Lake Erie continues to impress | News, Sports, Jobs

News from the Ohio Division of Wildlife final week confirmed the ten.15-pound smallmouth bass caught in Lake Erie by an Ohio fisherman in November was a 16-year-old female and probably the biggest bass ever reeled from the lake.

Erie continues to impress with super catches of walleyes, smallies and steelhead trout. Handful of can argue that for the modest investment in a fishing license, Ohio anglers now have access to some of the finest freshwater fishing in the globe.

When the climate is correct, anglers who know what they are performing can count on unparalleled excitement and angling satisfaction through an era when so a lot of pine for a return to the “good old days” in so a lot of elements of their lives.

For anglers, the finest of occasions for fishing are right here and now.

The ten.15-pound bass busted by Gregg Gallagher of Fremont came from Ontario waters immediately after he and his son crossed the border from Ohio Nov. three. They returned to Port Clinton with the enormous fish and weighed it on a certified scale.

Gallagher’s catch was the crème de la crème for Erie smallmouth fishing in 2022. All through the season, anglers battled major bronzebacks from the mouth of the Detroit River to the Bass Islands to the waterfront of Cleveland, Erie and Buffalo.

Though the ten-plus-pounder was hauled up from Canadian waters, the Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York waters are equally capable of generating enormous smallies for anglers bouncing Ned rigs, tube jigs and drop-shot rigs. I would not be shocked if a further smallie pushing ten pounds is caught in Erie this year.

Setting the hook on a bass fattened by the abundant gobies, crawfish, perch and shiners under no circumstances gets old. In my expertise, absolutely nothing compares to the moment when the hook ignites the fight of a four- or five-pound smallmouth bass and the battle goes from submarine to aerial.

The new Erie record fish surpasses the 9.84-pounder caught in 1984. Ohio’s present record smallie is a 9.five-pound fish caught from Lake Erie. Biologists routinely survey Erie’s bass population and have located no fish equaling Gallagher’s catch – even though fish measuring 20 inches and weighing seven pounds do show up in the surveys.

The truth that Erie continues to get much better and much better is a credit to regulations that have led to tremendous improvement in water top quality more than the previous 40 years and to the great fish management practices and cooperation by authorities in Ohio, Michigan, New York and Ontario.

Walleye management is a prime instance of the worth that can be gained when fisheries managers share information and finest practices and agree on harvest quotas and a lot more.

Regardless of whether Youngstown-Warren anglers get pleasure from casting nightcrawler-and-spinner rigs or trolling crankbaits and spoons, they can obtain terrific Erie walleye fishing just a single or two hours from house.

Steelhead fans can book an costly expedition to the terrific rivers of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Or they can invest in a tank of gasoline, hop on Ohio 11 and motor up to the Ashtabula or Grand rivers or Conneaut Creek.

Ohio’s Erie tributaries offer you prepared access to eight- to ten-pound steelhead from mid-September via the winter into early April. For the duration of summer time months, anglers obtain major steelies feasting about the enormous baitfish schools out more than Erie’s cool depths.

If you haven’t fished Lake Erie in a whilst, it would be smart to place it on your to-do list for 2023.

Jack Wollitz’s book, “The Popular Angler,” is an immersive appear at why anglers are passionate about fishing. Send a note to jackbbaass@gmail.com.

Today’s breaking news and a lot more in your inbox