CLEVELAND, Ohio — The national Cabela’s Masters Walleye Circuit Team Tournament came to Lake Erie a week ago for a two-day cast-a-thon on Friday and Saturday, as the local Lake Erie Walleye Trail piggybacked a pair of its one-day events during a walleye angling extravaganza based at Geneva State Park Marina on the Lake Erie shoreline.
For the team of Mike Miller, of Medina, and Bryan Fisher, of Windham, the three competitions over two days became the fishing dream of a lifetime. The anglers pointed Miller’s Ranger fishing boat eastward to the deep, clear Pennsylvania waters in search of trophy walleye, and hooked the two biggest fish of the tournaments among their five-fish limits each day.
“Neither of us had ever won a national walleye tournament, much less a Lake Erie Walleye Trail event,” said Miller. “We had a game plan, but could never had imagined that this would be our biggest week ever of tournament fishing. This was a dream come true for both of us.”
The rules allowed the 60 two-angler teams to enter all three events — the MWC two day event; a rescheduled weather-cancelled LEWT tournament from Fairport Harbor and the regular Geneva Marina LEWT tourney, all with combined weigh-ins at Geneva State Park Marina.
That meant that the hybrid field of 120 anglers would consist of Lake Erie veterans of the LEWT tournament trail, and tournament-tested fishermen from around the country fishing the MWC ranks.
Miller and Fisher are respected for their ability to catch trophy walleye in deep waters, and Pennsylvania’s section of Lake Erie certainly has more depth than waters along the Ohio shoreline. The pair had scouted the area earlier in the week with a small group of other LEWT teams, and also knew that a crowd of competing boats could inhibit the bite each day.
“If we’d been fishing around the Lake Erie Islands, a lot of boats wouldn’t be a problem,” said Miller. “But we only had a few boats to contend with, mostly the teams we’d been scouting that area with earlier in the week. We got lucky on Friday, with hardly any wind and a flat calm lake. We had to make a 47-mile run to get there and back, and we could do it at top speed.”
Triggering their victories in the deeper Keystone waters each day were a pair of 12-pound walleye, posting five-fish limits of 36 pounds on Friday and 44 pounds, 2 ounces on Saturday. That was just enough to nip the second-place team of Ronnie Rhodes and Andrew Harmon of the Sheffield area of Lorain (35 pounds, 13 ounces) on the first day, and by almost 10 pounds (34-12) on Saturday, for a two-day total of 80.02 pounds.
Rhodes and Harmon were second (70-09), followed by Michigan’s Steve Vandemark and Jerry Fox Jr. (69-07); Ryan Buddie of Amherst and Jason Kos of Avon Lake (69-05); and Gary and Alex Kisel of Macedonia (65-13).
“We were trolling Bill Lewis Precise Walleye Crankbait lures using Dipsy Diver diving planers, as well as lead core line to take large willow leaf spinners and nightcrawlers to the best depths,” said Miller.
There wasn’t much time for the winners to celebrate. After depositing their $62,000 in winnings, they were off to eastern Lake Erie for the Sunset Bay Walleye Shootout in Sunset Bay, New York, which began Friday morning.
Steelhead trout fishing improves
Lake Erie has been a little bumpy lately, but the big lake should settle and be prime this weekend for long runs to the north off Lorain and Cleveland for summer steelhead trout. Good catches have been reported in 62 to 70 feet of water while trolling spoons with Dipsy Diver diving planers or with downriggers. If you’re catching mostly walleye, head for deeper waters.
Yellow perch on western reefs
Small schools of nice-sized yellow perch are popping up around Green Island and the Catawba Peninsula, and the Niagara Reef complex in Western Lake Erie. Emerald shiner minnows have been in short supply at area bait shops, but the hardier golden shiners are often available.
Source: Duo nets clean sweep of walleye competitions on Lake Erie: NE Ohio fishing report
