Nice Pikes, Walleye in the Bay, Smallies and LM report...

Just had a week vacation up in the area and fished Erie Mon & Wed-Fri. Was after smallies but the most interesting catches to report came from the Bay on Monday and Wed.
 
Monday we returned to the Bay after struggling on the main lake, near shore. Got a few decent smallies but it was slow (kind of stuck to shallow waters and can't travel far). With the wind and waves kicked up, we started to catch a few large mouth here and there in the weeds. Then I caught this decent pike on a spinnerbait - maybe around 30"?

 
In the same area my buddy caught this nice walleye - shallow in the bay on blades. Never caught one in the Bay before (never targeted them) so I was pretty surprised to see this 24" eye. And I was not prepared, had a small 12-pack cooler and I would have had to snap it in half to fit it. What a shame, never ate walleye before.

 
I later lost what appeared to be a musky, much lighter in color, pretty small too - from the same spot. Would have been my first musky ever! Pretty wild variety for us. Got a few dozen bass between us on the day, nothing over 2.5 - all smallies were main lake but I did lose a nice one in that same PIB spot too. Here's a decent one from earlier in the day - weighed 2.6. Sadly that's my biggest smallie on the year. I must have lost 4 fish over 3# this week, including one that looked to be 5# that snapped my line.

 
Wednesday I was out mostly on my own and caught my personal best northern pike, towards the head of the Bay in shallow grass lines (fishing for Large Mouth). It was pretty nuts for me. Previous biggest was 32" from Cayuga Lake, NY. This one seemed to dwarf that fish. Took so long to get it out of the tangled net - and it was bleeding in a few places from the net digging in. Clearly a rookie mistake by me - I freaked and didn't want it to die, so I released it before I could think to take measurements. I'd guess it woulda been 38" with full tail, but it had a few inches of tail fin missing! Just a random guess on size. I'll call it 36" for now unless someone wants to guess. My shoe is in the pic for reference. Really wish I had taken some better pics, out of the net. Sucks when you get a personal best fishing alone - as far as pictures are concerned.

 
Got a lot of 1-2.5# large mouth throughout the trip, mostly in the bay. Probably 50+, but only 2 smallies in the bay in 4 partial days of fishing, and maybe 25-30 or so main lake. Got into a few perch in 15-17' near shore - just had a nice fried fish sandwich. Man I really should be keeping those little buggers when I catch them. Cleanest looking fillets I've had out of freshwater and really good!
 
 
 
 
 

Congrats on the good week of fishing. Glad you got some action in. Ill be out in the bay and main lake most likely a lot the next 2 weeks.
 
My better half is going on a school summer trip to Costa Rica , so that makes me a bachelor fishin fool for a few days
 
Ill be fishing the evenings in the yak after work. Hope to see some of yinzers out there.
 

Congrats thanks for sharing

Mikastorm Sweet! That sounds like a blast! Now go back to work....lol

Haha. Yeah it was a great week, needed to finally get some serious fishing time in. I actually mostly freelance for work, and work's been slow. Might just have to sneak up there again in a week!

deetz4352

Congrats on the good week of fishing. Glad you got some action in. Ill be out in the bay and main lake most likely a lot the next 2 weeks.

Thanks again for the advice. Maybe I'll see you out there next week.

wade alexander

i would say just by looking at the northern it is 33-37 i cant judge that good... but congrats. not worth killing the **** thing my first big pike i ended up killing because it was a bad situation.... had a bucktail deep. and ill never forget the fight to stay alive it had taking off across the lake just to float... feel bad now that i look back more than i am proud congrats on the catches tho

Yeah I hear you. It was the right decision. The wounds all looked minor but just having it out of the water that long was a concern for me. And the amount of slime dripping off that thing - never seen that much before on a pike. It bolted off immediately and looked fine so that was a relief.
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Regarding cooking pike - My buddy (who's from Europe) cooked a pike years ago and gave me some to try. He said his dad kept them all the time, pretty common to cook them where he's from. I was thoroughly unimpressed, to say the least. Chewy and awkward is how I'd describe it. Not even close to any other fish I've cooked. I only see a few a year, if any, I like the thought that someone else might catch that same pike next year and it's gonna make their week, just like it did mine.

krott243

Walleye in the bay...... awesome

  SHHUSH !!!

Keep it all coming! Glad you did well! I just like seeing all the pics when I can't get out! Glad you guys can make it happen and nice to see, so, keep it coming!
 
Smitty

Nice trip, looks like you had fun.
That small "musky" you lost was probably a gar, but couldve been a ski. There are some around, bost mostly pike and gar in the bay.

A giant pike and a walleye in the same day in the bay that's epic. I've only seen 2 others caught during the day in the bay before all others at night