Hotlinefishing
Well-Known Member
Hello,
Hotlinefishing had a couple of great days walleye fishing out of Port Bruce July 30th and 31st. The weather was splendid both days with a nice breeze, cool temperatures and no bugs to worry about. The lake surface temps have been around 72 degrees for the past two weeks and they were the same for us this week out in 66 feet of water. I noticed the surface temps on Wednesday were around 64.5 degrees and steadily climbed as we went out further. The down temps have remained steady around 71 degrees down 50 feet which has what they have been for about the last 10 days.
I had a group of four people out on July 30th and they have not experienced the open water trolling on Erie before so the lead cores gave them quite a workout which resulted in a few lost fish when starting out. Their team pulled things together and started catching them in the late morning. The best lines were 9 color and 8 color with about 125 extra feet added on the 8's. We had a couple of hits on the 10 color and dipsey out 135-145 on a 1.5 setting.
On July 31st we went out to the same water just a little west of Bruce and setup in 65 feet and trolled out to 67 feet. The best hits were coming in 66.5 feet trolling a east/west pattern. Later in the day we trolled a north/south pattern just east of the area and had some good hookups. We used the same lures and colors (purple/purple and more purple).
Stats:
Fish were marking from 48 -57 feet down with most being at 53 feet.
Temps at 50 feet remained at 70.5 to 71 degrees
We fished approx 11.5 to 13 miles from Port Bruce
Marked more fish in this area then last week
Trolling speed was 2.9 to 3.2 on GPS in MPH
Trolling speed on speed and temp probe at 50 feet was best at 2.4 mph
Lure Selection:
Last week I posted a picture of a ripplin redfin which was purple on top and kind of a purple herring bone with silver flecks. The walleye are still hammering this one and it has lost about 30% of the paint. If you have any of these in your tackle box I would go and dig them out or any of the lures listed below. I had a few people from the board contact me and they said the redfin color has not been made for 12 years. On the bright side here are a few that are working well and are likely still available at the tackle stores:
Challenger minnow in 4.5 inch size color #720 pink/purple
Renoski Purple shad has been the hottest and is similar to the challenger minnow
Reef Runners #700 ripstick series on when running 9 color or 900 series on 8 color and the best colors for these were Purple Demon and Eriedescent
Live Target both sizes in Rainbow smelt #200 silver/black -best late morning or when sunny
Storm thunderstick regular size (not deep diver) purple top/pink bottom
Good luck and Tightlines,
John
Hotlinefishing had a couple of great days walleye fishing out of Port Bruce July 30th and 31st. The weather was splendid both days with a nice breeze, cool temperatures and no bugs to worry about. The lake surface temps have been around 72 degrees for the past two weeks and they were the same for us this week out in 66 feet of water. I noticed the surface temps on Wednesday were around 64.5 degrees and steadily climbed as we went out further. The down temps have remained steady around 71 degrees down 50 feet which has what they have been for about the last 10 days.
I had a group of four people out on July 30th and they have not experienced the open water trolling on Erie before so the lead cores gave them quite a workout which resulted in a few lost fish when starting out. Their team pulled things together and started catching them in the late morning. The best lines were 9 color and 8 color with about 125 extra feet added on the 8's. We had a couple of hits on the 10 color and dipsey out 135-145 on a 1.5 setting.
On July 31st we went out to the same water just a little west of Bruce and setup in 65 feet and trolled out to 67 feet. The best hits were coming in 66.5 feet trolling a east/west pattern. Later in the day we trolled a north/south pattern just east of the area and had some good hookups. We used the same lures and colors (purple/purple and more purple).
Stats:
Fish were marking from 48 -57 feet down with most being at 53 feet.
Temps at 50 feet remained at 70.5 to 71 degrees
We fished approx 11.5 to 13 miles from Port Bruce
Marked more fish in this area then last week
Trolling speed was 2.9 to 3.2 on GPS in MPH
Trolling speed on speed and temp probe at 50 feet was best at 2.4 mph
Lure Selection:
Last week I posted a picture of a ripplin redfin which was purple on top and kind of a purple herring bone with silver flecks. The walleye are still hammering this one and it has lost about 30% of the paint. If you have any of these in your tackle box I would go and dig them out or any of the lures listed below. I had a few people from the board contact me and they said the redfin color has not been made for 12 years. On the bright side here are a few that are working well and are likely still available at the tackle stores:
Challenger minnow in 4.5 inch size color #720 pink/purple
Renoski Purple shad has been the hottest and is similar to the challenger minnow
Reef Runners #700 ripstick series on when running 9 color or 900 series on 8 color and the best colors for these were Purple Demon and Eriedescent
Live Target both sizes in Rainbow smelt #200 silver/black -best late morning or when sunny
Storm thunderstick regular size (not deep diver) purple top/pink bottom
Good luck and Tightlines,
John
