Erie Baits

[wakina]

Hello, I'm also a newbie. This is my first post. I will be docked at West Harbor marina this year and had some other questions that fall in this category. As the water warms up and the walleye start heading east, what fishing is left here in the west basin? Do the perch or smallmouth stick around? Is there any walleye that stay in the area? Thanks in advance for any info and tips.

Welcome to the forums!!

Depends on the food base and water temps. Most of the large females head east but there are always some here in the Western Basin. Since you are docked at West Harbor you can run east of Kellys Island and do that bite which is usually better than the west of the Islands bite during the summer months(July&August). But like I said there are always some close at hand and the trick is first finding them and 2nd getting a program in front of them that makes them hungry enough or mad enough to bite. They should be rather plentiful until mid July but that again depends on the temps and food base.

Perch will be around most of the year but they will be scattered and harder to catch and they do move around some until late summer early fall. The small mouth bass seem to stay in a given home area and do not roam around in the nomadic way walleyes do. If you find them I would recommend that you keep the location to yourself as they do tend to stay in one area, once the word is out the meat hunters will move in and thin them to the point that it is no longer fun fishing for them. Some selfish people just don't have a clue.