anyway.
the last month the western basin has been hot and still is. so you can go any time you want. just check the fishing reports for good places to fish. good luck, have fun, and be safe.
sherman
Sherman, thank you so much. How far out do I need to go? I read a lot about the shipping channel, gravel beds and sister island. When I have did the charter boats I usually went to the Central basin. I did go one time out of port Clinton.
Joe.
17 is kinda small for the big pond. You can do it but make sure you are monitoring the weather and radio and get off at the first hint of foul weather. as far as the western basin the best times are spring from like march till middle or end of june. You can pick them up there year round but that is when it is crazy. Good luck with you boat and be safe out there.
Just for saftey's sake pick a ramp that is closest to the area that you want to fish, less travel time getting to the fishing area and more important, less travel time in case the weather goes sour. Most of the firing range outer cans are 6 to 7 miles out of one marina or the other. D-can for example would be about 6.5 miles out from Beef Creek and Niagra is about 7 miles out from Beef Creek with about 3/4 mile of that in the river itself. C-can would be closer to Wildwings or one of the marinas on Turtle Creek, A & B cans even closer, the inner cans J, K & L would be ok from any ramp located along the western edge of the firing range as long as it is not a high North or NE wind.
Pick your days and have fun, it is always better to have an error on the cautious side than on the risky side.
Thanks for the replys guys. I am still equiping the boat for the trip. I was planning on using Church TX-44 boards on 30lb line pulling Tripz and Dipsiy divers. What do you think?
Just so you know the TX-44 boards pull well but there is the problem with retriveing them because they pull so hard. They are brutes when trying to retreive them and I would suggest a rod that has a medium action or stronger. I have watched videos of them pulling Magnum Walker Deeper Divers, I feel you made a good choice for the purpose for which you bought them. I think they would work with Magnum Dipsy Divers, but that would be a load on a rod with the weight generated by the board and the added pull of the diver. I run them with TT-40 deep divers. I now wish I had purchased another set of the TX-22 boards instead, as they are all that I need for the TT-divers.
The rods I will be using are Ugly Stik 7' medium heavy with Shakespeare 30LCL tidewater reels. The Dipsies I have are the magnums. I still have to order the Tripz, I was going to get the size 40's. Does this combination sound OK? I have not ordered the boards yet, I was going to place that order with the Tripz divers. Should I drop to the next size down on board?
Thanks in advance
Joe
If you are going to pull the Magnum Dipsy Divers I would get the TX-44 boards as the TX-22 boards have just about all they want with the TT-40 divers. There is not a whole lot of difference between TT-40 divers and the comparable sized Walkers and the TX-22 should handle them ok. I would get all boards the same size it makes reading them easier.Quote:
Originally Posted by zeratul
Just make certain that you have the clip on the TX-44 boards pulling the Dipsy Divers adjusted so the board will not slip on the line in the direction of the Dipsy, those TX-44's pull really hard and will cause that unwanted line slip, if it does you will ruin your clip as the braid will cut the covering on the clip and that renders them useless. If you are unsure about the tension on the clip holding your braid you can half hitch a #16 rubber band on your braid and place that rubber band against the clip on the side that goes into the water , the rubber band acts like a stopper and helps keep the board from slipping down the line. The rubber band will also wind up right through your rod guides and will not have to be removed or replaced each time you reset that rod. The rods that you are using should be just fine!!
Thank you much Wakina, At this time I plan on hitting the lake around the the end of June some time. It will be on a weekend probably. I was wondering about the time. With a 17' boat would it be OK with all of the other weekend traffic?
If I wanted to go and the weather is fit I would go. The number of boats out there should have zero impact on your ability to fish. While trolling just use common sence and watch for those who don't, they are forever present on the lake. Try not to troll in a tight pack of boats as that can get you hemmed in to the point that you may have to stop and those dipsy divers will sink if that happens, they like to tumble when they sink creating one heck of a tangled mess. Braid is the worst stuff to untangle, and that can ruin your whole day of fishing.
Wakina,
You have been a tremendous help as well as the other posts. As I stated in my earlier post I have been on charters but this will be my first time trying it on my own. I have tried to do my research and get the correct gear to do things the right way. I have a 60hp merc four stroke I will probably use as the trolling engine. I picked up a drift sock also incase I need to slow the boat down. I have a 6hp onboard for trolling on the river but it is a two stroke and I get tired of breathing the exhaust. Makes me feel safe though having it on board.
Thanks
Joe
im not sure where you,ll be launching your boat. but it would help you alot if you can find one of the plastic coated map of erie. it shows you where the launches are but it also shows the shipping chanel where the maumee river runs out in the lake. it also shows all the islands and the cans.
when i fished the western basin we launched out of alittle place called coolie canal, i dont remember how to spell the name of the marina there so i wont even try. but its a short run to the lake. and then the water intake for the power plant there is about 4 miles almost due north. then west sister is a 9 mile run. we have caught alot of fise between west sister and the shipping chanel. but we have caught alot east of west sister. you can also fish north of west sister but you need a gps that shows the canadian border. you dont want to get into canada.
i guess there is alot of good fishing farther east around some of the other islands. but you would want to find a ramp alittle farther east. the reason i liked fishing around the west sister island was we did catch fish and at any given time we were close to land. i dont think your sopposed to go on west sister but if we had ever got caught in a bad storm i would have landed there untill the storm was over.
when we fished there we just ran diving crank baits on flatlines and 2 harnesses off downriggers. but they didnt have all the divers they have now to get your harnesses and spoons down to the fish. there were days the fish were up high then we used the storm wee warts. the rest of the time we used hot n tots, wiggle warts, and wally divers and other diving baits. i guess one of the hot crank baits now is the reef runners.
feel free to pm me any time. i will help you if i can. we expect to get some good reports from you.
sherman
Watch the weather before you go to the lake. Postpone the trip if the weather looks marginal or worse. Listen to the weather radio while you are on the water. Get off at the first indication of storms or increasing winds. Be especially cautious of winds out of the east.
Make sure you have all the required safety equipment. Although not required, I wouldn't consider going out on Erie without a fixed VHF radio. Handhelds are good backup, but they have very limited range.
Finally, if you haven't taken a boating safety course, you definitely should do that before you go. There are many courses available, including the Power Squadron and Coast Guard Auxiliary.
My first walleye trips on Erie were in a 18' open bow.
Hope this helps
Thanks alot to all of you. I will be very cautious and try to plan according to the weather. I will post reports of every day fishing. I grew up on the Mississippi river so I have been on boats my whole life, and even thow it is not the big pond I take no chances. If the weather starts to get rough I get off the water. I will buy a fixed VHF radio also. I do have a hand held gamin GPS.
Tight lines and heavy fish.
Joe
Yeah, if it gets a little choppy and it looks like it's building head for the hills esp. in the little boat. Alot of people say I have boated all my life in XYZ lake, then they get caught in an erie storm and never come back Be safe, stay informed on the forecast and whoever said it, prior to me gave you the best advice, take a safe boating course, one from like the Power Squadron, you can learn alot from these courses. The one from the state is pretty much a joke geared towards 7th graders
Quote:
Originally Posted by OneEyedWilly
Good suggestion, I looked up the power squadron and I will take their online course. Safety is key and I plan on returning for many more trips. Any good links to required gear for navigating lake Erie? I have all the required equipment for the Midwest waters. I even purchased a flare gun.