Kelley Island

[wakina]

Has anyone made it out around Kelley's yet thinking about coming up first part of April and putting in at Kelley's any suggestions on Jig or trolling around the Island usually get out to 20' to 30' depth range.

Are you still doing that Kayak thing?

[bevardjesse]

really didn't want to say due to the negativity I went threw last time lol, but yes made several trips last year looking forward to this year I made some upgrades on the kayaks for comfort ready to try them out.

[wakina]

really didn't want to say due to the negativity I went threw last time lol, but yes made several trips last year looking forward to this year I made some upgrades on the kayaks for comfort ready to try them out.

You obviously survived so you won that argument. Last year I was more concerned about the water temps if something was to happen to you and/or your friend as survival is really short lived if in that cold water. How some people behave while on the water, even if you do know what you are doing those type people can and do cause unnecessary safety problems to occur with their negligent boating.

[BlueWalleye]

Planning a trip to Kelley's mid-April. Does water temp make a huge difference on whether I should be running cranks vs harnesses mid-April around Kelley's?

[ErieEye]

Once the water temperature reaches 50 degrees worm harnesses can start to out produce crankbaits. I'll generally start running harnesses along with my crankbaits when the water temperature reaches 45 degrees.

[Jawbreaker]

Planning a trip to Kelley's mid-April. Does water temp make a huge difference on whether I should be running cranks vs harnesses mid-April around Kelley's?

Don't forget spoons at this time also. Kind of in the middle of transition time, I think. Maybe one of the pros will weigh in.

[miso_ohio]

really didn't want to say due to the negativity I went threw last time lol, but yes made several trips last year looking forward to this year I made some upgrades on the kayaks for comfort ready to try them out.

You should check out the Buckeye Kayak trail, I believe they have a facebook page, but quite a few of them get out into Erie in early spring and do well for walleye. Those guys come prepared though, I believe some of them have more money in their outfits then most of the boats out there. A good group of people to learn from, they normally keep it close to shore and avoid the big traffic days, during the summer the Harbors are very popular for fishing as well. I think last year they had a tournament at Middle bass that was a good time, everybody took the ferry out and fished around the island all weekend, this was in the summer though.

[ErieEye]

Mid April in my opinion is a little early to be running spoons. Spoons are typically run at 2 mph plus. You can run them behind snap weights but generally your going to want to run them behind jet divers, dipsys and tru trips. What your running your spoons behind does effect the bite. It can be somewhat difficult to run spoons and harnesses together at the same time because the effective speed for each bait is different. If you're going to be here in mid April I would put most of my effort into harnesses and your reef runner type crankbaits. As far as depth, you'll just have to figure that out as the day goes on. I would suspect that the active fish will be up high in the water column, but you never know.