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Lake Erie fishing great for all lately

Photo by Gene Pauszek Left to right, Jason Biffaro, William Duliba and Rich Eggleston hope to find lots of walleye this size during the upcoming walleye tournaments.

Summertime and the living is easy, and so is the fishing on Lake Erie.

Most everyone lately is an expert on catching walleye and yellow perch fishing has been good too, as predicted by the warm water species biologists from the DEC.

Let’s start with walleye. The fishing for walleye on Lake Erie lately has been so good that many of the professional fishermen are timing how long it will take to get a three or four (or more) person walleye limit of six walleye per fisherman. This is not an exaggeration, but reports have been coming in from the Central Basin (off Erie and North East, Pa.) that anglers are limiting out in an hour or less. Locally, anglers are also reporting limit catches too.

Here is the rub. Most of the fish are in the 17 to 20 inch range, which any savvy angler will tell you are the best tasting walleye. They are commonly called “eaters.” This Friday and Saturday, there are over 100 teams of walleye fishermen who will be competing in the Sunset Bay Shoot Out walleye tournament, trying to bring in the heaviest six walleye total, to win a cash prize that will be in the thousands. The walleye eligible for weigh-in must be at least 24 inches in length. These anglers will be catching fish, but finding fish in the 7 pound range or heavier will be the trick. Big Fish Friday will be a great warm up for the anglers to locate fish. Ten-pound or larger walleye have been scarce during tournaments lately.

Life is good when you start complaining about catching too many tasty fish. Yellow perch fishing continues to be decent on a daily basis. Some days are great with catches close to 50 per person. Others days might be only a few dozen, but cleaning a dozen perch is enough for a good meal, and just fine for most anglers. Veteran anglers have commented that lately a lot of smaller sized perch have been hitting. However, many of these fish are being caught in the 28 to 40 foot range and most likely will survive, when released quickly.

Another observation is that the perch are suspended off bottom. You might have better action if you drop your offering to the bottom, then reel up a turn or two of your reel handle. Keep reeling up slowly until you get a bite and try to remember what the depth was. One captain offered that on calm days, you can see streams of emerging algae on the surface. Watching your electronics, you can also see bait feeding near the surface, and the perch and walleye are feeding on them. That’s why most of the walleye action is in 30 to 40 feet of water. Use two, three or five colors of lead core line to reach your feeding zone and consider using size 20 or 30 jet divers to stay in that depth.

Chautauqua Lake is decent with most of the walleye action in 18 feet of water along the weed lines. Largemouth bass are active under the docks, according to Skip Bianco at Hogan’s Hut/Stow.

Calendar:

Southtowns Walleye Association will be holding their monthly meeting today at 7:30 p.m. at their club located at 5895 Southwestern Boulevard, Hamburg. Guest speakers will be the father and son team Mark and Jake Romanack from the Television series “Walleye Fishing 410.” Open to the public.

July 21 is the eighth annual Sunset Bay Shoot Out. This event is full. Contact Captain Don Ruppert at 435-4137 or go to walleyeshootout.com. The weigh-in is on the beach and is a festive occasion worth attending. Big Fish Friday will be on July 21. Weigh-in will be at 4:15 p.m.. The Shoot Out weigh-in is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

August 3, 4, and 5 are the dates for the Northern Chautauqua Conservation Club walleye derby. A three day tourney, with three walleye per day allowed entry. Two to four anglers per boat. A full field of 100 teams is currently signed up with a waiting list. This three day event is considered by some as the most fun event of the area tournaments. Lots of opportunities to win.

Aug. 25 is the Innovative Outdoors Walleye Challenge out of Dunkirk. A one day tournament with optional Big Fish Friday on Aug. 24. Limited to 65 boats with the registration deadline on Aug. 1. Contact Jim Steel at 481-5348 or go to lakeeriewalleyetournament.com.

The Children of the Stream Youth Fly Fishing Program will be starting its 18th year of providing weekly free fly tying and fly fishing classes to both youths and adults in our area. Note that classes will switch from Wednesday evenings from 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. to Tuesday evenings at the Costello Community Room (P84) in the new addition to the Rockefeller Arts Center at SUNY Fredonia. You do not need any prior experience to attend these classes, and the course is geared towards ages 10 and older. For more information contact Alberto Rey at 410-7003 or alberto@albertorey.com.

If your club or organization is holding a hunter safety training/trapping course or a turkey shoot or any other outdoors event, and would like to see it posted in the calendar, send information to the OBSERVER, 10 East Second Street, Dunkirk, NY 14048, or call the sports department at 366-3000 ext. 5 after 6 p.m.

Note: If you have a big game fishing or trapping success story you would like to share, call 366-1772, or 467-2079 and leave a name, phone number and a time you can be reached. You can also call 366-3000, ext. 5, after 6 p.m. or email sports@observertoday.com.

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