With the exception of a couple trips to Arthur and a couple trips to Glade Run in the kayak, I've been mainly exploring creeks and small rivers to get away from the crowds. I've also realized that creek smallmouth are pretty much my favorite fish to catch ever.

Finally getting out on the Lake Erie... weather and work finally cooperated and Sunday and Monday were spent on the water.  Limited out on walleye each day, Sunday was a long grind following horrible weather/waves on Saturday churning things up and it was our first day trip out this year, so a lot of trial and error...and error... and more trials but finally dialed it in.  Dogs enjoyed the day though. Monday was a much quicker day, limited by 10 a.m. and dogs got to go along again to enjoy the day.  
2 days doesn't give us a clear picture on how the lake will treat us this year but was encouraging to see a lot of very nice conditioned young/smaller fish and the general weight of even the smaller ones was really good, looks like they have been feeding well. We threw back at least a couple dozen each day.  We didn't search for perch yet, would love to see signs of them schooled up again but not holding my breath. 

When those Western Basin fish get down our way, it should be lights out. Nice couple of days FL2. Here's to a bunch more 🍻, plenty of Summer left.

my son got a couple of good fish at arthur last night.  can't keep his eyes open when the camera flashes though.  
 
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Now there are a couple of great catches!  He can work on being photogenic some other time, lol...his eyes may be closed but that smile makes up for it!

it was pretty fun.

finally broke down and got a cast net and permit instead of making him huck bombers, which he’s good doing for about 15 minutes till he finds a spot on the bank to curl up and take a nap.

he’s been practicing with the cast net all week and caught most of the bait last night. he fished with alewives while i threw bombers and well, he beat me pretty bad. he also landed a big channel cat and had a couple drag screamers that he lost after quick battles.

Great pics Snagr. Thats a huge Large Mouth for anywhere. 👍👍👍👍

ahhhhhhh beginners luck................
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Congratulations Andrew. Job well done. Dad too. 🍻

python73
I've gone a total of ONE time this year.  By this time last year I had a dozen plus trips in and that includes several to Wilhelm.  Fishing around here is supposed to be quiet and relaxing in my book, and the lakes are so packed full of clowns that it just hasn't been worth it.  Normally we'd be in our summer pattern right now catching perch mostly.  But do I want to haul my boat to the lake, dodge 500% increase in selfish fools at the launches just to dodge endless yakkers shouting at each other from 5 feet away for a couple perch?  Hard to drag myself out there when a Tuesday morning is going to be like a late morning Saturday crowd, and the weekend crowd is more like a holiday crowd.  
 
Bonus gripe, 4th of July this weekend.  You couldn't drag me out there.  Arthur will look like Daytona at spring break.  Already looking forward to November on Tampa Bay chasing grouper this year.  That normally doesn't start until at least summer is over.  

This at least makes me feel better about having to rebuild my deck...  This has been pretty much what I have been witnessing on Arthur since March.
 
Got out with my cousin on Caesar Creek Lake in SWOH for a few hours this week while work had me out that way.  Fishing was slow, but his boat was fast.  Makes me wonder why I barge around on Arthur, when I could be doing 60MPH between spots on a bass boat!  Then he told me how much those boats go for and I remembered why I don't have...  New 150HP motor costs more than I paid for my truck...  I couldn't imagine taking a kayak or paddle board on that lake.  The jet skis, joy riders and those pulling tubes are probably more of a fishing nuisance than what Arthur has.  Although, it wasn't bad there.  He said that it was busy for a weekday evening.  But as many have said before, when guys go by on plane, the wake is half of those pushing 10-20MPH here.  Guys whipping by on their bass boats barely had us rocking.  Most of them barely had any hull hitting the water.  The pleasure boaters and tubers were a different story though.   

I’ve been going out 1-2 times a week on average. Initially parks like Keystone and Northmoreland but those are heavily pressured now and have seen a pretty big uptick with recreational use as well. COVID has done a great job at increasing state park attendance. Lol

For the last few weeks I’ve been been hitting KPD to get away. There water levels have dropped and post spawn bass has been tough. But still finding fish just not as many. I’m in a kayak so can’t cover as much water as I’d like. But still learning the lake and how to find the fish in this heat. Water surface temperatures have been around 79-80 this week.