lakeborn

Latest Report on Walleyes on Lake Erie

Wed, 20 May 2026 23:37:49 GMT

Western Basin Lake Erie Walleyes & What's Working

There are weeks on Lake Erie where the fishing is good, and then there are weeks like this one - where you step off the boat, look at each other, and just shake your heads in disbelief at how insane it was. This week on the western basin has been one for the books. The walleye have the feed bag strapped on tight, water temps are cooking right along in the low-to-mid 60s, and the fish are going absolutely nuts chasing bait. Buckle up, because this weeks Lake Erie Walleye fishing report is a good one.

60 Degree Water + Active Bait = Walleye Chaos

Water temperature is one of the single biggest factors in walleye behavior on Lake Erie, and right now the thermometer is telling a beautiful story. With temps firmly settled into the 50-degree range across the western basin, these fish have fully snapped into aggressive feeding mode. Walleye metabolism kick into high gear in this temperature window, and you can see it in the way they’re attacking presentations; these aren’t lazy, sluggish bites. They’re chasing.

They’re competing. They’re eating like it’s their job. Batfish schools have been very active throughout the water column, and the walleye have been right on their heels. When the forage

is fired up and the temps are dialed in like this, it creates some of the most exciting Lake Erie Walleye fishing you’ll ever experience.

The Game-Charger This Week: Bottom Spoons

Limits Before 9am - its That Kind Of Bite

Here’s where things got really fun this week. We made an adjustment to our presentation and started pulling spoons tight the bottom, and it unlocked a whole new level of walleye activity. When Lake Erie walleye are keying on baitfish near the bottom of the water column, matching that zone is everything-and this week, that’s exactly where the action was. Running our spoons close to the bottom in the 20 to 35 feet range in the western basin produced some of the most vicious, aggressive strikes we’ve seen all season. These fish weren’t just nibbling, they were absolutely demolishing spoons with reckless abandon. Its the kind of bite that make the rod load up fast and gets everyone on the boat cheering.

The key with the bottom spoons on Lake Erie right now is keeping that presentation as close to the lake floor as you dare without fouling up. The walleye stacked right in the bottom zone, and a spoon fluttering and flashing just above the mud is an irresistible target. This is a technique that rewards attention to detail- watch our depth, watch our sonar, and stay in the zone. When you do, the results speak for themselves.

We don’t throw numbers around lightly, so trust us when we say this: our Lake Erie Charter Boats have been absolutely on fire this week. Daily 42-fish boat limits have been coming together quickly- and we mean quickly. Most morning this week, we had out limits secured and were already headed back to the dock before 9 am. Let that sink in. Full walleye limits, rods put away, smiling clients, and still time left to grab a hot breakfast. That’s what a truly exceptional Lake Erie walleye bite looks like, and that’s what we’e been living this week on the western basin. The consistency has been remarkable, too. This wasn’t one lucky morning with one lucky spread. Day after day, we’ve pulled up to our western basin Lake Erie walleye spots, dropped our spoons and presentations to the bottom zone, and its been game on from the very first pass. Experienced angler know that kind of daily consistency is rare and special- we’re not raking a single minute of it for granted.

If there’s ever been a time to get yourself on a Lake Erie walleye charter with Lakebone Co., its is right now. The water temps are prefect, the fish are aggressive and chasing, and our crew knows exactly where to put you on them.

We can’t promise the bite stay this red-hot forever- but we can promise we’ll work our tails off to put you on fish every single time you step on our boat. Come make some memories with us out on the water. We’d love to have you!

See you out there!

Captain Matt

Lakeborn Co. Lake Erie Reports - WEEK OF MAY 5, 2026-MAY 13, 2026

Sun, 10 May 2026 18:28:36 GMT

Western Basin Lake Erie Walleye Fishing Report

Honestly? We have to pinch ourselves some mornings. Another week out on Lake Erie’s western basin, and the walleye fishing has continued to absolutely deliver. Cold front and all, the fish didn’t get the memo - and we couldn’t be happier about it. If you’ve been following along with our weekly reports, you already know this has been a special stretch of fishing, and this week was no different.

Cold Front? The Walleye Didn’t Care

Mother Nature threw a curveball at us this week again with another strong cold front sweeping across the Lake Erie region. Dropping temps, shifting winds, and unsettled skies- the kind of conditions that make you second-guess leaving the ramp. But here’s the thing about Lake Erie Walleye: they’re tough, they're plentiful, and when they’re in a feeding mood, very little slows them down. We stayed the course, headed out to our western basin spots each morning battling the wind and waves, and were rewarded with some of the hottest walleye action we’ve had all season. Sometimes the fish just want to eat, and this was absolutely one of those times.

Post-Spawn Walleye Transition in Full Swing

The Lake Erie walleye spawn is just about wrapped up now, and the post-spawn transition period continues to be one of our favorite times to be on the water. Once the spawn winds down, those fish shift into a full-on recovery and feeding mode. They’re dispersing off the shallower spawning areas and moving into that prime mid-depth range, and we’ve been right there waiting for them- fishing between 20 and 35 feet of water throughout the western basin. That depth band has been loaded all week. If you want to find Lake Erie walleye right now, that’s where they’re living.

Crankbaits, Spoons, Harnesses and & Hair Jigs- Here’s the Breakdown

Let’s talk about what’s been putting fish in the boat. Crankbaits are leading the charge right now- plain and simple, they’ve been our most consistent walleye producers all week on Lake Erie. Dialing in the right running depth and speed has been key, and when you get it dialed, it's game on. Spoons have been right there with them, covering water beautifully and drawing some aggressive strikes from walleye that are in a chain mood.

Worm Harnesses have been a steady option as well, especially for clients who love that classic Lake Erie walleye trolling presentation. There’s a reason harnesses have been catching fish on this lake for generations- they flat-out work. We’ve also been mixing in hair jigs, which have been generating plenty of bites. The jig bites do require a bit of patience and sorting through fish, but this just tells you there are walleye absolutely everywhere right now. It’s a good problem!

Limits on Limits: Charter Fishing Results This Week

Here’s what it looked like on the water this week: every single charter trip out of Lakeborn Co. came back with full 42- fish boat limits. Every. Single. Day. And we’re not grinding all morning to get there- most days we were wrapped up and heading back to the dock in under two hours. There is truly nothing better than watching a full boat of happy anglers holding up limits of beautiful Lake Erie walleye before most people have finished their morning coffee. The western basin is on fire right now, and our charter fleet has been right in the thick of it all week long!

See you out there!

Captain Matt

The Latest from Erie April 29, 2026- May 5, 2026

Thu, 07 May 2026 14:45:55 GMT

Western Basin Lake Erie Walleye Fishing Report

What a week out on the water! Despite a significant cold front rolling through the region this week, the Lake Erie Walleye fishing has been nothing short of spectacular. Here at Lakeborn Co., we couldn’t be more fired up about what we’ve been seeing on the western basin — and we’re excited to share every detail with you in this week’s Lake Erie fishing report.

Fishing Conditions: Cold Front, No Problem

A dramatic cold front pushed through the Lake Erie region this week, the kind of weather system that sends most anglers back to the dock. Not us — and honestly, not the Walleye either. Fishing pressure from changing barometric conditions can slow Walleye activity in other lakes, but Lake Erie’s western basin remained incredibly productive all week long. The fish were biting hard and showing no signs of being bothered by the temperature swing. If anything, the cooler water kept the bite consistent and action- packed from first light to week before noon. Days like this remind us why Lake Erie is one of the premier Walleye fisheries in North America.

Walleye Spawn Winding Down — Transition Bite Heating Up

The Lake Erie Walleye spawn is winding down this week, which is great news for anglers. As the post-spawn transition gets underway, Walleye are beginning to spread out across their feeding grounds and focus on eating. This shift in behavior is one of the best times of the year to be on the water. Fish are hungry, aggressive, and staging in some very fishable water depths. We’ve been targeting walleye in the 20 to 35 foot range in the western basin, and that sweet spot has been absolutely loaded with fish all week.

What’s Working: Baits, Lures & Techniques

Crankbaits such as Bandit and Deadeyes have been the bread winners this week—if there’s one presentation you want to tie on right now, it’s a crankbait. We’ve been running them at productive depths across the western basin with great results day in and day out. Spoons have also been producing consistently and are a go-to option when we want to cover water efficiently and trigger reaction strikes from active Lake Erie Walleye.

Worm harnesses continue to be a reliable walleye producer, especially as the water temperatures fluctuate post-cold front. There’s something about a slow-rolled nightcrawler harness that walleye just can’t resist during the post-spawn period. We’ve also been having fun with hair jigs, though with those we’ve had to do a fair bit or soothing through fish to find the keepers — a sure sign of just how many walleye are out there right now.

Boat Limits Before Breakfast: Charter Results This Week

We’ll be straight with you — it has been red hot out here. Every single day this week. Our Lake Erie charter boats fishing the western basin came home with full boat limits. We’re talking 42 fish charter limits, and we’ve been knocking those out in under two hours most mornings. That’s the kind of fast action that keeps out clients grinning ear to ear on the ride back to the dock. If you’ve been on the fence about booking a Lake Erie Walleye Charter, there has never been a better time to get out here!

See you out there!

Captain Matt

4/28/26 LAKEBORN CO. WEEKLY REPORT - SPRING RAINS AND WALLEYE

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 19:12:23 GMT

Fishing this week on Lake Erie has been very productive for us, we have been seeing consistent action despite the rain showers and steady winds. Weather conditions did not slow the bite down and the fish remained active throughout the week!

Lake Erie Walleye Update:

Walleye are still holding on the spawning grounds, jig fishing in the shallows remains very productive. We did note that the water temperature did come up into the low 50s and the freshwater drum (shepherd) has begun moving into the shallows to be expedited. You will have to start sorting through them from here on out.

I do not think we will be hair jigging much more on our boats. I can not stand trying to sort through the shepherd lol.

Walleye Trolling Bite:

We have been targeting walleye in 25-35’ of water this week and it has been producing very fast action for us with a nice mix of pre-spawn and post spawn fish. We are rapidly moving through the spawn and these post spawn fish have the feed bags on! Bandits have been producing well, spoons have started pulling fish and well worm harnesses.

Fishing will only continue to improve as these storms begin to subside and the water temp continues to warm up.

If we get a nice afternoon this coming week I don’t have any trips as of yet in the evening I really wanna go out and play with my active target. These fish are so aggressive right now it will be a hoot!

See you out there!

Captain Matt

4/22/26 Lakeborn Co Walleye Report! On Fire Fishing...

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 02:21:13 GMT

What a week it has been for walleye fishing on Lake Erie folks! For those of you that have been following along you know we have been battling wind, rain and cold temperatures this year….battling is an understatement really…..we have been plagued with it! But, that has all taken a back seat this week. Temperatures averaged in the lower 70s with winds out of the southerly direction which makes it very conducive for fishing the south shore of Lake Erie. We were able to fish every day this week which is a rarity for April.

This is our most recent Lake Erie Walleye Fishing Report from Lakeborn Co. charters.

What worked for us:

Well we decided to switch gears a bit this week and target spawning fish on the shallow flats. This is something we do not get to do a lot but neither Kris or I had trips throughout the week so we wanted to try something different than trolling. We found there to be an abundance of spawning males in the shallows from 8’-15 foot water, we were fishing the south shore from marblehead- Muemee bay. It really didn’t seem to matter where we fished along that section of the lake it was crawling with active fish. VERY nice to see.

Limits were a daily occurrence for us most days in under an hour and we would just have fun fishing the rest of the day. Our best tactic to produce fish was casting our hair jigs down stream and popping it back along the bottom in a quick motion. The best was 6-9” hops in quick order. For those of you that may not be familiar with jig fishing Lake Erie, these spawning walleye are really aggressive protecting their spawning grounds. similar to a blue gill on its nest. Any type of movement on the bottom that is stirring up sediment really drives them crazy and will result in a bite. This fish more times than not as simple as hitting the bait to kill it and not so much to eat it. We actually do not even tip our jigs with any type of bait.

Friday afternoon was the last day that Kris and I will be fishing together for the next week or so with our clients. We both have trips that started this weekend and we will be running most days through June. That being said we went out with a BANG in a big way.

Friday was a blue bird day with a light wind out of the east, we decided to head out deeper and locate some larger grade of fish off of wild wings (where Kris docks his boat for the first half of the season) and we found a really nice batch of fish a few miles out in 30’ of water. These fish were very high in the water column and they were AGGRESSIVE let me tell you. Most fish were in the top 15’ of the water calm. Our first pass across them we pulled 9 nice post spawn fish in a matter of minutes. We were actually struggling between the two of us to keep up and to keep lines in the water with how fast they were getting hit. These were much larger fish than their spawning cousins. These fish were averaging in the 24-29” range.

Best lures for us were bandits, anything chrome or gold did the damage in the clean water and blue bird day.

We will see you out there!

Captain Matt

Latest Lake Erie Walleye Report

Video from our Lake Erie Fishing Charter

3/14/26 Lakeborn Co Report - Big storms, Bigger Walleye!

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 01:40:50 GMT

What a week it has been folks! We have battled some wind this week but we have managed to make it out daily this week.

Walleye fishing remains red hot !!!!!!

The last 5 trips we have been targeting the same areas we have been, these fish have been holding in the island chain for some time now and are only moving with water clarity. They have been in very large schools and they are very very active!

To note our active targets came in quite handy over the weekend, we were marking most fish in the 25-30’ range on our 2d sonars while we were trolling but for some reason these fish were not biting very well for use the last couple of days. With the weekend there was an increase in boats on the lake and we were seeing most people struggling. I had a feeling the fish might have been spooked by the boat traffic and I decided to deploy the active target while we were trolling. In a short amount of time I discovered there were many high fish in the water column that were running from the boat between 60-100’ out in front of us and to the sides. These fish were in the top 12’ of the water column. Once we brought our leads up, it was game over! This proved to be the case for us throughout the weekend. Limits were had daily in a mere 2-3 hours at most, some days were under an hour! We even managed to wrangle in the first Lake Erie Steelhead of the year! What a nice surprise!

Last night we had a strong Southwest wind that prevented us from getting off shore. We decided to come out of east harbor state park and fish some of the closer reefs to shore to be more protected from the wind and try our hand at the hair jig bite. This is only the second time I have jigged this year just because the trolling bite has been so good. Lets just say there are a lot of fish on the reefs and it was lights out. I found it best to be vertical jigging with black hair jigs, we were able to limit out in the afternoon in less than an hour. We continued just having fun fishing the rest of the evening and we handled well over 40 lake erie walleye! What a night!

Most of the fish hair jigging were in the 16-22’’ range and were all males, we did catch a couple larger males in the 24-26” range but not many which is to be expected. Trolling wise we were handling very large both post and prespawn lake erie walleye, these after 24-29” in size.

Hot colors: Black hair jigs on the bottom for jigging. We also did well with bandits Pink and purple seemed to do well for us as well as the new Walleye X lures painted by the one and only Tommy Haris! Be sure to check those out for the limited addition on walleye x website!

See you out there!

Captain Matt

4/7/26 LakeBorn Co Report: More Wind More Walleye

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:31:18 GMT

Well folks, for those of you who do not live in the area we had quite the week filled with very heavy rain falls, most places in the 3-4’’ range this week will have multiple frontal systems moving through. As a result we were forced to keep the boats on the trailer for most of the week. What a bummer.

I was able to sneak out for a small window of time yesterday afternoon mainly as a scouting mission to see how tore up the lake was after all this wind and rain. I came out of Huron and put some miles on just to see what I could find. The short of it was that wind did a number on the lake. Fish are still plentiful in most areas I drove past but we were lucky to get much more than 4-6’’ visibility that I was able to find.

I decided to stop and fish a spot where we found nice marks in about 44’ of water off cedar point amusement park. There were clouds of fish in the 20-25’ range of the water column. My first pass Kris and I went 5 for 6 which was very good giving the conditions. It was muddy enough I did not think they would go at all. Purple demon lead the way again, but unfortunately as quickly as it started they shut off for us. We had a rain shower come through and after the shower passed the wind shifted 90 degrees and we watched all the marks sink to the bottom within a half hour.

Kris and I made a few more passes across the area and to no avail and decided to call it a night. I had some phone calls that were starting to pile up that I needed to return so we headed in. All and All not a bad scouting trip. As soon as this wind stabilizes out it is going to be hot and heavy fishing.

Water temps everywhere I stopped and deployed my fish hawk were in the lower 40s which means the jig bite should be red hot, Great news for all you jig fishermen! Will be interested to see how the big NWT tournament does this coming weekend as the wind is supposed to continue and they are currently pre fishing for it. I’m sure someone will have a nice bag to go fish but man, I am not envious of having to fish through these storms we have been having.

See you out there!

Captain Matt

3/31/26 Lakeborn Co. Lake Erie fishing report: Big wind and Big Lake Erie Walleye!

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:10:56 GMT

Well folks, Walleye fishing is on fire right now!!

This week, and I feel like a broken record stating this, we have battled some trying winds that are making it a bit challenging to both be on the lake let alone being able to fish the same groups of fish day after day. You simply can not get to them! I’m not sure who turned on all the industrial fans this year but they can turn them off at any time. We have fish to catch!

OK ok, enough rambling I know. So here’s the meat and potatoes!

This week we focused on trolling on every day we were able to get out. I think jigs are defiantly on the early end of things but they will be picking up in the next week with the warm weather we have been having (we got up to the 70’s today). Those fish are ready to go we just need the water to come up a few more degrees. I have heard from a few sources that today they started to find small pockets of spawning walleye that were active and able to catch them jigging. The best is yet to come!

As far as trolling, late last week we had a really strong storm that muddied up the entire western basin and most of the way to Cleveland. It was still pretty rough Saturday morning and we opted to drag our feet and come out in the afternoon. Despite the muddy water we found a nice pocket of fishable water on the east side of Kellys. If you have been following along with us this is an area we have been fishing for a couple weeks now. These are a very nice grade of fish with average size ranging in the 24-28” class. Some larger ones are mixed in there as well. We have been targeting 42-45’ of water out there and on Saturday the fish were actually pretty high in the water column. We were targeting the 20-28’ range and they were feeding hard. We opted for bandits and definitely did the damage for us. Best leads were 30/30, 40/40 50/50 with a few coming on unassisted 120 back. It wasn’t long before we had all of our fish and off to the ramp we went!

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we had strong SW winds that kept a lot of anglers shore side. I knew we were going to get beat up pretty good if we went back to the Kellys area so we opted to head east to Huron. I haven’t been out of Huron, Ohio in a little over a week so we spent the next hour or so graphing various areas and trying to find some fish that were closer to shore to

target. Luckily, after doing some looking we found the river was putting some nice brown water out that was heading east. This proved to be holding fish. I found targeting the transition lines to be the most productive. The program was much the same, we found fish a bit shallower in the 35-37’ range and we targeted them with bandits. I did note that the fish hawk was 8 degrees warmer out of huron than it was on the island chain. As a result these fish were quite a bit more active and fought a lot more!

The next three days we were able to work in the same area other than making minor changes to follow the transition lines in the water. The currents and winds were moving them everyday. Once we found the right water each day, It didn’t take us long to put a program together each day!

Top producing colors for us the last three days were Purple demon ( this is a purple bodied Bandit with a chartreuse head) the second is a custom Bandit that I do not know the name of, but its body is hot pink with a black head on it. I honestly couldn’t even tell you who painted it as I have had them for years and I'm glad I bought 20 of them when I did as I haven’t seen them since lol.

Key take-aways, 1) trust your electronics. Do not be afraid to spend some time graphing when you show up to a new area to get your bearings. You guys spend a lot of money on your electronics, spend some time learning how to interpret the information they are giving you. 2) look for the right walleye colored water, this takes some time to learn what to look for but it will be very beneficial once you recognize it.

Remember, everyday is a good day to go fishing….you just need to roll with the punches and do the best that you can!

See you out there!

Captain Matt

3/24/26 Lake Erie Fishing Report: Things are heating up!

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:13:26 GMT

What a week it has been, the weather after the big blow last week settled down and Kris and I were able to fish quite a bit in between projects.

Fish remain in the same areas from my previous report, very large schools of Lake Erie Walleye remain around the island region through Huron, My most productive depths seem to be 38’-44’ of water in both areas.

We trolled the last few trips and had some very nice success, although it was a tougher bite for us this week than last. The fish remain usually deep in the water calm and for us had short bite windows. We were having to troll over a lot of fish to find a small active group of fish that were feeding. I think it was due to the strong fronts we had coming through.

Lure of choice for us this week, P10s still dominated the show. Anything white or purple produced for us. Water on the Fish hawk was still cold at 36-37 at the lure depth. Bandits and Deep diver DeadEyes were used, they caught a couple fish but nothing compared to the P10s. This is pretty normal this time of year with the cold water temps, the fish like the slower action of the P10s, as the water warms up the Bandits and DeadEyes will really take off.

I decided to take the Bowfishing boat out for a rip Friday night and do a shakedown trip. All systems were a go, water was very dirty to say the least with the massive amount of wind this week. But, nevertheless we were able to test out everything and insure it was working for the near future trips we have coming up. Despite the muddy water there were some nice fish up shallow already. Although we couldn’t see the majority of the fish but only could see their wakes running from the boat, we were able to bring in half a barrel of very nice sized buffalo carp and a few commons sprinkled in. I really enjoy Buffalo Carp as they tend to be more affected by the lights and vibrations, these fish rarely sit still and typically run from the boat at full speed. Those of you that grew up rabbit hunting will know exactly what I'm talking about. They act just like rabbits the way they take off and you are trying to fit a fish on the full blown run. Quite fun! I think it will be a great spring once the weather starts to level out!

Yesterday we launched Kris Sir Walleye Boat and we took it out for a shake down trip. Everything worked as it should and we decided to try to hair jig a bit around the reef complex. This is the first time I have made it over there so far this year since the ice has left. Water temp was in the high 30’s so we are very early on the jig bite, low 40’s is when it really fires up. We bounced around and spot checked a few areas. We ended up catching two fish and lost another at the boat in 4 hours. The next week looks to be a lot warmer so I think the jig bite will be in full swing by April 1st. Time will tell if I'm right or not.

Warmer temps this week, south winds and rain showers are on the forecast. Sounds like a good week to do some more fishing!

See you out there!

Captain Matt

3/17/26 Walleye Reports out of Erie

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 20:23:18 GMT

What a ride it has been lately! For those of you outside of the area we have been plagued with hurricane level winds this past weekend that has made the lake unfishable the last few days.

However, we were able to take advantage of the mild weather this past Thursday and the fishing was insane to say the least.

Fishing styles the last 5 trips since the last report have stayed unchanged, we are still primarily pulling assisted P10 towards the lower third of the water column. The lake prior to this blow was super clean, like in the 10-15’ visibility range. This had these fish hanging in the lower 5’ of the water column which is unusual as they typically suspend about halfway in the water column this time of year.

I spent the later part of this week testing new areas out, good news is we had plenty of fish everywhere I targeted. The first couple days we were launching out of Huron and targeting fish in the 40-43’ of water around the Huron dump, these fish were being weird the last couple trips I fished them. They were moving a lot, and when I say a lot I mean the schools of fish were moving out of the area in the time it would take us to set up our boards and troll back across the top of them. I’m not sure where they were going but they were all on the move. When we could get over top of these fish they were active despite being lower in the water column.

The next couple trips we opted to come out of the marblehead area and fish around Kellys island. We found large schools of fish on all sides of the island and the schools were miles long. These fish were primarily stationary and had the feed bags on. In a short hour or two we were boating our limits with some of them touching 30’’. Very Very nice grade of fish.

I will say the water conditions around the islands were quite a bit dirtier, not mud by any stretch of the imagination but a nice grey/brown color. If you are a Walleye connoisseur like myself you know exactly what I am talking about and it is by far the best walleye conditioned water I can think of to try and fish. I think this aided with the fish being stationary and actively feeding higher in the water columns.

I will be interested to see how quickly the lake cleans up and how the fishing is after these fronts. It appears that the next fishable day will be Thursday. We are planning on fishing both Thursday and Friday this week if the weather holds.

In other news, many anglers are doing well in both the Sandusky and Meumee river with the Walleye run. It is in full swing, we had a lot of rain the last few days so a new batch of fish will be pushing up the river as I type this. They are still pulling fast limits out despite the high water. I’m personally not much of a river fisherman just due to the amount of pressure down there but from everyone I speak to about they all are stating it is shaping up to be one of the better runs they have fished.

See you out there!

Captain Matt

3/12/26 Lake Erie Walleye Reports

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 01:48:12 GMT

3/9/26 Lakeborn Co. Open Water Fishing Report:

Well ladies and Gents we finally have open water to chase fish again!!!

Talk about a long off season! We were able to dodge the rain showers to slip out today and enjoy this nice warm up (we got up to 65 degrees today). What a day it was!

I decided to launch a little later than I normally would just to make sure I could see any residual ice floating around out there. I arrived at Huron public access at 8:30am. Almost all the ice had cleaned out of the river by this point with the three inches of ran we have received the last few days…..I was beginning to think I need to start construction on an Arc �� .

We made our way out the river and I pointed her towards the dumping grounds in search of fish. I didn’t make it a half mile out when my lowerance started picking up color. This is the reason I use thru hull transducers, it allows me to mark at high rates of speed and I can quickly rule out a lot of dead water. When you are running down the lake at 40ish mpg as long as you have your settings right you will begin seeing orange color lines appearing on your graph. These are all fish, being that active Walleye always suspend and those are the ones I target it makes it nice to be able to pick them up. On the contrary if they were on structure or laying towards the bottom this technique would not work as well. So just keep that in mind.

We continued on solely just chart plotting trying to find out how big the schools were and the directions that they ran so that we would be able to come back and troll across them. This time of year especially you are trolling at a slow rate of speed usually between .08-1.5 mph as the water is still very cold. This means you are not going to cover a lot of ground with any type of efficiency, so making sure you know where the schools of fish are and that you are trolling into more fish is critical to success.

As they have been in years past I found fish were abundant around most of the area in relation to the dump. For those of you that have not fished here this is a large flat that gradually gets deeper the further out you go, it has a section of two miles by two miles that the city of huron has been dumping their dredging material off shore for decades when they dredge the river. This provides very nice structure in otherwise a Barron flat. These fish typically stage here waiting to run up the Sandusky bay to spawn.

Today, I found these fish favored the east side of the dump and the school ranged for more than three and a half miles. Once I had this information I moved up to the upwind side, spun the boat around and began trolling with the waves. We began deploying rods with a mixture of P10s and Deadeye Juniors both being assisted by a 2oz weight. These fish were between 20-35’ down which is perfectly suspended in 44 foot of water. I set the ipolit at 1.4 mph and off we went.

I got the third board out on my side and saw my outside board begin racing back with a fish on. This ended up being our first fish of the morning and it was a nice healthy 6.5 pounder and it came on a blue chrome p10. Once reset my graph was absolutely loaded with marks I knew it wouldn’t be long. Not five minutes later we had 4 boards go off at once. Talk about total chaos!!! Kris and I took our time and were able to land all four fish and they were all solid fish ranging from 5-7 pounds. Before we could even begin getting rods back out we had more fish on, by the end of that we had one rod left out of the 12 we had set. To say we were on them was an understatement!!

These fish were straight up FEEDING today. We were actually struggling to even get rods reset before they were going off again. Believe it or not we had two different times that the baits got hit while we were trying to put the board on. You know fishing is hot when that’s happening.

We quickly rounded off our four man limit in a little over an hour and headed in. This is my favorite time of the year to fish as they are in large groups, ramps are not crowded and the fish are big and plentiful. If you are looking for a MOUNTER, this is the time to be here!

Key take aways, trust your graphs and learn how to read them. Spend the time to get comfortable with them and do not be afraid to put some miles on the boat looking for fish in ensure you are able to stay on a steady stream of them.

With the weather being warm this week as long as the rain showers hold out, I’m planning on fishing!

See our latest out there!

Captain Matt

3/3/26 Lakeborn Co Fishing Report on Lake Erie

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 03:19:06 GMT

Well folks, shorter report than usual. We remain in a holding pattern with the weather lately. The ice is continuing to break up, there is currently open water in front of Huron, Lorain, Marblehead. However, the harbors are still frozen. I am sure that the ice in the harbors has become rotten, I am waiting for a nice day this coming week, I really want to break out of one of the marinas and begin chasing fish again. I am not much for sitting around the house.

I have been busy this week delivering boats to their new homes. We were able to move two of our waterfowl boats off to make room for the 2026 models to come in. We try and do this every couple years to make sure we keep our clients on the most modern vessels and to help reduce the amount of break downs and servicing required with older equipment. Not every outfitter can do this and we are very blessed to have developed a business model that allows us these great opportunities. These are all things that have to get cleaned up before we begin moving forward with our fishing season.

Despite being on the road this week to both Nashville, TN and to Boltimore, MD we were able to continue to be productive. Our shipment of Muzzy V2s Bowfishing bows came in this week and we are currently setting them up. These will be our new bows for clients this coming season. We then outfitted them with Boondocks outdoor Zebpro reels and they will be sitting on Gargod rest. These are a very nice set up that our clients will be able to enjoy for seasons to come. We are looking forward to that. We do have our calendars open for Bowfishing trips to start early April sooner if the ice allows.

Duckwater update, we have FINALLY received our Cisco tracks that we have been waiting for, for a couple weeks to finish outrigging her for Lorain. Our southern LED interior lights showed up as well and we were able to get them installed. These lights put out an amazing amount of light which will make those early morning departures that much easier! We even outfitter her with Starlink internet service for our clients to remain in cell phone range even when we are 20

miles off shore. You will never be without cell service on our walleye vessel ever again! Talk about an awesome upgrade.

We have opened our calendar up starting 3/20/26 this year for the Duckwater to begin running trips and will continue until the end of September. If you are looking for a nice trophy fish for the wall now until the end of April is when you need to get here as these fish are going to be the biggest they are going to be until next spring.

I was glazing over the walleye population reports the ODNR published and 2025 we had another boomer crop of fish, this would make the fourth season in a row. What does that mean? Well, it means there are A LOT of fish in the system right now and plenty more coming up behind them. The average walleye takes 3 years to reach the legal size limit of 15” that we are allowed to harvest but that means they will have be able to spawn two season unharmed. The fishery is strong, and only getting stronger each spring. We are on a very positive up flow!

See you out there!

Captain Matt

2/24/26 Reports on Fishing Erie

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 18:32:04 GMT

Shorter report than usual this week. We have had quite the warm up come through this past week and ice conditions are rapidly deteriorating. We have had some nice batches of thunder storms come through as well as some gale south winds. It has resulted in the ice becoming unsafe and unfit to fish unfortunately.

Here at Lake Born, even days we can be on the water does not mean they have been wasted. We have been working in the shop a lot this week in preparation for the upcoming spring. I think we will be on soft water sooner than later if you ask me with the long range forecast. I could be wrong but as they say; luck favors the prepared!

On the agenda this week we spent some time doing some upgrades to our Duckwater boat. We are transforming this duck hunting machine into a fishing machine. Due to the amount of road salt our lovely Ohio Department of Transportation decides to use to treat the roads our wiring connections have taken a beating over the last 9 duck seasons running up and down the road daily. It was time for some TLC. We have gone through top to bottom replacing all the wiring in the vessel including new interior lights, bilge pumps, switch panels, navigation lights and marine radios just to name a few. We also outfitted her with full Cisco rod holders, Cannon down riggers, Cisco trolling mast and all the fixings to go along with it.

This beast will now be staying all spring and summer in the port of Lorain where she will be running daily! With an average cruising speed of 40 mph and sipping on fuel averaging 3.9 mpg she will be able to run further and fish more efficiently as she will be able to pull up to 24 rods. If you see us down there be sure to stop in and say Hi!

We also pulled in our Gatortrax this week. We were able to remove the blind and put all the decoys away. The Bowfishing lights were remounted, motors all got a fresh oil change and she is ready for the first ice off to happen. We usually get into the carp hot and heavy if we can find some clean moving water during the first days the ice is breaking up. Fingers crossed you are reading about it in next week's report!

Ice Fishing Report from Lake Erie

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 03:53:07 GMT

We had quite the warm up the last few days. Ice is still holding but it is definitely changing quickly.

With the south winds and warm weather we have been experiencing lately Kris and I decided to give mother Erie a break and try our hand at chasing some reservoir panfish close to the house. This is something that neither of us get an opportunity to do very often so it’s a nice change of pace for us.

We decided to head out around 2PM to the reservoir we knew would not be affected much by the winds and warm up, it turns out we were right as everywhere we checked had well over 20’’ of ice still on it. The only spots pooling water were around the edge which is to be expected.

This particular reservoir is pretty small, spanning less than a 1/2 mile long. We both were pretty new to the area so we decided to approach it the same way we do on the lake. We started out simply by drilling some holes and looking around in a 360 degree area looking 100’ out with the Active Targets. Our first holes were definitely on the shallow end being 5-10’. We marked some smaller fish which I believe were bluegill but just not very many. We continued on working our way toward the center and discovered the bottom started to drop off nicely into 25-30’ of water. Once we hit that we were confident this is where the fish were going to be staging.

We noticed quickly that there were multiple groups of fish in the lower 5’ of the water column in most directions we looked. I was surprised at how spooky these fish were compared to Walleye that we had been targeting up to this point. It seemed every time we would drill a set of holes the fish would move roughly 20-30’ on us. As a result we started cascading holes throughout the area so that we could simply bounce between them.

I landed on a nice school of fish and decided to put on a tungsten ice fly to try first. I selected a fire tiger color and tipped it with some wax worms. I have to admit it was rather torturous waiting for those lite jigs to sink 20-30’ down. Much much slower than our walleye lures I am used to. Nevertheless, once I got the jig down to the school of fish they quickly became active racing up to it. It was apparent on the active target that there was a mixture of Blue Gill and Crappie in the school. As to be expected the Blue Gill were much more aggressive and were proving to be a challenge to get them away from the lure so the Crappie would have a chance to come in on the lure.

I found the best technique to be slowly lifting the jig about 3-6” above the school of fish and slightly jigging my rod tip. As soon as I saw them lifting up to the lure I would freeze and this is where the bite would happen. I was shocked at just how lite the bites were. We also noted that they were moving quite a bit being they were not tied to any type of structure. It seemed as soon as we would catch 1-2 fish out of the school they would scatter and regroup somewhere else.

Kris and I spent the rest of the afternoon jumping from hole to hole chasing these schools around as they were coming and going. Most seemed to be pretty active but we were having quite a few just simply following without biting, however when we would be able to get the Blue Gill off of us and were able to drop on a Crappie most would attempt to bite. Kris and I were able to land a few really nice Crappies this afternoon, more than enough for a nice lunch in the coming days. With half a bucket full of dandies, some reaching 15” we headed in. As Kris says, any day we get to spend fishing is a good day!

See you out there!

~ Captain Matt

2/10/26 Ice Report from Erie

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 05:13:13 GMT

We headed out again today to fish the same areas again I listed in my previous report. Ice out in front of Port Clinton remains very good overall, I still recommend inexperienced Ice fishermen to avoid fishing on Lake Erie as you will have to cross a lot of pressure ridges and it can definitely be on the extreme side. Now that we have that out of the way, here is my report that you all came here for!

We headed out of Port Clinton again towards our usual fishing grounds and decided to start around G can, I have been fishing here the last 4 days. finally the weather is starting to stabilize with this warm up! Today was different though as my first hole we drilled my active target lit up with a lot of marks up off the bottom. In a 100' circumference I was marking 8-15 fish at most times....this is exactly what we have been waiting for. I knew with this weather system these fish were going to start eating and it just confirmed my suspicions.

We deployed our two shanties in quick order and got to work. I chose to run a blue chrome jigging rap on one rod and a chartreuse Swedish Pimple on the other rod. I really like running this combo through the ice as one is a bit more aggressive and the other is more of a finesse style bait, I can tell based on the fish's body language if he prefers one or the other. I also prefer running two rods as in my experience a lot of the time these fish run in small "hunt groups" as I like to call them. Usually 2-4 fish will roam on these flats looking for food, when one decides to eat the others will follow in short order and usually they will become competitive with each other.

It didn't take but a few minutes before my active target lit up with a really nice mark, she was very aggressive darting in from almost 10' away when she saw my jigging rap, she smoked it on the first hop. That ended up being our first one of the morning and was a nice 28.5" fish. What a way to start the day! While I was getting her off the hook I could hear Kris shuffling around in the shanty next me as he was bringing one top side. I knew it was about to be a very good morning. In the next 3 hours we never ran out of markets and every 5- 10 minutes we would have a small group of fish come on one of the screens. Most were very aggressive, preferring the jigging raps, so much so we were not even having to tip them with minnows. Most of the fish ranged from 20-26" that we were catching. Kris and I had our limits in the first hour and were just fun fishing, we both have been fishing this lake long enough on the ice to know days like this are rare!

One of the things that i noticed today (this is our first season running the active targets for ice fishing, we have not had good ice the last couple season so we have only been using them off of our boats to target fish)using these active targets was just how far these fish were able to see our lures and how much they were able to be "called in". I found that I prefer leaving mine in forward view as opposed to down mode that many use when ice fishing. I found by doing so it allows me to see the amount of fish around the area I am fishing as well as travel paths the fish are on. I noticed most of the fish were coming from the east heading south west today. Well over 90% of the fish I marked were on this travel line. That being said, I could see them coming well in advance, and because I was in forward view I found myself keeping them in my scope as the fish were swimming by, even if they were to my side. I then would start lifting my bait up 3-4' and letting it slam repeatedly on the bottom. I could see slight clouds of sediment being stirred up by doing this. These fish would key in on this from quite aways away and come charging in to investigate. This may help you guys in your future trips.

This week we are warming up, I think the fishing will only continue to improve with these temperatures. With the amount of ice we have I am not concerned that it may soften at all as long as we do not stay this elevated for too long. Based on the winds I will start fishing again thursday.

Captain Matt

2/3/26 Ice Fishing Lake Erie

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 04:57:16 GMT

It is not very often we get safe, fishable Ice on Lake Erie so we try to take advantage of it when we can!

Today we set out to chase Lake Erie walleye on the Western Basin and to scout ice levels for the upcoming weekend fishing plans. We set out from Port Clinton at 6:45AM and headed north to our first stop at G can where we historically do very well this time of year. We were met with a nasty pressure crack roughly a mile off shore where it was pooling water. It took us some time spudding to find a safe track past this pressure ridge, but once we were past it the ice was smooth sailing the remainder of the time.

We started about a mile east of G can and were happy to see about 7-8" of nice clean clear ice! We made a few test holes and began looking around with our Active Target Systems. We noticed right away that the fish were in a negative static body language which is to be expected with the high, rising pressure we had going on. We spent about an hour of our time in this area simply looking for active groups of fish and we saw very few that were not glued to the bottom. In fact, in that hour we tried 6 different holes and did not have a single fish come on the screen that showed any interest in chasing any of our baits.

We decided that this was probably going to be the case for most of the day with the pressure that was present and that we would be better off offering spot checking ice and looking for fish in general to target later this week when the weather stabilizes. We began working our way Northeast checking as we went with test holes and looking for fish, we checked from F can all the way to rattlesnake island. We found fish in most areas and they tend to favor the flats, which is no surprise as we find ourselves targeting these areas even when the water is soft. Just on the northside of F can we were able to find a nice active group of fish. We saw about 7-8 fish that were about 10' off the bottom on our test hole. We slid off to the side and punched a hole on top of them. Instantly the first fish started raising up to intersect my green Swedish Pimple about halfway down, one 6'' hop and she crushed it! She was a very nice healthy 26 incher. I grabbed my second rod rigged with a #5 jigging rap and sent it down as the rest of the pod was still hanging around. Instantly two of the marks began chasing aggressively. Three hops later we were hooked up again, this time with another 25 incher. Very nice quality fish!

We hung out here for another hour waiting for another batch of active fish to come around which never presented themselves. We continued North towards the island chain. I will say it was quite rough ice up there but it was the thickest we had seen yet ranging from 14"-20". We were met with more of the same, very scattered active fish. I could just barely make out fish laying on the bottom of our active targets. These fish were very negative and would not engage in any type of presentation. But, what it did tell us was areas that were holding large numbers of fish to target in the upcoming days.

Captain Matt