There are very few places in the Great Lakes an angler can even dream of trolling up a limit of steelhead little lone a bonus limit of walleye. The Long Point fishery deals out these kinds of catches day in and day out.
The spoon bite on the Eastern Basin of Lake Erie tends to dominate the fishery. Both standard and mini-sized spoons are useful in targeting both steelhead and the abundant schools of walleye.
Over the years Fishing 411 TV has traveled to Lake Erie to film steelhead shows many times. Some of these episodes have been in Ohio waters, several in Ontario waters and one was even shot in the Conneaut River near the Pennsylvania and Ohio borders.
Recently our film crew had the opportunity to travel to Long Point, Ontario for the first time. Located on Lake Erie’s north shore, Long Point is the Eastern Basin’s version of a mixed bag Great Lakes fishery.
Long Point comes by its name naturally. This sand spit juts out into Lake Erie approximately 25 miles, creating a welcome deep-water sanctuary from the prevailing westerly winds. Located directly across the lake from Erie, Pennsylvania, Long Point creates a deep-water basin that attracts pelagic baitfish like smelt and alewife during the summer months when most of Erie’s water mass is too warm to support cold water species.
Many anglers consider Long Point to be the logical western edge of Lake Erie’s Eastern Basin. The natural current flow of Lake Erie creates a giant back eddy at Long Point that produces a bouillabaisse of nutrients, plankton and baitfish that in turn attracts gamefish.
The two most common species caught at Long Point are steelhead and walleye. This is one of the few places in the Great Lakes where anglers routinely catch limits of both walleye and steelhead on the same day using the same tactics!
A few other species also show up in the catch at Long Point including coho salmon, the occasional Chinook salmon and also lake trout. All five of these species thrive on the pelagic forage bonanza found at Long Point during the summer months.
Jake Romanack of Fishing 411 TV (right) holds up a typical steelhead caught trolling near Long Point on Lake Erie’s north shore. This overlooked fishery gives anglers the unique opportunity to catch limits of steelhead and also walleye all summer long.
WORKING THE THERMOCLINES
In early summer the surface waters of Lake Erie begin to warm, setting up stratified layers of warm water near the surface and cooler bands of water below the surface. As the summer progresses, these layers of warm and cool water become more pronounced. By late July and throughout the month of August and into early September, anglers can expect that walleye will be found at or slightly above the thermocline and steelhead will be found at and slightly below the thermocline levels.
Steelhead will routinely rise up into warmer water to feed, then after feeding slip back down to cooler water where they are more comfortable. The higher walleye in the water column tend to be the smaller and more aggressive fish, while the deeper fish are typically the larger adults that have learned to feed primarily at peak times of day.
IT’S A SPOON BITE
The Long Point open water trolling fishery is predominately a spoon bite. While other baits are used at times, mini and standard sized trolling spoons produce the lion share of the action. On our recent visit to Long Point, we used Wolverine Tackle Mini Streak and Standard Streak spoons. The Wolverine Tackle spoon has served us well all across the Great Lakes. We gravitate towards the Wolverine Tackle spoons because they excel at both slow and fast trolling speeds.
A tip from several local anglers encouraged us to lean heavy on blue and purple baits and that advice proved to be accurate. Some of our best producing colors included Chartreuse/Muffin, Purple Greasy Chicken, Blue Toad and Blue Chilly Willy.
Normally for steelhead we lean heavily towards spoons that feature a lot of orange color. Historically, our best producing steelhead spoons are Jerry Lee, Orange Crush, Candy Corn and Orange Chilly Willy. While on this particular day of filming the blues and purples won out, I’d be hard pressed not to put orange Streaks in the water on the next go around.
THE BOARD SPREAD
Our board spread consisted of a mixture of lead core set ups fished on Off Shore Tackle in-line boards. Boards help to spread out lines and covers more water. Meanwhile, lead core is fished as a segment of sinking line sandwiched between 200 or more yards of backing line (40# braid) and 25 to 50 feet of fluorocarbon leader (20# test) material.
To facilitate adding the board onto the line and also releasing the board, a 10-foot bumper of 20-pound test monofilament is tied in between the braid backing line and the lead core line using the double uni-knot. The lure, leader, lead core line and the bumper line are all deployed, then the board is attached to the bumper line and the board played out to the side.
The Off Shore board comes factory equipped with an OR19 (orange) heavy tension line release on the tow arm and an OR16 (red) Snap Weight Clip mounted to the back of the board. This configuration works hand in hand with the ability to trip the boards when a fish is hooked or just when switching out spoons.
A quick snap of the rod tip will trip the line free from the tow arm release stopping the board from planing, but keeping the board pegged in place on the line thanks to the OR16 Snap Weight Clip. The OR16 features a plastic peg in the middle of the rubber release pads that prevents the board from popping off the line.
Once the board releases and stops planing to the side, the board quickly slips to the back of the boat where it can be reeled in without interfering in other lines. The board is removed from the line when it nears the boat. If a fish has been hooked, it’s a simple matter to reel in the fish and net it.
The author has spent lots of days on Lake Erie chasing off shore walleye and also steelhead. The Long Point area of Lake Erie is unique in that it is well protected form prevailing winds, giving anglers the opportunity to experience Lake Erie at it’s finest.
While this set up sounds rather complex, in practice it fishes as smooth as silk, making it easy to release boards and reel in hooked fish without having to clear other board lines. Resetting lines is just as easy and again no lines have to be moved or cleared to facilitate resetting a line.
Other boards on the market feature line clips that are designed to keep the board fixed on the line and planing to the side even when a fish has been hooked. This creates more resistance reeling in a hooked fish and increases the odds of the fish tearing free and escaping.
The most common lead core rigs consist of 3, 5, 7 and 10 color set up which does an excellent job of staggering lures in the water column. These of course are spooled up in pairs so similar set ups can be fished out both sides of the boat, maximizing lure coverage.
The Long Point fishery typically calls for 5, 7 and 10 color set ups to reach walleye and steelhead hanging near the thermocline. When stacking lead core lines two or more per side, it’s important to run the shorter (more shallow running) set up as the outside board line. This makes it practical to reel in an outside line to switch out spoons or to fight a fish without having to clear any other board lines.
Lead core is a fish harvesting system, but it does require owning and maintaining a lot of different rod/reel combinations. To save space in the boat some guys will bring reel pairs loaded with 3, 5, 7 and 10 color set ups, but only enough rods to fish two, four or six lines at one time.
Putting reels on rods and stringing those rods on the water takes time I’m not willing to sacrifice. Instead, I use and recommend telescopic style trolling rods, that can be telescoped down for storage, then extended quickly when fishing. If these rods are “socked” with a protective sleeve several can be stacked one on top of another in a rod box without creating tangles.
The Eagle Claw Starfire X in-line board trolling rods are ideal for using lead core in combination with in-line board boards. Both a 7’-6” and 8’-6” model are available for anglers to choose from.
DIVING PLANERS
We also fished with a pair of diving planers, using a rather unique rigging method on our No. 1 size Dipsy Divers. The main line on the diver rods is 40 pound test braid and we added in 30 feet of 20 pound test monofilament as a leader material using the same Double Uni Knot used with the lead core set ups.
A ball bearing swivel and spoon are added at the terminal end and played out 30 feet behind the boat. Next, we mounted an Off Shore Tackle OR16 Snap Weight Clip to the trip arm of the Dipsy using a small split ring. The Dipsy was set on the No. 2 mark and clipped to the fluorocarbon leader near the junction between the leader and the super braid.
While Lake Erie is better known as a walleye fishery, many regions of the lake hold huge populations of steelhead thanks to stocking efforts conducted by Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
By laying the Dipsy in the water and slowly playing out line, we positioned the divers out the desired distance behind the boat. When a fish was hooked, a sharp snap of the rod tip trips the Dipsy making it easy to reel in and remove from the line similar to how Snap Weights are fished.
This unique diver rigging method makes it possible to separate the diver from the lure improving success especially in clear water trolling situations. This rigging method also makes it easier fight fish and most anglers already have the necessary components to rig up a “Snap Weight” Dipsy.
DOWNRIGGER RODS
Our final rods were run on Cannon Optimum TS downriggers. Both spoons on the main line and slider rigs were incorporated to maximize the number of baits in the trolling pattern. When running sliders or fixed sliders, we typically run a standard sized spoon on the main line and a mini sized spoon on the slider or fixed slider.
I like to separate the spoon on the main line about 10 feet from the spoon running on the slider or fixed slider rig. This spacing helps to cover more of the water column and works to prevent any unnecessary tangles.
Early in the day all three-lead core, Dipsy and downrigger trolling set ups produced fish regularly. Later in the day the downrigger bite started to fall off, something that commonly happens when the sun gets up and light penetration increases.
We compensated by running the Optimum TS downriggers on “cycle mode” a function that automatically raises and lowers the downrigger ball at pre-set time durations. It’s amazing how many bonus bites the “cycle mode” generates during the middle of the day when the downrigger bite is normally slow.
SUMMING IT UP
There are very few places in the Great Lakes an angler can even dream of trolling up a limit of steelhead little lone a bonus limit of walleye. The Long Point fishery deals out these kinds of catches day in and day out.
While most of our catch was made up of walleye and steelhead, near the end of the day we did boat a couple mature coho salmon, proving in our minds that the Lake Erie’s north shore really is something special.
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