Port Clinton area - Anyone????

[Smitty]

Has anyone found active eyes in the Kelly's or reefs area? Fished Kelly's yesterday and managed to pull 8 in a long day (9 guys), but the radio was pretty dead. Wondering about hitting the west side of the islands or the reefs, but haven't heard of anything going over there either.

Help!!!!!!

[FreeByrd]

Smitty,
It's been TOUGH for at least a week (more like 2 weeks). The fish are there but we haven't had 3 days of stable weather in a row for a long time. There are a lot of fish N & NW of Kelleys but double digit catches have not been very common lately. There are also good numbers of fish to the W & NW of N Bass Island, and on down to Rattlesnake. I'd concentrate on these areas if you plan to troll. The trolling bite has been deeper the last 4-5 days. Target 18-24 feet of the water column. Also a few fish starting to go on Dipseys but still with stickbaits. You might try harnesses and even run a harness right off the bottom. Someone else can give you a better report if you are interested in drifting/jigging but from what I've heard it has been slow too.

For Western Erie specific reports check out the fishing reports section of Dean Clifton's "Denied" website www.cliftond.com

Good Luck,
Steve

[Tom Franjesh]

I fished N and NW of Kelly's on Saturday and got skunked except for a small mouth and a sheaphead. I trolled 2 boards with reef runners, rip sticks, deep husky jerks and deep little rippers. I also flatlined one deep crank out the back and one dipsey diver with a gold weapon. I was actually surprised to see that the water wasn't that dirty in places and I focused on the lines between dirty and less dirty water. I marked a lot of fish in the 18' - 22' range with some marks up higher. I would agree with the rest that there are a ton of fish out there and most are in the dirty water. Let us know when the start getting active.

Tom

[TJTROLLER]

The wife & I drove in from Illinois this past weekend, and had some
limited success by the reefs. We picked up 2 eyes Friday evening,
and only 1 in 9 hours on Saturday. Sunday turned out to be a decent
day, we boated 6 working just off of Crib Reef in 15-22 fow. All were
between 21-24 inches trolling DJ's. Also hooked into quite a few
smallies and a couple of sheep working over the reef. Tried the
deeper water all three days and couldn't hook up with anything.
There was a head boat in that area at the same time and it looked
like they were picking up a few drifting Sunday afternoon.

[Smitty]

Thanks guys. Sounds like it's pretty slow all over. We picked up a few N-NW of Kelly's yesterday, but once the wind turned to the North they got complete lockjaw. Marks so thick you'd swear you would snag something..

I don't see any stable weather for the next couple days either, so I guess we'll just get what we get and chalk up one for mother nature. Heard one charter on the radio yesterday that was working on his fourth day with no eyes, so it's tough for everyone.