Mother Nature Wins Out
by Gary Engberg

The saying goes that sometimes the best-laid plans don't work out as anticipated and this certainly was the case on my recent trip to Lake Erie. Most of my readers have heard me brag and sing the praises of the walleye fishing at Erie. I make the pilgrimage to the Lake of Dreams several times a year to fish for trophy walleyes and smallmouth bass. I am one who expounds the virtues of Lake Erie every chance I get because this Great Lake is one of the best walleye and smallmouth bass waters in the world. I have fished these waters dozens of times in the last twelve years. I try to make the trip for a week or two every spring and again in the fall.

This year, the fishing was great in April and May when I made the trek east to the world's twelfth largest lake. Erie's pure size can be intimidating since it has a surface area of almost 10,000 square miles and 856 miles of shoreline. When the wind blows and it did this fall, you are lucky if you can get out and fish the huge schools of suspended walleyes. I was there for a few days at the end of October when we couldn't fish due to the inclement weather and big waves. I returned this past week, hoping to fish a week or two and catch those "hawg" walleyes the lake is known for, big, double digit walleyes that would make anyone proud. Sometimes, if the weather and wind are too rough and fishing the main lake is impossible, there is a great smallmouth bass and jumbo perch bite close to shore within 2 miles of the Huron boat landing.

A little background on this fishing Mecca. Lake Erie is divided into three separate basins; western, central. and eastern. Each basin has its own distinct schools of walleyes which travel specific routes throughout the year spawning and later chasing huge schools of forage fish ( emerald shiners, trout perch, and shad ). I usually fish the western basin fish in the spring with the walleyes spawning near the Maumee, Portage, and Detroit Rivers. The area near Port Clinton and the Bass Islands also have huge schools of fish that spawn near the islands many reefs and shoals. As the year progresses, the walleyes move east toward open water and the schools of baitfish. By fall (October and November) the walleyes stage at the mouth of the Huron River between Marblehead and Vermillion, Ohio

The fish off Huron, Ohio (about 450 miles from Madison) stay schooled through the winter and move west to spawn near the Bass Islands and the town of Put-in-Bay, Ohio in the spring. These are the fish I target in the fall each year and then again in the spring. The problem with traveling to Ohio to fish is that you never know what the weather and wind will be when you get there. I tune in the Weather Channel and anything I can find on the Internet giving weather forecasts for the Great Lakes. Accuracy has been the major problem, but the ever-changing Great Lake winds haven't helped either. The last two times that I've been to Lake Erie the wind has been blowing anywhere from 25 to 35 knots and from a different direction everyday. Waves have been anywhere from 5 to 8 feet, which makes fishing near impossible and not that productive. The days when the waves subsided the water was dirty and looked like chocolate milk. The water was so murky most days that you couldn't see the propeller on your boat or your crankbait just a foot under the water. Fish are hard to catch in dirty water because the fish can't see the bait and dislike dirt flowing through their gills. After the waves subside, you need a couple of days to clean the water up before the fish start feeding again.

The boat of choice for me is a Tracker Targa with a 200 h.p. Mercury Optimax main motor and a Mercury 9.9 h.p.kicker motor. This boat is made for big-water fishing and can handle the roughest waters on any Great Lake. I've run Tracker boats for 10 years and the Targa is tough to beat for rough water and fishing comfort. This boat can handle water that charter boats have trouble fishing in. There are days when you can fish out of a 16 foot boat and catch fish, but day in and day out you need a boat made for big water and big waves.

If planning a trip to Lake Erie, you need to plan a few extra days in case the wind blows and the water gets dirty. It's not a bad idea to call guides and charters at the lake to get up to the minute weather reports. But, even with all this you are not guaranteed to fish everyday that you plan. This last trip, I was there for 51/2 days and fished only one and a half days. My time was spent watching the weather and looking at the dirty water. The time I was able to get out, the fishing was super with limits of big walleyes in a few hours. The fish are thick and only a few miles off shore. My Lowrance LMS 350 locator and GPS marked solid fish from the 26 line to the 28 line. If you don't know, that's two miles of solid walleyes. The fish are there and biting, but Mother Nature wouldn't let us get at them. I've also been there and fished a week straight without any wind. But, the trip is a gamble. If it were easy the fishing wouldn't be like it is. Good luck and pray to the weather and wind gods!

For More Lake Erie info; contact me at gengberg@chorus.net  You can fish into December and the weather is about 10 degrees warmer than here. I may return one more time this year if nature will let me. I have fished till December 17th some years.

Guides; Pat Chrysler (419) 285-4631: Pooh Bear Charters Keith Unkefer (888-698-2381

Motels: Plantation (419) 433-4790 Gull Motel (419) 433-4855.