For many, Lake Erie's Western Basin --including the Bass Islands, Catawba Island, Marblehead Peninsula, and Kelleys Island--is synonymous with unbelievable walleye action from spring through summer.
But those who limit their exploration of this fishery to the warm months miss out on a true four-season bonanza.
By autumn, the Western Basin waters have cooled again and the walleye that migrated east begin to return the Island area. By October the fishing can be fantastic, and even shore-bound anglers cash in on the action. Right up until ice-up, huge walleye begin gathering along the rocky shores around places like Marblehead Peninsula--anywhere there is rock and gravel where the fish can corner baitfish against the shore.
On cold evenings in November and December, anglers line these areas, casting crankbaits into the twilight and reeling in the largest walleye of the season, bringing home five-fish limits that may weigh 50 pounds or more. The in-shore action begins each night about dusk and continues for a few hours before petering out before midnight.
A point was made for the area's fall fishery when Ohio's new state record walleye was taken by the in-shore method in December. The fish, a 15-pound, 13-ounce brute, was taken off Marblehead Peninsula the night of December 20, 1993, by a Michigan angler casting crankbaits.
Once the islands are iced-in, usually by mid-January, the shanties start sprouting up off Put-in Bay. A half-dozen professional ice fishing guides organize shantytowns over the schools of fish that roam the 30-foot depths around the Bass Islands, and locals intersperse the wintry scene with colorful shanties of their own.
Scattered across the ice among the huts are members of the "bucket brigade," the hearty anglers who are also known as "seagullers" for their methods of following the walleye schools from above, and setting up shop on five-gallon pickle buckets as they find themselves over active fish.
These anglers catch some of the biggest 'eyes of the season, using jigs and spoons tipped with Emerald shiners jigged among bottom-hugging or suspended schools of fish.
By late February and through March, there's barely time to stow the shanty and prepare the boat for the ice-out action that takes place right offshore the Islands. Anglers push lightweight aluminum skiffs across the shore-ice to reach the fish that they missed from their shanties a month earlier. The heartiest anglers of them all, the ice-out fishermen jig away in the March chill to make their dent in the massive walleye population, dreaming of April and May, when the four-season cycle begins anew.
For More Information
Accommodations, charterboat and area information: Ottawa County Visitors and Convention Bureau (800-441-1271); Port Clinton Chamber of Commerce (419-734-5503); Put-in-Bay Chamber of Commerce (419-285-2832); Ohio Department of Travel and Tourism, (800-BUCKEYE).
Copyright (c) 1996 Dan Armitage. All rights reserved.
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