Lake Erie Charter fishing
- Thread starter Gern186
- Start date
Getting close to another fishing season. Hoping to get the boat up to the lake this weekend. Putting finishing touches on this week. I have several openings for prime dates available in May and early June. First come first serve. Fishing outlook is great and average walleye size will continue to be awesome. Book 2 days in a row with me this season I will take 50 dollars off per day.
Bigcountry40
Member
- 4,753
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Gern, I look forward to your post every year. Good luck this weekend, I’m waiting a few more weeks until the jig is in full motion
Chad how long does the jig bite last, we will be up the end of May. I would like to try fishing for walleye with a jig.
Jig bite is usually over by the first of May. However casting worm harnesses is usually really good at the end of may.
Put boat in this afternoon went out for the shakedown trip to make sure everything is working. Pulled a limit of fatties fairly quick.
Had 2 trips this weekend. Saturday was a tough day for us. Windy in the morning. Waited until noon to head out. Got a 6.5 lb fish in the first 15 minutes. Proceeded to troll 5 hours without another fish. Threw the kitchen sink at them. Last weeks weather didn't help any. Ended up going into 12 feet of water and caught 8 more jigging in the last hour of daylight.
Then yesterday we went out in the dark jigging before daylight. Fish rolling on the surface all around us in the dark. Very little wind. Not good for a jig bite. Need to be moving at least a little to cover ground. Ended up getting 6 fish jigging. Headed out to troll mid morning and found some fish 6 miles offshore in some stained water. They decided to bite good for 2 hours and we finished up their limit. Plus 3 I caught jigging earlier.
Then yesterday we went out in the dark jigging before daylight. Fish rolling on the surface all around us in the dark. Very little wind. Not good for a jig bite. Need to be moving at least a little to cover ground. Ended up getting 6 fish jigging. Headed out to troll mid morning and found some fish 6 miles offshore in some stained water. They decided to bite good for 2 hours and we finished up their limit. Plus 3 I caught jigging earlier.
Nice work capt., those are 2 tough days of fishing but way to get em on the fish.
This shitty economy hurts everyone sooner or later. In 8 years of running this business I've never been under booked like I am this year. 50 percent of the bookings that I normally have at this point. Alot of my out of state guys flat out have told me they would like to come but can't afford it anymore.
Trueroots
Member
Trueroots
Member
I’ve been fishing on Lake Erie for 40 years and it is absolutely something that should be experienced.
I don’t disagree that the economy has a lot to do with it. But I’d be willing to bet there’s more charters running on the lake than there’s ever been too. Everyone is a walleye expert when there’s this many fish in the system. lol.
Correct. Im just saying that based on my situation. I know guys that advertise on Facebook that have more business but I don't wanna go that route. I like to know the people I'm taking out.
Bigcountry40
Member
- 4,753
- 137
I totally understand that approach, Chad. I would likely be the same way if I were in your shoes.
I also wonder how many people go on these charters that end up buying their own boat(s). Surely a portion of them do. I bet a lot find out pretty quick that, even with the record population, those fish aren't quite as easy to catch as the good captains make it seem.
Been a while since I updated. This April weather has been challenging. Tons of rain and northwest winds are not a good combination for the western basin of Lake erie. I had to cancel Friday and Saturday trips and got them moved to Sunday and Monday. Weather was better but not great. Had a 10 man 2 boat charter both days from some Indiana guys. 3rd year in a row for them. Sunday we had to go out blind to find clean enough water. Did some searching and put a program together and pulled 51 fish for 164 lbs. Then yesterday we pulled 66 fish for 210 lbs! The highlight of the year happened on my boat about 11 am yesterday when one of the rods took a major hit! 3 big jumps from a big silver looking fish and 15 minutes later it was in the boat. Was a real nice king salmon. Only ever heard of one other being caught out there in all my years up there. It was a huge surprise. We did not take a board picture of yesterday's fish.
