Looking for tips

[Landon]

I?m 16 years old and love to walleye fish. I fish off a boat based out of Sandusky bay but often go out infront of cedar point to troll. Any tips or advice about lures, speed, and anything else helps out a lot as I am not the best.


Thanks!

[West Basin]

Landon,

You can read what others will post here to help you out. The best thing to do is go out with someone who is experienced with trolling. Ask the folks on this site. Someone may volunteer to take you out. Or ask someone you know, or someone a friend or acquaintance knows. Maybe your parents know someone.

[sherman brown]

Going out with someone who know what they are doing will teach you more in one day than you can learn on your own in years of fishing. Or if you can get some friends together and hire a charter and tell your caption you want to learn more that catching fish. Most captions will teach you as much as they can in the limited time they have.

I knew absolutely nothing about using dipsies but after2 days on a charter we started on our own with 3 lines per side plus 1 rigger per side. we were catching fish from the start, but we did have a few tangles. But as time went on we got better with less tangles and more fish. What we learned in 2 days with a good charter caption was more than we could have learned in 5 years or more on our own. On the 2nd day the caption set the lines, and he retired to his seat and let us do everything that day and was there to help if we had a problem or to answer any questions we had.

Botton line is you can start by posting open seat wanted. And try to find a way to go out with someone that has some experience fishing Erie.

Another very important thing is deciding what method you're going too fish with boards or with divers. I did do a charter to check out fishing with inline boards but fishing with divers was much better for me.

[itsbob]

Good tips about finding someone with experience to go with or join you.How is your boat set up? How many rod holders you have and can you adjust them to have the rod positioned parallel to the water.What electronics you have on your boat? Sonar and GPS?You need to be able to troll the proper speeds too.From 1.5 mph to 2.5 mph as the water warms like it is now.Do you have any line counter rods yet?That is just some basic things you need to get started if you have them or not

[gb1234]

... or, do you want to catch walleye without all the complexity and expense of trolling? Some people catch walleye just by casting or jigging.

[sherman brown]

... or, do you want to catch walleye without all the complexity and expense of trolling? Some people catch walleye just by casting or jigging.

I fished the western basin for years with nothing more than my spinning gear and mostly 3/8 weight gold and silver nugget forward spinners and we caught tons of fish back then but that was before the water cleared but we did use try other lures and heavier and lighter baits as needed. Once that happened the fish became more scattered and we started trolling using mostly the 2" hot-n-tots and the wiggle warts in the regular size. We had to do the same thing as we did drift fishing and let out line until we thought was about 100' to 150' and went by the bend in our rods to adjust the speed.

when we were drifting, we let out about 100' to 150' and put our rods against the side of the boat and just drifted and let the wind and boat action work our baits.

the only thing we used our depth finder was to show the depth. fishing was so simple back then and fighting the fish free hand was so much more fun.

but moving to the central basin changed everything for us. but i have heard a few boats are using heavier weights and doing fair drifting worn burners and weight forward spinners.

[Shea]

For a simple setup that catches fish and is easy to use on a small boat: Use a Jet Diver (easy and reliable for trolling) with 4 feet of leader followed by a small stinger spoon (purple/black) works well almost always), 38 - 44 feet of water this time of year. Let out 80 to 100 feet of line. Speed 1.5 - 2.4 MPH. I know I'm over simplifying but this will catch fish reliably with little investment. You should be able to put 2 lines out on a small boat (one straight off each side). You can fine tune how much line you let out based on where the fish are on your finder if you have one.

[Landon]

I am fully set up for everything. I have 6 rods set up for trolling, planer boards, gps/fish finder. Bandits and worm harnesses. I can catch fish. As of this weekend I was fishing by Kelly?s and caught two 20+ inch walleyes and a couple keepers. I?m just not very efficient and consistent. I see people catching limits nearly every time they go and I?m looking to eventually be one of those fishermen. I love catching walleye but just not satisfied with the number. I know I can catch more

[Landon]

I like trolling but me and my dad are looking to get better at drift casting

[itsbob]

That's great you want to get better at catching.You certainly are getting an early start.I highly recommend you fish with a partner.Your dad or a first mate buddy.We always check the wind forecast on IWindsurf to see if it's safe to head out fishing.I have been reading the posts here and ohio game and fish.I have learned a lot reading from all the people that fish on Erie.Make sure your line counter rods are calibrated.Can utube in how to do it.Keep a journal of all your fishing trips.Location and what caught that day.We catch almost all our fish trolling inline boards with bandits in the spring using our mono rods.Then switch in mid May to dipseys using our braid rods.Put an assortment of spoons,spoon harness,Rapala J9 or worm harness on our dipseys.In order of importance is proper depth,speed,lure type then color.The fish will tell you what they want that day and you have to figure out what's catching that day.You also need to find out where the fish are each day.The charters and the best catchers have a network of friends that also fish and they get information on where the best bite is located.You can sometimes get some info online ,befriend a charter you know or ask the bait stores.Good luck.I never stop learning about adding tactics to catch better.