Non Canadian Walleye Fishing in the Summer

[Jim Teasdale]

Matt took the words right out of my mouth. I would love to learn more about walleye and perch migratory patterns

[Jiga-Byte]

Yes, hopefully West Basin will reply. I've been checking this thread everyday in suspense...lol

[West Basin]

My experience is both professional and personal. I was a fisheries technician with ODW back in the 90’s. I didn’t work on Lake Erie but I followed the research and monitoring the Lake Erie unit did. Had a boat on the Lake also in the late 80’s and 90’s and did a lot of walleye and perch fishing. I spent several summers working at various places around the islands so I know the Lake very well.

There is a lot of data on the Lake Erie walleye fishery, but it’s not necessarily easy to find it all. It’s not usually published for the public, but you can find some or most of the studies and research papers on the Internet. I will see if I can find my list and put some links on here. I am planning to put links to various studies on my Lake Erie website when I get time ( www.ilakeerie.com ).

Generally speaking there are groups of walleye in the Lake, some that stay mostly in the Western Basin, some that tend to migrate from the Detroit River / Lake St. Clair / Lake Huron, and others that move between the Central and Western Basins. These and others intermingle so there are always transfers from one group to another. Recent and ongoing research is trying to better identify these groups and their movements. There is a line of underwater acoustical instruments across the western basin that is tracking tagged walleye that move through the western basin (you can see a graphical history of where some walleye have traveled). Technology is rapidly making it economically possible to collect and process data we couldn’t up until now. This data should start to tell us a lot more in the next few years.

[Chuck E.]

Looking to go out today from Kelleys. First time out this year. Just trolling 2 lines because i'll be alone. I expect to go north of K.I. shoals. Would appreciate updated trolling speeds and water depths and fishing depth. I will be using spoons and dipseys. Is the size of spoon critical? 2.5" to 3"?
Thanks for any advice.
Chuck

[half pole]

You can catch on both sizes, but I've had more luck on the smaller Michigan stinger spoons.