Fishing report for the week of October 16, 2011.: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: October 16, 2011

Brought to you by FishLakeErie.com


[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on October 16, 2011 at 14:09:33:

It's just like déjà vu... Although I did not do a fishing report last weekend, I could literally take the entire paragraph from my last report from two weeks ago and just copy and paste it right into this weeks report. "A great week but a HORRIBLE weekend!" I mean to a t ! It was stunningly gorgeous all of this week when I had no trips until Friday when once again gale force winds along with high waves, rain & cold sidelined everyone that is still left in the water. And once again the few trips that I had left for this dwindling season all got cancelled out. Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Plain sucks. Just like most of the other charters hanging around till the end of the month, I was hoping to get a few more trips in to help wrap up some loose bills still staring at me such as a way ugly gas bill I still have hanging over my head back at the marina. I try not to think about some of the others bills that need paid yet as well. Payments on next years dock fees, campground fees, 4th quarter estimated federal & state taxes, marina services for lifting and washing & winterizing the boat and more ! Wow, I've just managed to depress myself just thinking about all of this ! lol !

Last weekend when I did no report I did manage to get a couple of trips in. And just as it has been all of this fall, the Perch fishing was nothing short of fabulous ! Limits have been almost guaranteed and I believe "The Trophy" has had a perfect run this fall with boat limits on each and every chartered Perch outing. The size of the Perch also has been increasing with each passing week as the water cools. The only strange thing has been that the really good Perch fishing has remained well off shore in the super deep water. 72 foot has been really good but that's about 10 miles out at best and more if you put some east into it angling towards Conneaut coming out of Ashtabula Harbor. That's a lot further than the usual 3 to 5 miles that we like to and normally have to run for our Perch. Heck with the 10 to 15 mile runs that I was making, round trip 30+ miles a lot of days for me and running the motor even at anchor to keep the systems all charged and to attract Perch ( yes, it works ! ) , I may as well have been running offshore trolling trips ! It's no wonder I still have ugly gas bills even though we were just Perching !

With the nice weather and no real trips this past week, I finally was able to get out and get a few fish for my freezer for a change. It always kills me when everybody automatically assumes that I must eat tons of fish all the time and that my freezers are over flowing with fillets. Ummmmm, WRONG ! Everything that gets caught on the charters goes HOME WITH THE CHARTERS ! HELLO ! And if I do have a day off here and there during the season, it's because the weather is bad and if not, there is always repairs/ oil changes etc. etc. etc. that needs to be done. It's really the last thing I want to do is go fun fishing when I am really busy anyway. But I do manage to get a few meat runs in at least during the Perch season each year and that's exactly what I did. I gathered up a few friends and we had at it and had a ball. But by the time I solely paid for the fuel, minnows, fish cleaning etc., it would have been a LOT CHEAPER just to go to the fish market and buy the Perch fillets at the going price of $14.99 a pound ! LOL ! But we had a lot of fun doing it and I have the satisfaction of knowing that those fillets are as fresh as they get as opposed to commercially netted fish that have been dead heaven knows how many days. Mine sure will taste good this winter !

So, the season is just about all but over for me now. This weeks weather does not look good at all for getting out. I still have plenty of open dates left but I am not going to push any of them because of the lousy forecast. I will be in the water regardless of the weather until Monday Oct. 31st when "The Trophy" gets the final big jerk. If things settle down and anybody wants a last chance trip, give me a call. This season was certainly full of highs and lows. It looks as if it's going to end like it started, with bad weather. I guess it's just that time of year. This will probably be my final fishing report for this season. We had some server issues a couple of weeks ago and all of the summers Ashtabula archived fishing reports all got wiped out. I am very, very sad about that because that's when we had our best catches and the most spectacular pictures. Hopefully a lot of you followed along and enjoyed the reports while they were up and when they were being posted each week. I put a lot of work into them, usually dead tired at the end of a work day for me. I am sorry they are gone. So until next year when my reports will faithfully return, I am thanking everyone for following along and I am wishing everybody a safe and quick winter. Special thanks goes out to all of those that fished with me in 2011 and I look forward to seeing everyone again in 2012. Over and out...

Capt. Walt
Trophy Charters





[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

(69.160.178.226)