So far this year I fished Lake Arthur twice (got skunked once). Allegheny River Lock 3-4 fished five times, caught walleye, saugers and a few Mr. Whiskers. The week after the 4th of July I  fished for eyes on lake Erie near Dunkirk NY. We caught most of them in 65+  feet with crawler harnesses trolling at 1.6-1.9 mph.    

So we decided to make a 1 day trip to camp, since unfortunately I work tomorrow :(
Messaged some vets to see who wanted to try their luck and got 2 quick volunteers that have fished with us many times over past 3 years. We went out of Walnut (note to anyone using walnut on a weekend, arrive an hour earlier than you think you need to, totally nuts)
We ran north to 65 fow and headed west for a slow pick, getting a few here and there on deep stick baits off of boards. Zig zagged to check out different depths, finally getting better bites at 60 to 62 fow. We turned back east and started a steadier pick. We had 3 over 24", most were 20 to 24" range with a ton of throwbacks (over 30 at last count).
We had a half dozen sheep and another 6 or 8 silver perch and one suicidal yellow perch. Near end of day I brought in a 12lb channel cat on a small spoon behind a 3 dipsy. Dang thing took off like a freight train and took an inside board line with it. Took forever (it seemed) to boat it, amazed it didnt break off. We didnt tape it but did hang it on the scale.
Fun was had by all and if mother nature cooperates we will be back to try again next weekend. :)
Will try adding pics from my tablet, cant get them to load on the phone.
 
https://postimg.cc/gallery/KzTjY7Z

🙌🙌🙌 Good for you guys, well deserved catching trip.

Great pictures too. 👍

Super swell of you guys having veterans join you as well.🍻

Gotta a bagful there. Nice. Wer gonna try outta Shades later this week. Wanted to head up today, but couldn't find a passenger. Great job FL2.

Any thoughts on the Gulp Alive 6" crawlers? Dragging meat, there is no way to keep the sheepies and other junk off of it. I've heard using the gulp it tends to hold up a little better to the onslaught.

We use a cheap wind up kitchen timer to remind us to pull dipsies to check for hitch hikers and empty worm hooks. If a rod hasnt gone off in 15 minutes it is time to check it. We caught 8 or 10 baby walleye yesterday that were under 8 inches. If we hadnt pulled lines to check we would have never known they were there.

As far as the vets...I would suggest anyone interested look into your nearby veterans groups, there are many around. We have been involved as 'support volunteers' for the Project Healing Waters annual steelhead get together for a few years and although they do fly fishing we found some in the group always asked us about the lake fishing so when we got our latest boat we started inviting interested vets along for walleye trips. We arent a charter and cant always promise them a boatload of fish but we do what we can to give them a good day on the water. We enjoy taking out friends and family also but my husband and I agree that our 'vet runs'  are our hands down favorites.  There is a VA hospital in Erie, and a lot of vets local to the area, so often can find passengers on short notice. 

wilbur_83
I'm glad that you still do that Fisherlady...It killed me to miss the picnic last year.
 
Gonna miss it this year too 

If you want to send me a PM I will give you my contact info if you are wanting to try for a lake run :-)

Fishing weekly, things are good! Hope you can find a few...
 
 

If you want to send me a PM I will give you my contact info if you are wanting to try for a lake run :-)





I was a volunteer as well and Shirley - best times ever - met some great duuds.  Miss them all.
I live in Arkansas now.  Have fun this summer.
 

Well she giveth and she taketh away... Lake Erie is the only mistress I've ever had that didnt treat me right everytime. Blown off today. Not even close for our boats. Oh well. There still should be a good month left, fingers crossed.

Surprised no mention of the state record brown caught yesterday on here.

We managed 5 man limits in 70+ today n yesterday. Saw some little boats pushing their luck out far today.

Is this the fish story? Congratulations to the angler.

http://www.southeasternou...-trout-buljubasic.html

OK. I saw July 19th but didn't see what year.

That would suck, breaking a record held since 1997 only to have a new record set so fast. Stupid fish.


Congratulations to the new record holder.

A tried and true method is to find gradual sloping bottom out to deep water. Set up your rig and return to shallow water noting what depth the rig bumps.

Spending a few minutes creating your own chart based on your equipment and rigs might pay off.

Pymie has been kind our last few trips out. Seems to be a certain color at a certain depth has been working for suspended eyes. Only had about 2 hours last night after helping a pontoon of anglers in distress. Managed a 20 inch eye. Lost another and we caught 2 catfish.