Going Fishing? Walleye Fishing Still Slow

Cooler weather is no reason not to grab your reel and hit our Great Lake. It’s filled with fish and Avon Lake is a prime town to , cast a line and get ready to tell your tale about the one that got away. Check back each week to get the week’s fishing report before you head out on the lake. Information courtesy of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Daily bag limit

• The daily bag limit for Lake Erie walleye is 6 fish.
• The minimum size limit for walleye is 15 inches. 
• The daily bag limit for yellow perch is 30 fish per angler on all Ohio waters of Lake Erie.
• The steelhead daily bag limit is 2 fish per angler. The minimum size limit for steelhead is 12 inches. 
  The Lake Erie black bass (largemouth and smallmouth) daily bag limit is 5 fish with a minimum size limit of 14 inches.

Western Basin
 
Walleye fishing remained slow with few reports coming from the western basin. The best reports came from the reef complex, N of West Sister Island and NW of Gull Island Shoal. Fish have been caught by trolling with divers and spoons, and also on inline weights with worm harnesses. Fish can also be caught by casting mayfly rigs or drifting with bottom bouncers and worm harnesses.

Yellow perch fishing continues to be good in the western basin. The best areas have been W of West Sister Island around the gravel pit, NE of the turnaround buoy of the Toledo shipping channel, around “B” can of the Camp Perry firing range, SW of South Bass Island, off of Ballast Island, and N of Lakeside. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom.

Central Basin
 
The walleye have scattered offshore of Ashtabula and Conneaut following four days of rough weather. Not many boats were targeting walleye so no report is available this week.

Excellent yellow perch fishing has been reported 44-52’ N-NE of Wildwood State Park, 40-50’ N of Chagrin River, 50’ NW of Fairport and 38-42' NW of Geneva. Perch spreaders with shiners fished on the bottom produces the most fish. Anglers have been using golden shiners when emerald shiners are not available. Shore fishing off the Mentor Headlands breakwall and Fairport Pier has been spotty. Mornings and evenings have been best. 

White bass fishing has been slow off the Eastlake CEI breakwall and Mentor Headlands breakwall. For boat anglers, fishing has been good in the Cleveland area, look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners.

Anglers are catching channel catfish off the Mentor Headlands breakwall at night using night crawlers. Fish are also being caught along the Grand River at the St Clair St bridge.

The water temperature is 66 degrees off of Toledo and 70 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast.

Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating.

View the predicted weather forecast for Lake Erie.
 
View Lake Erie boating information, safety tips, and launch ramps.