Just a note to those fishing either Kelleys Island shoal or east of the airport.

I've scuba dived the shoal several times. It's mostly a flat bedrock shoal, not many rocks or boulders and the drop offs are mostly gradual and don't have "walls" like some other Lake Erie shoals and reefs. Often there is a water clarity change around 20 feet of depth off the shoal, and/or a current change. I usually don't see lots of walleye or smallmouth directly on the shoal but see them in "pockets" around the edges, usuall near either a significant bottom structure (2-3 foot shoal ridge) or around that water clarity/current transition. Look for active fish at these locations.

About a half to one mile directly east of the airport (from the Prince wreck to be exact) there is a boulder field in about 30 foot of water. Dove it several years ago. Huge boulders spread out on flat bottom, some as big as a volkswagon beetle. Also dove same area a little closer in and found a smaller boulder field (found an ice fishing spud bar). The walleye and bass I saw on these dives were in and around these boulder fields. You might try these areas if the shoal area isn't producing.

Right now there is likely a thermocline, probably a few feet off the bottom, in these areas. I haven't dove yet this year (late for me) but in early June in the Western Basin there is almost always a colder water thermocline anywhere from 6 inches to 6 feet off the bottom, depending on the water depth. Find that temperature transition and you'll probably locate fish just above it.

Go get your limit!

West Basin