Lake Erie Marinas

[slaby]

Has anyone found any decent schools of crappie in the marinas around the Lake Erie Marinas? I have never done very well on timing up the spring bite. I have had a few good days in years past, but that is it. I either catch a bunch or get skunked, and getting skunked is most of the time! I fish all the marinas on the Erie shoreline from Toledo to Sandusky. Can any one name a marina and a good day, week, or month?

[Boat Chief]

Hey slaby,I go to Camp Perry once a month for drill. Been doing that since Desert Storm. Your right the crappie bite seems to be hit or miss.
I've fished around the dock posts at Wild Wings marina. Its great when the crappie are in. Dated a woman who had a place there and she said she catches crappie all summer long in the evening there.

[russ]

Hello.

I taped a show on Erie on Monday. Had a great time. All of the fish that will make the final clips will be over 1lb each. Fished in the West Harbour area. The fish were not in every marina. If you hit 3 or 4 docks without a fish, move. Once you find them, they will be stacked!!

I used Southern Pro tubes (glitter). It was cloudy in the morning and purple/white worked the best. As the sun came out, red/chart. & green/chart.(glitter) turned on.

This show was a bonus, as we were scheduled to tape at Dale Hollow, TN, but weather postponed the show. This was my first trip to Erie this spring and it was GREAT.

Good luck, it should get better in the next two weeks.

Russ
www.midwestcrappie.com

[vfarmint]

Russ,

Great work on the TV shows. The series on trolling Bandits (Kentucky Lake episode) was well done. I noticed that Midwest Crappie is not on the Sportsman's Channel program schedule as of late. I hope this is just temporary, and if so, when will your show start airing again? It will be good to see a show filmed in Ohio, I spent 27 of my 36 years fishing Mosquito(great lake for a show), Shenango, and Pymatuning, and now live in NC and fish Kerr\Buggs Island mainly.

BTW, was the "mistake" colored Bandit that you and the guide on the late May Kentucky Lake show actually a mistake made by Bandit or can you buy them like that? Have you run across a most consistent color in your travels?

Again, great job and a great show.

[russ]

Thanks for the kind words on the show! We are currently off the air, but busy taping for the new series. Our shows that just aired will be re-ran this year, but not sure when. The new series will start in Jan. 2007.

The Mistake was actually just that! But now, it is an actual color that is available due to the requests they had! It is by far the best color crankbait that I have used for trolling. I have another crankbait show scheduled in June in Mississippi so we will see how they work down there.

Again, thanks!

Russ

[vfarmint]

Thanks Russ, and will be looking forward to your shows.

[slaby]

Russ,

Thanks for the heads up at West Harbor. I fish West Harbor in the fall and have outstanding success. I never time up the spring bite there. I am going to hit it up this weekend. Do you think it should be good timing? Did you have your best luck around the floating docks or the others? Sorry for the twenty questions, but I am a little excited. I had some fun in the Port Clinton area last weekend. Pulled some real nice fish out of the Portage River in Port Clinton. Only caught 5 fish, but they averaged 12". Rumor has it the largest quantities of big crappie are in the Portage river. I have heard quite a few fish stories about catching a number of 16" crappie in one outing! I am trying to varify this account. I will never give up! Can I catch a sneak preview of your show on West Harbor crappie? What size tubes do you use?

Later,

Slaby