December 18, 2005 (Sunday)
I just received a holiday greeting and update from our friend Dean. Here is what he had to say:
"I would like to wish a Merry Christmas, good health and a happy new year to you good folks. Sue and I are at Alamo, Texas watching the oranges and grapefruit ripen. While life is good down here away from the cold, ice and snow back home I am sure come spring we will miss all our friends at the big lake especially when April rolls around and the big hogs start splashing on the reefs, keep warm and may God bless you each and every one.
dean"
The Vermilion buoy has been pulled for the year. The most recent (7 pm, Sun. 12/18) report from the South Bass weather station has wind gusts up to 21 knots out of the W-SW and the wind chill is 4.6 F.
Travis
December 11, 2005 (Sunday)
The weather over the last 10 days has basically ended the open water fishing season. I'm not saying that there won't be any more fish caught, but most of us are already thinking about the March and April fishing around the islands and reefs. With the early cool down there is the possibility of a good ice season. Nearshore ice is forming in certain areas and with continued cold weather it only looks to improve. I don't foresee safe ice very soon, but once it gets set up it could be good for months. I will not be posting ice fishing reports often, but if I hear of fish being caught I will pass it along.
I hope you all have a happy holiday season. I want to add to the helpful hints page when I get the chance. Watch for updates later this winter.
The Vermilion buoy has been pulled for the year. The most recent (4 pm, Sun. 12/11) report from the South Bass weather station has wind gusts up to 22 knots out of the W-NW and the wind chill is 16.7 F.
Travis
December 1, 2005 (Thursday)
Today was an extremely calm day. The wind died around 9:00 last night and is still fairly calm with what wind there was being out of the SW and W. Unfortunately there are gales in the forecast for tomorrow. It really has been a tough fall weather wise. For any of you that didn't have to work today I hope you made it out.
I just heard from Dean today. He has recently updated his page with information from some of his travels. You can check out his vacation reports at the prior Denied site:
He has also posted some pictures from Texas at:
http://www.cliftond.com/texas%2005.html
He mentioned that the 80 degree weather was a little warm for his liking. I'm guessing that he won't get a lot of sympathy. :)
I did get a fishing report today. Since there have been so few recently (and rightly so, there hasn't been much fishing going on...) I am going to post the report in full. It sounds like the perch fishing in Michigan and western Ohio waters was slow last weekend:
"Fished the extreme western
The most recent (8 pm, Thurs. 12/1) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 14 knots out of the W, wave height of less than 1 foot, water temperature of 39.9 F and the wind chill is 23.2 F.
Be carefull if you head out. It doesn't take long for water to freeze on anything from your equipment to the boat deck. Take all of the necessary precautions for the conditions.
Travis
November 27, 2005 (Sunday)
I hope that everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving. I did not make it out over the weekend and I don't have any new reports to pass along.
Now that fewer people are fishing I will only be adding posts on days that I have new information. I expect that through early December I'll have a few reports, but the season is definitely winding down. This is the time of year that you can catch real trophies, but the conditions make it harder and harder to safely get to them as we get into December. I want to thank everyone for all of the reports and words of support in my first fall filling in for Dean. I've thoroughly enjoyed updating this page. Over the winter months I hope to make some improvements to the organization of the web site. There is a lot of great information beyond the reports and I hope to make it more easily accessible by next spring.
Check back for any reports that I do get, and I'll also post any time that I make changes or additions to the rest of the Denied site.
The most recent (7 pm, Sun. 11/27) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 12 knots out of the E, wave height of 1.0 foot, water temperature of 40.6 F and the wind chill is 42.1 F.
Travis
November 22, 2005 (Tuesday)
I received an update on recent shore fishing. It sounds like it has been slow from Catawba to Huron. A few fish here or there on certain nights, but nothing has been reliable. As the water temperature drops we are heading into the prime trophy season, but conditions have to allow it to happen. From here on out any bite could be well over 10 pounds, but the key is being in the right place on the right night (or day, for that matter). I personally don't care if it's cold out, we just need a break from this relentless wind. November hasn't given us much to work with, but maybe we'll catch a break for a few days in December.
With Thanksgiving coming up I'll probably take the rest of the week off from posting. If anything really good comes in I'll put it up, but otherwise I'll summarize whatever I have at some point over the weekend. Good luck if you get out. Remember to take extra precautions as the water gets colder.
The most recent (6 pm, Tues. 11/22) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 25 knots out of the N, wave height of 4.6 feet, water temperature of 45.5 F and the wind chill is 17.6 F.
Travis
November 21, 2005 (Monday)
A few walleye reports are filtering in from the weekend. A casting report from earlier in the weekend came from the north shore of Middle Bass Island. Fish up to 8.25 pounds were caught on black/silver Yozuri's and blue/orange Bomber A's. From Sunday it sounds like fishing was decent in front of Cranberry Creek. Walleye up to 27.25" and smallmouth over 18" were caught in 19-21' of water on Reef Runners, Deep Husky's and Deep Rogues. For smallmouth red head wonderbread was best. The lures were run from 45 to 110' feet back at 1.6 to 1.9 mph. A report from Ruggles Reef noted poor perch and walleye fishing, but the water is still very clear in that area.
The most recent (6 pm, Mon. 11/21) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 15 knots out of the W, wave height of 1.6 feet, water temperature of 46.0 F and the wind chill is 34.2 F.
Travis
November 20, 2005 (Sunday)
Yesterday my brother-in-law was in town with his bass boat, so I took the opportunity to target smallmouth on Ruggles. As usual I seem to be better at catching smallmouth when I troll for walleye than when I actually fish for them. I did catch two on tubes and one of them was just under 4 pounds. The bigger fish came from 20' of water straight north of the castle on a brown and purple tube fished on a 1/2 ounce tube jig head. The other fish came out in 28' of water north of the castle on a green tube fished on a carolina rig. I was surprised how clear the water was considering how windy it has been. With the wind switching to SW it is extremely clear on Ruggles and east towards Vermilion. We only fished out to 30', but it didn't look like the water was too bad farther out. There were a handful of walleye boats out trolling in the area. If I get any reports I'll let you know. If you get a chance check out the satellite picture from yesterday (and today should also produce a good one). It is extremely muddy all over Erie and St. Clair. It looks like Huron to Vermilion and Kelleys Island would be the only reasonable areas to fish.
I heard from Dean yesterday. They are getting ready to take a trip and he said that he would send pictures. He also suggested that I put the sonar picture from Thursday's post into the Helpful Hints page. I will do that in the near future and I also hope to add to the Hints page over the winter.
The most recent (12 pm, Sun. 11/20) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 15 knots out of the SW, wave height of 2.6 feet, water temperature of 46.2 F and the wind chill is 39.4 F.
Travis
November 17, 2005 (Thursday)
As you might imagine there isn't much to report after two days of gales. The water was very low with the strong SW and W winds. It's finally letting up a little and the water is coming back up slowly. The forecast isn't great, but it is improving.
I thought that I would use today to show you a recorded sonar screen from this past saturday. Although I have seen much better looking screens in past falls, this was decent. There are yellow, red and blue schools of baitfish up high. Those are most likely gizzard shad but also could be emerald shiners. This time of year in the Huron area I would bet on shad. There are some pretty good scattered hooks in the middle of the water column and towards the bottom. I would consider the fish in the bottom 5 to 10 feet to be mostly inactive, with the marks in the middle and towards the top under the bait being the ones that might actively feed and be easier to catch. Normally I wouldn't bother putting too many lures down that low for the marks on the bottom, but they warrant at least one lure to see if they'll hit. I was running one lure down deep, a few in the middle and one up high. I ended up catching one 26" walleye on a reef runner in the middle of the water column but that was it in this area (the 26.5/24.7 lines). You'll notice a lot of clutter on the screen up high. I do not use "noise reduction" or "surface clutter" settings because I like to see the raw returns and interpret it myself. To combat the clutter I turn up the colorline so that stronger returns show up in brighter yellows and reds. If you turn down the surface clutter it will sometimes eliminate high marks and they are the most important to see since they are active fish. If you can get past the annoyance of looking at clutter you will be surprised how many hooks will appear within the high clutter. With sensitivity turned down or with surface clutter reduction you would have never seen those marks. Anyway, here's the picture:
The most recent (9 pm, Thurs. 11/17) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 21 knots out of the W-NW, wave height of 3.0 feet, water temperature of 48.2 F and the wind chill is 19.2 F. Notice the water temp has dropped 3 degrees since Tuesday. If we can get the weather to stabilize and the water temp gets into the mid to lower 40's we will be in good shape. The real trophies might start cruising nearshore in the near future.
Travis
November 15, 2005 (Tuesday)
Severe thunderstorms are aproaching and we are under a tornado watch. After the storms get through gale winds are in the forecast into Thursday and temperatures are supposed to fall into the 30's for highs Thursday and Friday. The weather has been bad, and now it's getting much worse. After all of this gets through and the lake calms down we'll have to get back out and see what the damage is. Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but we are still due a calm week to get a chance at trophy walleye before winter really shows up.
I recieved a perch report from 32' of water north of the Vermilion breakwall. Limits of 8 to 10" and better perch were caught in 2 hours.
The most recent (9 pm, Tues. 11/15) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 18 knots out of the S, wave height of 2.6 feet, water temperature of 51.1 F and the air temperature is 59.9 F. If you get a chance check out the readings from this evening (Tuesday). As warm as the air temp is for this time of year and as quickly as the barometer is falling we definitely have the potential for some bad weather tonight.....
Travis
November 14, 2005 (Monday)
I don't have much new to report today, but I wanted to make sure that everyone realized how the smallmouth bass were turning on, at least before Sunday's blow. From reports on the radio and also e-mailed reports it's pretty clear that the smallmouth were starting to really binge feed based on how many were caught by walleye anglers. The average size was also impressive with numbers of fish over 5 pounds. I wish that I could be telling you how the walleye were turning on, but until they decide to come in close at least the smallmouth were worth the trip. If you have any interested in catching some big smallmouth they should still be active as long as the water stays in the upper 40's and lower 50's. Look for the clearest water in 10' to as deep as 30' of water and troll reef runners from 30 to 80 feet back. I'm sure that you could catch them fishing tubes or other smallie baits, but they really seem to be all over the crankbaits. Color didn't seem to matter, as whites, silvers and purples all worked. The 3 to 4 pound fish were fun as they jumped, but you could tell when you had a 5-pound class fish on because they bulldog and dive instead of jumping (at least that's how it was Saturday). The best areas were in front of Cranberry Creek, on Ruggles Reef, and also in front of Sherod Park west of Vermilion.
I also received a new perch report that said fishing was slow Friday. A limit was caught around Kelleys Island shoal, but it took most of the day and others weren't as lucky.
The most recent (6 pm, Mon. 11/14) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 21 knots out of the E, wave height of 2.0 feet, water temperature of 51.1 F and the wind chill is 41.4 F.
Travis
November 13, 2005 (Sunday)
I made it back out yesterday (Saturday) and the results were more encouraging than Friday, but the day started a lot better than it ended. I made it out around 1:30 and in the first 30 minutes landed two big smallmouth bass and a 22" walleye. The bass came in 19' of water in front of Cranberry and the walleye came in 22' of water on the west side of Ruggles Reef. The walleye hit a wonderbread reef runner 45' back and the smallmouth both hit a purple prism reef runner 35' back. We trolled on east to check out the Sherod Park area (between Ruggles and Vermilion) for night fishing. Once we got near Sherod the water got very clear. It seems like that area always is the first to clear with a south wind. It was gin clear. We still had a few hours before dark so I turned north and fished deeper water during the daylight. From 20' out to 28' feet we caught 3 more smallmouth bass. All were on reef runners 60 to 80' back. Colors were purple prism and silver eriedescent. From 30' out to 40' there were some really nice marks. It finally looked like fall. There were large hooks in the bottom half of the water column and bait in the middle and up high. I saw a balled-up school of bait in the middle of the water column with a hook "diving" into it. Like clockwork a board jerked back just as the bait went off of the screen. It ended up being a 26" walleye that hit a purple prism reef runner 80' back. The unfortunate part is that it was the only hit from the area. We kept trolling through the marks until dark without any more hits. After dark we fished Sherod Park and Old Womans Creek in 12' of water and less. We pulled ripsticks, husky jerks and rogues and quit at 10:00 after having only 1 hit and not landing anything after dark. On the radio it sounded like Sherod and Ruggles both produced some fish, but it was a slow night.
Yesterday was the first time this fall that I really saw the marks from Huron to Vermilion that started to look like the typical fall big fish marks. I think that the fish are finally showing up in the places that they are usually caught this time of year. The problem right now is the relentless wind. Just as fishing started picking up a little gale force winds are back again tonight. The forecast for the next five days is very frustrating. I think the fish were a little later getting here this year since they migrated so far east and then it stayed warm for so long, but now if we can catch any kind of a break with the weather it might really break loose.
I received great perch reports from Geneva a week ago and from 45' of water north of Lorain. Big perch and lots of them. It sounds like perching was slow off of the Marblehead loading docks recently. I also got a report of an 11 pound walleye from this past Tuesday northeast of 32/20. It came on a scorpion spoon.
The most recent (5 pm, Sun. 11/13) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 23 knots out of the W-SW, wave height of 3.6 feet, water temperature of 51.8 F and the air temperature is 58.1 F.
Travis
November 11, 2005 (Friday)
I was able to fish today and took a big fat zero. I could come up with a lot of excuses, but the bottom line is that it was a very slow day in the Huron area. Others caught a few, but most of the talk on the radio was of one fish here or two fish there. I fished from about 8:45 to 4:00 and didn't have a single hit. The boards didn't even move once. I've had slow days before, but this one might take the cake. I marked some decent fish in a few places, and also some thick bait in other areas, but I never did find a good combination of high bait with marks under them. I fished quite a few spots from north of Sherod Park (west side of Vermilion) all the way to Sawmill Creek (west of the Huron River). The best big fish marks that I saw were between Ruggles Reef and Sherod Park in roughly 36 to 40' of water. There weren't fish "stacked up", but there were some big marks scattered throughout the area. Unfortunately they were all in the bottom half of the water column and obviously weren't very active. The most bait that I marked was in 19 to 21 feet of water both at Old Woman Creek and at Sawmill Creek. The problem with the bait was that I really didn't see many hooks around them. In the fall when fishing is at its best you will usually see a thick line of bait towards the surface or bait "balls" scattered near the surface on your depth finder. When you have walleye hooks below the bait or even diving into it you're going to catch fish. The surface temperature was around 52 degrees east of the Huron River and between 50 and 52 west of the Huron River. I think that it just ended up being a bad day today since we were coming off of a blow the last few days and on top of that it was a crystal clear blue sky day. The water was stained, but really wasn't that bad considering the last few days. I think the fish will turn on tonight or saturday/saturday night before we get another weather system with strong wind coming through Sunday. I'll be back out tomorrow if the forecast is right.
The most recent (7 pm, Fri. 11/11) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 15 knots out of the S-SW, wave height of 1.6 feet, water temperature of 51.6 F and the wind chill is 46.8 F.
Travis
November 10, 2005 (Thursday)
No new fishing reports came in today. The wind has been bad, but is finally shifting around towards west and calming down. Friday through Sunday looks like it could be fishable. I think that the key will be to find the most fish in the clearest water. You might not be able to fish the prime areas nearshore because they will most likely be muddy. If tomorrow is clear the satellite should give us a good idea of where the best weekend spots will be.
The most recent (8 pm, Thurs. 11/10) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 19 knots out of the W-NW, wave height of 2.0 feet, water temperature of 52.3 F and the wind chill is 42.6 F.
Travis
November 9, 2005 (Wednesday)
Today the reports coming in are all from perch trips. From the weekend limits of 7 to 11" perch were caught near the red can east of North Bass. Yesterday limits of 8 to 10" perch were caught in 30' of water 400 yards out from the bell buoys (I assume the Sandusky Bay-Cedar Point bell buoys). Limits were also reported yesterday from the Marblehead lighthouse.
The winds are building to gale force tonight, but at least it looks like this will be a short lived gale (unlike the blows the last few weeks). By Friday the winds are supposed to be SW through Monday. Three straight days of stable S winds usually fires things up.
The most recent (7 pm, Wed. 11/9) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 31 knots out of the W-NW, wave height of 5.2 feet, water temperature of 53.8 F and the wind chill is 46.8 F.
Travis
November 8, 2005 (Tuesday)
This afternoon I took advantage of the relatively calm weather and fished from 2:30 to 7:00 or so with a friend from the WBSA. We trolled Kelleys Island shoal and ended up catching 8 walleye from 18 to around 23". Fish came on ripsticks from 20 to 50' back and also on deep little rippers. Color didn't seem to matter with wonderbread, rebel queen and blueberry muffin catching fish. Most of the fish were caught in less than 12' of water on the east half of the shoal. We also caught a fat smallmouth on a purple demon reef runner. On the way back in we stopped at the SW corner of Kelleys Island. We had incredible marks there with lots of big hooks up and down the water column, but we didn't get a single hit. The surface temp was around 50 and there was a northeast breeze that picked up as it got later. It was calm early with 2 and 3's that were building by the time we quit. There were a few other boats in the area but only one other boat on the shoal.
Walleye reports from over the weekend included good fishing west of Gull Island shoal in 33-35' of water and also good shore fishing off of Middle Bass Island. The Gull Island shoal fish were caught by trolling harnesses or husky jerks 18 to 28' down for 22 to 25" fish. The fish caught casting off of the north shore of Middle Bass were up to 8.5 pounds and were primarily caught on thundersticks.
I got a good perch report today from Avon. A 3-man limit was caught with all fish kept over 8" including 3 fish Ohio's and lots of jumbos.
The most recent (3 pm, Tues. 11/8) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 14 knots out of the E-NE, wave height less than 1 foot, water temperature of 54.0 F and the air temperature is 53.8 F.
Travis
November 7, 2005 (Monday)
Although it was blurred by thin clouds today's satellite photo showed that the western basin is very muddy from Sunday's winds. Fortunately from Kelleys Island east to Vermilion it doesn't look bad at all. The forecast isn't great for most of this week, but hopefully it won't get rough enough to make the Huron area muddy.
Only two reports came in today. One was from pier walleye fishing over the weekend. Saturday the Mazuric pier was slow, and even though the Catawba State Park pier was full it was also slow. The other report was a good perch report. 4 man limits of perch were caught last week off the beach at Cedar Point out from the space needle. Earlier in the week 17' of water was the best depth with 25' of water being better over the weekend. The perch were 8 to 10" and limits were filled in 2 to 3 hours.
The most recent (7 pm, Mon. 11/7) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 21 knots out of the S-SW, wave height of 2.3 feet, water temperature of 54.5 F and the air temperature is 55.2 F.
Travis
November 6, 2005 (Sunday)
Today the wind is really howling. One of the readings from South Bass this morning was 46 knots. I doubt that anyone is out there today.
I made it out yesterday afternoon and into the night. I fished west of the Huron River and caught two walleye trolling before dark. The first one was in 26' of water north of Sawmill Creek. It was around 22" and hit a purple and red rapala tail dancer 60' back. Just before dark we caught another 22" fish on the hump that is about half way from the Huron pier to Sawmill. It hit a gold clown reef runner that was 35' behind the board. After dark we stayed west of the river but couldn't buy a hit. To finish the night up we went to the Old Woman's Creek area. We trolled in less than 10' of water and caught two more walleye. The biggest was 24" and came on a blue/silver shallow little ripper 25' behind the board. The other was another 22" fish that hit a size 14 black/silver husky jerk that was 40' back. All in all it was a slow evening, but it was nice to have every hit be a decent walleye. The spring and fall are great. You can count on every hit on a crankbait being a good one. Three of the 4 fish that we caught were during the WBSA saturday night shootout tournament. The three weighed just under 15 pounds. A 5 fish limit that weighed 27 pounds from Kelleys Island shoal won the tournament. The water surface temperature nearshore around Huron was around 53 degrees.
I received a walleye report from the Castle between Huron and Vermilion. A limit was caught Friday in 30 to 32' of water with the biggest fish over 28". They were caught on reef runners 100' back, bottom bouncers with copper willow leaf harnesses and casting weight forwards.
Perch reports from the weekend were opposite of how things had been. Kelleys Island, Marblehead and west of Catawba all seemed to be very slow. The lone good report came from Vermilion in 35' of water east of the river in front of the new condos.
The most recent (4 pm, Sun. 11/6) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 37 knots out of the W, wave height of 6.2 feet, water temperature of 55.0 F and the wind chill is 44.8 F.
Travis
November 4, 2005 (Friday)
I'm finally starting to get some information on the night pier fishing. I don't have many details about size of fish or lures used, but it sounds like fish are showing up at the Huron pier and Lorain breakwall after dark. It also sounds like fishing has not been good on the piers at Catawba, Lakeside and Mazuric.
The lone perch report that I got today was a good one. Near limits of perch, all over 10", were caught in the north bay of Kelleys Island in 28 to 30' of water near the state park ramp.
This weekend could be a good one, depending on the storms. It looks like we will get some rain for sure, but they are now saying that there is a good chance of thunderstorms. The wind looks decent for Saturday with it most likely picking up Sunday. If we don't get the thunderstorms saturday it should be great. I will be out Saturday afternoon and into the night as long as I don't get chased off by lightning.
The most recent (6 pm, Fri. 11/4) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 14 knots out of the S-SW, wave height of 1.3 feet, water temperature of 55.0 F and the air temperature is 58.8 F.
Travis
November 3, 2005 (Thursday)
Today I received a few perch reports. Over the weekend fishing was slow east of Lorain, but a move to the 35/17 lines in 46' of water produced a few better fish. The size was decent, but less than limits. Other reports came from the last few days. Fishing has been slower than earlier, but fish are still being caught. The red boundary can NE of North Bass was good yesterday, along with just north of West Sister Island and SE of Kelleys Island in 24' of water. The Kelleys spot was found after fishing was slow E of Kelleys Island shoal and E of the Kelleys airport.
The most recent (7 pm, Thurs. 11/3) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 12 knots out of the S-SW, wave height of 1 foot, water temperature of 54.7 F and the air temperature is 59.5 F.
Travis
November 2, 2005 (Wednesday)
I am still getting some information from this past weekend. It sounds like West Reef (west of North Bass Island) was another good perch spot with limits of fish over 8" including fish up to 14 inches. Along with good perch fishing a few walleye were caught drifting across West Reef with one being over 26 inches. I also received more information that Kelleys Island shoal has been producing some night walleye.
A perch report from today said that the SE corner of Kelleys Island was slow, but a move to Carpenter's point (SW corner of Kelleys Island) produced fish. Perch were caught in 23' of water at N 41 35.92 / W 82 44.26.
The most recent (9 pm, Wed. 11/2) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 19 knots out of the S-SW, wave height of 0.7 feet, water temperature of 55.0 F and the air temperature is 55.0 F. Saturday looks like it might be decent other than a little rain based on the most recent forecast. The next few days might be rough, but the good news is that the wind is predicted to be SW and W. At least it shouldn't be north or northeast like the last few weeks.
Travis
November 1, 2005 (Tuesday)
I received a few decent walleye reports from the weekend. We still aren't in "normal" fall mode with lots of big fish being caught, but for the first time in a long time the reports are consistently including larger fish. It looks like the migrators are making their way back towards Huron. One report was from 40' of water north of the Huron River. Fish have been caught by drifting crawler harnesses on bottom bouncers or with egg sinkers. The biggest fish was around 26" and the best blade colors on the harnesses were gold, copper and firetiger. Farther east some fish were caught at the 27/27 lines by trolling crankbaits or dipsys and spoons. The biggest fish at 27/27 was around 25".
I got further confirmation that the SE corner of Kelleys Island has been a good perch spot. More limit reports from over the weekend with 8 to 12" perch.
The most recent (10 pm, Tues. 11/1) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 17 knots out of the W, wave height of 1.3 feet, water temperature of 55.0 F and the wind chill is 46.6 F.
Travis
October 31, 2005 (Monday)
Reports continue to come in from the weekend and today. The perch reports are mostly great, and the walleye reports have been mostly slow going.
For walleye the best results have been around the 32/20-21 lines (west of the south end of the sandbar, between Lorain and Vermilion, about 7 miles or so offshore). Small fish were caught on stinger spoons (gold perch, silver raspberry dolphin), with a few larger fish coming on crankbaits (thundersticks and little rippers) trolled on wire line. I have also heard of fish coming off of the shoals (Kelleys and Gull), but nothing consistent. A michigan angler tried trolling 14' to 20' of water from Sterling Park to Stony Point without any success.
The best perch reports have come from the 29.3/9.4 lines (east of Lorain, included perch up to 14.5"!), 3 miles out of the portage river (120 perch mostly over 10"), just E of the Kelleys Island shoal green can, and SE of Kelleys. The perch fishing is very good right now.
The most recent (10 pm, Mon. 10/31) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 8 knots out of the S, wave height less than 1 foot, water temperature of 55.9 F and the air temperature is 57.4 F.
Travis
October 30, 2005 (Sunday)
Reports from the last 3 days are coming in and most of them are from perch trips. The only information that I have on walleye is that 2 small fish were caught at the 33/21 lines. The WBSA had their first Saturday night tournament yesterday and 5 fish that weighed 24 pounds won it. I don't have many details. If I hear more I will report.
From all of the perch reports it seemed like the boats that found clean water caught fish. Most reports have included fish up to 12 and 13". The average size has probably been the best since April these last few weeks. Some of the better spots included: Lucy's Point of Middle Bass Island, NE of West Sister Island, 27' of water E of the Kelleys Island airport, SE of Kelleys Island, and 2 miles W of Sputnik (the turnaround buoy of the Toledo Shipping channel). I also received a perch report that said fishing was very bad E of the Vermilion River off of the new condos in 22 to 40' of water and N of the Vermilion River in 34 and 39' of water. The report was from Friday. I didn't hear anything about perch from the Vermilion area over the weekend.
The most recent (7 pm, Sun. 10/30) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 13 knots out of the S-SW, wave height of 1.3 feet, water temperature of 56.5 F and the air temperature is 57.4 F.
Travis
October 27, 2005 (Thursday)
I was looking over this month's reports and I feel like I need to apologize for not fishing very often. I would much rather add in more of my first-hand reports, but this hasn't been a good month for me to get out. Between weather, work and other commitments I haven't been able to get out. With any luck we will have an extended fall this year. You can usually count on being able to fish through November. December is a little tougher to predict. With a hard, early winter you can have ice before Christmas. If winter shows up late it can be possible to sneak in a few trips into January. Anyway, I'm sorry that I haven't been able to give more first hand reports, but I plan to make up for it starting the first weekend of November.
This weekend doesn't look bad, but the specifics of the forecast keep changing. Earlier they had southwest winds from Saturday on, but the most recent forecast says NW saturday becoming west, and then eventually southwest for later sunday and through monday. The 10 to 20 knot west forecast for sunday isn't great, but it won't be bad if it swings southwest early in the day.
The most recent (8 pm, Thurs. 10/27) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 11 knots out of the W-NW, wave height of less than 1 foot, water temperature of 57.4 F and the wind chill is 43.2 F.
It looks like I will be able to post the next report later Sunday evening. If you get out in the next few days be sure to send a report.
Travis
October 25, 2005 (Tuesday)
Nothing new to report today. It has been blowing hard for around 30 hours now. The bad news is that the best forecast through Sunday is Thursday's forecast for NW 5 to 15 knot winds with 1 to 3 feet waves. All the other days through Sunday have wind with a north component and waves 2 to 4' or higher. Let's hope the forecast improves as the weekend approaches. We are going to need some calm weather to settle everything down.
The most recent (8 pm, Tues. 10/25) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 35 knots out of the N, wave height of 7.2 feet, water temperature of 58.8 F and the wind chill is 39.9 F. Not much different than Monday, but somehow the water temperature warmed up about 1 degree.
I will not post again until I get some more fishing information. It might be hard to come by in the near future. I'm already looking forward to the week or so of relatively calm weather that usually shows up early in November.
Travis
October 24, 2005 (Monday)
It's Monday evening and the wind is howling. Our friend Gale is in town and it looks like the next 24 hours or aren't going to be pretty. The waves went from "little" 3's and 4's at the buoy this morning to miserable 7's and 8's this afternoon. If the buoy was reading over 8 there were most likely 10's or better out there.
I received two good reports from Sunday, one walleye and one perch. The walleye report came from about 10 miles offshore between Huron and Vermilion. 39 fish from 16 to 29" were caught on spoons. Most were 16 to 20" but some nice ones were mixed in. The perch report came from Niagara Reef. A 3 man limit was caught in 4 hours with a third of the fish being from 11 to 12".
The most recent (7 pm, Mon. 10/24) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 36.9 knots out of the N-NE, wave height of 7.5 feet, water temperature of 57.9 F and the wind chill is 39.4 F. Ughhh. Notice that the water temp dropped an entire degree since just 24 hours ago. The only good news out of all of this is that as far behind as we were a few months ago with high temperatures, we are quickly headed right back to "normal" fall conditions. Granted it's going to take a while for everything to recover and settle down from this blow, but once it does we will be in good shape. For those of you wondering that 36.9 knot windspeed translates to 42.5 miles per hour.
Travis
October 23, 2005 (Sunday)
Mother nature threw in an unexpected calm day today. I would guess that I will receive some reports over the next few days.
The only new information since the last report is that some walleye were caught around South Bass Island at night towards the end of last week. The biggest fish were in the mid-20 inch range and they were primarily caught casting the shoreline with thundersticks and rogues.
The most recent (8 pm, Sun. 10/23) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 11.7 knots out of the east, wave height of 0.7 feet, water temperature of 58.8 F and the wind chill is 46.9 F.
Travis
October 22, 2005 (Saturday)
Last night I went to the Walleye Central get-together in Vermilion. Although attendance was pretty good I think that it would have been even better with a good weather weekend. Unfortunately they had to cancel their bragging rights tournament that was scheduled for today with the rough conditions. A lot of great prizes were raffled off at the get-together last night.
A few more reports have filtered in from Wednesday and Thursday. Walleye fishing was slow at the 32/20-24 lines. The best set-up was a dipsy on a 3.5 setting 140' back with a gold chicken wing stinger spoon. Of the 5 keepers caught the biggest was 23". I did get another good night fishing report from the Kelleys Island area as limits were caught again. It's too bad that we're having all of this N and NE wind because it sounds like there are some good fish out there.
The lone perch report that came in was from 0.5 miles S of the West Reef buoy (N of Rattlesnake Island, W of North Bass). The catching was good, but most fish were in the 7 to 8 inch range with a few bigger. The report mentioned that chunks of white perch meat seemed to work just as well as shiners for bait.
The most recent (5 pm, Sat. 10/22) report from the Vermilion weather buoy has wind gusts up to 15.5 knots out of the North, wave height of 3.6 feet, water temperature of 59.4 F and the wind chill is 46.4 F.
Travis
October 20, 2005 (Thursday)
The water surface temperature at the Vermilion buoy is 60 degrees, and according to NOAA it's slightly cooler towards Toledo and warmer towards Cleveland. The wind forecast looks pretty bad through Sunday with strong winds out of the NE, and rain is predicted every day through next Wednesday. The forecast is not good to say the least.
I received a walleye report today from the 32/26 lines. It was a relatively slow day, but they still managed to catch 18 walleye from 18 to 20". Dipsys were run back 50, 60 and 75' (no mention of setting). The best spoon colors were again Pooh Bear purple and Kevorkian. Apparently the fish were hitting at about 32' down (lure depth). They mentioned that floating weeds were a problem.
I should mention to everyone what I mean when I say "32/26 lines". I know a lot of you use this abbreviation, but some of you might not be familiar with it. The notation simply refers to GPS coordinates. If you have your GPS set to Degrees, minutes, seconds (in the "units" setting) the numbers that I am referring to are the minutes. In the 32/26 example 32 would be the N minutes and 26 would be the W minutes (the respective "middle" numbers). It makes it easier to simply refer to the middle numbers than to spout off the entire coordinate. Remember, as you head north the north minutes will increase, and similarly the west minutes increase as you head west. If you are fishing the 30 N line and someone is catching at the 33 N line, you need to head farther north, assuming that you are on the same west line.
I also received a perch report from Tuesday. Some decent perch were caught 5 miles due west of the West Sister Island lighthouse and also SE of the Toledo water intake about 1 mile offshore. The water was muddier over towards the shipping channel and actually cleared up a little closer to shore.
It looks like I will be able to make the Walleye Central get-together Friday evening in Vermilion. This will be the first time that I've attended a Walleye Central get-together. I'm looking forward to putting faces to some of the names from the message board.
Travis
October 19, 2005 (Wednesday)
The walleye reports continue get better despite the rough weather. Today the Vermilion buoy registered wave heights up to 3.6 feet. That usually means that there are at least solid 5 feet waves in the open water. Even though it was rough I got a good report from the 30/24 lines (about 5.5 miles slightly NW of Vermilion). A two man limit was caught on Dipsy divers set on #2 75' back and #3 90 to 95' back. All fish were caught on Stinger spoons in Perch, Pooh Bear purple and Kevorkian. The keepers ranged from as small as 18" to as large as 28" with a few throw backs. The report also mentioned that they started at the 27/27 lines but didn't have many marks there.
For all of you fall night owls (I happen to be one) I have heard that some nice fish are starting to show up in some of the traditional night spots around Huron and Kelleys Island. Quality fish have been caught on husky jerks trolled behind planer boards. Let's hope for some calm weather and clear water to have a great fall of night fishing.
Travis
October 18, 2005 (Tuesday)
I don't have any new reports to put up today, but I did want to pass along a Walleye Central link. I know many of you probably already follow the Walleye Central fishing reports, but if you missed this one you should check it out:
Den from the Sportsman's Outpost in Vermilion has been getting reports of some bigger walleye off of Vermilion. The linked post above has specific numbers for some of the best areas. This weekend is the Walleye Central get together in Vermilion. There is information in the thread about the Friday evening dinner and the saturday bragging rights tournament.
Travis
October 17, 2005 (Monday)
With the wind picking back up today there is very little to report. I did get one perch report from east of the Kelleys Island airport. 32 perch were kept between 3 anglers for a little less than 3 hours of fishing. The fish ranged from 7 to 10" long.
Obviously extended forecasts are risky business at best, but the most recent forecast is not good for the next few days with 5 to 7 feet waves predicted for both Tuesday and Wednesday. Hopefully they are wrong, but I'm not very optimistic about much fishing taking place until later in the week. I will report whenever I get enough information to put something up, but don't be surprised if there isn't much new the next few days.
Travis
October 16, 2005 (Sunday)
After a windy Saturday and Sunday it is starting to calm down. The forecast isn't especially calm, though, with almost every direction listed at some point over the next five days. We'll see what comes out of it.
Most of the reports that are coming in are still from the great weather that we had Thursday and Friday. Walleye continued to be caught around the sandbar and from Vermilion to Huron. One reporter caught 17 to 23" walleye at the 33/20 lines and also farther south on the sandbar. For him the most productive set-up was downriggers down 30 to 40' and also jet 40's back 120'. The fish were caught on spoons with green color schemes on silver. Other areas that have produced walleye were the 29/33 lines and 32-33/33 lines. At the 33 north line purple worm harnesses fished deep were productive. At the 29 north line spoons or crankbaits fished higher in the water column were best.
At some point the best fishing will shift to the upper half of the water column. Usually that occurs starting in late October as the walleye come up to feed on the high schools of shad and shiners. This year it might not happen until later in November. It seems like the fish are still in a migratory mode and most of the good catches are coming deep in the water column. That's just my opinion, but the reports back it up. One other area to try is straight north of Huron in 42' of water and deeper. I haven't received many official reports from the area, but there seem to be fish there from what I've heard.
I received a great perch report from 16' of water 1 mile south of Catawba (I assume 1 mile south of the state park ramp). On Friday 40 nice perch all over 9" were caught, with 20 of them being over 11", and 5 were Fish Ohio. The 40 kept fish weighed 19 pounds. The key was sorting through the small ones. 50 fish were thrown back to get to the 40 that were kept. I also heard of perch packs working 24 to 26' of water on Ruggles Reef and 18 to 20' off of Old Woman's Creek near Huron.
Travis
October 15, 2005 (Saturday)
Friday was a beautiful, calm day on the lake. Based on the number of reports many of you got out and took advantage of it.
The two walleye reports that I received came from the Huron/Vermilion area. At the 35/24 lines 7 walleye around 17" were caught on dipsys and spoons with the dipsys on a #1 setting 75 to 80 back and a #3 setting 110 back. Farther south at the 31/24 lines 8 walleye were caught with 2 over 25" and the rest around 18". These fish were also caught on dipsys and spoons.
From all of the perch reports is pretty clear that the most activity is between Rattlesnake and Green Islands. The most specific location that I received from that area was 30' of water SW of Rattlesnake. The reports are saying mostly 8-9" perch, but all-in-all they are some of the best perch from that area this season. Some good perch reports also came in from farther west. The reports mentioned dirty water, but good catching. The best spots were 2 miles east of the Toledo water intake in 16' of water and 22.5' of water SE of the gravepit at 41 44.43, 83 12.0. The size near the gravel pit was good, with 8" fish, some 9's and 10's, and a 12 incher. The water intake report mentioned that he made his own spreaders using blue blades based on our earlier reports and he seemed to outfish other boats in the area. From Thursday I received a report that perch fishing was slow all around Kelleys Island. I also heard that on Friday there were large perch packs north of the Vermilion River and also east of the river, but I did not receive any reports from the area.
Travis
October 13, 2005 (Thursday)