walteye

I could not even get a hit while jigging/casting sonars-regular jigs-rigging leeches. Trolling was another story! Purple prism Dave's Kaboom lures-Black and silver Rogues fished 15-down over 29-32' caught almost every fish every day. Friday started with an 11# sheepshead and then it was almost every kind of fish that Oneida gives up. Walleye from 6" up to 24"-smallmouth bass-perch-white bass-brown trout-catfish!! I had 3 days of awesome fishing-even though it was windy and rough most of the time. Most of the larger eyes were still milking-water temp started at 55.8 and by Sunday afternoon was just tapping 60 in spots. I haven't had a Memorial Day weekend trip to Oneida like this in years-and I haven't missed a year since 2003. Walteye

Dunkirk 8/29 to 9/1 Other than not wanting to fish on Thursday due to 4'+ waves and 20 mph winds-every day was a winner out of Dunkirk. Fished off Silver Creek in 81-94 fow and hammered walleye every day. Being alone in the boat with just my white GSD to assist-during the day the rods only slowed up only about 2 total hours each day. Yes-the vast majority of the walleye were only in the 16-18" range (and there is NOTHING wrong with that size) but what great fun! There was a thermocline that was set up about 70' down and as long as you run the lures through that zone-fish were very numerous. The largest eye of the 3 days was 29" besides 12 others in the mid-20" range. Watermelon harness with a spoon in similar color ahead rocked every day. Blue with orange belly Renosky and deep purple with black belly Renosky were almost as good. Black Slide diver with a 10' lead and Walker deeper diver with same lead worked best. I used to use a longer lead to the lure but the shorter lead worked better this week. Walteye

I am usually getting on the water early-so I am parking right at the ramp. But again-there is additional parking to the side of the restaurant for trailers.

Took the dog and ran up to Dunkirk for midweek fishing. Tuesday ran North out of Dunkirk to 85-90 FOW and screen was lit up down deep-an enormous contrast to a month a ago when blank was all I ever saw on the screen! Ran slide divers down to 70'-12 color lead and black 40 jets with 3 oz snap weights. To say that 20-30 silver bass in a day was on the low side. Did not have an eye in the box to middle of afternoon when I changed out a slide diver to a dipsey-same red 3" Renosky lure-and caught 4 eyes in a row-including personal best 11#3oz. Wednesday ran to same location-ran 2 black dipseys with 3" red Renosky and 10 color lead with 2 oz snap weight with purple /black crawler harness. From 6am to 330pm-I never had all the lines in the water-action was non-stop with both walleye and silver bass!! I had a limit in the livewell by 830am-I never believed anyone telling me that they did that. If I told you that at least 30 silver bass were hooked and released-it would be a low # again. I ended up with 14 walleye caught total Wednesday. Thursday ran same game plan-3 eyes in the livewell by 8 am-then the walleye action slowed while the silver bass action stayed non-stop. Ended up the day catching 8 eyes-while a three day total for the silver bass had to be over 100. Although it is nice to have action all day-when you reel in 10 color lead over and over to find one of those bass on the hook-not so much fun!! Great fishing and better yet-"catching"- this week out of Dunkirk! Walteye

Chris-thanks for the info. Thats a MAJOR Brown! I will be up there Aug 31 thru Sep 3 to give it another shot. 35 eyes isn't a bad week. Were you fishing deep-or shallow like we had to do when we were up there 2 weeks ago? Walteye

Jimski- I noticed that also and ran 20 jets and deep crankbaits off boards and got nuttin! I ran to the red roof from Barcelona on tuesday-70-110' and all I caught were steelies (my wife was in pain when they dove the planer boards and she couldn't move the fish!!!) I loved it-but we were looking for eyes. At least the last day we hammered them-2 were in the 6# class-the rest were 2-3#. Walteye

My wife and I took a 3 day trip to Lake Erie for eyes-same time/same area that I have fished for years. Monday dead calm/hot sun and no marks coming out of Dunkirk. Fished same area that has produced for years-80-100 FOW-east and west of Dunkirk. Very little or no marks-did a LOT of trolling-lots of silver bass and 1- 2# eye with the last pole in. Went to Barcelona next 2 days (again both days dead calm and hot sun)-Harbormaster says fish shallow-50-70 fow/down 40. 1 Walleye at 7am-lots of silver bass. Ran out to 95-110 fow-slammed the steelheads (12)-but no walleye out deep. 2 days of running same programs that has produced limits plus for years-and it ain't working!!! Pulling boat out on day 2-a local questions how I did-I said 2 eyes in 2 days. Told me I was fishing WAY TOO DEEP OF WATER. He says start at 40 fow. Next morning we head out-troll between 40-50 fow and limit out that day (2 people). Red prism Renoskys (both 3" and 5") took almost all the fish- last 2 eyes caught in 35 fow with surface temp of 76 degrees! What has always worked in past may not always work! Walteye

My wife and I took a 3 day trip to Lake Erie for eyes-same time/same area that I have fished for years. Monday dead calm/hot sun and no marks coming out of Dunkirk. Fished same area that has produced for years-80-100 FOW-east and west of Dunkirk. Very little or no marks-did a LOT of trolling-lots of silver bass and 1- 2# eye with the last pole in. Went to Barcelona next 2 days-Harbormaster says fish shallow-50-70 fow/down 40. 1 Walleye at 7am-lots of silver bass. Ran out to 95-110 fow-slammed the steelheads (12)-but no walleye out deep. 2 days of running same programs that has produced limits plus for years-and it ain't working!!! Pulling boat out on day 2-a local questions how I did-I said 2 eyes in 2 days. Told me I was fishing WAY TOO DEEP OF WATER. He says start at 40 fow. Next morning we head out-troll between 40-50 fow and limit out that day (2 people). Red prism Renoskys (both 3" and 5") took almost all the fish- last 2 eyes caught in 35 fow with surface temp of 76 degrees! What has always worked in past may not always work! Walteye

Sluggo-must have just missed you! I fished Barcelona Tuesday thru Friday last week-fishing wasn't up to Erie's usual reputation. Best fishing of the week was straight out of the harbor in 90-100 fow. 5 color core with firetiger or brown Renowskys for 1/2 the day-then deeper. The fishing to the west was spotty at best-but the silver/white bass fishing is awesome! I caught 2 at the same time on a small pink/purple chatterstick! I had to constantly rotate lines in the water because the bass were always being hooked. Best day last week was Thursday-water was calm-sun was hot-and fishing was awesome. I had boxed 4 by 8 am that day. Good fishing Walteye

Beat myself up running from the north to the south Thursday morning. Warmer water to the southeast-62 degrees. Fished off Shackleton Point in the mid 20' range-on the water at 6 and a three eye limit by 8 am. The wind was howling and the the rain was falling-and anyone who was anywhere the lake knew it was a nasty day. Drifting with a drift sock slowed me down to 1.8 mph- running dark perch colored harnesses and dark colored Rogues-caught everything down deep. For the next 8 hours-yes 8 hours!!-loaded up on perch and throwback silver Bass. Nothing on the jigs or blade baits. Obviously didn't fish Saturday or Sunday. Walteye

Shorthanded- I was pulling regular Renoskys-small and large Chatterstix-Bomber Long A-small and large Reef Runners-various size spoons-1- 8# eye was caught on a large chatterstix, all the other eyes on Tuesday were caught on lead core with the small green chatterstix. It was rough in the morning-but by 1 pm the lake had calmed down to 2' waves. I had 2 in the box by then-1 on lead and one on the dipsey- and then the dipsey bite turned off-and I just watched mark after mark be at the dipsey levels-whether it was my high or low dipsey. Trolling speed was 1.8 to 2.4 mph-with surging due to waves. Tight turns made to speed up and drop lines-I was pulling 10 color on my boards all day with dipseys on the inside. On monday in the rain the dipseys had the most action-with eyes/lakers/steelies all caught. One steelie I caught on Tuesday came off the dipsey on a spoon-the other steelie came off the lead on a small chatterstix. Walteye

Gill-T I was fishing my dipseys at a 1 setting-I could crank up or let down my dipseys and watch as they created a straight horizontal line in the water column. Are you telling me that they are not my dipseys? Yet I can crank them up/down and watch their movements? What were those lines then? If I am not mistaken-the cone angle gets wider the deeper you go-and fishing 60-to 80' down would give a pretty wide angle. When I run my downriggers at the same depths-I mark my cannonballs with the blow back. I didn't mark my dipseys at 40'=as the cone was still too small. I believe you are mistaken. Walteye

Last Tuesday I had so many marks come up to the dipsey-I normally run a 15' plus leader to the lure-I pulled the slide diver to a 5' leader and 10' on the Walker-still wasn't getting the bites-just marks coming up to the divers. Any suggestions for the future? I tried tipping the lures with worm pieces and lure attractants-and the bite was still tough. The leadcore caught most of the fish (not all-some did come on the divers-but it was frustrating to watch). Walteye

Fished Sunday through Tuesday out of Dunkirk-with Sunday split between Dunkirk and Barcelona (ran down there on the water). I fished alone and each day had a 5 fish limit-with Monday in the rain the best day-6 eyes with 2- 8 pounders plus a 3 lakers and 2 steelhead. One of the lakers weighed 16.2 # and one of the steelies was 8.8 #. Except for the time I was fishing in Barcelona-I was fishing 8 1/2 miles ssw out of Dunkirk in 125-140 fow down 60-80". Dipseys and l0 color lead-adding 2 oz and taking off 2 oz to keep things changed up. 3" green (not perch) chatterstix worked best-not a bite (totally) on harnesses. Big steelie came on green/copper backed spoon. Tuesday there was a light breeze at the harbor-by the time I got to fishing grounds-waves were 3-5 feet (and some above) and the wind howling @ 18 knots! Had to work hard each day for fish-unlike last year when I had a limit in the boat by 11 am. Walteye And you can't say enough for a topset!