Fishing Log

Sept 16... Took the Richard A. Smith out for Excalibur Leisure Skills. This is a boat designed for people with special needs. We fished for a bit and landed a nice smallmouth. The person who caught it was mighty proud and excited. Sept 14th....Another beautiful day on Lake Erie, except I went to Casadaga Lake to practice flipping grass for an upcoming tournament. On the 20th I will be headed to Lake Gaston in Virginia and I expect it will be fishing grass something we don't have a lot of in Lake Erie. The smallie pictured to the left was taken when I was alone just before I boated the fish. It was about three pounds and a ton of fight. Sept 11... I took the Richard A. Smith out for Excalibur Leisure Skills. We had a group of elderly folks from an assisted living home. Richard, one of the residents wanted to fish. We stopped the boat near the outer breakwall and dropped a line. In 15 minutes we boated a five pound bass,a four plus and a three pounder, and lost one before we could see it. Richard is over 90 years old and from his smile I could tell he felt like a kid again, that is the magic of fishing!

Sept 6... Went out today with Sam scouting for "hot spots" for an upcoming tournament on Lake Erie we are going to fish. We hit a few spots and got small bass that wouldn't weigh much. We had a variable east wind and as it was a tougher bite today. When a cool front comes through or the wind is not favorable the trick is slow down the presentation and keep it near the bottom. We drop shot for a while and we caught small fish. I switched to a carolina rig with a big ole Slurpie jungle hog, color was peanut butter and jelly, those big smallies slammed the bait. When you see the bait you think it would only work on largemouth, but big smallmouth like big baits. What started out slow turned out to be a good day.

Aug 16... Great weather started slow still looking for clear water. I could find pockets from Evans Bar to Athol Springs. In the clear water the fish were biting but in the muddy water I drew a blanks. I fished a flat near Athol Springs and in 2 1/2 hours I caught and released over 30 bass, all caught on a drop shot with Berkley Gulp leeches... better than live bait.

Aug 15 ... The bit died overnight... We ran to Seneca Shoals got a couple bites no hook ups. Lots of boats didn't see much action around us. Followed the same route as on my survey on Friday... but the bite was really off. I had a little more wave action but nothing that would be a problem. I showed my clients that the fish on the graph were real I fished only a short time and picked up couple bass a 2.5 and a 4 pounder. At least they went home with a "fish fry" I felt bad. Greg said he knew I tried and they were on fish... got bit numerous time but just couldn't hook up. The saying is "that is why they call it fishing".... but I don't like it.

Aug 14... Went out to look for fish. Water is still stained and muddy in many spotsfrom the storms of last Sunday. Seneca Shoals looked ok... on a short survey caught 3 bass in the 2 to 3 pound range. Checked some spots off Athol Springs caught a 4 pound bass.. water somewhat more stained. Meyers Reef saw a lot of fish on the graph but could not get bit very muddy water. Checked a spot east of Meyers picked up a 5+ pound bass. Moved to near Evans Bar water was very muddy on he way but it was quite clear here. Picked up a 3.5 pound bass here. It is looking good for my chater on Saturday the 15th.

Aug 8-10 ... Three days of heavy showers...Sunday was the worst, a line of severe thunderstorms dumped six inches of rain on parts of the area. Cattaraugus Creek experienced a flood which washed out all the marinas at the mouth, over one hundred boats were damaged or lost, many washed into Lake Erie and sank. For the entire week since the flood Lake Erie has been muddy...and choaked with logs and debris. If you can find semi clear water it was possible to catch fish... but clear water is tough to find.

Aug 2 ... It was choppy and they were catching lots of bass. We went through 2 pounds of minnows! So I was busy removing fish and baiting hooks and keeping us on the fish. Vincent's wife, Rachel, caught the biggest bass it was over four pounds and I think she caught the most. The weather wasn't perfect, but we hardly noticed with all the fish we caught. They kept a few for the frying pan. Fresh bass are a great tasting fish. I should post a few recipes... I think that will be a project in the off season. Every one had a Great Day!

Aug 1 ... Great day, the weather was perfect. The Lake still retained a roll from the rough days before but it was okay. My Charter fished on Meyers Reef and quickly landed some nice perch the biggest was over a pound. We picked up a few bass there as well. It got crowded a lot of boats moved in and it was tough to keep them off our spot on the Reef. We made a move up near the Point and fished for bass. We caught some nice ones biggest was almost four pounds.

July 31.... Glad this month is coming to an end. I just heard the weather summary... 19 of 31 days it rained. This July is in the ten coolest on record, and when it is cool in the summer, it is windy and July was windy almost every day. I did get out yesterday and today for bass and the bass are biting! The bass pictured here is the average size, and they fight hard. The weather ahead looks great so I will be making up for some lost time on the lake. I hear a lot of fishermen wondering where the walleye disappeared to. Most of the competitors in the Chautauqua County Lake Erie Walleye Tournament came in empty handed this past weekend, so there is indeed concern about the walleye. I had a discussion with Don Einhouse, Sr. Fisheries Biologist at the Lake Erie Unit for the NYS DEC. I asked about the walleye and this is what he told me. The walleye population in Lake Erie has been trending down since the huge 2003 year class. Naturally as this year class gets older there will be fewer of them. The entire Lake walleye population is heavily influenced by the numbers of western basin walleye which migrate throughout the lake. Since 2003 the western basin has not had a significant spawn and recruitment. We have had two good year classes in the eastern basin (2005 and 2006) so our numbers are not too bad, but the quality of our fishing is dependent a great deal on the western basin migrants. The second factor is the weather. This has been the 6th coolest July on record and the 2nd coolest June and July period on record... the weather has been lousy. The migration of walleye from the west to the east is heavily influenced by the temperature. Cool summers have fewer fish moving east, hot summers and we get a lot of western basin fish showing up here. It is believed that walleye, a cool water fish, migrate to the cooler eastern basin to escape the heat. If it is cool there is no reason to come. The last thing that is influencing the fishing success is the availability of forage. The recent July trawls conducted by Don and his staff found a huge abundance of smelt on the bottom. I have seen them on my fishfinder. Schools of smelt 10 feet thick on the bottom running for miles. A walleye doesn't have to look far for a meal so they are tougher to catch on a bait. So if you want walleye fish deep slow to put the bait in their face.

July 22nd...Today is my anniversary; I have been married 37 years... I can not believe my wife has been so tolerant to let me play all these years. I am a lucky man. I went out on the Lake, it is has been rough and rainy for almost a week. Today my buddy Sam and I went to Meyers Reef were a school of walleye had been... they are gone now, replaced by bass... thousands of bass. We lowered the aquaview camera and saw bass everywhere. We headed west to some deep reefs we know and saw plenty of hooks on the fishfinder but no takers today. We located a school of what we believe are yellow perch in 70 feet of water. It was ten feet thick and ran for hundreds of yards. It was too deep to check with the camera.

July 10.... Basseye Celebrity Challenge, a fundraiser for Csytic Fibrosis research was today. This year I was the media boat ... not happy about that I wanted to be fishing. I took outdoor writer, Bill Hilts, out to see and photograph some of the participants in this years event. We found former Bills Quarterback, Jim Kelly, out near Seneca Shoals... we saw him catch a small goby. He was in his glory asking us "where would you rather be than right here right now?"... that line sounded familiar. Bill and I continued to look for the field out on Meyers Reef (my favorte walleye spot right now)... there about a dozen boats drifting over the reef, nobody was catching fish. Don't they know they have to troll and bottom bounce... (Check out my last installment)... I asked Bill if he wanted to try ... the obvious answer was ... yes... so I setup two 'riggers and we made one pass... had a trip (bite) and a miss. Then my phone rang I had to go back to the harbor and pick up a TV reporter. So all we had fishing was ten minutes. I ran the 18 miles back into the harbor and back out on to the lake. We found Bob Rich, owner of Rich Products and the event chairman, fishing near Snugg Harbor. Snugg Harbor is not really a harbor it is a local name for a fishing spot. If you want to know where it is call me for a trip I can show you exactly where it is. Snugg Harbor usually has pretty good bass fishing. After taking the media around I managed to get in a little fishing a long the Coast Guard Station across from the Naval Park in downtown Buffalo. I managed to land one big smallie and two smaller largemouth. I missed a couple bites, I guess I wasn't focused enough. Tomorrow's charter had to be postponed due to a poor weather forecast... they are calling for severe thunderstormes and winds 10 to 20 knots from the west to southwest... it will be rough on the lake again.

July 9.... We have had a lot of windy weather however, today was perfect. I headed out to Meyers Reef to check on the school of walleye that have been hanging out there. I setup my downriggers with wormharnesses... hooked three walleye none were giants 3 to 4 1/2 pounds. Pulled my lines and headed west near Evangola State Park... picked up two more, this school was a little bigger about six pounders. I hit the water and started fishing about 8:30 AM and was done by noon. The key was "bottom bouncing" with the 'rigger. I set the downrigger ball a few feet off the bottom with a Paul Stoos special wormharness trolled a little then dropped the 'rigger ball to the bottom... tripped the line and as it fluttered up I would hook a walleye. If you want one or two of Paul's special wormharnesses email me for price and availability. I ran other harnesses on my other downrigger but this was the hot one today.

July 7th... After battling the rough lake Sam and I went into the Buffalo River for sight seeing in downtown Buffalo. As we cruised along the river we couldn't resist stopping at some old dock pilings to toss a few plastic worms. I managed to land a couple "nice" Bufflao River largemouth. They weren't giants, just a bonus after a rough morning on the lake. I have fished in all sorts of bass waters around the eastern US and nothing beats my home waters of Lake Erie and its tributaries for fishing... Just like that little girl said in an old movie... "There is no place like home... there is no place like home...."

July 7th... Since I got back from the tournament trail the lake has not yielded good weather, today was no exception we had a rough chop at the start that just built to 2 to 3 footers as the morning progressed. My buddy, Sam, wanted to try some new techniques this morning... he was perfect landed goby after goby including this Double Header on one HOOK! Not a treble hook a single hook, try to top that!

June 20... Heavy rains, the day started out calm but turned nasty rough in the afternoon. I went out by myself looking for a trophy walleye. All I could get were "eater" sized walleye. My biggest was a 24 inch very fat walleye that could have gone six pounds. This season I have seen a lot of 5 to 6 pound walleye from the big 2003 year class.

June 19... Good day on the Lake. The weather was better than predicted, and bass were very cooperative. My guests caught some of the biggest bass they have ever reeled in... and the perch they caught were huge. We were getting one pound perch on "bass minnows". Thank you Sam for sending me the picture of your day on my boat. It was great to have you and your daughter on board.

Sunday June 14th the bite was good for a half day charter we managed 4 nice walleye and a bunch of bass. Ken caught the largest walleye of his life. His wife, Dawn, caught a big 4 lb plus smallmouth bass. The conditions couldn't have been better warm, blue sky and the fish were biting. This is post spawn for walleye everyday the bite will get better as the summer pattern sets up. Bass are still on beds, but the action has been good.

June 11, 12 and 13th.... June 11 and 12 saw perfect lake conditions overcast skies but the water was cool and fish weren't biting. My aplogies to my guests on both days. It is amazing how a couple degress in water temperature can make on the fishing...especially post spawn walleye. A lot of the Southtowns Walleye anglers were just looking at hooks on the screen and couldn't get bit on the 13th. I think a lot of the guys were fishing to far out on the lake. The lake had been dead calm the past few days but today there was a little wave action which probably helped as well. I managed to find a pocket of warmer water about 63 degrees and the bite was on. No giants all fish were around 5 pounds. In about an hour I managed to boat 7 walleye plus a lot of bass... I let them all go to catch another day. I hope the action continues tomorrow I have another charter (Bass and Walleye combo) really just fishin' and havin' fun! (Pictures coming soon)

June 10th ...We had a couple rough days since the my last entry. Water is dead calm today...water has warmed up to 60 degrees on the surface walleye every where.

Last winter... the lake got rough. I have gotten behind on the log.... been very busy on the Water. June 5th a Bass Charter It was an east wind and as the Saying goes "Wind from the east fishing the least." We did catch fish but it was a slow bite, the day was beautiful on the water.

This is a new feature on the website which will be continually updated throughout the season. Check back here for updates on the fishing. This bass was caught on May 24... the action is heating up!