Steelhead Fishing Under Way

Today, I took a ride and checked out some of the local streams and they are ready to be fished.  They are still flowing high and cloudy but the conditions are ideal.  I looked at 4 and 7 mile and I would say that probably the larger streams are still running a little faster. 

By this weekend, all the area streams will be fishable and they will have an abundance of steelhead in them.  These fish have not seen a lot of bait thrown at them so I bet they will be biting on most anything.  The only thing that will ruin this coming weekend's fishing will be heavy rain but it is not forecast until Sunday.

This weekend will probably be one of the best weekends to catch Lake Erie steelhead.  Grab your poles and get out there! 

Forget Fishing this Weekend.

The very warm temperatures of late have made the ice in the lake break up and most areas will be unfishable this weekend.  In the local streams, ice has blown out and the streams are now raging rivers.  If you fish this weekend for steelhead, make sure you bring a lot of weight, like 3 pounds of lead, and a ball and shackles to hold you in the streams:) 
Just kidding...but my assessment is this.  Wait until next week, when there should be many new steelhead in the streams.  Hopefully, they will be fishable by then. 

Ice Fishing Coming to a Close.

The past few days have been sunny with temperatures in the low to upper 40's.  Be very careful if you are planning an ice fishing trip within the next couple days.  The ice is very slushy and although there are still a few brave fisherman, I am going to now wait until ice out to go.  If you do feel brave, avoid the dock (Dobbins Landing) and do not venture out of the fourth parking lot on Presque Isle.  Stay in the shallows and fish off of the first parking lot or in Misery Bay where the ice is still hanging on.  By this weekend, there may not be any safe ice and I will try to bring you a full report Friday evening.

On the goodside, the streams have begun to thaw and soon thousands of fresh steelhead trout will be venturing up the streams.  I would estimate that in another week or so, the local streams will be fishable.  Good luck fishin' and don't go out if it doesn't look safe.

Try Fishing with a Bottle Cap Fish Lure.

(Free-Press-Release.com) March 4, 2010 -- Inventor Norm Price created the first Bottle Cap Fishing Lure


on a $50 bet. Since then, this lure has gone on to win 2 Canadian National Angling Championships and continues by shattering records all the way to Mexico, all while promoting a cleaner environment.

Made from ordinary bottle caps, the patent-pending lures are custom-shaped and weighted to catch several species of fish. The reflective nature of the cap attracts schools of fish, and inserted ball bearings add noise and weight. "My first cast I landed a 32" brown trout," says inventor Norm Price. "My forth cast landed me a 28" rainbow trout. I won a $50 bet, and proved that the Bottle Cap Lure really does work."

There can't be many fish that haven't been exposed to Master
Bottle Cap Fishing Lures Go On To Help Canadian Win 4 National Angling Championships.

More from the author

Custom Printed Fishing Lure Promotion

Beer Cap Fishing Lures Making A Huge Splash

Redneck Fishing Trend Explodes With Beer Cap Fishing LuresAngler Andy Vander Ploeg's magic. Andy qualified with a whopping 1,749.75 points to become Ford Angler of the Year for the second year in a row. In the process, he also captured an incredible 60% of all Canadian Master Angler awards. Andy states, "The Bottle Cap Lures have played a big role in my success as a Master Angler, and are responsible for my 4 National Championships".



If you think that's a fluke, think again.



Norm Price the inventor of this ingenious lure. Formerly owned a Outdoor Adventure company called Call Of The Wild Adventure Tours Canada. Once again after closing this successful business almost 4 years ago he is reopening and will be using the Bottle Cap Lure to promotes the services once offered. This will include fishing tours,

The ingenious lure also helps recycle a small portion of over 100,000 of North American bottle cap refuse per month that would otherwise end up in a landfills, lakes, streams or worse. "I collect over 100,000 bottle caps each week and that's just in Montreal," says Mr. Price. "We are already planning bottle cap recycling centers all over the US and Canada." This will create new work for students, single moms, and anyone else wanting to work from home at their own pace. This will also give brewing companies a chance to put all the discarded caps to good use.

Mr. Price says a judge has also assured him that since he's using discarded caps beer companies can't go after him for using their product. "You would think that beer companies would jump at the chance to participate with us in helping the environment and receiving free marketing too, but some beer companies don­t like it, and are completely unsupportive," says Price. Matter of fact the former company Norm Price did promotions with in Alberta, Molson Breweries sent Mr. Price a letter from their legal department stating he can not use these discarded caps stating they have to go into the garbage. Mr. Price can supply a copy of this letter. Here is a CTV new video link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-kOYS6LaIU "We will work hard to promote beer companies who appreciate our initiative to create a cleaner world, while responsibly exposing millions to their respective brands."



The Bottle Cap Fishing Lure will be launched into the United States this
month through nationwide fishing stores, marinas, convenience store,
and hardware stores. Giving back to the community, Mr. Price has a stable of about 150 workers, including many senior citizens, students and stay-at-home moms who assemble the lures for him in their spare time.

The Bottle Cap Lure Company helps promote a clean environment while creating championship fishing lures and custom fishing lure products for corporate promotions.

For more information, please go to their website http://www.therednecklure.com/

Fish Quit Biting.

The past week fish have appeared to disappear from the bay and areas around Presque Isle.  In fact, the only positive report that I received was from a fisherman who went straight out from Dobbins Landing last Saturday.  He caught 14 nice jumbo perch and threw back a lot of small ones. 

Since Saturday, I have not talked to anyone that has done well.  Usually around this time, the crappie fishing improves so if I get out this weekend I will most likely target them.  If it is sunny, though, chances are they will not be cooperating too well.  Better days are ahead, Good luck fishin'.

Asian Carp; An Interesting Environmental Science Experiment.

DNA from the invasive Asian Carp has recently been found in nearby Lake Michigan.  Biologists fear that this large invasive fish can cause ecosystem collapse, as these fish are voracious feeders.  So far, DNA from these fish have not been found in Lake Erie or Presque Isle Bay, however, based on past events it may be just a matter of time.

When I was a child, my grandfather used to tell me about the blue pike fishery.  He told me that boats would go out in the early morning and return with literally hundreds of blue pike.  No one ever thought that blue pike could be fished to extinction.  Now the blue pike are gone.  Yellow perch numbers are strong and sportfisherman now catch many more perch due to the cessation of commercial gill-netting which was a great move for all but commercial fisherman.  Walleye numbers are pretty good.  Steelhead numbers are excellent. 

But what happens when this big fat carp gets into our lake?  Well, all I can say is this; I did not know what zebra mussels were before they invaded and I did not know what the heck a round goby was until I actually caught one.  Now, both of these invasive species can be found almost everywhere you look in both the bay and the lake.

Many fish are using both of them as food sources.  I certainly don't want them in the lake but one must admit that the lake is a lot clearer than it was 30 years ago.  Fisherman are also catching Lake Trout off of the piers so it is possible that the zebra mussel has benefitted the Lake Trout. 

For the shore fisherman, the round goby is a royal pain in the neck.  They attack the bait very quickly and usually strip the hook before a nice perch can find it.  I don't know about you but the government should do everything in their power to stop this Asian carp before it gets here unlike they did about the zebra mussel or round goby.  If the Asian carp feed as aggressively as the experts say they do, it is possible they can cause the depletion or total extinction of other native fish species.

So far, agencies have failed in stopping the spread of invasive species into the great lakes.  Let's hope that for this one they can finally do the right thing and use every means possible to prevent this alien fish from entering our waterways.  Should have kept it in Asia.

One group that is watching this issue closely is Save Our Native Species.  Please consider donating to them or another organization that is working for the benefit of the great lakes ecosystem. 

New York State Fishing

This past Saturday while I was up in New York, I ventured out onto Chautaqua Lake near Jamestown NY to see how the ice fisherman were doing.  It was sunny and about 30 degrees and it seemed like everybody was catching a lot of bluegills.  I stopped and talked to a fisherman who had about 30 big bluegills on the ice and one whopper crappie.  While I stood there for a few minutes I saw quite a few fish being pulled out of the holes.  It must have been a great day to be out fishing or Chautaqua Lake is an excellent place to ice fish. 

Next year I am going to buy a New York license and fish Chautaqua for a few days.  A couple words of advice, though.  The ice on Chautaqua does not look like good ice.  It is very thick (14 inches or so) but the top 8-10  inches are snowpack ice.  Snowpack ice melts quickly so I would be very careful venturing out after a warm front comes in.  Good Luck fishing!

My Biggest Bay Perch Ever!

This afternoon was a good day to go out ice fishing. The winds were from the west and it was not too windy on Presque Isle Bay. I was going to fish off of Chestnut Street but the parking lot was full so I decided to try off of the fourth parking lot on Presque Isle. There were about 30 other huts all clustered around 400 yards off of the parking lot. I asked my brother if he wanted to hike out that far and he said "sure" so we parked and started unloading our gear.

A couple fisherman were just coming in around 12:30 pm so we asked them how they did. They showed us their bucket and there looked to be around 30 perch between the sizes of 8 and 10 inches in one of their buckets. We asked them where they were at and they said they were in 16 feet of water about 100 yards before the rest of the pack. After thanking them for the info, we headed out to what we thought was about where they were. The water depth was about 16 feet give or take so I thought we would catch a lot of fish.

I was in the water for only about 5 minutes when I got a big hit. I set the hook and my drag started zipping out. I thought for sure it was a steelhead and after a few minutes I saw a pretty big largemouth bass coming up my hole. My brother grabbed him as the jig popped out of his mouth. This was my largest bass caught through the ice ever and it measured about 18.5 inches.

About 10 minutes later, on the same rod, I hooked into another heavy fish. This fish turned out to be my biggest bay perch ever! It measured 14 and an eighth inches and I later weighed it at my house on a very accurate digital scale. It's weight equaled 1 pound 9 ounces. Now that's a jumbo perch!

All of a sudden the wind shifted direction and it began snowing. The magical fish turned off like they do and my brother and I sat there for a hour without a bite. I did catch 2 more perch; one that I threw back (7.25 inches) and one more that I kept (8.75 inches). I also had a very large bluegill up to the hole but my jig popped out and he dove back into the depths.

My brother unfortunately got skunked for the day. It was very interesting. I caught all of my fish on the same rod out of the same hole. It must have been jig color. The hot jig today was a glowing red with a white eye.

Well, once again I went out at the wrong time. The guys before us caught a lot more fish in the morning, although I was pretty happy with only a few. I am going to go back out Monday or Tuesday morning and try it again. Good Luck!

Ice Fishing Season is Here

Just a quick little post to inform you that the ice is a safe 6 inches in the bay and Misery Bay on Presque Isle. Thirty huts were out on the ice Thursday (Misery) and this weekend there will most likely be more as the fishing reports are coming in. According to one fisherman I talked to, the bluegills are biting well with a good number of crappies being caught also. The crappies are not huge yet, but the biggies should be showing up soon. The crappies are also in tight schools with some huts doing well and others striking out.

I have not ventured out yet but hopefully soon I will be bringing you my own success stories. Happy Fishin'

Ice Fishing Coming Quickly.

It is not even Christmas yet and many local fisherman are gearing up for what looks to be like a long ice fishing season. Colder than normal temperatures are freezing the head of Presque Isle Bay and brave ice fisherman should be venturing onto the ice soon. I like to wait until the ice is at least 5 inches thick but many people go out on 3 inch ice.

Normally, the ice is thick enough around the later part of January. However, this year, unless it warms up significantly, the ice should be ready in the first week of January.

The species of fish that can be caught through the ice in Presque Isle Bay include crappies, bluegills, perch, steelhead trout, a few northern pike, and occassionally large or smallmouth bass. I have heard rumors about walleyes being caught through the ice in Presque Isle Bay but have never seen or caught one myself.

Good luck fishing and be very careful if you venture onto the ice. I will be bringing you pictures and updates as ice fishing season continues.

Steelhead Finally Get High Waters.

A local fisherman once told me that if you can brave the snow and cold, the best steelhead fishing is right around Christmas. This year I believe he is right. We received about 10 inches of snow last week and the past few days, temperatures have skyrocketed into the upper 40's. The snowpack is almost totally gone and the streams are flowing above their banks. In a couple days when the stream levels decrease there should be a plethora of new and old steelhead in the streams and they should be quite a distance from the mouths. I bet they will be eager to hit about anything also! Good luck fishin'

Jumbo Perch Around Piers.

Today my cousin and I ventured down to the South Pier just after sunup and were attempting to catch some jumbo perch. The current in the channel was really strong making fishing difficult. We moved out to the end of the pier and in about 15 minutes I caught a whopper of a perch. A big fat 12 incher. My cousin then caught one of the smallest perch I have ever seen caught:) We had a couple more bites within the next half hour but by 9:00 am forget it, the bite was off and the wind began to really pick up.

One other fisherman caught 3 nice perch and that was about it for today at the South Pier. The nice perch are moving in with the colder water temps and there should be some good days coming up before ice starts forming. Good luck fishing the piers and make sure you bring enough weight to keep your bait in the water if the current is like today.

Perch Fishing Improves Off of Local Piers.

This past week I have been scouting the piers and looking to see what the fisherman are catching. Quite a few perch are now being caught, many are small but there are jumbos mixed in. Steelhead are now in all of the local streams in large numbers. Out at Walnut Creek this past week there were an estimated 1200 fish from near the mouth up to the hole just above the first bridge. Fisherman are catching quite a few steelhead with those using lighter lines faring the best in clear water conditions. Steelhead fishing around Erie will continue to be very good to excellent from now until the end of April unless the streams become frozen later on. Happy Fishin'

Perch Fishing Slow in Channel.

It's name is Perca flavescens, common name yellow perch, and this is the fish that is most sought from the fishing piers surrounding Erie, PA. Today, I went fishing for this tasty fish and the weather really was not cooperating. The wind was blowing hard out of the northwest and there was a bad current in the channel which kept moving my bait towards the lake reminding me of river fishing. Then it started raining and right before I was about to forget fishing and go home and watch football, it suddenly quit raining and I was able to fish until dark. I managed to catch a whopping two fish: one nice sized 10 inch perch and a round goby.

I talked to several other fisherman who did not do any better. It appears that there are a few nice perch moving into the pier waters but the vast majority of them are still out in the lake. Crappies seem to have disappeared from alongside the piers. Steelhead appear to be moving closer to shore in decent numbers as I saw quite a few splashing the surface before dark. The weather has not been that cooperative for fishing the past few days. I plan on getting back out this week scouting for both returning perch and steelhead. Happy fishin'

Returning Perch Starting to Show Up in Buckets

Yesterday I ventured out to the South Pier to check on the perch fishing. Only a couple fisherman. I talked to two of them that were fishing for about an hour and caught 3 perch. One was nice around 10 inches; the other two they released. The lake erie water temperature is falling fast, thanks to the colder than normal weather. Perch fishing should be improving and I am going to give it a go this weekend. Hopefully, I will be showing off my catch in my next update. Happy fishin'