Fishing Lake Erie

Wow! What a trip!

The boss pitched for a two day fishing extravaganza on Lake Erie that turned out to be an excellent time, and quite a learning experience. We learned about their favorite choices of tackle, got to know some locals, and had some great cookouts.

The trip in and out was long.... about a 15 hour drive. But the time there was well worth it.....

The first day, we showed up late (night before). Car trouble caused us to lose six hours, landing us in at 10 pm. Not much time for sleep before fishing, but we decided to make some supper anyways. Hamburgers off the grill, with beans. Can't much quicker than that (screw the microwave).

The second day we bought our fishing licenses and met our captain. "Rick" from 'Chief Charters' was (quoted by the boss) 'Hands down, the best fishing charter captain we've ever had.' This was my first trip, so I didn't know the difference, but the boss has been on several and on the first day he knew that he'd been robbed on all the other trips. So if you're ever in the Marblehead area of Ohio, look up Chief Charters. Rick is an excellent captain, found us all the fish we could ever want, and even put in EXTRA TIME so that we'd catch our limit..... despite the terribly cold and cloudy environment that we faced all day long. We were all frozen to the bone. That night, the crew cleaned the fish (36 fishies, yeah!), and we grilled T-Bones for supper. Combined with potatoes (off the grill), beans, and chips. Probably the best meal of my entire life.

On the third day, Rick took us out again. This time, the weather was much more agreeable. Sunshine all day long, and again.... caught our limit. This time Rick didn't need to spend any extra time on the water with us, however... he DID let us fish on HIS TICKET. How cool is that?!?! Maybe he figured it was the least he could do since we invited him for a fish fry that night, which in itself turned out to be an excellent event. Rick indeed did show up, and we had one hell of a cook out. "Here's to you Rick!"

The next day showed no mercy as we headed out. The 15 hour drive was fairly quiet the last 12 hours. We were just tired, and didn't really believe the experience was all over. Oh well. I hope we get to go again next year.

Now on to the tackle....
When we were buying our liscense, right away I noticed that the bait shops were selling the spinner blades found here - Hagen's Fishing Tackle Manufacturer

It's a nice feeling seeing your product in another store 1000 miles away (total guess). Turns out, just about everyone uses those spinner blades on their walleye rigs. Combine those with a few plastic beads and you got yourself a simple, yet effective Walleye Fishing Lure.

Two ways to fish these walleye rigs - Bottom Bouncing - Simple rig that keeps the leader (walleye spinner snell) off the bottom of the lake floor. Combined with the drift fishing, the spinner will spin only occasionally as you move along.

Then there was the bait casting - Put a lead weight on there and let it fly. Countdown to 8 or 12, and just start bringing your bait in slowly. The spinner blade with do it's thing the whole way through the water. Didn't catch anything? Cast and do it again!

We didn't use any planer boards, plugs, spoons, or what ever. Just a simple rig and a worm for some scent.

If you would like to make your own spinner fishing rigs, you can contact Hagen's for a complete fishing tackle lure components catalog, or if you prefer to purchase the finished product, you can find some basic harness's here - www.willylures.com