6/2/26 Lake Erie Fishing Report

The walleye bite remains strong in Lake Erie's Western Basin, with most harvested fish measuring 16-20 inches and occasional catches over 26 inches—excellent for stocking your freezer. Recently, I shifted to fishing in shallower water, leaving the deeper water.

Lake Erie’s Western Basin has a maximum water depth of 35 feet, and you have to go a long way to find that. On average, our water depth is 21-24 feet. I have shaken things up by trolling in what we call the shallows. I have been targeting 13 to 16 feet of water, looking for marks suspended a foot or two off the bottom. Old School Storm Rattle Tots have been my lure of choice! For those of you who know my father and me, you know we love that shallow-water bite on the old-school lures! My absolute favorite lure is the Rattle Tot. Colors that have been good this past week are: Green Speaks, Blue Chrome, Purple, Black, and Chrome. I have been targeting about 12 feet down in the water column with the tots, as I call them.

We have been leaving the dock at Wild Wings Marina around 5:30 A.M. to get the jump start on the walleyes. Walleye love to bite in low-light conditions, so that extra half hour early is money when it comes to shallow-water Lake Erie fishing! Accompanied by the Rattle Tots off the planer board lines, have been using Dreamweaver 107mm dipsy divers on a 3-setting pull, a Jr Streak Spoon, a Tru Trip 50 jet with a spoon, a Bagley Killer B2 off the stern planer, and last but not least, Little Rippers off the downrigger rods. Speed on the Fish Hawk is 2.7- 3.0 MPH. Some of you reading this might say, " Wow, that's too many rods to keep track of and fish. Well, It’s not too many for me! I run up to 21 rods trolling for Lake Erie walleyes! I run so many rods to cut down on the number of fish needed per rod to obtain a legal daily bag limit. Have you ever been out fishing and the fish just stopped biting?? I've had many times like that, and that is what's sparked me to rise above and beyond to get these critters in the boat while they are biting. I am in no rush to get a quick limit and get off the lake fast. I simply want to provide a 5-star First Class Lake Erie Charter Fishing experience for all my clients, with a full cooler of Lake Erie walleye, a clean, organized vessel, a clean, sanitary bathroom on board, and top-of-the-line fishing equipment.

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