TACO BELL 5/27

Limited out with 28 walleyes and finished at 12:00 am. Fished between Taco Bell and North Bass pulling 40 Tru-Trips and Scorpion spoons Pooh Bear purple, Pooh Bear chartreuse and Jager Bomb on 30 and 35 leads. Good marks all morning. Best speed was 1.8 knots. Its was a beautiful morning until the winds picked up in the afternoon. Glad to have finished early. See you on the water!

ODNR FILLET UPDATE

As reported from the ODNR earlier this Month:

COLUMBUS, OH - The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife has issued a statewide directive to its enforcement officers to clarify guidelines for enforcing a new rule that specifies the condition of fish fillets being kept or transported.

"Many Ohio anglers have expressed that they were confused about the fillet rule so I asked our Division of Wildlife to clarify the rule so no innocent angler stands a chance of getting in to trouble when they are trying to follow the law," said ODNR Director James Zehringer, .

The rule, Ohio Administrative Code 1501:31-13-08, states that it is unlawful to possess or transport a fish unless the fish is in the round or a complete fillet with skin attached until a person reaches their permanent residence. The confusion surrounding the question of whether the skin had to be kept on the entire fillet or whether a patch of skin to identify the fish species would suffice. Many Lake Erie anglers come to the lake for a few days or a week to sample the world class fishery, and anglers may be bringing home several days' limits of the various species.

After a thorough review, a directive sent today to wildlife officers from Scott Zody, chief of the Division of Wildlife, specified that the rule should be interpreted to mean that only a patch of skin, enough to identify the species of the fish is required to be left on the fillet. Changes will be made this fall during the regular rule-making package to further clarify the requirement in code. The rule is designed as a tool to protect the valuable Lake Erie fishing resource and to allow wildlife officers to identify fillets in an angler's possession.

"Our goal was to protect the state's most valuable fishery," said Zody. "It was not our intent to create a hardship for anglers, who bring a tremendous economic benefit to the state."

BETWEEN D AND E CAN 5/26

Fished between D and E cans Saturday and limited out with 24 walleyes. Very slow bite with numerous boats in the area. Ran mostly west to east approximately one mile most of the day. Numerous throw backs 8 to 14 1/2 inches and what can you say about the white bass. Unbelievable!!! Could not keep them off the scorpion spoons. Program consisted of 40 Tru-Trips back 30 to 35 with a speed of 1.6 to 2.0 depending on the wind. All in all it was a good day. See you on the water!

STARVE ISLAND 5/21

Fished north and west side of Starve Island catching 31 walleyes with the same program used the last three weeks. Michigan spoons behind 40 Tru-Trips back 25 in the morning to 35 later in the day. Trolled between 1.6 to 1.8 knots. See you on the water!

SOUTHWEST CORNER OF SOUTH BASS 5/18

Started late and set up at 10:00 am at the southwest corner of south bass. Trolled northwest toward green with excellent marks. Started catching immediately finished the day with 26 walleyes. All fish were caught on 40 Tru-Trips with Michigan spoons back 35 feet. Best speed was 1.8 knots. With the weather beginning to stabilize the walleye fishing has been excellent and will continue provided there are no major fronts. Take advantage of this time of the year before the Canadian Soldiers arrive in June or elevated water temperatures due to higher ambient temperatures.  See you on the water!

NORTH WEST CORNER OF KELLY'S ISLAND 5/17

Fished the northwest corner of Kelley's Island starting in 20 feet of water and headed west to 27 feet of water. Caught 26 walleyes for a total weight of 101 lbs. 40 Tru-Trips with Michigan scorpion spoons on 35 to 45 foot leads. The speed varied from 1.6 to 1.8 knots depending on the our direction. The best spoon colors were Pooh Bear purple, Pooh Bear chartreuse and Jager Bomb. The largest fish was 29 inches followed with two at 27 inches. I have heard larger fish are being caught on the east side of Kelly's Island west of the Airport.

SOUTH OF GREEN ISLAND 5/15

Storm Team Construction returned for a second charter and the walleyes were very cooperative. 37 walleyes were caught running 40 Tru-Trip Divers and Michigan Stinger spoons while running 35 and 40 foot leads at 1.6 knots. Pooh Bear purple, Pooh Bear chartreuse, Helmut and Jager Bomb caught all of the fish. We fished about one mile south of the island.  An east to west troll pulled most of the fish in the morning and north and south direction worked better later in the day running between
Green and South Bass. See you on the water!

NORTHWEST CORNER OF KELLY'S ISLAND 5/14

Fished from Carpenters point to the Northwest corner of Kelly's Island and only managed to catch 6 walleyes. Pulled all harnesses on 40 Tru-Trip Divers with 35 leads taking most of the fish. Best speed was 1.6 knots.  Marks were good but could not get a program started. Moved to American Eagle Shoal and started catching immediately with the combination noted above. Caught another 12 walleyes before the out of town customers had to leave to attend a golf outing.   Ran gold willow leaf blades taped with various colors and matching beads. The largest fish was 29 inches. Many of the captains have switched to Michigan Spoons and are limiting out daily in this area.  Thanks to the Storm Team Construction for a great day on the lake. See you on the water!

AMERICAN EAGLE SHOAL / SATURDAY

Great day 37 walleyes no hawgs but fish ranged from 16 inches to 27 1/2 inches. Majority pulled on harnesses and 40 Tru-Trips pulled 25 to 35 feet back. Speed ranged from 1.6 to 1.8 knots. A majority of  captains pulled Michigan Stingers and pulled their limit in the same area. Our fish came on both colorado blades and willow leaf blades again. Green and yellow beads and pink and purple blades on the willow leafs and gold/bronze colorado blades worked the best. A north south troll pulled more fish than any other direction.  See you on the water!

NIAGARA REEF HAWGS

Fished two miles northeast of the green can on Niagara Reef. Started casting for the first two hours and pulled three fish and dropped two with one nice 27 1/2 inch fish. We switched to trolling with 40 Tru-Trips pulling harnesses on all ten rods with Colorado blades and Willow Leaf blades. Within 3 hours we had 23 walleyes which included 4 fish O's. The new blood red Tru-Trips have produced some nice hawgs this spring. Trolling on a south to north bearing produced most of the fish and running in the trough gave us several triples. Running 40 and 45 foot leads at 1.8 knots worked best. No pattern on blade color all worked well.  See you on the water !

RATTLESNAKE / NIAGRA REEF

Saturday's weather was calling 2 foot waves or less and changed Friday night to 3 to 5 feet so we headed for protection from the strong northeast winds and fished between Middle Bass and North Bass. We started trolling pulling Reef Runners on one side (80 foot leads) and 40 Tru-Trips on the other side (40 foot leads). Trolling west to east produced six fish in about three hours with a speed of 1.6 knots. Only one fish came on a Reef Runner (Copperhead) and the  balance on 40 Tru-Trips with #5 Colorado blades, purple/gold, gold with a red lightning bolt and gold/bronze. Due to the area becoming congested with boats we opted to move to Niagara Reef where we fought  5 footers most of the day. We eventually fished with all 40 Tru-Trips and harnesses. Color didn't matter but 45 foot leads and a speed between 1.6 to 1.8 produced another 11 walleyes so we finished with 17 for the day. See you on the water