5/26/26 Lake Erie Fishing Report

May 26, 2026

Lake Erie Fishing Report 5/26/26

Lake Erie has been plagued by strong NE winds over the past weekend, resulting in charter cancellations. I moved my clients this past Friday and Saturday to get them in a better time slot and give the lake time to settle down. For those of you who might not know, an NE wind is the worst for us because the lake rolls all the way from Buffalo, NY, to Port Clinton, OH, resulting in huge seas and muddy waters. If the water is too muddy, the walleye will not bite. Lake Erie walleye can also get lockjaw for a day or two as the blow settles due to a cold water shock with the NE winds blowing new colder water to the Western Basin of Lake Erie.

Lake Erie Walleye with a Silver Streak Jr Spoon in the mouth with a Mustad Alpha Point hook.

After the NE blow passed over Saturday afternoon, I resumed charters on Sunday morning. I left Wild Wings Marina and set a course for South Bass Island (Put-in-Bay). My experience has taught me to head in the direction that the wind was blowing to find fishable water color. As I passed Crib Reef, the waters were very muddy. So I continued on, looking at the satellite image provided by NASA, and I could see there was definitely a clean line up by the Islands. Soon enough, I found the transition waters. The good stain stuff that the bait fish like to hold in, and the walleye love to chase them! In went the plainer boards, and trolling rods were deployed targeting the marks at 20 ft down in the water column. One side has been fishing Old School Luhr Jensen 40 jets (black) with Jr. Streak spoons.

I decided to shake things up a bit and run the old Rattle Tots on the other side. I had to run a massive amount of line out to get them at depth, let me tell you, it was worth it! The first 2 trolling rods to bend over were my Rattle-tot side blue chrome and green speaks, which took the first bites. Soon after, the spoon rods started bending over, too. The BITE WAS ON! Everything took shots! Shots is a salmon-fishing term we use for bites. When we get a bite, whether the fish sticks on the hook or not, we call that a “shot”. Hot spoon colors were Cat Dog, Nascar, Piston Cup, and Chicken Wing. 

A Women reeling in a Lake Erie walleye fishing on the Sir Walleye Charters boat.

We did not harvest what I would call only huge walleyes; we just caught good eaters in the 16 to 20-inch range. Lake Erie has an estimated 180 million walleye in its waters. Millions of them are in this age class, the 3-to 7-year-old fish. Harvesting these fish benefits the lake! There is only so much food! All in all, I have been very happy with the catch rates the last 3 days, Sunday, Monday, and Today, same program and same place, the last 3 charters. 


Mustad Pro Tips:



  1. Never leave fish to find fish! If you chase that fire, knock-out bite all the time, you are not fishing; you are simply running all over the lake. Keep grinding on your bite, and at the end of the day, they add up!
  2. When the waters are muddy, travel in the direction of the last known wind event and fish that transition water. 
  3. Never be afraid to be different. Show the fish a different presentation that they are used to seeing, and you might be surprised at the catch rate. 


Until Next Time, 

Gotta Go, Fish ON 🎣 Get The Net‼️,

Captain Kris


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