I can see your eyebrows raised already asking yourself “how can you fly fish Lake Erie?”.
My friend who took me out on Lake Eries is one of the
fishiest friends that I have. We fished forty miles on Lake Erie.
My friend’s boat has a lot of bells and whistles. This
includes side scan radar that I have never seen used before. The morning
started out as a chilly 47 degrees. The
winds were at 4-9 knots and the chop on the lake were at 1 foot.
Our targeting species on this day was to be freshwater
drum. These guys and gals are a hoot on
a fly rod. They fight hard and at times they pull drag. The rod setups for open
water Lake Erie can vary from 6 weights to 8 weights. The lines you will need to throw are 250 full
sinking lines and a sinking leader that sinks 5 inches / second. A word of warning is you need to have a
decent set of casting skills for this style of fishing. To know how to perform
a double haul is going to be key in reaching fish most of the time. Another
point about this type of fishing is the more stamina you have for casting 10
straight hours the better shot your going to have at hooking a fish.
The flies we used all had heavy lead dumbbell eyes on them.
The tippets we used were 15-pound test fluorocarbon. In this trip we fished
areas that he knew could possibly hold fish.
Depending on the wind, waves, and depth of water you will
need to switch it up to see which set up is allowing you to keep your fly the
deepest in the water column for the longest amount of time.
Other than trolling and one time in the ocean I have yet to
fly fish out of a boat all day. My good friend’s boat has more bells and
whistles along with being armed to the gills in tech. He had 22” screens with
radar this sonar that and then I was floored by the side scan radar he had on
the boat.
We departed the marina and headed out. He got up on the
plane and cut through the 1-foot swells like a knife. He has been a boat
captain for over 30 years, and I could tell him by his tactics.
We arrived at the first rock out cropping aka jetty and
would fish both sides. The water was 64 degrees here in this area. With my very buddy jigging fly I through it
five feet from shore.
I felt its ticking off the ballast and then when I thought I
was done a fish doubled over my TiCr 6-weight fly rod. At this moment I did not know it would be a
nearly seventeen-inch largemouth bass. I
was ecstatic as my six-weight doubled over in pain.
My fingers created a brake while fighting the fish. Its bull
dogged me and turned out to be a decent fish. My fishing partner would be
gracious enough to net my fish. This
fish would remove my skunk, but I had no idea what was in store for me ½ mile
away.
I learned that in Lake Erie you have structure, humps,
troughs, ledges, rocks, and weed beds.
What I did not know that will also hold fish is where the clay (silt)
meets sand or other material.
For an example he went to a spot that had a gentle slope to
it that was loaded with small cobble and small stones aka river rock. This
would intersect the clay (silt) in the lakebed.
This would also hold fish and using the crab crawl technique
with the retrieving of the fly it’s an extremely deadly practice to hook fish.
When I arrived at the next spot, he was giving me directions
on the areas where I needed to cast. I covered the first 100 square foot area
he told me then we pushed out into 10 fow (feet of water).
Here is where with the height of th4e waves and the 8 knot
winds we switched over to a 250-grain full sinking line. I used his Scott rod
for this. I could have used my TFO TiCr 6 weight, and it would have been fine.
All the flies of choice were olive, buggy, some rattles, and
tied on jigging hooks. These flies were also max 3-inches long. Some of them
had rubber legs and some did not. The only time we switched patterns was where
we found a large pod of feeding white bass (WB). When we fished for WB it was a
chartreuse clouser over white.
Let’s get back to the freshwater drum adventure. These fish pull hard and the large ones over
10 pounds you will need to put on the reel IMHO. We hooked between the two of
us, I am guessing 30.
After hooking several in the area my friend took us too, I was looking to get a break. He knew I was a little worn down from all the hook ups we had. He said, “hey want to try and find some White Bass?”.
I of course said yes to give my harm and hands a break! So,
we headed off to another part of the area.
We arrived on the opposite side of a jetty to find birds
sitting on top of the water. I told my friend there is a lot of bait here. He
said, “how do you know that?”. I said the gulls are not resting on the jetty
that is fairly close, and they have decided to rest and float low around where
we are. This is just like saltwater when you see active birds it’s a potential
sign that something is about to happen.
Then the White Bass (WB) started to smash bait all around
us. It was a WB blitz! These 10-to-14-inch WB with a few larger ones
sprinkled in had their feed bag on.
Like most WB fishing when you find them it’s a good time.
One after another WB was caught, and it was a welcome relief for me. I have not
had a day on the water like this in a long time and never in a boat.
I told my friend over and over have grateful I was to have
this opportunity to do this with my friend because of his generosity. It was a blessed day all day.
Then my friend said “hey, want to take a trip and see some
of the other islands?”. I of course said
yes, and we put everything away and took a boat ride.
We made a pit stop and fished for one area that he had known
about. With the 250-grain sinking line
we drifted as slow as we could with his trolling motor to stay in out casting
lane.
The water looked so amazing this far north and as I started
to not think about fishing, I hooked a moped.
With the head shaking and then followed by coming out of the
water there he was. A Dark olive green with darker olive stripped smallmouth.
He wasn’t a big smallmouth, and it did not need to be. I just wanted the
opportunity to hook an open water smallmouth.
My friend was johnny on the spot with the net. We hooted and hollored and picked up stakes
and pressed on.
We visited North Bass Island and that’s a pretty place. We
saw a few gars and I attempted to sight fish to one. Instead of putting the fly
into his swimming lane I put it on its head lol. Needless to say, that
opportunity was blown I laughed, and we pressed onto a spot in the middle of no
wheresville!
My friend spot locked us into the spot, and we hooked a few
more freshwater drum and decided to start on our return leg back to the dock.
My friend would end up driving his boat 40 miles to put us
onto fish. The boat traffic was heavy
for a Monday, but we also saw a lot of boats far north fishing.
We arrived at the dock baked and ready to go home.
We unloaded our gear and loaded up our vehicles. I thanked my gracious host over and over because he did not have to do all this today. He could have made it a short day, but as good friends do, he made it into a trip of a lifetime for me.
I hope you enjoyed the adventure as much as I did. I hope
you also liked the artwork.
To my dear friend thank you for me this was a trip of a life
time thank you.
Be well,
Sonder
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