Fishing Reports?

[Prkr314]

How about time of day. Is fishing daybreak that important?

Absolutely earlier is better

[liketohuntlovetofish]

Absolutely earlier is better. You can catch them all day, but you've got far better odds of getting a 3 man limit in 45 minutes at sunrise. As for location, you can catch them almost anywhere near the reefs, but your looking for the larger concentrations of fish to get a fast limit, there's so many down there that you can feel your jig bumping them on the lift, that's when they get snagged. So when people say there're biting, they really mean the males are on the spawning beds heavy and you can snag 1 every other cast. The reason you want to use a 3/4 or 1 oz purple jig is you need the weight to be tight to the bottom and purple because that's one of the most visible colors at depth. All you doing is repeatedly thumping the bottom in the middle of spawning beds and the males are striking at your jig to say get the f out of here and your snagging them, they're not there to eat, only one thing, blow a load on a pile of eggs. That changes on a day to day thing...sometimes even morning and evening bite moves depending on water color, wind direction, sun, storm fronts. That's why some days you'll see a 1000 boats on the reefs in the morning and half the boats will move to the sandbars off the beach in the afternoon. A lot of time a storm front came threw the night before and muddied up the beach and everybody moves out looking for fish in better colored water, then the wind goes south and the mud settles out and the beach bite gets better.

Thanks! This is exactly the kind of conversation I was hoping to get into. I make these adjustments all the time fishing in locations I know, so hopefully this helps me adjust better on the big lake. Driving 2 hours to be there at sunrise might be a hard sell for the family trips, but I can talk a few guys into that next April. Is there a favorite water temp range? I’ve been reading between 44-52 online, but based on your last response of it being almost over, seems like Erie may be a little cooler water trend (I was reading a generic walleye fishing article). I know bass on Erie start to catch fire at 50 degrees, so I am hoping this is another piece I can put in play.

[branhamautomotive]

Here shortly you will be able to use bandits just off the bottom in the same areas of jigging and get productive numbers too.....as the spawn ends the feeding begins

[Joedog]

I usually never cast blade or jig just drop it straight down till it touches bottom then immediately jig back up bout 12 inches then back down without any slack in line and keeping lure as vertical as possible using drift sock usually the fish will just be there when you lift it off bottom. I fish from Maumee Bay all the way to turtle Creek the males are on the reefs now

[PZeiler]

liketohuntlovetofish

Fished Maumee bay today - afternoon. 2 man limit in about 2 hours. Fun fished for another hour and threw 18 walleye back. 14 foot of water on the east side of the channel. The key to jig fishing to me is water clarity. Too muddy, obviously hard for them to see it. To clear and the daylight shuts them down in shallow water. Ideal clarity to me for jig fishing is to be able to see your jig disappear about 10"-12" below the surface.

The next thing to determine is what they want. Speed and angle of presentation matters. Colder water means moving slower - use a drift sock. Sometime a cast off the boat of 25' will work and then jigging straight down will work. Color of jig also matters as far as what catches the most. Today it started of as purple and ended up as black being the best color.

Success to fishing is figuring out what will work under the current conditions - not what worked yesterday. (If you were to go back to the same spot I was at today, the conditions will have all changed but the thing to take into consideration is that the fish are in the area - you just need to find them) Start out with what your comfortable with and have confidence in. If it doesn't work, make a change. "Tune" in your presentation and you will become successful.

Good Luck

[liketohuntlovetofish]

Thanks for that. Pretty much the same as all fishing. I think I lack any good experiences to start feeling confident. I’ll keep trying as long as my kids will keep coming up with me. Keep reading and learning... buying different presentations

[Max]

Thanks for that. Pretty much the same as all fishing. I think I lack any good experiences to start feeling confident. I’ll keep trying as long as my kids will keep coming up with me. Keep reading and learning... buying different presentations

liketohuntlovetofish, sadly due to coronavirus, this year doesnt work. Im fishing alone because of it. Fishing has been fabulous, have had limits last 8 days been able to get on water. Usually less than 2 hrs. Fact you want to fish with your kids is great. I'm not expert by any means, nor am I a charter. Would be my pleasure to help you & your kids catch fish. Jig fishing is fun, requires patience usually. I'm not tech savvy, just let me know best way of us to make contact without everyone else getting involved. I rent condo at Green Cove in Oak Harbor for 3 weeks every April. Would love to help you & young ones catch fish next year. would do my heart well.

[liketohuntlovetofish]

I was up Monday with the wife and 4 kids (all under 10)... so we were busy not fishing plenty of the time. We were jig fishing for bass, but it was pretty muddy after Sunday and only got a few. But, a friend of mine was there trolling chartreuse bandits between MB and SB in 32-34 feet of water and got 7 walleye in two hours before trying for some bad with us. He was 50 back with a 2oz snap at 20. All 18-23 inches.

[Eyezcrazy]

I was there with a couple of buddies on Monday. We just had to head further North and found some very nice water. 3 man limit of walleye!

[Mahi]

Anyone have any places from the shore for Walleye from Toledo to Cleveland area?