Lake Erie Fishing

The past two weekends I made the trip up to Lake Erie. Over Easter weekend I fished four days with varied results. Friday it was blowing NE 30 mph and with the cold temps I was off the water within a couple hours of not catching. Saturday the focus was catching some crappie and I had to switch to bass in West Harbor just to make the day worth while. Sunday after trying for walleye for a couple hours I opted to slide over to the Portage River for crappie. Finally after two and a half tough days of fishing I started catching. The portage produced 50-60 nice crappie to bring home. They would not bite on my normal tactics, following a tip from a friend I had to use a Bass Assassin skirted grub in in an odd color combo. The lure had a pink & purple body with chartreuse tail. For those of you who are wondering how I was able to keep so many, Lake Erie is not listed with the 30 fish restrictions as the rest of Ohio waters. This Saturday a friend called to see if I wanted to go back up to Erie to see if we could get on the big smallies near Ruggles. After just an hour or so it was very clear that the muddy water was not going to pan out. So we loaded back up on the trailer and slid over to West Harbor for large mouths. I was being a little stubborn and insisted I would catch some fish on a lipless crankbait like the week prior, of course that did not work. So I picked up the one of my old standby baits, a green pumpkin Brush Hog, and put on a clinic from the back of the boat. Within six hours of fishing we had seven fish over 3 lbs and several more that were close. Not bad fishing for a backup plan. If you have never thought to fish anything other than the main lake up at Erie you are missing out on perhaps the best fishing in the state. I have many days up there in excess of 100 large mouth. If you are looking for an adventure that is not too far away and has some of the best fishing in the country don't overlook the inland waters around Lake Erie.