Kevin Van Dam Forums

Went to Lake Erie out of Sterling State Park and fished in the Brest bay area.  My father-in-law and I caught and released 5 smallies and lost 6 more that we saw most at the boat.  In the morning the water was pretty calm hurt the action some them in the afternoon the wind picked up and the waves grew,  the fish turned on.  We had two that went close to 5 lbs. pictures will be up soon.  All the fish came on tubes with 3/4oz jigheads in 10-12 feet of water.  Some had bloody tails from spawning and some had just moved up.  The color of tube didn’t matter much just natural colors worked better.  The water was pretty clear lure visible down to about 6 feet.  The wind blew this morning out of the north about 5 kts.  then shifted out of the northeast about 10kts and shifted again out of the north about 15-20kts and the waves were about 2 feet.

I live 20 mins from Erie, you should try bass islands or just off Catawba for Smallies with a fuzzy grub jig in orange and root-beer or any crawfish based color and a leech or a minnow… you would have caught and released 20 or so in a couple hr session….especially if your working the small boulders around in there down in the cracks and ledges around the islands…

I would like to know where you go at Catawba, 40 mins and I’m in the water. The lake bothers me to an extent. It’s like hunting, if you’re not in the right are then area, then it’s off again. This year plan on exploring a little more. I live just south of Fremont, and I fish the lake about every other weekend, when not in a tourney. Any ideas to help fish it, I just bought my boat about 3-4 years ago, and still alittle green, yet Portage River, West Harbor, and Sandusky Bay, no problem.

When I fish out of Ohio I like to use the Mazurik launch near Lake Side and Marble Head.  From there if you are after Largemouths just go into the East or Middle Harbours great green fish swimming in there and some pretty good smallies especially early in the year.  For the great smallie action I head out to South Bass Island, Kelleys Island, Middle Bass and North Bass fish the rock reefs they are marked on the Hot Spots maps and if you have a gps unit you can find them on the internal maps as well one of my favorite places is Rattle Snake Island reef.  Early in the season you can catch some pretty good numbers and good size from Kelleys and South Bass which are fairly easy runs of about 11-13 miles, smallies spawn around all the Islands but these two are the easiest to get to.  You can catch better quality fish from North Bass though.  Tubes on 3/8 to 1/2 oz, grubs on 1/4 to 1/2 oz, jerkbaits, lipless baits and spinnerbaits as well as dropshot all work out there.  Up in the harbours for largemouth shallow running crankbaits, lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits and jig and pig all work.

Yeah, I don’t have a problem in the Harbours it’s the main lake that gives me the pains. I’ve done the reefs, I guess, I must practice aliitle better, and get over the gun shyness. It’s a big body of water.

yes it is a big big lake, and theres no way you could hit every pocket of bass in there… keep at it tho and give me a call I need new fishing buddies the ones I have are retarded!! And thats something not even fishing therapy can fix!!!!  Also if ya have a bad day fishing I have poker chips and snacks !