Thanks to all who participated

[EYEFISH4FOOD]

Hey guys,

1st of all let me say thank you to all that participated in the walleye.com outing!!! There were several members that kept us up to date as this was a 1st time event of myself taking a lead on this. Here are a few results from my experience and other info from some of the guys.

Thursday- COLD FRONT.... what can I say... It was brutal out there with high winds gusting to 30mph. Fishing was tougher than ever for us. Went out of Catawba and went to all the places we hit them this past week and nothing. We caught a whole 1 fish. Couple guys that came up Thursday said they had sled issues on Thursday and didn't make it out til the afternoon. Goose egg for them also.

Friday - Talk about COLD!!!!!!!!! -17 when we arrived at Crane Creek... Wind chill.....you can guess that. All I know is that my mustache froze just getting ready in the parking lot. Hahaha. Quite a few more members on the ice. Heard good reports came from A can area. We went there and got 3. Made a move out west and picked up 8 more on the evening bite. Not too bad... just COLD as heck!!! A few guys got on them and limited out by A can.

Saturday - Felt like SPRING... A high of 33 degrees... WOW!!! What a difference that made for us. CRANE CREEK... A MADHOUSE!!! We got there at 6:10 and I have never seen it so crowded. Headed toward A can again. Marked a lot of fish and couldn't get them going. Made a move about a quarter mile and bingo! moved at 11 and had a limit by 11:30. Sent everyone gps numbers. Afishhawk and 2 buddies showed up and by the time they got there they ended up catching 4 and losing one. Some guys didn't get my numbers until 2 hours later. That's how bad phone service was out there. Superseal you were in the area and sorry that you didn't get my text until after you made that big move. We met up at the Mexican restaurant that evening and had some nice conversations with Afishhawk. Heck of a nice guy. I was hoping to meet more people out there in person. Met Deaa69 out there on the ice just driving around hunting for fish. Shook hands and as you know it... another great guy!

Sunday - Decent temps... Not too cold just a lot of snow on the ground. As I knew it.... those gps numbers drew a crowd of about an extra 100 shantys. I know we didn't have but 19 phone numbers in our network. I know there were a lot of leeches out there!!! You know who you are. People were driving within 15 yards of my shanty. It was ridiculous!!! Anyways fish were there and we were marking... just no takers. It was tough morning with all the traffic coming through those fish got spooky as heck. Had a deadstick rod and fish would show up to it at the 18 foot range and as soon as you pick up the rod they were gone!!! My buddies that were not in the network actually put us on the fish Saturday. They got limits from there! Nice job.

To sum it all up.... I had a blast and so did my buddies from KY that came up. They are definitely hooked on Erie!!! It sounded like some of the guys caught some really nice fish. If you guys can keep this thread going please when you can, upload a couple of pics on here of your nice catches. I will do the same. Just to share with all the other guys on the forum that could not make it out there. I did find that 2 way radios were working well. We were on channel 7 communicating as the cell service was bad. I did find an Auger cover if anyone lost one let me know. I hope we can all do this again soon!!! Even though that 2 of the 4 days were not productive for us.... we still came home with a nice bag of fish! Good luck to everyone out there and be safe!!! Thanks again to all who participated in this network. I was a great time!!!

[Cheesehead53]

First,

I was on the text link up and appreciated the work done by eyefish4food.

I ALMOST got to finally meet you in person at the parking lot madhouse Saturday morning, I was sitting on my sled when you pulled in, I followed you but then you had to pull out and find parking.

I headed for the lake at that point.

For a first timer, it was great to get some of the pointers and have some where to start.

I tried sending some reports, not sure how many got out, I also had lots of cell phone reception/signal issues.

The text network WAS a good idea though.

I'm pretty sure I fished near your group both Friday and Saturday (did one of your guys have a red Eskimo shanty??)

Second, Yes, Friday was brutally cold, I was on the lake at 7:00 but didn't catch my first Lake Erie fish until 1:00 and it was a CATFISH!! LOL!

I did get the text and moved West of Can A late in the day and at 5:50 picked up 2 fish back to back in 5 minutes including one 8 lbser.

Saturday I did end up getting my limit, but didn't get the last one until 6:45.

My hot bait was a #5 jigging rap in parrot color. Caught all 6 fish Saturday on it.
(Problem was with that small treble hook on Saturday I broke one, had one bite off, and had 4-5 get off about halfway up)

All in all it was an exhausting, but fun trip.

It looks like the weather will stay cold over the next 10 days, and IF the ice holds, I may take another 400 mile run over the weekend of March 7.

I too am hooked on Erie!

THANKS Javier!!

[Madtrapper]

Thanks for all your work, I did not make it, had to cancel because of breakdown. I was getting the text's. Re-schedule for the 15th of March, if there is ice. I suspect it was brutal at times. Good Job

[3stooges]

glad to hear y'all are getting fish. me and 3 other guys plan on going out tues and weds ,last weds we went out of Catawba no luck. this time going out of crane headed towards the a can and west sister. never been up that way is there a lot of parking at crane creek state park?

[superseal]

glad to hear y'all are getting fish. me and 3 other guys plan on going out tues and weds ,last weds we went out of Catawba no luck. this time going out of crane headed towards the a can and west sister. never been up that way is there a lot of parking at crane creek state park?

There wasn't enough parking Saturday! Should be enough in the middle of the week.

[Cheesehead53]

glad to hear y'all are getting fish. me and 3 other guys plan on going out tues and weds ,last weds we went out of Catawba no luck. this time going out of crane headed towards the a can and west sister. never been up that way is there a lot of parking at crane creek state park?

Friday the parking was no problem.

Saturday I got there at 5:30 and there were only about 15 other vehicles.

By the time I unloaded and had my stuff ready to go out, the place was a packed chaotic mess with most trucks turning around and going back out to park along the road.

I couldn't begin to guess how many trucks/trailers there were Satruday, 150, 200, more?

Never saw anything like it.

And then leaving after dark it was more of a zoo, with guys blocking the exit road, vehicles stuck in the ditch, yowza!!

[jkr]

Thanks to all. I didn't make it up until about 1pm Saturday (drove from south of Dayton thru major snowstorm). Ended up moving about 4 times Saturday and finally over to the coordinates that were provided by about 5pm. Managed 2 fish in that area before darkness (4 guys). Went back Sunday AM early and wow - where did all those people come from? Crazy. Fished about 2 hours with no bites so kept moving - went North. Ended up moving 3-4 times(to the west) and managed to pick up a fish here and there - best was about 2 miles NW of A-can. Total of 5 Walleye from Sat 1pm thru Sunday 3pm(lost about 2-3 others). Not great. Heard all kinds of good reports about 7 miles out from Sat. Plan on making it back up in the next couple weeks and will give it another try. Thanks Again to all.

[superseal]

Thanks Javier for doing this. It definitely has potential but as noted the group could get out of hand as information is shared quickly and to the masses.

Communication is terrible out there....at least with my service. I'm up to try it again!

[trappernorth]

Had a good time but phone reception was bad out near sister didn't do great but not either.be back down Friday night for Saturday and Sunday hopefully be able to make some moves to find bigger schools

[DirtyMaxx]

Wanted to get in on the group thing but stupid f'ing phone is all I have to say about that...lol....probably weren't that far away three of us ended up with 14 sat and sun...lost atleast 10...glad to here there were some eyes being put on ice...be back this weekend for some more....good luck all