June 9 Western Basin
Lake Erie’s Annual May fly hatch is happening now.
There have been plenty of May Fly’s to wash off the boats the last few mornings. In spite of the bugs hatching we are taking respectable catches of walleye both drift fishing and trolling. The catches depend one on the skill factor of the crew and the captain – two the fishing conditions and three which way you choose to fish – troll or drift. A hardy crew that stands and fishes and  gives it 100 percent usually ends up with a descent box of walleye and even limits. How ever right now walleye fishing  during the bug hatch laid back fisherman’s – catches will show up as a light box at the end of the day. This is almost always true to a extent any time of the year but much more so for the next week or so until we get through the main hatch. Trolling has been exactly the same some catch limits some respectable and some light boxes. To sum it up it – fish hard this time of year and you will can be rewarded with a nice catch of walleye. The best producing areas are the gravel pits to the w nw of West Sister to the turn around buoy- east of West Sister about 2 miles and between West and Middle Sister.
We have had good success casting 3/4 ounce weapons on a 6 to 8 count just get it spinning before it hits the bottom and keep your lure off the bottom. The walleye we are catching are marking around 20 to 24 feet in 30 feet of water. Trolling leads on a 40 jet have been ranging from 50 back to 75 back speed around 2 mph. My best sets have been at 60 and 65 back on 40 jets.