Please help

[RAC18]

I'd like to try the area off Kelly's airport on Wednesday. can anyone help me with specific locations? I was told there are lots of ridges and deep to shallow areas there. I drift fish. Should I start at kelly's shoal? Any info would be appreciated as i'm new to area.

[penalty box]

I would start at the middle green can on kelly's shoal. Just north of the can its about 45 to 50 fow. If you work south toward cedar point it will shallow up in a hurry maybe 15 fow. Run your finder to see where you mark fish. I've been trolling the deep water around the shoal and catching nice fish. A lot of guy's have been drifting in the shallow waters on both kelly's and gull island shoal. As far as off the Air port its covers a very large area. Trollers have been working that area all spring. A lot of boats also fish for perch in that area. Look for guys trolling on the south side of the shoal and work those area's. Lots of walleye's around Kelleys you just have to find them. I hear guys on the radio catching fish north of American eagle shoal, it's on the south west corner of the Island. Monitor 68 or 79.

[West Basin]

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