Lake Erie - East End

[Shorthanded]

Slow pick, but boxed two 7lb yellows before waves built to 3-5 footers. clear dispeys size 1, 10 ft leader, 3D black/pink and black/purple hatchets. 60-65 fow, 3 setting at 165ft, 30lb braid, 2.5 mph at ball. between Sturgeon and Pt Abino, along the fence heading toward Buffalo, fish were scattered from here to off meyers, short bite between 10:00-10:30 am

[woody 184]

Jack nice Report..... 7lb Yellows.. Not sure what that is.... Dale

[Mark Komo]

Yellow pike Nice work on the walleyes. Hatchets run pretty quick. Did you notice a big difference in speed between the ball and surface?

[Shorthanded]

Dale, i am probably dating myself to even know this, but years ago two strains of walleye were prevalent in lake erie one with blue coloring (blue pike) and the other with yellow coloring (yellow pike). it is believed blue pike are extinct, yet today the yellows flourish.

Mark, i never pay much attention to anything but down speed but i know that there can be as much as 1.0-1.5 mph difference depending on direction of troll ...more typically .5 mph is not uncommon.

the lake is warm less than 1 degree temp difference surface to bottom... imo no schooling fish are coming this far east... to hit the schools, looks like we need to get to the deeper and cooler water and farther west.

I am still relearning lake erie and have a LOT to learn

Jack

[Mark Komo]

Looks like your on the right track. In canada,they refer to them as pickeral.

I got a monthly newsletter from the Southtowns Walleye Association and they had a real nice writeup on Blue Pike (walleye). I think infisherman did a short blip on them too.

Blue pike

The blue pike was a homegrown species, too, unique to Lake Erie, but it seems to have disappeared entirely. Or has it? Kenyon says there has been renewed interest by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in whether the blue pike (actually a blue walleye, but called "pike" because of it teeth) was a separate species or subspecies or color variation of the walleye. The USFWS is also looking into reports of blue pike caught in northern Canadian lakes, supposedly remnants from earlier transplants from Lake Erie. DNA testing on tissue samples (kept for decades and recently rediscovered) from actual blue pike helped determine recently that the blue pike was indeed a distinct species. Slightly smaller than the "yellow" walleye, looking almost transparent, or so Kenyon says observers have told him, the blue pike was a popular table fish. Blue pike were fished for heavily for sport and commercial sale, but Kenyon says their disappearance was caused more by the smelt "overwhelming" the blue pike, eating their fry and competing for spawning grounds.

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/anglerboate ... rieerr.htm

[jimski2]

http://www.outdoorsniagara.com/bluepikeindex.htm

blue pike reports here

[Mark Komo]

Nice report page.

What kinda releases are you using? Blacks? Chamberlains? Walkers?

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[Shorthanded]

Thanks Mark, i am a rec fisherman and appreciate the limited amount of time most of us have to pursue our love for fishing, so when successful i try to share ALL the info needed to quickly find and most importantly CATCH fish.

A fishing report that says "off windmills with harnesses" is better than no info but not by much practically.

Just switched to chamberlain releases (one trip so still tuning them) from rubber bands and i think these are going to be just what the doctor ordered for walleye. can crank the rod tips right to the water with almost no pull required by fish to trigger release. pretty ingenious really. we went 0-fer on the down riggers last time out, but a lot of our fish this year have come off them, the trick - long leads i use blacks releases on LO

Will be back out this weekend hopefully ...my boat is docked at SBH...give me a shout on channel 68 if your out or contact bob (rebs) for my number if you want to sync up

Jack

[Mark Komo]

Sure Jack. Now I remember. We had a couple of calls when I was fishing with rebs.

Yeah, those chamberlains are sweet. I was using one of those black releases when we first put the ball over. I swear it seemed like I was draggin that 5lber around for like 30 minutes before resetting. I like the 20 minute rule anyway. I did try the rubber bands, and although easy enough to snap off, they slid a bit too much for me. Maybe a bad batch of bands.

Thanks for the heads up. I am gonna have to get rebs to come out again.