Erie Islands week of 5/20

[Smitty]

Fished Sun-Thurs this past week, unfortunately a snafu with our reservation caused us to leave Friday rather than Saturday but still a great week. We're generally later than most getting out, so everything here was probably not wetting a line until at least 8:30. Group of 7 all trolling 40 Tru-Trips with spoons all week.

Started off Sunday around Starve just off the North and East edges in 22-23', and out boat of 3 had our 18 in around 2 hours. The other 2 boats took a bit longer, but managed to get theirs as well so a full 7 man limit for the day.

Monday started in the same place, but it was a bit slow for our liking so we headed around 3/4 mile West of the NW Corner of Kellys in 28-29' and found a good pocket of fish. Had to sort through some shorts, but again all 3 boats managed to limit before Noon.

Tuesday based on some intel from another group staying at the same motel, we switched it up and ran out of Catabwa up between D & E cans. Large group of boats but they were fairly spread out, and once again all 3 boats had a limit within around 3 hours.

Wednesday had some pretty good SW winds so back to Mazurik and headed back to Starve. Longest day of the week, we just slow picked but finished up around 2:30-3:00 continuing to move in a Southerly direction to try and manage the waves. One boat with a couple of older guys with back and/or hip problems decided to call it quits early after 2 fish, so ended up 10 short that day.

Thursday, last day, and we headed back to the Starve area. Very slow pick there, so I decided to do some searching. We found a spot NW of Kellys in 33-37' of water and pretty much immediately started hitting doubles. Took us maybe 45 minutes to an hour for out boat, and a quick call to the other 2 got them over there and they were all finished by Noon.

Overall, another great week on the water. Other than a minor issue one day having a plug foul in my 9.9 kicker, no major issues. We'll be back same time next year!

[gb1234]

Great Intel! Thanks for sharing!

[spanky]

what size have you been keeping? are you getting most fish over 18"? lots of 20" as well?

[Smitty]

what size have you been keeping? are you getting most fish over 18"? lots of 20" as well?

Most days we were bringing in mostly 18-22" fish, but sorting through a lot of smaller fish to get there. Only 2 over 25" for the week. Long gone seem the days when a day didn't go by without a few 27"+ fish (for us anyway it seems), but the overall population is certainly healthy.