Port Burwell is alive and well for Walleye, July 6, 2012

The hype about the central Lake Erie Basin walleye fishery has intrigued me for sometime. Last year while I ran the Strait Line Anglers Club Lake Erie Walleye Tournament, I had kicker motor issues with a stuck carburetor needle. I instead spent the weekend on land and ran the tournament without participating in it or having my first central basin walleye trip.

Mark Penner “Fish Dawg” included me in an open invite to fish with Chris Vanrooy “Jammer” in his 17 ft Crestliner. I couldn’t pass this one up- local knowledge and finally experiencing the central basin walleye bite.

From Photo_Gallery8

The season was still regarded early, and many anglers were coming up empty handed after a day’s fishing. Chris, on-the-other-hand, was on fish the past week during his vacation. An 8 mile run out of Port Burwell at day break was on a flat Lake Erie and with hazy hot humid air temps. The full moon was still up and this was concerning to us considering the walleye had the opportunity to feed the majority of the night.

We got to within 2 miles of his waypoints from 4 days prior to. Third rod out and it takes a fish immediately. Wire diver on 3 setting on a UV Green diver and FireTiger Super Slim spoon out 140 ft. The first walleye in the boat at around 6 lbs.

From Photo_Gallery8

The entire spread was set shortly after; one 5 colour Leadcore on Inline board off the starboard side that later switched out to a 150 ft copper line down the shoot, one 7 colour Leadcore on Inline board off the Port side, two wire divers on 3 settings and one out 140 and the other 120 and then switched to 135 later in the day. One rigger down 40 ft with a spoon and a free slider spoon as well. The other rigger was a two colour leadcore (secret weapon rig) with a gold Ripplin Redfin with orange belly on the downrigger down 20 ft.

From Photo_Gallery8

All rods were made firing on both Walleye and Steelhead. We concentrated on temp breaks evident by slicks of calm water around 1 ft chop. Thermocline was at the 35-40 ft depth over 58- 64 ft of water.

We managed 13 walleye and 5 steelhead by 2:00 pm where we traveled back. The temperature was comfortable out on the lake, but coming to shore- it was obvious we were coming to the high heat and humidity that the forecast was calling for with a humidity temperature at 41’C!

Big Thanks to Chris for hosting us and I learnt a lot on good spoon colours and techniques.

Shane Thombs
www.fintasticsportfishing.com