Lake Erie and tributaries

 (Erie County): This week’s Wednesday and Thursday rains increased flow and color on the big creeks. Outstanding steelhead fishing was reported on lower Walnut, where fish stacked at impediments above the Access Area went for egg patterns and Woolly Buggers. Elk Creek anglers reported hookups from McKean to the mouth. East of the peninsula, good flow, a nice stain and some notable catches were reported at Fourmile, Sixteenmile and Twentymile creeks. Single eggs and live minnows worked for spin anglers; sucker spawn and eggs were the hot fly patterns. Early in the week, several browns in the 10-pound range were caught. Rain fell Wednesday and Thursday and was expected today, with air temperature rising to 60 degrees by Monday.

Black Hawk Lake

 

Lake level is 8 inches above crest. Bluegill – Fair: A few have been picked up around the rock piles and also in Town Bay. Walleye – Fair: 14-19 inch walleye have been picked up in the east end of the lake, in Town Bay, and along the shoreline near Ice House Point. Largemouth Bass – Fair: Anglers are catching largemouth bass using spinners, twister tails, crawlers, or minnows and jigs. There is a 15 inch minimum length limit for largemouth bass.

Graceton Beach

Cooling waters bringing walleyes towards the South Shore and Rainy River. Jigging or drifting with spinners the preferred method tipped with a minnow. Gold or orange hot colors. Try areas of Pine Island, Graceton Beach, Zippel Bay, Lemm's Reef and Archie's Reef 20-26 feet.

Thaddeus Lake muskie

The muskies were actively patrolling outside weed edges in about 13 to 15 feet. The most productive lures were Venom spinners, jerkbaits, and glide baits. We would stay off the edge of the weedlines and cast at and over the weeds. Several of our muskies struck at boatside during figure 8s. It is important to wear polarized sunglasses to spot a following fish and immediately go into a figure 8 to get the fish to bite.
The figure 8 technique is one where, at the end of your cast, you push the rod tip down toward the water and work your lure to the left or right and swing it around in a figure-8 pattern. This change in direction and speed is often the trick to get relatively inactive fish to actually strike. Try to do a figure 8 at the end of every cast, because you never know how far back the muskie is lurking from your lure, and you might not see the fish.
We were visiting in August, but September and October are also excellent months to get in on Thaddeus Lake muskie action.

Big Spirit Lake

Largemouth Bass – Good: Fish are being caught under boat hoists anywhere around the lake using jigs, wacky worms, spinner baits. Fish the inside and outside edge of weed lines with Texas rigs, drop shots, swimbaits, or crankbaits in 8-9 feet if water. Smallmouths are hitting top-water along the west shore in the evening. Walleye – Fair: Local anglers are catching walleye around 7:00 till dark at the North Grade. Fish above and below the slot are being caught and creeled. Successful anglers are using jigging raps, bobber and leech, or just jigging a leech. Walleyes are also being caught along the weed line in Anglers bay in 16-17 feet of water. This weed line runs east to west and larger walleyes are swimming along this edge. Fish jigs tipped with a leech. Yellow Perch – Fair: Perch bite has slowed with only a few anglers coming in with more than 20 fish. More fish are starting to reach the 10 inch mark. Successful anglers are using blue and silver pilkies. The north and south ends are the locations to fish. Black Bullhead – Slow: The bullhead bite at the north grade is slowing. Creeled anglers are taking home single digits of 12-14 inch fish. Leave the worm on the bottom and fish around submerged vegetation. Northern Pike – Slow: Anglers using weedless frogs or surface lures in the north grade in the dense weeds are catching smaller northerns. Bluegill – Slow: A few bluegills are starting to show up on anglers’ hooks with all the rain lately. Anglers fishing the north grade are reporting catching a few 8inch bluegills.

Polarized Sunglasses when fishing or boating

  If you wear polarized sunglasses while fishing you will definitely catch more fish especially bass. In rivers and streams it is very important to use polarized sunglasses. Polarized Sunglasses cut through the glare created by the sun and allow you to see into the water. You can see under water structure like logs, rocks, and tree limbs. This gives you a better chance as a bass fisherman. When it comes to polarized sunglasses buy a good pair it is best to buy real glass lenses . If you buy cheap sunglasses they can cause eye strain and the plastic polarized lenses will break. Do not make this mistake trying to save a few bucks, good polarized sunglasses are the way to go.  Whether you spend your time fishing, or boating, snow skiing  polarized sunglasses are a great purchase. Real polarized sunglasses will come with a tag on the lenses that they are polarized.
Light reflected from the water surfaces or smooth water is horizontally polarized.
This horizontally polarized light is blocked by the vertically oriented polarizer in the lenses. The glare from the water produces eyestrain, and can caused you to squint which can lead to a headache. Regular sunglass tinting alone can not cure this problem of glare from the water's surface. 
 Polarized sunglasses  absorb the reflected glare and pass the safer light to your eyes which helps you see more fish and structure under the surface. You should use bands to slide on the sunglasses so you don't loose them over board.

River Fishing

You can catch many fish like small mouth and largemouth bass, northern pike, walleye and the granddaddy of them all, the Musky,  if you get lucky for it.
The small mouth and the largemouth bass love to stay by rocks, under docks and boats. Northern pike are found in deeper water, but not too deep. Walleyes like to stay near the top of the water and close to docks. Muskies prefer deep water, because it is cold for them in the hot summer heat.
If you don't want to fish for all these fabulous fish, you can go for perch, pumpkinseeds, bluegill, crappie and rock bass, which  can all be found by the rocks near the beach. Small mouth and largemouth are the best to eat, in my opinion, because they are super easy to catch and you can fillet them to get some food. It is also good with a light batter, made with beer, over a stove or a barbecue.
 

SMALLMOUTH BASS

SMALLMOUTH BASS: Fish deep rocks and secondary underwater points lots of smallies in this area in 8-16 feet of ater. Use a crayfish color crankbait, jig and a minnow, leech or crawler.