Lake Erie

[BIGSHOW]

Looking to fish Lake Erie. I mostly stay in the river or around the mouth of the lake. Any tips on where to go (how far). I would like to stay in US waters. I am launching out of elizibeth park in Trenton. I do fine in the river and the mouth of the lake but would like to broadin my teritory. Thanks..

[BIGSHOW]

Hard to go venture out to new waters when I have catches like the last 2 days. 45 Friday and around 35 today.

[EKennedy]

I will be out on Erie on the 15th and the 22nd.  Hope they are still there!  Nice fish!

[BIGSHOW]

I'm gonna try again in the morning. Taking my Grandpa. See if I can't get a big one on his line.

[BIGSHOW]

Gramps wanted to keep the first 10 for dinner. I usually don't keep the fish. He didn't know it would only take about 40 min from the time we left the dock. To bad my livewell is small and couldn't trade up on them. He will be eating well for a while. Made his day.

[djkimmel]

Everyone says the big ones don't taste as good as smaller ones anyways. I like to have the big ones genes in the gene pool and take a few of the more numerous small ones if I want to eat fish though I don't eat bass, been many years. They taste like bass... especially from warm water and inland lakes. Some people say bass taste okay or at least smallmouth but I always taste a stronger, fishy taste. I also think older fish taste old but that could be just me from all the times I have read or been told the bigger, older fish don't taste as good (and because I'm not much of fish eater anyway).

I like walleye, perch, spring or fall crappie and bluegills, catfish from clean and/or cold water, real fresh salmon once in a while (avoid the lateral line) the few times I eat fish a year but I'm not much of a fish eater. Been a while since I've kept any fish to eat though I had fresh salmon at a restaurant the other day that was pretty good.

I really like hushpuppies though... If we had shrimp and scallops in our waters, I'd probably be keeping those. Maybe crab to if I could get Fish Bones recipe. I've eaten crayfish before but they also taste a little too strong for me most of time, especially the ones I tried as a kid from the Flint River. Probably shouldn't have done that.

If there were cheese pepperoni pizza fish, I would be a big-time harvester!

[BIGSHOW]

Lol, the peperoni fish have been extinct for yrs now. Fished out. Im with ya on keeping bass, not the best fish,but The smaller are better,even walleye. He insisted on keeping them all. Gotta make gramps happy. I did see a big 20 plus lb salmon float by dead. I didn't know they were down here. Maybe floated down. (trenton). I've got plenty of steelhead in t.he huron river. Some of my friends just dont understand the logic(not keeping fish). Bass fishing is just flat out a good time. You can't beat the fight.

[djkimmel]

People are allowed to keep the legal limit. It doesn't hurt to keep a few fish to eat fresh. One of our privileges we shouldn't give up. If gramps like bass, gramps can keep a few bass. Some lakes could use a few fish removed for a better population - I was on 2 smaller lakes this year that are overrun by a ridiculous number of small bass - and some probably need all the bass they have.

There are salmon that move throughout the Great Lakes. I have caught salmon on Lake St. Clair and in the St. Clair River a few times. I've caught steelhead in both too, and also out on Lake Erie. I don't fish the Detroit River a ton, but I imagine plenty of salmon swim through there at times though lots of floating stuff do come down from St. Clair.

I saw a dead salmon floating down the Trenton Channel once. May have come from St. Clair. I like catching them all (even sheepshead a little ) but bass are probably my favorite too considering how much time I've put into chasing them over the years.

[BIGSHOW]

Sheephead can give a good pound for pound fight. As for the lakes being over run by smaller bass, I know all to well how that is. Our lake in Traverse city is that way. It can use a good fish management program. Which won't happen. There are to many smaller fish and people keep all the bigger ones. I've never in 43 yrs caught a walleye in our lake. (very few in there) I saw a guy and his kid catch about a 28 in.walleye and I tried to talk him into releasing it but there was no way he was giving in. His right. But things like that that made it like it is. Keeping all the big ones and not enough "keeper size". Not that I'm an expert in the subject but know enough to understand the theory. It goes up and down. Tons of small ones in there now.