Lake Erie Bite 2024

[Jomat]

On 5/27/2024 at 9:02 PM, Gill-T said:

got a bunch of these willing to let go for half that price if you want them.  Got too many baits.

[Gill-T]

Now you tell me lol. I placed an order to expand my Livingston arsenal last week.  I swore I would not buy another lure the rest of the year.  

[Gill-T]

Another good evening contour trolling 15’-23’ fow off a hard point. We managed one shy of a two man limit in the 7pm-11pm window.  Interesting how every time out the age structure differs. Tonight all age classes represented. Took another big also (7.5 lbs).  Some on bandits, some on scatter raps, one on meat spoon down 12’ on rigger but most came off a Livingston stickbait unassisted -back 70-80’ on outside boards.  

[Gill-T]

For you night trollers, a nice little tip for your planer board mods, I placed DOT reflection tape on mine and with just wearing a little headlight the boards light up the night like an airport runway. No glow in the dark night sticks. No battery operated accessory add-ons. Cheap and easy. (I placed a sticky note over my name and number to keep groupies away 🤪).

 

 

[Gill-T]

1700 views on this thread in one week and nobody has put up a fishing report. Good or bad fishing it helps everyone to post what is going on. We need fish taken out of the system as there are 100 million walleye in Erie. No reason for tradition secrecy. 

[Jomat]

Just got back.  Fished out of Barcelona Saturday morning until about noon and Saturday night until about830- 11pm.  Same area….relatively small amount of water 14-50’.  Lotta guys out with the nice weather and the tourney out of Dunkirk.  I was doing some scouting for the derby.  Landed 10 Saturday morning 18-25”…missed some bites, half a dozen sheep’s, a big cattie, and some big perch. Best bite was in 35-41’.  Fished the same area but shallower Saturday night, after dark no more sheep heads, walleye bite was consistent landed 10 in about 2.5 hours.  All around 20”…..all on lures run within 8’ of the surface, regardless of depth.  Couldn’t find any derby worthy fish and it looks like the pros in the tournament couldn’t either.  Good bite on eater fish tho.  Didn’t make much difference what u had in the water…caught fish on an assortment of stick baits, crankbaits, and harnesses.

[Gill-T]

That matches with what I have been seeing. At night the bite is up high. 

[Stillwater]

Nice job Jomat. Thanks for sharing.

[Gill-T]

Walleye winds this weekend. Looks like I am working on the honey-do list and boat fix projects. The winds should start the first big trickle of Ohio fish to the region. 

[Jomat]

That wind is gonna be no bueno for fishing….lake should be rolling out of the west pretty good with sustained 20 for 3 days.  We aren’t starting derby fishing until Monday.  But there should be some warm water up high in the water column and a bunch of Ohio punching bags for the meat fishermen…..but where will the 30”ers be?  That’s the question.

[Gill-T]

Weird. Lake Ontario buoys are rockin’.  Erie buoys and webcam at Sunset says fishable???  Must be wind aloft over Erie. Windy as hell at my house all day. My buddy tried to cheat the wind and drove to the bass islands and got skunked. He said he was not marking anything either. That tells me the fish are probably here. 

Edited June 8 by Gill-T

[Shorthanded]

On 5/30/2024 at 10:46 PM, Jomat said:

got a bunch of these willing to let go for half that price if you want them.  Got too many baits.

I am interested if these are available 

[Gill-T]

I got of work early and took advantage of nice evening tonight. Fished til 8:30 trying a new piece of rock. We went 4-6 on walleye, a bunch of sheep, a bass and a football brown trout. Bandit electric zebra took all the fish on my brother’s side of the boat back 55-65’. On my side it was a Livingston Deep Diver back 115’-65’ that took the most fish. Word has it that Barcelona has tons of fish. 

[Fishon11]

I have never fished Lake Erie but would love to. Where would you suggest a newbie from Syracuse area launch? And any help with depth and starting location would be greatly appreciated? Thanks

[Fishon11]

On 5/30/2024 at 10:46 PM, Jomat said:

got a bunch of these willing to let go for half that price if you want them.  Got too many baits.

Jomat, do you still have these available at half price?

[mr 580]

Fishon 11 both Cattaraugus Creek and Dunkirk are pretty accessible from Route 90/Thruway.  Dunkirk better if you want to overnight first with lodging.  On Cattaraugus Creek the Town of Hanover has a launch with fish cleaning station and there is a State Launch also.  Dunkirk launch is at the City Pier and that has fish cleaning station as well.  Hit 50/60 fow of water and go from there.

[Fishon11]

14 minutes ago, mr 580 said:

Fishon 11 both Cattaraugus Creek and Dunkirk are pretty accessible from Route 90/Thruway.  Dunkirk better if you want to overnight first with lodging.  On Cattaraugus Creek the Town of Hanover has a launch with fish cleaning station and there is a State Launch also.  Dunkirk launch is at the City Pier and that has fish cleaning station as well.  Hit 50/60 fow of water and go from there.

Thank you Mr580….

[Gill-T]

I am hearing some decent fish 65’ off the Catt today with lots of bait around. A Barcelona boat is reporting a grind bite with lots of shorts to wade through. Anyone got a decent pattern working?  I will be out to enjoy Father’s Day tomorrow. 

[Gill-T]

Struggle bus for walleye this morning. We were in search mode all day. We tried a couple of inshore structures with no walleyes. Plenty of nice smallmouth and big sheep but not what we were looking for. Stickbait program scrapped, Rack and stack to plan C - offshore shoal. Worm harness on bottom bouncers, riggers and snap weight lines. We managed 4 walleye and three jumbo perch for the box BUT way too many sheep to cycle through. Most of the boats ran towards Dunkirk and worked the 65’ band or deeper.  Today was a good day for total biomass but a challenging day to create fish fry memories. 

[yellowpike4]

we fished out of buffalo all week did boated over 100 fish

Edited June 16 by yellowpike4

[whaler1]

Boom!

[Gill-T]

Wow!  Why did I drive past Buffalo to fish the Catt????  lol. 😂. I suppose with a handle like yellowpike4 you probably catch’em. What kind of program was working, sticks or worms?

[Stillwater]

Great job Yellowpike!

[bulletbob]

 Is jigging or bottom bait rigs/drifting totally out of the question?... I have seen hundreds of lake Erie  Walleye reports, and every single one has been for and by  trollers... Is  it at all possible to bait fish or jig for them in Erie, or is there simply too much water and too few bottom areas that hold fish for jigging?... The vast majority of guys that fish for Lakers in big lakes troll as well, but sometimes guys jigging can stand toe to toe with trollers as far as numbers...  Walleyes and Lakers have similar habits.. Some are near bottom, some are suspended on bait... Just wondering  or is it pretty hopeless to jig/bait fish  for Walleyes in Erie?....

[Mike M]

Once you locate walleye your time is better spent trolling IMHO.  Once lake temp hits about 65 alot  of eyes start suspending in 40-65 fow.  You'll see them on your graph 20-50 ft down. A 4,5 or 7 color leadcore with a stickbait is a winning combination. Troll at 2.0-2.4 and you'll get em. Good luck.