What a season.

[addaline]

I was planning on a last trip to Huron this week, but because of the weather reports and the fishing reports that indicated Huron wasn't really happening I put the boat up for the season. Just my observation, I've only been fishing the western basin for about 10 years. I start from Monroe, MI in the spring and work my way east to Huron over the course of the season. Usually, there have been productive trips right up to Thanksgiving. This year was an exceptiion as the last really good trip I had was mid-June. Has anyone else had an off-season like this? I blame the weather and the water temps.

[Justbobber]

Yes bad year. Dock is on the Portage River. Boat has essentially been sitting in the mud since mid August. Worst year I can remember in the last 10 years

[gb1234]

The early walleye jig bite was not great for us, but better than nothing.
The perch bite was strong but keepers were far and few between.
We did better than usual trolling for walleye - maybe because we fished farther east (Huron / Lorain) than in the past.
Still hoping for another perch trip and maybe one more limit of walleye yet this year.

[airshot]

For me, the walleye bite was excellent, perch started out good in mid July, but quickly turned into a season of dinkies. The bite was slow and many throw backs, but the few keepers were nice size, probably averaged over 9.5" ....having been on western lake Erie for well over 60 years, I do believe we are coming to a low water cycle, which happens about every 7-8 years. With a record number of days with east/ NE winds and low water levels to date.....bet we are on a low water cycle. Probably will be low the next year or two before it starts rising again. Waiting on next year, have a great winter !

[penalty box]

it was a little harder than the previous years. i think the biggest reason is the fish were off shore this year and thats alot of water to cover, many 20 mile boat runs for me to get fish this year. The fish moved out of the skinny for me this year not sure why. Lorain was on fire this year and still is. I usually fish the Huron area but had to go east and north from the 30 to 43 north to get my fish.

[itsbob]

The walleye fishing this season was similar for us compared to last year. We limited 11 of the 16 trips i took on my buddy Johns' boat this year. The avg weight of our fish was 2.5lbs this year, compared to 2.25lbs last year. But we get Canadian licenses, and John is willing to make long runs to catch fish. Now we caught fish last season off Huron in August and September, but we did not fish there this year. We made the long run to Lorain three times this year to catch our fish. One possible reason the fish were far offshore and in the deepest water was water temperature. We had a hot summer, and the water got pretty warm by August. John kept his boat in the water a month longer this season. I had been on him to do so because in the past, we had done well casting for walleye on the reefs in October. We had a pretty warm September and the water temps kept steady the whole month. We tried casting several times in late Sept and early October and the best we did was get 4 casting Oct 11th. Again, i think the warmer water kept the fish offshore. I'll bet it affected the poor perch fishing too. Have a great offseason and good health to all.