With above-average year-classes of fish stockpiling almost annually on the lake, providing great fishing now and ensuring its continuation for at least several years into the future, John Hageman reports that these truly are the “good old days of walleye fishing” on Lake Erie.

Over the past 4 months, the most attention has been given to the schools of fish in the Huron, Ohio area, where dense schools of semi-comatose gizzard shad attract walleyes that are able to fill their bellies at will.

Electronics reveal unbelievably large schools of walleyes, with pods suspended higher in the water column, likely due to active feeding.

Ohio Division of Wildlife public ramps on the Huron River close to the lake make it possible to catch fish with a short run to productive areas, known to geologists as the Sandusky Sub-Basin.

Timing the bite has been a matter of persistence and luck, with distinct peak feeding periods that may only last an hour at a time—often the case during the colder months.

Using subtle-action, true-running crankbaits, anglers have been finding the fish to be cooperative on most days throughout the winter.

Local fall and spring, cool-water favorites include (in alphabetical order): Bandit “Walleye Deep,” Bays Edge ‘‘Dead Eye’’ lure, Rapala “Husky Jerk,” Reef Runner “Deep Diver 800” and Smithwick “Perfect 10.”

All these lures have racked up multiple thousands, with some perhaps responsible for in excess of a million walleyes landed in Lake Erie to date.

The new kid on the block that is increasingly populating angler’s tackle boxes is the Dead Eye lure, being produced by Captain Mark Cahlik at Bays Edge Bait & Tackle in Port Clinton.

I have witnessed the lure’s unequivocable effectiveness for catching trophy walleyes during the cool weather months on several occasions, including my last time out in mid-December.

I have to believe that it has an edge over similar lures due to the dual-diameter bearings the lure contains within its three chambers. It throws a unique two-tone sound vibration not produced by other similarly styled lures.

In winters with ice, or from the beginning of the usual lakewide, open-water boating season in April, Port Clinton becomes the epicenter of the “Walleye Capital of the World” that will last through June.

In April, most of the mature walleyes, and consequently most angler’s attention, are concentrated at seasonally high densities in the Western Basin spawning reef area.

This month, many anglers that enjoy having “a rod in hand” elect to use jigs on the reefs and sandy, nearshore zones between the Maumee Bay and the Western Basin islands. Some split their time on the water between jigging shallow for jacks and trolling deep for “hens.”

Jigs dressed with hair or rubber tails, with or without adding an emerald shiner, are bounced up and down near the bottom in hopes of enticing or enraging a jack walleye into biting in hunger—or striking in anger.

Most of the catches using this technique consist of males caught over the spawning structures. Stinger hooks often result in the majority of the hookups for anglers savvy enough to add them during the spring jig bite.

The total 2022 Ohio walleye harvest was estimated to be 2.6 million fish, based upon the creel clerk surveys conducted throughout the season.

The March, 2023 MidWest Outdoors issue had a LakeMaster map of the Lake Erie Western Basin reefs marked with locations to try throughout the spring spawning season.

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