Lake Erie is called the Walleye Capital of the World. The 2025 fishing season is set to showcase why. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife, walleye from recent large hatches are reaching trophy size. Erie anglers who are used to catching a lot of fish, can now expect to catch a lot of big fish, too.
Fishing Lake Erie for walleye should be on the bucket list of any serious angler. The fishing is unquestionably some of the best to be found anywhere, and the experience is inviting to anyone seeking an affordable fishing adventure. Erie has been a destination of lore for Midwesterners for decades. Stories of easy limits and monster wall-hangers have been passed down through generations.
My grandpa and his buddies made multiple trips a year from Northwest Indiana to Lake Erie back in the 1980s. They would come home with coolers full of filets. For the rest of us, this meant fish fries all summer. For those guys, these were the good old days of walleye fishing. Yet, many argue the fishing on Lake Erie is better now than ever before, and that the real good old days are happening right now.
I have fished Lake Erie with friends out of their personal boats and done well. When I experienced Lake Erie at its best, I was on a guided trip with Sea Breeze Charters out of Port Clinton. The excitement of the fishing was short lived, because everyone on the boat had their limit within an hour. The captain knew right where the fish were and what they would eat. Basically, every time I dropped my jig tipped with a minnow down to the bottom and bounced it a couple of times, I caught another walleye. It was the sort of trip tha built the legend of Lake Erie.
The Ohio DNR says the walleye hatch success has been well above average for seven of the past 10 years, including the three largest hatches ever surveyed. Anglers should expect to catch an abundance of fish ranging from 15 to 24 inches. There are many larger fish still around from the boom hatch of 2015 that provide the chances to reel in a trophy of a lifetime. To qualify for the prestigious designation of “Fish Ohio,” a walleye must measure a minimum of 28 inches.
If you are going to make the trip over to Lake Erie, and you want to maximize your time spent fishing, then you must pursue fish other than walleye. Because chances are, it’s not going to take you long to limit out. Smallmouth bass fishing in Lake Erie is out of this world. You can’t go wrong chasing the lake’s giant bronzebacks for fun. But, if you really want to impress people back home at a fish fry, spend your time in pursuit of what I consider to be the best tasting freshwater fish to eat, yellow perch.
The Ohio DNR reports, yellow perch are in abundance in the west zone from Toledo to Huron. July through mid-August, when the water temperature is above 76 degrees, is considered a prime time to target yellow perch. Then again from mid-October through November, when perch move shallow to feed as water temperatures drop below 60 degrees.
Smaller perch from 7 to 10 inches are abundant. What everyone is after, the jumbo 12-inch and larger fish, aren’t as prevalent but will be mixed in with the smaller fish. A good fishing guide or charter captain should be able to find you perch to catch. Yellow perch daily limits for 2025 will be 30 perch in the west zone, 10 in the central zone, and 20 in the east zone.
Planning a trip to Lake Erie is a simple endeavor. There are many qualified charters along the Ohio coast from Toledo through Cleveland. But the hotspot of angling action is the area of Port Clinton, Sandusky, Cedar Point, Put-In-Bay of the Bass Islands, and Kelleys Island. This region offers the best fishing mixed with some of the best vacation spots in the Midwest, so you can’t go wrong with a trip to the region. For Lake Erie fishing reports, resources, maps, and licenses visit wildohio.gov.
See you down the trail….
Brandon Butler
driftwoodoutdoors@gmail.com
Pic: Walleye, like this one Dan Stefanich caught, are abundant in Lake Erie.
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