Winter Non-Ice Fishing in Erie
My dad and I plan on taking a day-trip up to Erie in the next several days and we'd like to do some fishing while up there, as long as everything isn't frozen which according to the current forecast for this week and next weekend, it shouldn't be. One thing I should mention is, that unless there's large schools of Suckers or Northern Pike in the Tribs, I have no interest in getting near any of them for the rest of the year and we will be sticking to the bay and main lake for fishing. My thoughts as of now are (as long as there's no ice) to do some casting for Pike in Marina Lake and or Misery, or possibly even the main bay for part of the day and spend the other part bait fishing for Burbot on the channel. However, even though I've been fishing Erie for my entire life, I've never fished it at any point during this time of year so I have no idea how the bite is for any of the species when there's no ice cover. For those of you who do fish it all the time during the winter, what sort of species if any tend to cooperate with anglers when there's no ice in February? As I said, I'd love to get in to some Pike and Burbot, but for someone with severe cabin fever, I'll settle for anything and would be overjoyed to catch a Bluegill or Yellow Perch right now. Also, I've heard mixed things but I believe this is around the time that Burbot will be spawning so to all you guys who do fish for them, is their location or are their feeding habits any different during the spawn than they are for the rest of the season?
Thanks for the help once again, everyone!
-Sean