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Would it be worth the time and gas to make the 3.5 hour drive this Friday to try catching some walleye around Oak Harbor? Thanks for any replies

Been a while since I posted on here thought I would give a report on how we have been catching fish in Sep and Oct in Lorain. When we came back from NY salmon fishing we fished our first trip in Lorain and headed deep. We found a school of fish in 60-65Â’ of water and we ended up basically fishing a stretch of water from the NW corner of the dump on a NE line out to 65Â’ of water for 7 weeks. The fish would move shallower and deeper here and there with wind and current. We would have to change the angle we fished this area with all the different wind directions but we caught limits of walleye every single trip we ran in 7 weeks. We ran dipsy divers on settings 1/2/3.5 some days the fish were on the bottom or close and some days they were very close to the surface. We ran standard size spoons, rapala J-7, and ripplin red fins. Some days they would eat them all some days one prevailed over the other and we would switch heavy to what they favored. The first weeks of September we ran down riggers when the fish were in the 60-65Â’ water and ran the same lures with success. Had to play with the leads, some days they wanted 50Â’ some days they wanted 10Â’ the action changes a bunch on those lures with the lead before release donÂ’t be afraid to try different leads. It is a bit easier when you have 4 riggersÂ… the off shore planer boards where mostly jet 40 divers with standard spoons. On one side we run dreamweaver tripzdiver brand, on the other side we run big fish true trip diver brand. The reason we do this is they have a very different rattle to them the tripZ has bigger BB and has a deeper rattle. The true trips have very small BB and has much lighter higher pitched rattle some days they favor one over the other, do not mix these on the same side you will get tangles the do not pull or run same depth. Hard to believe but some days this matters. We also ran flicker minnows on the boards especially when the fish where high in the water, sometimes no weight and sometimes with off shore guppy weights. Depends on were we marked them. They smashed them when they where up near the surface feeding hard. The key to deep water fishing is to really trust your electronics. If the fish are not on the graph there arenÂ’t any fish there, the graph tells you where to put your baits trust the graph and what it is showing you. There where more bug hatches than I have ever seen on the lake in deep water during this time and it was critical to finding and catching these fish. The bug hatches are easy to find and mark on your graph and many of my customers would say look at those bait balls of fish on the graph. They where big balls of bug larva floating to the surface. The depth was key. Run your baits along the bottom of the ball of larva. The fish are just below the bait ball feeding up. The wind just wonÂ’t stop this year it has been a terrible wind year for sure as it is ripping out there as I write this. We had a lot of fun catching all those fish out there the past 7 weeks and the action was pretty fast most days non stop catching. Best of luck to you all thru the fall, be safe and pick your days to catch that big one. We still have openings for some of the best fishing of the year in November and December. If you would like to come out and fish with us give me a call. We have full day trips with grilled lunch and we can stream the football games too. 419-635-8003.

13 yellow gold, shiners spreaders,
20 fow. (fyi water is lower now)
From 10-2pm, and a nice swing.
plenty of small yellow’s returned, many white perch (very young) and 8 young walleye (6″) returned and educated.
I would catch a big chunky yellow gold (9 or 12″) then plenty of small fry action.
Head boats in the area were moving around to stay on the fish, or to find them. Most of the boats to my west eventually moved out on the search.
The gut pile report says, some gobies, white perch and yes a zebra mussel.
The females, which were all of the chunky ones, had a large egg sac which says they have been eating good.

I remove all skin when filleting (wife request) and that produced 2 pounds and 4 oz. of yellow gold.

Back soon if the weather allows,

Water Dog
be safe and
(wear that life vest)

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I haven’t had a chance to be on the lake since late July. We headed to Lorain yesterday 10/17 with high hopes of catching. Arrived and on the water around 8:00. Started at the north end of the dump and trolled north with a mostly spoons, some big, some small. Around noon or so the winds really kicked up the water out where were in 55′ so we headed back towards the dump to try to get in closer and out of some of the wave action. That move cost us some time working our way back in. At that point we only had 2 fish in the boat. Soooo we ended up trolling from the middle of the dump working north again catching a few here and there. The winds laid down again by late afternoon. Fished till 5:00 and ended up with 11 fish. Ended up catching more on crawler harnesses then spoons. Overall a fairly slow day.

G can around the honey hole, overall, 14 yellow gold but most not big enough to keep, however I did get a 11 inch keeper and one that was not going to make it a 7″. I did catch 2 , 6 inch walleye that made it back unharmed. Fished from 9 – 12 a very nice day on the lake. Gut pile report, These fish, and both of them were females and had a nice egg sack, I did not see any gobies.

I did see boats around the G can to my west.

Heading back weather permitting,

Water Dog

Be safe and do wear the life vest!

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Woke up early….(that’s a given)…

Took care of the dogs, critters, and chores before leaving the house at 5:30, to head to the gas station and Hi-Way Bait, before driving over to Huron, to meet my crew.

This isn’t a “Mom and Dad with the youngins”; this was a family trip, but related differently. Holly is Cory’s sister-n-law (I think her sister married Cory, if I have the story straight), and Collin is Holly’s boy. He’s 15. Sawyer is Cory’s boy, and he’s 9.

I got to Huron around 6:30 and had told them to meet me at 7am, since the sunrise isn’t until 7:30(ish), and took that opportunity to check all my lines in front of the crank baits, and cut some off, if I needed to. Only two were suspect, so it didn’t take long. Then, I pulled the dipsey rods out and checked the leaders. I changed two of the four leaders due to abrasion and changed out a couple of spoons to worm-burners.

They showed up right on time. We launched, and headed out the river. The sky was clear, the air temp was in the mid to high 50’s, but was forecasted to warm up to the 70s. The wind was light out of the SSE. The wind direction was NE yesterday, but was supposed to switch by early evening last night, so I was hoping it had enough time to lay down.

The rollers weren’t too bad, but just enough to keep me from going too fast. I didn’t want to beat up my customers, or the boat, so we took our time. As we rode out, I kept an eye on the Garmin, looking for good marks to start over.

We had headed towards Cranberry initially, because I was thinking of starting in close, thinking they might be in shallow that early, but changed my mind, and went towards deeper water instead.

I had a friend that was fishing the shallower stuff, and confirmed I had made the right decision. He wasn’t doing well, and he said there was a lot of floating grass in that area.

The Garmin started marking some fish over 36 feet of water, so I decided to start there. The Ulterra was deployed first, then the baby Merc, and then the FishHawk. I had the Ulterra pointed towards Vermilion, which was a few miles away yet, and looked at the FishHawk, so I could set my speed….but, it wasn’t working.
Long story short…I think the transducer cable, that has exposed wires at the plug in (that attaches to the unit), might be the culprit.
I’m already in communication with the company, so we’ll see what happens. They were unbelievably quick to respond, which I really appreciate! Woot! Woot!

Anyway….with my confidence gone, because I don’t know what speed my baits would be running down there…especially, when there are whacky currents happening…I set the speed to what the Garmin was showing for “Speed Over Ground”, and crossed my fingers. lol

While none of them had ever caught a Walleye before, they were well versed anglers with other species, so I knew they could at least handle a rod. I didn’t know what to expect from the youngest one, Sawyer, but I have to tell you, I couldn’t stop saying how impressed I was with this kid. He’s just the coolest! He’s quiet, but a critical thinker, LOVES fishing, and could handle the dipsey rods better than a lot of adults I know. lol His patience was something to be admired, too. Usually, young ones under 10 can get kind of fussy if there’s a slow bite happening, but not Sawyer……he’s so cool. 🙂

Collin picked up how to put the Off Shore boards on the lines and helped me set lines. He’s just an older version of Sawyer, so I think that family has some good genes and parenting happening. They were awesome!

I digress….

We started out with Flicker Minnow 11’s on the starboard side, behind the Off Shore boards, and Walleye Nation Creation Reapers on the port side. I was only running 3 per side, to keep it simple.

Two dipsies ran off each corner…
zero settings started at 40 (port side) and 54 (starboard), and the three settings at 70 (starboard) and 55 (port). BadMo, Yeck, and Scorpion spoons were used. I tried a couple of worm-burners for the first hour, but nothing touched them, so I put regular spoons back on. The best leads would end up being:
Zero setting at 60 and the three settings at 70 and 100 back.

Nothing was interested in the cranks this morning. Eventually, the Reapers came off, and were replaced with Bandits, and the Flickers were replaced with Bill Lewis Lites, with 2oz snap weights. The only fish that chased our cranks were a couple of walleye interested in the Baby Bill’s at 50/115, and 50/90 (50=where you attach the snap weight, and the other number is the total amount of line out).

We only ended up with 11 good eaters, but they were happy with that. They have a big family fish fry planned, and this catch would cover that event.
This family was so enjoyable to fish with, because they were so “chill”, and just kept a positive attitude.
They all said they had a great time, and that makes me happy! 🙂

It’s supposed to start cooling down again next week, so hopefully, that will kill the huge numbers of Spiney-Fleas in the system right now.
We marked fish here and there, but not in the numbers they are seeing way to the east yet. It will be nice when those fish decide to finally make the trek back this way.

My next trip is a 4-day perch trip with the two brothers from MI, who have come every fall for the past 8 years, I think. We always have a good time, and I always look forward to their time here. I’ve been hearing the bite is picking up, so fingers crossed it keeps improving!

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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