walteye

Mark-I have the same inlines but I am not a big inline fan. How far do run the lead from the inline to the harness? On my dipseys I run anywhere from a 10' to 25' lead to my lure-and handline the fish to the boat. I run slide divers also-but I mostly run the Walker Deeper Divers so I can hit bottom in 100 fow-the slides don't get that deep. Handlining in an 8 lb eye by yourself and trying to net it in bumpy water is thrilling-to say the least! Walteye Especially if you don't fall out!

Mark-speed was 1.8 to 2.2. Ran lead 5 color and when deeper I attached a 2-3 oz snap weight besides the slide diver. Monday and Thursday we were fishing in 4' waves-so the surges kept the speed fluctuating. Walteye

Fished Dunkirk and Barcelona July 10-14-being kept in by Small Creft Advisories on the 12th-even though I would have gone out in 3-5's-nothing unusual for Erie, but my wife was fishing with me.... Went out of Dunkirk on the 10th-nothing on the screen til i trolled enough west to the Barcelona area. On the water at 6:30 am and did not put a line in the water til 10:30 am. Had a 2 hour bite that yielded 5 eyes-all in the 8 lb size-I was a happy camper and knew to put in the next day @ Barcelona. Monday, Wednesday and Friday all yielded AT LEAST a 2 man limit a day, with Tuesday being a blow day. Watermelon harnesses worked best-fishing 110 fow-early am fishing 30' down and gradually going down during the day. I always had a slide diver @ 80'- and hooked up at least one eye a day at that depth running perch colored small Chatterstix. Our biggest eyes ( 9 1/2 and 10 1/4 lb) came on a rig with a spoon that runs a 12" leader to a crawlwr harness-all in the watermelon coloration. The most eyes came on a harness that my wife wanted to make so it was "pretty"!!! Darn thing was copper blade with a purple and black edge-along with green and yellow beads and MAN! did it catch fish!!!! I don't know where I bought the blades-but sure wish I did. Walteye

The Sunday before was the same for the bugs-swarms of gnats and biting flies. I was choking on the gnats flying into my mouth and nose. I did nothing on blade baits and jigs-only toyed with harnesses. Everything else came on Dave's Kabooms-green perch-purple prism and black-silver prism. Walteye

Coming up from PA and watching the weather-came up Saturday night to fish Sunday and 1/2 day Monday. With the showers and overcast day on Sunday-with the unbelievable bug population that descended on my boat all day-with the lures that were trolled and the jigs that were jigged-I thought it would end up a good day. I at least can say that the 11 hours fishing produced a limit and a few perch. I marked so many fish without a bite it was frustrating. But I put icons in the GPS to try again on Monday. With better weather and so much less bugs to contend with on Monday-I headed out to Dakin Shoals and trolled the easternmost hump that had SO many marks on Sunday with nothing to show for it- within an hour I had my limit in the boat! Any lure in perch color produced til the sun broke through-then the purples took off. Fished the south side of Shackleton Shoals in 35 fow and just hammered the eyes for 3 hours- ended up with 28 eyes caught by 11 am. The worst part of the day was the floating weeds and dragging the planer boards down. Walteye

Chris-I was @ Bath Truck caps on Saturday-the owner had a coupla buddies fishing in Sandy Pond and they were smoking the browns and walleye in the pond. Spoons flatlined behind boards. I am heading up to Oneida and Henderson starting Thursday. Walteye BTW- I see your from Wind Gap-I am from Bangor...

Nice job-nice sizes! I guess the lake is open to boat traffic again? Walteye

I haven't fished Oneida as much as I usually do this year-has any one been doing much there? Usually the fishing is outstanding there and from what I had read earlier and my own experiences this year- it was tougher than it has been in years. Usually I was able to have 10-20 fish days in mid summer trolling-this year I was lucky to scratch out a limit by jigging, only 1-2 trolling. A big bait year? I am planning to run up there this weekend. Walteye

Thats a lot of WOWS !! Nice job. Walteye

Tony-I did not fish in water shallower than 118'. If I had to do it again (and would love to) I would start looking in the 120 depth and work deeper from there to 140'. The thermocline is running in the 70's at those depths and the screen just goes wild like I have never seen. Marks coming up and down in the thermocline plus big bait balls. I did not slow down in the 70' depths so I cannot tell you those screens-but the fast screen was not pulling in a lot of color as i went through those depths on the way out to the 120's. Don't get locked into one lure-no matter how often it worked in the past-keep changing up. A lot of the eyes were spitting up a lot of bait-so you got to really entice them. I was also running 10 color lead and a 2 oz snap weight to get down, besides the Walker or slide diver. I did not know that on Thursdays you cannot launch at Dunkirk if they are having music on the pier-they were not too happy with me when I came in! Hey-but I had pigs in the boat! Walteye

Did not have a good feeling about the walleye fishing out of Dunkirk cause of previous posts-but went anyway. 3 days of limit eyes (one day of rough water caused me to have the biggest pigs)-plus lakers to boot. A lot of active marks starting at 120 fow and going to 140'. Thermocline to 70-80'-fish coming up to that depth and going back down-screen goes nuts in that depth of water for the most part. Reefrunners (Barely Naked and Cheap Sunglasses) and Renosky Chatterstix (Blue or purple) did the trick-along with harnesses in watermelon with copper back. Walker Deeper Divers setting #1.5 at 135 setback would put you @ 70' ( as seen by the Lowrance). Slide divers @ #2 hit at 250' feet back. Friday I had a Walker with a Stinger Kervokian spoon go off like a freight train and would not come up-the fish was just bulldogging down-finally it snapped off an 18# Seaguar leader-must have been a HOG Lake Trout! Walteye

Just past the barrier islands on the north side of the bay is a very productive reef for both eyes and huge smallies. The later in the season the less likely that you will hit eyes there-but you can hammer some big smallies there. Fish all sides of the reef. Fish the deeper water off Bull Rock and Chaumont Bay between Cherry Island and the north shore. Walteye

Those loon boards look kind of dark. How hard do you find it to keep a light stick on them for night trolling? Nice fish though. Walteye

A few years ago Todd Frank out of Pulaski, NY guided me up there for a fantastic trip on soft water. I know he does hard water trips and brings his sled. Great person-great knowledge. Walteye

Iceman-2 years ago I was on Oneida on December30 (only moron on the water)-started out flat calm and only catching bass. The wind picked up from the west and a snow squall came in-I have video looking out the front windshield of my boat- you can get seasick watching it- it looks straight out of the "Deadliest Catch" !!! I ended up with only 1 eye that day- but I must have caught 20 of the silver bass. I could have used a shovel to clean the snow out the boat !! Nice pic ! Walteye

John-My wife and I will be up for the week so I am certain we can get a "Hi and Hello" in sometime! Thank you and I will give you a shout along our 8 hour drive up there on Saturday! Walteye

John- THAT'S the kind of report that I am used to seeing from you!! Obviously there are some schools out there (like the one I found in July) that makes a decent box. My wife and I will be up this weekend- what time do you usually get back to the dock? I will probably make it to Dunkirk Saturday about 5 or 6 pm-I would like to stop and say Hello. Good luck this week and nice job. Walteye

John-I have been fishing out of Dunkirk since 2001-I have never caught as many Lakers in the past years as I have caught this year alone! For the most part-I always found the bait to be suspended-I found it more hugging the bottom-possible corrolation? Maybe because of the cooler water temps? I don't have my previous year logs-but I seem to remember 72-74 degree surface water temps- I could't find a temp that topped 70.5 even on the sunniest day. Good fishing and thanks for all the info. Walteye

John-when I was up there 2 weeks ago-the first two days I was working a school of big fish-and there was bait galore. On the Wednesday-the fishing slowed and I wasn't into a fish unless I was marking bait (and it was all close to the bottom-no suspended bait clouds). And yes-many times over the years I was not marking a fish but was catching 'em. I assumed that they were coming from off to the side out of the sonar's cone. I am certain that just like you-I start a search when I am finding bait or marks. I didn't catch a fish that week in any depth less than 90'. Walteye

John-it doesn't seem to be a very good year so far. Like I had said from the time I was up there-there was so much bait around and now for it to disappear??? I had thought that the Barcelona area might be more productive-but? Congrats on at least doing what you did. Walteye

Chris-thanks for the help up there! If you are still logging in I guess the waterspout wasn't too-too close !! If Fred was on the water-I think he attracts them ! When you are heading up in August-give me a shout and if I can help in any way-I will. Nice talking to you-best of everything to your family. Walteye

John-thanks for all your info the past couple of weeks. Just like you -every thing was deep-deeper and deepest!! Best depth of water was the 90-110' range-and just about as deep as you could get. I didn't bring my riggers with me-so it was lead and snaps-along with big slide divers with the heaviest weights that come in the package. I couldn't believe it-but the slide divers on a 0 setting I ws marking at 80' back 100' !!!! Major clouds of bait-the 10 pounder spit up SO much bait (do you have an idea what they are eating-spitting up white flesh and bones only-nothing new and whole). I was glad I weighed that fish on the water-when I brought it in the belly was HUGE-at the dock the live well was loaded with 3 handfuls of bait. Please keep the info coming-I was hoping to meet you when I was up there. Thanks again. Wlteye

After hearing some crummy reports while I was still six hours away driving to Dunkirk-I wanted to turn around. Good thing I didn't ! Monday on the water at 6 am and and a six pounder in the boat by 7 am! 10 colors lead core and a 2 oz. snap weight pulling a large Blue/silver chatter stick. Marked SO much bait on the bottom with marks all through it. I thought that I was going to have a good day-but trolled with everything and every depth in the book for another 7 hours with just lake trout and sheepshead to show for it. Talking to my wife on the phone-complaining about the bad day I was having and my board line went off-told my wife "fish on" and hung up. That was the start-5 fish in the next hour and half! Throwing back 7 and 8 pounders! Monday I ended up with a total of 8 eyes. Tuesday in the rain was even better-pulled a 9.9 and 10 1/2 # eye to go along with a total of 10 eyes! Monday I couldn't get a bite on a harness-almost every fish was on a harness (blk/purple and watermelon/copper) on Tuesday.Wednesday I thought I was locked in-got one rod in the water and it fired before I could get it in the holder! I lost my first 2 fish of the week that day-ended up with only 3 eyes to the boat-and none were over 4 pounds. For the week-regular Renoskys in blue/silver-brown/orange and purple/silver. Large and small chattersticks in blue/silver and of course the harnesses. Fished 90-110 fow and 10 color lead with a 2 oz. snap weight (sometimes)-and 5 color lead with a 3 oz. snap weight. Large slide divers 2 setting back 175'. Walteye

Last August when I was fishing with my wife-we ran 2 poles with ten color pulling the stix-and when the ten color pole went off, my wife would fake that she was asleep and magically wake up when I got down to the leader and grab the net !!! Walteye

Capt. John-not too shabby for a tough bite ! Thank you for the reports-it seems like the eyes are almost hugging the bottom with the settings you are pulling. Anyone doing anything with harnesses? Also-are the eyes deep all day-or are they up high early then dropping as the day goes on? Thank you again and congrats ! Walteye