Western Basin Walleye Fishing Reports

July 29, 2000
East Sister Island Area
Fished on the Head Boat Wattanna II on Thursday. We did extremely well just south of East
Sister. Nicest quality of fish I have seen in awhile. Gold or chartreuse mayfly rigs produced
well. I got 12 fish all between 20 and 24 inches. Fish were down deep early in the morning
and started to bite higher in the water column as the day progressed. Go get 'em! Greg

July 24, 2000
Fenwick Marina/A-Can Area
Four of us fished out of Fenwick Marina July 21&July 22.We caught 43 walleye
in the two days at A-can vicinity using mayfly rigs,erie dearies,and bottom
bouncers.The fish ran from 16"-24" and we threw back a few 12" fish.The
bigger walleyes were caught on 5/8 oz.silver erie dearies.The bottom bouncers
produced onlt two walleyes but several sheepheads.The mayfly rigs in the 1/2
oz. size produced many of the 16" eyes. Good Luck to All! Dales Dinghy.

July 24, 2000
Bolles Harbor, MI Area
limited out on sunday july 24th. drifting with bottom bouncers/ crawler harnesses 23/24 ft. chartruese w/ streak of orange
blade on a long snell was hot. eye poppin' action in the afternoon. very few sheephead was a nice change. good thing
the better half didn't tag along, the seas were a bit rough in the a.m.

July 23, 2000
General comments on Western Basin
Hello, it's Sunday morning. It's raining. It rained hard for about an hour this morning about 5:00 till 6:00. Then it stopped till about 9:00, now it is raining a little but I think it is a bout done. I think this is the only place it is raining. A lot of our customers this morning are surprised to see it raining here because it wasn't raining anywhere till they got here. That happens some times around here. It is called "lake effect". The lake st of the time. It can turn a storm one way or the other, it can cause the weather to stop or speed up. The lake can change our weather from what it is all around us. Right now for instance there is probably a rain cloud hanging over us and just staying right here. It is not a bad thing, it is just a nice summer rain, and it will help bring our lake level up. Most people that planed to go fishing today are going, they know this probably won't last long. Some of them are
eating breakfast first. Yesterday the walleye fishing was good for some and not so good for others. I think on the whole for those that already had their program down pat before today did OK. And those that were starting over, struggled. One captain said he didn't catch any fish on his first two locations, but caught 30 fish in one drift on his 3rd location. One boat of 4 people said they caught 16 fish Friday, 25 yesterday, and were going this morning to the same spot they were, and expected to do better yet today.
They went east on Friday, I think they were some where north of Huron and Vermilion. Yesterday they went west of West Reef, and south of F Can on the ng, but there is suppose to be light winds today so they bought some Stinger Spoons, because they thought they might have to troll. The perch fishing is the best it has been in the 9 years that I have been in business here. We have caught more numbers of perch in years past when we didn't have a limit, but we didn't have the size of fish we have now. The size of the perch are consistently bigger this year. I have seen some of the coolers full of perch and the fish are really helped the perch fishing in Ohio, with the limits on numbers of fish you can keep for both us sports fishermen and the commercial fleet, and the
limits on the size of the fish the commercial fleet can keep. The size limit for the commercial fishermen gives the perch a chance to spawn be for they can be kept. The bass are kind of taking a back seat to the walleyes and perch right now. Just the die hard bass fishermen are fishing for them, and they are really doing well. The weather for the next 4 days is suppose ct. Partly cloudy, highs in the low 80's, and south west winds 5 to 15 mph. Waves 1 to 3 feet. Let's go fishing. Good fishing, & .
Don. You can get this report daily on hiwaybait.com

July 22, 2000
Sterling Park Area
Fished out from Sterling State Park this afternoon, 7-22. Caught 8 walleye, three perch, and a sheephead in two hours.
Couldn't get the shad raps to go so I switched to wiggle warts. Gold - orange and black - silver worked well. I was in 18 to 23
feet of water between Stony Point and the rock wall out of the Sterling channel. My baits were 80 to 100 feet back. I used
speedo beads on one side to keep the weeds off at 100' back and 3/8 oz. rubber at 80' back to do the same. Both methods
were catching fish. A quick trip with a pot of fresh walleye potato chowder at home. A great afternoon with my three sons.

Sparky

July 22, 2000
Toussaint River Area
July 15th. 4 fishermen, well three that fish and one that throws up ( 5
times) went out the shallow Toussaint River and fished 2-5 miles Northeast
of C-can. Spent 6 hrs. Trolling with spoons. Yielded 20+ eyes with several
throwbacks. Hot colors were orange, gold, shrimp, and green. Depth was 31'
and the best range was 20' - 26'. Had a good time. Once again it was C.J.
taking top Honors with the most fish and the biggest at 23". Sorry D.W.
maybe next time.

C.J.
aboard the Kahuna

July 20, 2000
West Sister/Middle Sister Island Area
Wednesday(7-19) Fish Lake Erie out of sterling state park. 2-4 footers and lots of fish. Caught a 2 man limit in 18-20 feet of water. Hot lures-black and Silver hot-n-tot, Orange and gold wiggle wart, chartruese reef runner, and chartuese spoon on riggers. Most fish in 2-3 pound class, did catch a 9 lber that i released. Ran most back 100 feet.

July 16, 2000
West Sister/Middle Sister Island Area
the joliet il. gang went out of wild wings marina with captain bob hall on the buccaneer, for our annual fishing trip, the 6 of us caught 220 lbs of walleye those 3 days using erie dearies, killers and draggers we been coming for 14 years this year was better then last there was some years we limited out in a couple hours we will be back next year same time same place the joliet il boys

Captain John Lesniewicz reports excellent fishing in the western basin on Saturday, July 15th. Most of the traditional hot spots were producing fish. Especially good NE of West Sister between Wester and Middle Sister Island. Nearshore fishing off of the Davis Besse plant also very good for walleyes. Toledo Shipping Channel, Nort of Kelly's and many other location producing fish. Best it has been in some time.

July 14, 2000
West Sister/Middle Sister Island Area
Captain John Lesniewicz of Teal Point Lodge and charters reported excellent fishing today with his party catching their limit. The hot spot was north/northeast of West Sister Island and south of Middle Sister Island. It's as good as its' been for some time now, according to John.

Great day tues and weds day. We limited out on both days . Used perch color weaponsStarting to pick up felt great to limit out for once . Jeff was are guide for both days great guy and guide . Hes out of Parker guide service give him a little plug hes great. Total tuesday was 29 and wed day 25 god i love when thats happens . Well good luck to everone this weekend should have a good bite if the wind keeps blowing .Bye for now Chris Campbell.

July 8, 2000
Sterling State Park Area
Fished out of strerling state park saturday morning. Limited out(2 men). Started about 7:00 and had to fish until 2:00. Caught fish on everything, shad raps, wiggle warts, hot n tots, reef runners, spoons, harnesses and flipping harnesses. Our most prodeuctive was spoons set right on the bottom in 22-23 feet or water just SE of point. Lots of boats. Also caught some very large sheephead. Hot color spoon chartruese and sliver accounter for probably 1/3 of fish caught. We did try drifting and the flipping harnesses did caught a lot of fish, way out producing the harnesses. Lots of fish marked in ther area, but most that were caught were right on the bottom. Other hot colors and lures- Purple wiggle wart, firstiger rattle tot (1/2 ounce) with 1 oz weight with a 50 out, snap then 50 more program. largest fish was 7 lbs and 5 lbs. most in the 17 18 inch range.
triple crown-jeff

July 8 Three of us went out of Wild wings Marina . Fished in 31 ft. of water 3 miles southeast of Middle Sister Island. From 8-2:30 P.M took 27 in a range of 20 ft. -28 ft. Average size 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 # Weather was nice had a good time. Be back soon.

Four of us fished out at Stoney Point out in front of the Fermi Towers in 19-22 ft. of water over the Forth of July Holiday weekend (July 1-5), and we caught about 50 walleyes over the period and a few 12" perch as well as small silver bass, and some monster Sheephead, one of them weighing 10 lbs! The walleyes were all nice size in the 2-6 lb. range. Crawler harnesses did great on the downriggers about a foot or two off the bottom. Hot 'N' Tots did well on the bottom two or without lead on planer boards. The best colors were firetiger, any color with chrome, i.e. black and chrome, green and chrome, etc. All in all it was a great trip. The best so far this year. This will be my last report for Lake Erie this year, as I will be heading to Canada in August. Hope your fishing season will continue to be a successful one.

i know it's unbelieveable but me and 2 buddies limited out on walleye on june 30 and july 1 at Luna pir in 11feet of water. we pulled out of the harbor and there were at least a 100 boats drifting and trolling in 9 to 14 feet of water. we were not marking avy fish but i decided to set the lures for fun. set back at 40 to 50 feet. Bingo! From about 11:00 ;am to 5:00 pm it was nothing but constant action. we had to sort thruogh white bass, sheephead and keeper perch, but it was worth it. there wwere not any mayflies so i guess the wliey walleyey is on the prowl for food. It's been a hunt for the walleye all year, but they are there. The lures we used were small hot-n-tots in the chrome colors. The best of fishing to one and all.

July 3, 2000
Luna Pier, MI Area

I find it unbelieveable but the wiley walleyes were in 11 feet of water at luna pier on june 30 and july 1. three of us fishing from about 11:00 am to 6:00 pm on both days and we limited out. we were not marking any fish but when we got out on the water there were hundreds of boats drifting and trolling. i decided to set the lines at about 40 to 50 feet back, and bingo. action was constant as we had to sort through sheephead, small silver bass and a mess of keeper perch, the walleyes were in the 18 inch slot, none were any bigger. mayfly hatch appears to be over and the walleye seem to be on the prowl for food. storms are predicted for tomorrow and who knows where the wiley walleye will be. have a great fihing season the perch season is not far off.

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