May 2009 Western Lake Erie Fishing Reports

[goldenboy0524]

Fished the 23rd out of Toledo Beach Marina 1 Walleye 22inches and 3 white bass. But only fished 1.5 hrs. Very windy and choppy 24th and the 25th.

[Jeep Guy]

It's been awhile since I caught a limit - so I'm happy to share it here as I check here often for tips and hints. My 9 old son and I were fishing Sunday (May 24) - we headed to Kelly Sholes on tip from Highway Bait - there were only about 15 boats in the area - with about 1/2 trolling (we were drifting). We caught two limits on 1 oz bottom bouncers, with crawler harnesses - mostly on orange, a few on silver and yellow. Fish started biting once the wind picked up that morning - we eventually had to through out the drift sock to slow down - but none the less and awesome day fishing with my son!!

[waterdog]

This weekends wind and waves made lake erie cloudy!
I went out Saturday and fished near Niagara, but the wind kicked up and we moved to put-in bay to fish on the east side. No eyes on Saturday, just sheephead and white bass.
On Sunday I fished from my boat dock and caught; catfish, bullhead, sheephead, yellow perch, bulegill, crapie, rock bass,& largemouth bass. I was listening to the cb channel and I heard that you had to go out to the shipping channel to get clear water.
Anyways, my set up for the dock fishing was a spreader in 4 fow with no "bling" and just two crapie hooks with minows.

[Eyezcrazy]

Fished Saturday just Norhteast of Niagra. 3 men threw everything but the kitchen sink at the eyes from 8:00 am till 2:00 and didn't catch any eyes. My buddy lost one at the boat. Moved closer to Catawba tried a couple more hours and called it a day. Tossed weapons, harnesses, weight forwards and even trolled for a while with jets and stingers. Second trip this year and skunked both times. Can't figure it out, another buddy said they caught 20 between 6 guys casting and drifting fishing closer to Besse in 20 FOW but worked 10 hours to get them. Is the population getting that low or am I just off to a slow start? Been fishing Western basin since 1988 and am concerned about the walleye future.

[spoontang]

The water is way too dirty in that area. It will clear up in a couple of days.

[Gettin Jiggy]

I went out sat due east of west sister. Had lines set up at 7:30 had 9 eyes by 8:30. The last three took another hour after the wind and waves picked up. Sunday we were about one mile south of middle sister we picked up one with the program we used saturday and then switched to jets and spoons. We ended up with 12 total in 5 hours, sunday was a slow day.

[spoontang]

Thanks for that tip on the scorpion size spoons Gettin Jiggy. They were the hot ticket. I wouldn't have done near as well running just the larger spoons. I did well but it was never really red hot. We had plenty of dry spells. I think the fish are wary from all of the strong multi directional winds and dirty water. A couple of calm days should fix things up. I will get back out there in a day or 2.