Char_Master

58 minutes ago, mr 580 said:

Weather has been crappy this week , but you should find temp break around 75’ down.  So starting in 80 and going out should work.  I have been getting Lakers up in walleye temps on riggers and divers with spoons pretty regularly so you shouldn’t have trouble finding them.  

Thank you sir!

Just got to the harbor now, lake is kicking pretty hard. Sounds like it should calm down pretty well by the morning, though. Gonna be a few more sore-lipped fish out there if I can help it haha.

Anyone fish out of Dunkirk this past week? Lakers around? We’re fishing there this weekend and I’m hoping that this NE wind doesn’t push all the cold water away. Guess we’ll find out.

1 hour ago, Gill-T said:

Keep in mind stomach contents are just a snapshot. Orange meat might be just as likely coming from smelt ingesting invasive blood red mysis down deep as it is from mussel-eating gobies (keratin)

Very true. There’s no real way to know, that’s just my observations so far. It’s hard to get a good gauge using 3 samples too, lol.

4 hours ago, RD9 said:

Smelt for us, everyone I cleaned out of Dunkirk is completely loaded with 4 to 7 inch smelt. There so disgustingly fat. 

I wouldn’t mind seeing the fatty, thiaminase-filled Smelt pop. take a tank in Erie. I’ve only ever filleted three Lakers to eat. Two mainly had Smelt in them, and had absolutely disgusting the meat. The other was loaded with nothing but Gobies and had the best-tasting orange meat I’ve ever eaten, it was better than Walleye.

As a trend, I’ve noticed that most fish I fillet/eat that are consuming primarily Emerald Shiners, Round Gobies, or Yellow Perch, tend to taste better than those eating primarily Smelt or Alewives.

3 hours ago, orangediablo said:

Say one wanted to try and jig for these chickens......how would one go about doing it?

Troll around until you find fish concentrated somewhere, then drop 2-4 ounce saltwater jigs on to their heads. Good luck!

2 hours ago, Gill-T said:

Fat healthy fish!  What are they spitting up?

Thanks! Every baitfish I’ve seen coughed up this summer has been a Goby.

The weather cooperated and we managed to get out again this past Friday for Lakers. Fished from 10:00-4:00, all of the action was from 10:00-2:00. Went 6/7 trolling and 2/6 vertical jigging, which was really a blast! Largest fish was 36” 19-20 pounds. Our best trolling baits were gamblers/cowbells and spoons. Also caught 2 bonus Eyes, one of which ate a dodger and spin’n’glo lol.

Hoping to get out one more time this season later this month before putting the boat away.

I forgot to post our results from a couple weeks ago. We ended up putting 4 Lakers in the boat in 4 hours that Friday, then 11 Lakers and 2 Walleye in 5 hours that Saturday. What a difference one day can make! We caught fish all over the 100-110 FOW zone, from a foot off the bottom to twenty feet off the mud. Spoons, Flatfish, dodgers/spin’n’glows, and Cowbells/Gamblers all took fish. Largest individual was a 36” 23# specimen I caught on Saturday. And, although I’m not huge on Walleye, one of the two bycatch Eyes was 28” 6#, so I’m not complaining!

Hoping to fish out of Dunkirk again tomorrow if the lake cooperates.

Anyone do any good on Lakers this morning? We just got set up about an hour ago, working the 100-110’ range west of Dunkirk and haven’t had any action yet.

Speaking of Dunkirk, does anyone have a recent report? Planning to make my annual trip up there this weekend in search of Lakers. Seems like the dink Walleye are as much of a plague up there as they have been in PA this year haha.

Fish 90-120 FOW, northwest of Dunkirk or northeast of Barcelona. Pull cowbells, spoons, dodgers, and flashers within a few feet of the bottom, anywhere from 1.5-3.0 mph depending on the baits. If they’re around, you should catch them.

1 hour ago, Traveling Circus said:

Char..... I fished out of the Catt on Sunday, and in 80 fow, just a touch East of the creek, the temps went from about 64 F to 56 F, from 50 feet down to 60 feet down. The walleyes were laying on top of that temp break, 40 - 50 down, and lakers and steelhead were in the colder water. We got some of each on identical lures using identical presentations...... lead core and sticks. There were salmonids laying on the bottom and harassing the bait there...... The further West we went the closer to the surface that break came, so being after walleyes, I went back East after figuring that out...... good luck if you go. 

Thanks for the info! In that case I’ll probably give it a try, as long as the waves cooperate.

Any of you guys know if the thermocline is still set up after that major blow last week? Debating whether to try for Lakers one last time for the year on Saturday or Sunday (winds permitting), but I’m not sure if they’ll still be concentrated down deep or scattered and tight lipped. Could always troll the creek mouths for Steel if nothing else, I suppose.

14 minutes ago, jigstick said:

Have you tried heading north out of North East?  There has to be cold water past the mountain drop off. I catch lakers heading north out of Barcelona all the time. 

I headed all the way out to 146 FOW back in July and couldn’t find one fish out there. That said, I fished as shallow as 80 FOW too and there weren’t fish anywhere in between those depths. PA is just spotty this time of year, never know what the bottom temps will be. That said, it’s probably still worth a try since this will likely be my last weekend of boat fishing while the thermocline is still stable.

Not quite Dunkirk, but has anyone heard of any Lakers off of North East within the past week? Two weekends ago we went 8/11 in just under 4 hours in PA waters, but the NE wind helped to push some cold water over west to us so I’m not sure if there’s still any Lakers hanging around. Hate to make the 20 mile boat ride if there’s no fish left.

On 8/7/2018 at 11:39 AM, Fishnatzee said:

Char master,

Yes it is certainly possible for the adipose fin to grow back after being clipped. Actually, it is something that is considered for tagging studies and there is a lot of research out there that explains this very well. If you look closely at the fin, you may be able to tell if the top of the fin is fairly flat and is not rounded like a natural adipose would be. If you have some pictures that show this up close, I may be able to help you determine if it is a clipped fin or not. I work with Atlantic salmon in Maine and have worked at salmon hatcheries for over 25 years and have fin clipped thousands of fish during this time.

Not the same fish, but what do you think of this one? 20” fish I harvested today had no fin clips, a fully developed adipose, and nice orange meat. Wild?

On 8/7/2018 at 11:39 AM, Fishnatzee said:

Char master,

Yes it is certainly possible for the adipose fin to grow back after being clipped. Actually, it is something that is considered for tagging studies and there is a lot of research out there that explains this very well. If you look closely at the fin, you may be able to tell if the top of the fin is fairly flat and is not rounded like a natural adipose would be. If you have some pictures that show this up close, I may be able to help you determine if it is a clipped fin or not. I work with Atlantic salmon in Maine and have worked at salmon hatcheries for over 25 years and have fin clipped thousands of fish during this time.

I don’t think I got any clear shots of the adipose area, but I do remember the fin being a bit squared off, so it probably was just a planted fish that grew the fin back.

Out of curiosity, do you guys know if it’s possible for a Trout to grow its adipose fin back after it’s been clipped? The last fish I caught on Sunday (a 22#) had a pretty developed adipose, so I’m wondering if it may have been a wild fish, which would be incredibly rare in Erie since there’s been no natural reproduction detected outside of one or two small fish every few years. That said, the fish was probably at least 20 years old, so maybe the fin just slowly grew back over time.

11 hours ago, Crestliner1850 said:

Well Char_Master, looks like Erie is as good as lake O for laker fishing!

I’d say so! Maybe even a bit better in the size department, though Lake O certainly has more of them lake-wide than Erie does.

Interesting that they’re eating Perch this time of year. A 23# I kept this spring had a few Perch in its stomach, among other things, but I didn’t think their depth ranges would overlap during the summer. How deep did you catch those Lakers, fishnut?

40 minutes ago, Gill-T said:

Great looking fish. I would be interested to know stomach contents of the one you kept. They look well fed. 

Thanks! The 18# fish I kept actually had an empty stomach. Might’ve been why she ate so aggressively and ended up gill-hooked. In general though, Erie Lakers eat almost exclusively Smelt and Gobies in the summer. However, with the recently declining Smelt population, I’ll bet they’re eating damn near nothing but Gobies these days.

26 minutes ago, lineman49 said:

   Nice fish,  Congrats !

Thanks!

Well I certainly picked a good weekend to make a Dunkirk trip! 

Saturday we went 12/18 on Lakers in 7 hours. Smallest fish was 27” 12# and our lunker was a FAT 31” 26#! Also boated two fish right at the 20# mark and a 21#. Fishing 105-120 FOW with Cowbells/Gamblers and Dodgers.

Sunday we went 8/9 in 4 hours. The two largest fish were 20# and 22#! Covered 100-130 FOW and caught fish with Spoons, Dodgers, and Flashers. Didn’t do any cowbell fishing Sunday since many fish were eating them pretty deep on  Saturday and we were C&R fishing (minus one gill-hooked fish).

2-3’ waves weren’t fun in a 22’ boat, but the fish were definitely cooperative! I’d love to make it back to Dunkirk soon but unfortunately I think that’ll have to wait for next Summer with the way things are looking. 

Nice! I haven’t heard of any Lakers out of NE all summer so it’s good to know that there’s still a few around. Good luck to you as well.

Well last weekend was a blowout for us. Ended up getting stuck at home thanks to some medical issues. Looking like this weekend should be prime conditions though! Anyone else heading out there? I’ll be sure to make a report once we finish up Saturday.

It seems like a lot of guys are running their Divers without O rings, what’s the reasoning behind this? I know the rings help them get a bit more depth so why remove them, does it spread them out to the side more? I’ve been running dipsies for three years now and have always kept the O rings on, am I missing something haha.

Thanks in advance.

16 minutes ago, jigstick said:

I was out of Barcelona on Sunday. Lake rolled over. I had 52 degree water 25ft down in 70 fow. Surface temps in the mid 60s. I was landing Lakers while walleye fishing inside.  Fish seem all scattered around. 

Thanks for the report. Hopefully it’ll set back up for this weekend and they pod up again. I just need to bite the bullet and get a probe for next season to avoid all this guesswork on temps.