Storm Warning II

Log is essential. It helps establish patterns with certain water temps and conditions and helps us record hot spots w/ GPS coordinates especially for key structural elements for future use. Been keeping one for 3 years and it pays dividends virtually every trip.

The humps out there in the "NE Corner" (where PA line meets OH line meets Canadian border) can be a blast late summer for steelies and the occassional eye. Lots of humps, lots of steelies. Hooked 24 in an afternoon out there once. Hard on gas, 25 mile run out of Conneaut.

The "ditch" or the "trench" is what we refer to as any water deeper than 69. In PA waters, there are actuall two fingers that extend from Ohio's deep waters, the first trench and the second. In between the two is a big hump that raises up to around 50 fow. I don't have my log book w/ me at the office, but got to the 'Bula stacks and head north till you hit 70 fow, as you head east, you will have to also work south to maintain 70 fow. Try to bounce off the 70 to the shallower 68 or so depth and watch your plotter, you will see the "dip" in the south lip of the ditch that I speak of because as you get further east (a mile or so) you will have to work much more sharply north to maintain that depth range.

It was fun, but not really that much fun when you are scouting for 'eyes for a tourney in PA waters over the weekend. We fished from the line and further east. There is a sharp depth break on the state line that always seems to gather steelies and 'eyes as it slides from 55 pretty quickly to 70 along the line. There and west I am sure that there are steelies.

Fished the south lip SE into 50 fow and it was polluted w/ steelhead. Fish rolling on the surface, smashing bait on the surface, swimming by the boat making bait jump out of the water. Fished from 4 to 8:30 and hooked up 8 steelies, landing 5 and hooked 7 eyes, landing 5. Fairly slow, but eyes are just scattered everywhere here and in no concentrations. Come on you 'Bula and Geneva guys, send some our way! Big mono divys, 3.5 back 135, braid big divys 3.5 back 100. Riggers 40 and 35.

Fish your jets on braid or mono Monkeypuke?

We fished the south lip of "the ditch" or the "trench" as we refer to it. Basically the 70 mark. We were on 14. There is a little dip in that depth where the 70 mark is closer to shore there than it is just about anywhere else along that section of shoreline ('Bula to PA line). We bounced from 70 into 68 back to 70 along a mile stretch that held fish. Had a fantastic day on those marks last July 3 (per the log book). Banged 4 limits in 45 minutes there. Was crazy!

Jimmy took some guests out for a morning trip. Fished from 35 fow to 63 fow and eeked out 5 eyes, all '03s and 2 for 3 on steelies. No real hot bait, variety.

Fished 7 am till noon out of Conneaut. Ventured out to some old marks NW of port. Slow pick but ended up w/ 12 eyes, all '03 fish and 3 for 4 on steelies. Best baits were Dreamweaver WD mixed veggie and WD VQ green alewife.

Probably eyed you on Saturday Toxic. We saw a few boats inside of us and a little west. Heard you on the radio a couple times and thought about saying hello, but everytime we got hooked up. We fished a little deeper than you directly north of the stacks. Found a little pocket out there where we picked up 12 eyes and 3/4 on steelies, no trash.

Hatin' the weaterman here on Erie too. 1 to 3s are now 4 to 6s, so much for fishing tonite.

I would love to see some info from some guys fishing today, but as usual, they can't get a wind/wave forecast accurately more than 5 or 6 hours in advance. Initial forecast of SW 10 to 20, 1 to 3s has turned into west 10 to 20, 2 to 4s going to 3 to 5s. YUK!

You are right Crab Ass. But 20# Salmon have BIG tails!!! Salmon, especially big ones, are also a lot more temp sensitive. We fished Olcott last Labor Day after the week straight of NE blow and it stacked the warm water up inside. Guys had been getting them staging between 50 and 90 fow. We never marked, nor caught a fish till we went way deep to find better temps. Ended up doing well in 350 to 400 fow! Got some probe readings from a Capt. out of Erie (city of) today and the temps are right for the top 30 to 40 fow to be productive, but the schools have disintegrated. Why? I am asking these questions to become a better fisherman, you can never learn enough.

The thermocline set up when the water has dropped ten degrees from a pre-set "flip" is what I meant by flip. Now I'm really confused. The smelt are still spawning??? I thougth the preferred temp range for smelt was less than 50? If they are feeding on smelt, why do they have such a preference right now for smaller spoons, I would think they would want larger spoons if smelt was the forage base at the moment? So if the thermocline is set up in 63 to 64 fow is it also in deeper water? I would assume it is the normal 35 to 45 feet down? I am by NO MEANS an expert, I am just having a hard time wrapping my brain around what is going on this year. I appreciate your insight MonkeyPuke, you are the professional. It has been very strange to date. We are catching steelhead in 44 fow in mid June?????????? Some guys are catching more steelhead than 'eyes???

Notice any big changes in the surface temps over the last week Capt? Fish "de-schooled"? Have a probe down? Strange things going on a little east of you. I think eastern end of the central and the eastern basin flipped about last Wednesday and fishing should go crazy in about a week once the thermocline is set up.

When does everybody think the lake will flip and the thermocline will set up??? When will the schoolies from the west arrive in the eastern end of the central basin??? Surface temps are nearing 70 in the deeper waters and that usually seems to be the trigger! Let's get some dialogue started!

Would like to invite all Erie guys to the 2nd Annual EPSFA Walleye/Steelhead Pro Am out of Erie PA on August 11 & 12. $20,000 in cash and prizes will be given away! Great format, great folks, great setting and fishing! Steelhead and Walleyes school off key structural features along the PA shore in late summer as they stage to begin the migration west for the eyes to the central and eventually western basins to spawn and the steelhead school right with them to put on the feed bag for the charge to the tribs for the fall migration. Fishing can be crazy furious with lots of 'eye and chrome hookups throughout the day. Check out EPSFA.org for rules and entry info. Come to PA and get some Silver and Gold!!!

Must be doing something right MonkeyPuke. We have averaged 1 good fish a trip. Saturday a 31 1/2" 10#+ fish and Sunday a 27" 7# 2oz'er. Tuesday the biggest fish was only 4.5#. The rest of our catch is the now "lovely" '03 class fish. BTW...we are fishing off Conneaut.

That's why Jimmy plays mate and I play captain. Takes the agony out of it. Jimmy will ask what I want out, where, and how and set those lines, I'll keep the boat on target, on speed, and out of everyone else's way. Intuition plays a little better later on when some zig zags, some power turns or some speed bumps may antagonize a bite or two as well.

Fished 40 - 50 fow. All delivery systems did well, plugs off boards (#4 Bagley fire tiger best), dipsys, riggers, etc. Most fish on larger spoons (3.75s), only a few on Stinger Scorpions. Hot spoons for the weekend: DW Monkey Puke, DW Super Slim Walleye Slapper, NK NBK, DW SS Greasy Chicken (?) 2.75 limits in 3 hrs. Saturday evening. 3 limits Sunday am from 6 am to 9:30 am.

Yep, several times. I always get drafted to run the knife at fishing tourneys!

What is the Yankee Troller, I really like that boat!!!

Too many to count! 25#+ King caught off Olcott last Labor Day weekend. Biggest salmon on the Storm to date. We danced a jig for 20 minutes after it hit the bottom of the boat! 33 5/8" 12# eye in the middle of summer! Imagine this fish in the pre-spawn...15 or 16#??? Fish popped off the rigger and it was a first timer on the boat that was due up. So he grabbed the rod and it didn't move...uh oh! This is a BIG one! Of course it got wrapped up in the other rigger while down there and after it finally surfaced we all gasped at the size of it. We all freaked out because it was about 6 feet out of net range and the spoon off the other rigger was at the end of the rod the fish was on. So Jimmy jumped up on the motor and untangled it while we watched the biggest walleye we have ever seen is rolling around in the prop wash! It finally got netted and is on the newbie's wall. Talk about beginner's luck. (Sorry about the pic quality, it is from a cell phone) No pic for it, but the end of June last year, most guys were still trolling the "inside" waters where 'eye fishing had been HOT for the last 2 weeks off Conneaut, OH. The surface temps were getting where I wanted them and I knew that schoolies should be moving in from the western basin out in the trench (70+ fow). So everybody agreed lets avoid the crowds and go do something different so I pointed her NW and motored out 6 1/2 miles to the trench, not another boat in sight. Ran the first dipsy back and before we could get it in the holder...FISH ON! Long story short, the 4 of us, never got 8 rods in the water. 24 'eyes in the boat in less than 45 minutes. TRAIN WRECK! First great day of '06. 5 1/2 hours caught a 4 man limit plus 4 throwbacks, all good to excellent quality fish. 7 'eyes over 7# including 1 over 10#.

Walleye Ceviche" 2# walleye fillets diced into small 1/4 x 1/4 cubes 1 bunch fresh cilantro, use 4 or 5 sprigs and mince 1 clove garlic, minced 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2 onions minced 2 tomatoes diced a PILE of limes 1 or 2 sliced thin chilis of your choice dash of cayenne pepper dash of tabasco, frank's red hot, etc. 1 tsp of salt black pepper to taste Bag of Tortilla chips Mix cilantro, olive oil, onions, tomatoes, chilis, salt and pepper, garlic, cayenne pepper, dash of hot sauce of choice, and 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice in mixing bowl. Toss until thouroughly mixed together and set aside. Dice up the walleye and place in a glass casserole dish, lining the bottom. Dump in contents of mixing bowl and toss with your hands until mixed thoroughly. Squeeze enough fresh lime juice to cover the contents of the casserole dish and cover tightly with Syran wrap. Refrigerate overnight, pull out, and enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips. Or can be served as a cold soup.

Have you done much this spring with your wire divers Skeiner? We fished the lady O 4 days this spring and caught some coho and small kings on them with spoons so the last 2 days I went to flasher/flies and we got 1 hawg, but that was the only hit on them in 2 days! Most of the fish came off the riggers. I was running them on a "2" back 225 which was what the guys around us were catching them at. I was running same/similar flashers/flies, same GPS speed within a couple hundred yards of them and just couldn't get much to happen. Any thoughts????