2009 Fishing Report
2008 Fishing Report
2007 Fishing Report
2006 Fishing Report
2005 Fishing Report
2004 Fishing Report
2003 Fishing Report

Fishing was good Friday aboard the Vision Quest. The action started slow but improved as spot #3 unfolded. The key was finding "green water" The charter boat "Wall Hanger" had found this water the day before and found it full of fish. They keyed us in on this area as we worked down the Lake. The key depth in the morning was 5 -8 ft. of water. Later 10 ft to 16 ft. ruled, as sun and clear water pushed the fish further out. Bomber Superbaits and Blakemores provided the bulk of the hits with red, black, purple and orange working best. We limited (4 tickets by 1:00PM) plus a throw back. We had a total of 26 strikes which included 6 smallmouth bass and several silver fish misses. COHO was king today with a total of 10 coming to the new with 3 steelies added. The PA Fish Commission is making a mistake by not stocking these fish anymore after the meager 2003 plant. Today proves again that they do return and are worth the investment.

October 11th Fishing Report:

Fishing was good again on Saturday. Mostly Coho's. The Vision Quest hooked up 24 silver fish in order to land a 3 man limit but we finally did. Same program as Friday except we had to move out a little deeper once the lake flattened, water cleared and the sun was high. Highlite of the morning trip was a 8 fish flurry within a 20 minute time period. That was fun. Bombers and Blakemores in SuperBait colors worked well again.

Once again, our catch was mainly Coho Salmon (8) and (1) Steelie. In additon, we caught and released (4) smallmouth bass.

October 12th Fishing Report:

Another nice day and another great box of fish. The Vision Quest started good, had a slow period and then found them again. Today, we had to work a little harder as the fish seemed to swim away from us any time we started to get a program to work. In the end, we had a super day as we filled out a 5 man limit of Coho and Steelies, landed 6 beautiful smallmouth bass and lost a pile of fish. Overall, we had about 30 silver fish hooked up in addition to the smallmouth bass. Today, was orange and red day. Blacks were "cool". A hot bait was the big Short Wart, which is a shallow running wart in orange. In addition, the bomber Terminator Superbait was Hot again. Best depth was 10 to 12 ft. of water with a few additional fish taken in 6 ft. and 16 ft. Boards, long flats and short "digger" rods were all effective as a Lake Erie chop and overcast conditions allowed for a less stealthy presentation.

October 18th Report:

Vision Quest and Reel Deal fished as a team on Saturday. It was a pretty god day of hooking and a fair day of catching. Despite rolly water conditions and very dirty stirred up water, both teams did well and managed to boat 20 silver fish. They included 16 Steelhead and 4 Coho Salmon. Many fish were lost today. A total of 56 fish were hooked up with many quick releases. I feel the muddy water conditions did not allow for a good "bite" from these fish and thus a lot of missed fish and short strikes. 6 ft to 12 ft. of water was best with Terminator Superbait colors, orange and red working best (As usual). The fishing should only get better, with November being the hottest and heaviest hitting month.

October 25th Report:

Saturday the Vision Quest found the magical 5ft. to 8 ft. depths of water and found the perfect green water we like to see. That equalled the infamous cry of: Fish -Fish- Fish. It was not long into the morning that the 4-man party of Andrew and Bob Halmi, Bob Chandler and myself found their limit of feisty Coho Salmon and Steelhead in the box. The rest of the morning was spent returning Coho and Steelies back into the lake (unharmed). Hot colors were Pink-Pink and more Pink. A few fish were caught on black and red but Pink was king. We tried the new "Winning Streak" produced by Dave's Lures. This is a Hot N Tot look alike and we used the fl. red color. We placed it as a "noise/digger" rod out to the side and back 40 ft. This produced the second fish of the day and accounted for several more bites during the morning. It can now be added to the arsenal.

Overall, we boated 24 fish which consisted of (8) Coho and (16) Steelhead. We had 42 bites this morning.

October 26th Stream Report:

Fished the Tribs. today with a customer from New Castle, PA. Fishing conditions went from kind of tough to near impossible as dirty water and some leaves, gradually turned into muddy water and millions of leaves. The half day of grind em out fishing produced a total of 13 Steelhead and 1 Coho Salmon. Not bad for tough conditions. Cured eggs took most with 1 fish coming on a pink jig and a couple more on "Hot Shot" techniques. Several fish were also lost with the "Hot Shot" technique. Fish averaged 6 pounds with the best reaching about 7.5 pounds. Look for fishing to turn "Hot" once water clears to the "green" color and leaves subside.

November 1st Boat Report:

Decided to scout today around the bay, Lake and channel area for Steelies, in lieu of going to the West side tribs (A.K.A. fish factory). There was only two of us so we did not need a lot of fish to keep busy. We started off the day with a fish on immediately (good sign). Continued to fish the bay for an hour, then moved to and through the channel. There was definitely fish in the channel. Three times during our troll through, we had Steelies hit our lures while the rods were in our hands. This happened one more time later in the day. This is a seldom occurrence but it usually happens when you are into fish. These were all Steelies. We continued our scout trip out into the Lake and eventually to Four Mile. Best spot in the Lake was just outside the channel and at the drop near the Point. No fish were hooked up between the channel area and Four Mile. Best baits were the "Winning Streak: in Fl Red, Singler glow/orange on a rigger set at 7 ft., Red and Black Bombers off boards.

November 2nd Boat Report:

Today was another scout trip. We went scouting for Lake Trout and Steelies at 16 Mile Creek. Water temps were 52.5 which is not ideal. Usually, when temps. drop below 50 degrees, the Lakers appear. Knowing this and the fact that my crew was eager to check it out, we headed down the Lake anyway. We fished from 7:45 to 12:45 and had a successful trip. We brought in 12 fish to the back of the Vision Quest for unhooking (6 Lakers and 6 Steelies), with several others (mostly Steelies) lost. Best depths were 14 ft. (Lakers) and 6 to 20 ft. (Steelies). Green Glo stinger frogs produced fish off the riggers and Red Thundersticks and Red Bombers were hot off the boards. A large Thunderstick in Green Glo took a couple fish also. Overall, we landed 12 fish and hooked 21. All were put back with exception of a few for the smoker. November can be a hot month for Lakers here and past trips have produced numbers like today and as many as 40 in a trip. Steelies add to the catch but are not as prolific down here as they are at the West Side Tribs. (A.K.A. fish factory).

November 8th Boat Report:

Had guests out today from St. Louis, M.O. (Captain Dan) Ft. Myers, Florida (Capt. Jim), Akron, Ohio (Dick) and Detroit, Michigan Mark a.k.a. "Hoss". We questioned if we would be able to even wet a line today due to the pounding Lake Erie took on Friday and even this Saturday morning. Fortunately, we were able to fish in Presque Isle Bay and the protected part in the Lake (with the protection of the Peninsula). The morning started good. We had only two lines in and the 7 ft. rigger (orange-glo crush) went off. Soon, Dan had a 9 pound hen in the net. Good start. The morning Bay fishing was fair with a few Steelies, one Northern Pike and one Largemouth Bass. The weeds became unbearable, so we headed to spot #2, "SANCTUARY". "SANCTUARY" as we call it, (and will forever call it) was HOT. We hooked up our first 8 fish there and lost every one. Finally, #9 died. We ended up hooking and landing a bunch of Steelies there (23 overall) . These fish were bigger than the Steelies we have been catching so far in front of the tribs. We had two fish well over 10 pounds, several more in the 8 to 9 pound range and lost one fish that crushed a 6 ft down rigger and ran 50 yards of line out before tossing the hook. Best baits were a red Tadpolly (digger/noise rod) back 40 ft., red and terminator colored Bombers, red and fire tiger Winning Streak (noise/digger rods), and a special black, white and pink taped spoon with a s.b. fished 5 ft. and 7 ft. down on the riggers. Overall, we were 12 for 29. (See picture below of our limit catch).

(L. to R.) Dan, Jim, Mark, Pete and Dick

Boat Report: November 9th

The Lake settled down enough Saturday night to make for a comfortable ride down to the west side tribs. A.K.A. "fish factory". Water color was good, air was frigid (22 degree wind chill). Water was 49 degrees and we were anticipating a fast start. No surprise. Third rod in and BOOM. It wasn's long before Steelie #1 met the net. A red Tadpolly on a digger/noise rod back only 30 ft. did this Steelie in. The morning was steady. Then the sun came up, the water calmed down to a flat glassy surface and this seemed to really turn on the fish. Doubles were common, triples happened twice and we experienced one quadruple. Two times during this late morning BLITZKRIEG, the Vision Quest had to turn north to regroup. "Out of control" was repeated often this morning. A bonus 9# Lake Trout even drilled a Bomber off the board during this period of time. These fish fight great in the cold water. It was not long into the morning when catch and release fishing had to begin. We took fish (unplanned) out in 16 ft. to 22 ft. of water with best depths at 8ft. to 12 ft. A truly awesome morning of Lake Erie Steelhead fishing. We pulled lines just after lunch with a lofty total of 24 fish landed and another 20 missed opportunities. 24 for 44 overall in just under 5 hours of fishing.

Boat Report: November 17th

After the severe pounding Lake Erie took Thurday and Friday, (16 ft waves and steady wind gusts between 62-72 MPH) The Big Pond was a MUDDY MESS. Plans to fish this Sunday were not looking good. Hopes for a dead wind on Saturday would help settle the water down and move some fish back into the zone. Saturday, however, was not calm as predicted but was a choppy 2-4 ft. waves from the N.W. and these waves continued to "Stir The Pond". Sundays forecast was for calm seas so, we planned a trip anyway. Steelie Fever will do this even though experience says that fishing may not be good until the Lake settles down. Experience was correct and fishing was tough. After 7 lines were set, I said, this may be a tough day because no fish were hooked up yet. (Prior trips resulted in hook ups after 2 or 3 lines were running in the water) I no longer finished saying that when a 8.5# silvery hen hit a "terminator" Blakemore on a 80 ft. flat. This fish came to the net as a a "newbie" Steelhead angler brought in his first Lake Erie Steelhead. Fishing was tough. We boated 5 Steelies and had 3 more additional hookups in front of the West Tribs in 4-hors of fishing. We left at noon to try the "Sanctuary" and channel area hoping for slightly cleaner water. We found slightly cleaner water. We referred to this new water as better MUD water with a 6" lure visibility. After two passes at "Sanctuary", we accumulated 1 hit. We trolled to the channel mouth for a last ditch effort to find a few fish. That proved sucessful but not successful. We hooked up 4 silvery fish in less that 40-minutes before calling it a day but landed "0". Final score angler 5, fish 7. It was good to get out after a long work week. Mother Nature and the elements won today. But we will be back...