# Lake erie walleye - skunk



## sala0288 (Oct 26, 2009)

So my buddy and I went fishing for walleye just before thanksgiving, at night, got super skunked. We had heard reports of people just tearing them up but we couldn't manage a bite that night. We also tried earlier in the year, and had the same result. Both times, launced out of edgewater. Actually had a guy laugh at us at the boat ramp when we told him how we were fishing (assuming due to the brawl going on at that time he was not going to offer any helpful hints). I am usually a bass guy but would like to get into the walleye game too. I have a 18ft aluminum bass boat so I try to stick to within the breakwalls of cleveland. If I venture outside its not very far, usually just casting/drifting (or long lining holding the rod and trolling motor on constant) trying to catch em. 

Anyways, the guy at the dock did say the wind wasn't right for casting and drifting. Can someone help me understand when its better to troll vs cast and drift based on the wind?

I can't troll, just don't have the setup for it and really don't want to put it in my bass boat (will hopefully be upgrading in a few years anyways). 

Any other tips? Any help is appreciated. 

My depth of knowldege on lake erie walleye is that they're kind of shallow in the spring and fall (so you can usually catch them close to shore). In the summers they go deep. Throw stickbaits or inline spinner rigs tipped with nightcrawlers. 

Again, any help appreciated - feel free to point me to a discussion if there already is one about this. 

Cheers


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## jmyers8 (Aug 2, 2013)

The night bite can be very temperamental from what I have seen. We were out the week before thanksgiving the last hour was great with constant action as soon as the sun went down everyone struggled. That's just the way it is at night sometimes. Stickbaits are always your friends. I've never had luck with p10 I know others do but shallow bandits did good for us 

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## Bluewalleye (Jun 1, 2009)

I don't get out to often once November bow hunting starts to ramp up. So I can't help to much when it comes to late fall season fishing up there. But I can tell you that don't be to upset. Your best time of year to get those shallow fish going is next spring. From late April to mid June I do really well in 10' to 18' of water out of Edgewater. Over by the gold coast area. There is a big long flat over that way from the gold coast east about 1/2 a mile. I use a bunch of bass tactics to catch the walleye up there. From jerk baits to jigs and soft plastics on the bottom. Snap jigging the jigs this past spring was really effective for me. A blast as well. Some years the walleye are more suspended up there and the jerk baits work better. Every year it seems to be different. Kind of weird. Water clarity is important as well that time of year. Don't want super clear water, but you don't want real dirty water either.


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## allwayzfishin (Apr 30, 2008)

Gotta run your shallow HJ14s 10-50 back behind boards around 1-1.3mph, sometimes put the boat in neutral to kill the troll then back in gear. When the water is below 45 degree...fish high at night trolling slow. If your casting from the boat, find big marks on your graph and mark it on GPS. The motor back using just the trolling motor to that area then cast and retrieve super slow. If the fish don't bite, go look for another pod and then try that area. Mark it on GPS. Go back and try the other pod.... rotate those spots out till your find feeding walleye


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## sala0288 (Oct 26, 2009)

allwayzfishin said:


> Gotta run your shallow HJ14s 10-50 back behind boards around 1-1.3mph, sometimes put the boat in neutral to kill the troll then back in gear. When the water is below 45 degree...fish high at night trolling slow. If your casting from the boat, find big marks on your graph and mark it on GPS. The motor back using just the trolling motor to that area then cast and retrieve super slow. If the fish don't bite, go look for another pod and then try that area. Mark it on GPS. Go back and try the other pod.... rotate those spots out till your find feeding walleye



Is it safe to say if i'm not marking fish i should be finding and fishing around marks?


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## jmyers8 (Aug 2, 2013)

sala0288 said:


> Is it safe to say if i'm not marking fish i should be finding and fishing around marks?


Most the time your not gonna mark fish that are up that high in that shallow of water your just assuming they are there cause the bait is in there 

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## loomis82 (Nov 27, 2012)

You may not be marking fish because the fish are up high! Couldnt tell you how many time people fish under the fish and your not going to catch. If we arent marking we'll start running baits in the top ten feet of the water column. Give this a try and I bet you catch. Make sure to vary your speeds then adjust to whats working. And any person that laughs at you at the dock is a a$$hole fall brawl or no fall brawl! I dont care how good of a fisherman you are, you have day where you flat out suck!


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## allwayzfishin (Apr 30, 2008)

When I motor slowly looking for fish in 20-30ft I'll see big arches down 10-15ft and mark that area. When I'm in tight say 15ft or shallow I don't see any marks on the graph most days.


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## Eyegagger (Jan 13, 2018)

May 1st launch out of Edgewater go left out of the harbor down to the corner where the the beach ends and the staircase comes down to the water edge 15 f o w snap jig or pop bucktails similar to how you would in the western basin for The jig bite ,don't waste your time if the water is not clear, and I can guarantee you will not be disappointed. Also run single bladed harnesses or helicopter rigs with death wobble hooks and a whole night crawler or of course eerie dearies Work as well. Best advice I could give you after that is to hold your rod very tight cuz they'll rip it out of your hand also
















































I hope you've got some quality equipment as far as your rods reels and fishing line are concerned cuz they will get one hell of a workout !!! Then you'll be the one who's laughing all the way home. All these fish in the pictures were all caught on the same day you can see what area obviously. If all fish were caught on bucktails that I make and half a nightcrawler. Walleye from left to right 11.5 ,11.5 ,9.8 down to five pounds needless to say it was definitely an extraordinarily good day. Be aggressive with your jigging almost to where you wouldn't think you would even catch one being so erratic, and hold on! Good luck out there be safe, I'm headed to the lake!!


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## nightranger (Oct 2, 2011)

darker the night,the better luck you will have.full moon,stay home.shallower the better.run baits 15-35 back,UP HIGH.colder the water ,the slower you need to troll.the quieter and darker your boat,the more success you will have inskinny water. TO HELL WITH YOUR SONAR,IF YOU,RE MARKING FISH,YOU WILL NOT BE CATCHING THEM.i shut my sonars off to not scare the fish out of the real skinny water(8-14 fow).pay attention to bait,if you,re not seeing minnowsnear the surface,the fish won,t be there to feed.you need to set your boat up to troll,auto-pilot minn kotas is your best bet to contol your boat and troll slowly. casting only works if you,ve got a reef or strutcure to anchor on and the bait will hang around it. trolling is always best. remember,marked fish are 9 out of 10 not active,if you,re marking fish chances are you,re not catching.sonar is worthless at night and especially in the skinny water.creek heads,river outlets or any place that holds minnows are your best places to troll at night.


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## Toolman (Jun 8, 2004)

Eyegagger said:


> May 1st launch out of Edgewater go left out of the harbor down to the corner where the the beach ends and the staircase comes down to the water edge 15 f o w snap jig or pop bucktails similar to how you would in the western basin for The jig bite ,don't waste your time if the water is not clear, and I can guarantee you will not be disappointed. Also run single bladed harnesses or helicopter rigs with death wobble hooks and a whole night crawler or of course eerie dearies Work as well. Best advice I could give you after that is to hold your rod very tight cuz they'll rip it out of your hand also
> View attachment 479930
> 
> View attachment 479927
> ...


I hope you got in the Derbies with multiple 11 1/2# fish. Would be a $25k plus payday!


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## Ranger6 (Dec 27, 2015)

nightranger said:


> darker the night,the better luck you will have.full moon,stay home.


Interesting thought on the moon and fishing. Since I fish when I have the ability, it may be any moon phase but I really don’t see a catch difference based on the moon phase. One of my largest walleye came on a full moon night 6 years ago. This year I was fishing on a full moon and lots of fish were coming in the boat until a cloud bank came in and blocked the moon and we never caught another fish that night. Was it the clouds or some other change that made them quit biting, I don’t know. I am sure that if I can fish on full moon night, I am going fishing and not staying home.


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## nightranger (Oct 2, 2011)

Ranger6 said:


> Interesting thought on the moon and fishing. Since I fish when I have the ability, it may be any moon phase but I really don’t see a catch difference based on the moon phase. One of my largest walleye came on a full moon night 6 years ago. This year I was fishing on a full moon and lots of fish were coming in the boat until a cloud bank came in and blocked the moon and we never caught another fish that night. Was it the clouds or some other change that made them quit biting, I don’t know. I am sure that if I can fish on full moon night, I am going fishing and not staying home.


definately refering to fall bite,full moon is a death sentence and a smallmouth ,sheephead onslaught in the spring night bite.fall is a feeding glut until it freezes.any moon will work if the bait gets schooled up.find the bait.in the fall it,s shiners or shad.pay attention to belly color and run up high.


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## Ranger6 (Dec 27, 2015)

Yes, I was referring to my full moon bites in the fall. One of my largest walleye came 6 years ago on Thanksgiving night, with a full moon, along with lots of other fish that night. This year, one of the best nights we had was November 19th under a full moon until the clouds moved in and blocked the moon and they quit biting.
Just saying, I wouldn’t shy away from fishing a full moon in the fall, it could be just as good as a new moon.


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## fisherman 2 (Dec 29, 2012)

the change is what shuts them down...if it starts out full moon or cloudy and stays that way the fish will continue to bite...i've had it happen ice fishing on erie sunny put 5 on the ice clouds moved in not another fish rest of the time.


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## stampman60 (Jan 12, 2015)

fish up high not seen on graphs. looking at a 19 degree transducer cone angle . in 10 ft. you are only seeing things in a 3.4 ft. diameter. - 20 ft. 6.7 ft. - 30 ft. 10.0 ft. so at 10 foot depth fish could be 5 ft. from cone angle and you will not see them.


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## HappySnag (Dec 20, 2007)

you can see fish in any dept on 360 fish finder.


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## nightranger (Oct 2, 2011)

walleye need no help seeing their feed.i,ve seen nights where they could clearly tell the difference between black and royal blue.we only had one black and chrome ripstick. we ran blue/chrome on the other 5 lines. 14 on black and chromeand 4 on the remaining 5 blue/chromes.moon light gives the bait the chance to see their predators,moonlight in the spring will keep sheephead and small mouth active all night. no moon and completely dark will intice the big ones to come in shallow to feed.smallmouth are not a factor in the fall bite.they are completely inactive after dark when they are not spawning.sheephead have no real predators and everyone keeping walleye and returning sheephead to the lake will create an imbalance in the food chain.selective harvesting can always alter a lakes dynamic.in the fall, walleye are not to be messed with.they will eat anything during the temp. fall.there are so many smaller and faster juvenile walleyes in the food chain right now its tough to get the lure past them and to the big ones.


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## sala0288 (Oct 26, 2009)

Thanks for all the responses. We were fishing around bait, the bait was so thick on the graph though we wondered how our bait would stand out against the wall of shad we were seeing. Well appreciate all the input and will just get back on the water and try to figure it out! Thanks guys


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## loomis82 (Nov 27, 2012)

Another thing that help a ton is take a instructional charter on a boat similar to the size of yours . A lot of good captains out there that will actually show you how to set everything up. Its money well spent.


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## nightranger (Oct 2, 2011)

sala0288 said:


> Thanks for all the responses. We were fishing around bait, the bait was so thick on the graph though we wondered how our bait would stand out against the wall of shad we were seeing. Well appreciate all the input and will just get back on the water and try to figure it out! Thanks guys


if your targeting a shad bite use white bellied lures,minnows chrome and perch use orange belly,sides and tops are less important but run your setups short in the shallows 15-25 back.or use shallow running lures.


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## Andrew t (Dec 16, 2021)

I run very short leads 10 back shallw stick baits and deep divers 5 to 6 back zig and zag is key almost to the point of the board being stopped we tore them up at night doing this


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## FarmerChris (Oct 31, 2011)

sala0288 said:


> Thanks for all the responses. We were fishing around bait, the bait was so thick on the graph though we wondered how our bait would stand out against the wall of shad we were seeing. Well appreciate all the input and will just get back on the water and try to figure it out! Thanks guys


I have found in my limited experience, if the screen is full of bait, it is hard to catch anything. The quantity of bait obscures your lure. Move away from bait slightly where you still see scattered marks and you can catch fish.


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