There are many times during the fishing season when it is difficult to choose where to fish and which species to target in Lake Erie. The fall months are one of those periods.

Often, the decision comes down to where the hottest bite is occurring, or which species of fish you are in the mood to catch.

For smallmouth bass, the prospects are as good or better during September and October than they are in May and June, when fish are spaced out on their nests.

In fall, schools of bass are engaging in a feeding frenzy, often on shallow-water structure close to launch ramps and marinas.

However, an area favored by many Western Basin captains for catching trophy smallmouth bass is in Ontario waters near Pelee Island.

Just barely into November—on November 3, 2022—a 10.15-pound smallmouth bass was caught in that area by Ohio angler Gregg Gallagher, becoming the new Ontario record for the species.

Captain Mark Cahlik suggests that anglers targeting smallmouth bass use soft craws while anchored over structure in September, then switch to minnows and drift in October for best results.

Bring plenty of bait. It attracts the attention of a wide variety of fish species, including not only bass, but walleyes, jumbo yellow perch, channel catfish, and of course, gluttonous freshwater drum, greedy white perch and pesky round gobies.

Yellow perch move inshore during fall in response to baitfish accumulating around the edges of the reefs, islands, clay humps, and the outer contour line adjacent to mud flats hosting mayfly and midge larvae.

Popular Western Basin perch fishing sites include, from west to east: off Sterling State Park in Michigan; the Toledo Water Intake; the gravel pits north of there; the Camp Perry firing range marker buoys, especially near B Can, C Can and D Can; the green can just outside the cove of Catawba Island State Park; Marblehead to Cedar Point; north of North Bass Island; and all around Green, Rattlesnake, and Kelleys Islands, where their lees can provide shelter from brisk winds.

There was higher than usual yellow perch recruitment in the Western Basin in 2021, so anglers can expect to see higher than normal numbers of 9- to11-inch fish there this fall mixed in with younger ones.

One side effect of having good hatches most years is that there are many young fish in the population each year. Handle them all gently so that they will survive to become keepers next year!

For a larger average size, some Ohio anglers cross over into Ontario waters, where jumbo perch up to 14 inches can be caught during almost every trip around Pelee Island.

In the Central Basin, yellow perch numbers have fallen dramatically, but persistent anglers that find a friendly, albeit smaller school than present in the past will make up for numbers by landing mostly jumbo specimens in the 12- to 14-inch-plus size range.

This year, Ohio daily limits for yellow perch were set at three levels. The Western Basin remained at 30, the West-Central management unit stayed at 10 per day, but the East-Central management unit dropped to 20 perch per day.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife’s 2025-2026 Fishing Regulations guidebook shows the borders of the three perch management units (wildohio.gov). The limits are announced each March after the interagency quotas are set, way after the guidebook is printed each year.

Farther east, yellow perch move inland as well. Best chances to catch a limit of these tasty panfish in the neighboring states during September and October include near Beaver Creek, Presque Isle in Pennsylvania and from Dunkirk to Sturgeon Point in New York. In Pennsylvania, the daily limit for yellow perch remains at 30 per day and at 50 in New York.

For walleyes, many anglers find great success while night fishing in Ohio nearshore waters beginning in late September, in water too shallow to hold fish during daylight hours as temperatures drop.

As the water cools further and shiners or gizzard shad are drawn shoreward, walleyes move within casting distance from shore everywhere along the lake, especially from outcroppings that create obstacles for baitfish to swim around and provide ambush sites for the predator fish.

Casting crankbaits from boats or piers over shoals, reefs, or along shorelines can yield mixed catches of not only walleyes but a few smallmouth bass, and lately more channel catfish, especially around the islands.

Locally popular lures used in this manner include Rapala Husky Jerks, Storm ThunderSticks, Pradco Bomber Long A, and more recently, Dead Eye Junior crankbaits.

Trolling in front of river mouths, day or night, can produce fast, mixed-bag catches of steelhead and walleyes. Offshore anglers will find miles-long schools of walleyes in the Sandusky Sub-Basin from Huron to Vermilion, and other trophy-size fish anywhere from downtown Cleveland to Buffalo.

The mouths of the Vermilion River east to Conneaut Creek in Ohio waters where, they are annually stocked, can produce double-digit numbers of acrobatic steelhead trout with walleyes mixed in.

This applies likewise to all the creek outlets flowing into the lake along the entire length of Pennsylvania’s shoreline.

Eastern Lake Erie Charter Boat Association members can boast of exceptional catches of trophy-size fish of several species through the end of the boating season, according to its President Jim Steel.

Unfortunately, he says that many of the marinas begin closing by mid-October, leaving trailered boats the only option in some areas to enjoy the late-fall fishing bonanza.

He says that lake trout over 25 pounds are occasionally caught over 100 feet of water, with “teeners” commonplace. The New York Department of Environment is convinced that fish in excess of the current New York state record of 41.5 pounds are present in this portion of the lake.

Closer to shore, resident Eastern Basin walleyes and 5-pound smallmouth bass that are a dime a dozen, can be caught along with schools of jumbo yellow perch in 60 feet of water at this time of year.

Brown trout are sought near New York tributary stream mouths more than steelhead, according to Steel.

He mentioned that muskellunge are targeted by some when they roam into the harbors after gizzard shad, sometimes accumulating in the shallows while seeking warm water in the fall.

The Fall Brawl and Walleye Slams keep anglers on the central part of Lake Erie deep into November; they’re searching for the biggest fish of the year to win the grand prize of a fully rigged boat worth over $100,000, with generous cash prizes rewarded to several runner-up finishers.

For all the above reasons, other than ice fishing, fall is my favorite time of the year to fish in Lake Erie.

Interested in fishing a different location this season? You’ll find plenty of suggestions in every issue of MidWest Outdoors. Subscribe on our website.