The walleye dinner bell is ringing "come and get it" on the Maumee and Sandusky rivers this week, with fish action intense for anglers rigged properly and good numbers of fish running both streams.
"They crushed them yesterday, big time," said Gary Lowry at Maumee Tackle in Maumee. He was referring to limits of walleye - four a day - in 45 minutes to three hours of angling time.
Lowry said he took 37 snapshots of happy anglers Wednesday, each of them showing off limit-stringers or big fish. As predicted the 2003 year-class is showing up in force, and in size, and some older, bigger fish are in the mix to keep things really interesting.
Males, or jacks, are averaging three pounds, Lowry said, but he saw several at midweek larger than six pounds. The leader in the shop's weekly jack contest is a fish landed by Mike Whiteside, of Fort Wayne, Ind., weighing 7 pound, 11 ounces.
Last week's jack contest winner was landed by Jeromy Smith, of Fremont, Ind., a jack weighing a whopping 7 pounds, 15 ounces. Jacks typically are smaller, sometimes by several pounds, than egg-laden females, which many anglers are returning to the water rather than keeping.
Both anglers topping the contest lists at Lowry's shop were using the new terminal tackle favorite - the Carolina-rigged floating jighead. But their setups were drastically different, indicating that successful anglers have to adapt to prevailing conditions of stream flow.
Smith, during a period of lower flow, hooked his fish using a floater on a three-foot leader and a 3/8-ounce weight, whereas Whiteside, in much higher water this week, used a 5 1/2-foot leader and a full one ounce of weight to get the jighead deep.
Lowry's advice: "Use enough weight to feel the bottom without snagging up every cast."
Speaking of snagging, foul-hooking of fish is vastly reduced by using the Carolina-rigged floaters, compared to the traditional leadhead jig. The floating head's presentation is such that legal, in-the-mouth hookups are much more likely.
Whether floater or leadhead, however, anglers invariably are dressing the heads with plastic grubtails of various sorts, usually three to four inches long.
John Jokinen at Jann's Netcraft added that the No. 2 size floaters again are in vogue, this after earlier popularity of floaters as large as 1/0.
Right now, Lowry said, many anglers are using long leaders ahead of the weight - three to five feet. Jighead colors do not seem to matter as much - pick your favorite.
"This is one of the highest-water seasons I've ever seen," said the veteran Lowry. Yesterday the Maumee River was running four to five feet above normal wading pool at the popular rapids sites.
Note that when river levels are quoted at, say 583 feet, the number refers to a reading at official water gauges, either at Waterville or on the I-475 bridge, with the measurement referring to the water's level above sea-level. Normal wading pool in the Maumee-Perrysburg rapids is 579 to 580 feet, so a reading of 584 or 585 feet - as seen yesterday - would be too high to wade to Blue Grass Island, for example.
Lowry usually reads the level and reports it daily on his shop Web site, maumeetackle.net, and the all-outdoors Web site, thenaturalresource.com, offers hourly readings every day on this site under the heading, Maumee river run. Both Web sites also provide a wealth of support information on the runs and techniques.
The shopkeeper said he feels sorry for those fishermen who prefer only to work farther upstream in the normal-flow rapids sites, such as Blue Grass Island at Side Cut Metropark and the Buttonwood Public Access directly across the stream on the Wood County side.
"Don't wait for the water to come down," he advises. "The fish are in and active now." And they are catchable at high-water sites, which include the public access at the foot of White Street and the Towpath on the Maumee side and Orleans Park and Fort Meigs on the Perrysburg side.
"Guys have got to learn new spots," Lowry noted about adjusting to this spring's high-flow conditions.
With rain forecast today it may be several days or more before the upstream rapids sites are wadable. Water temperatures are ideal for spawning activity in the mid 40s.
The Sandusky River also remains slightly high and muddy, but lots of anglers are wading in between the two downtown Fremont bridges, said Bernie Whitt at Angler Supply there.
He said white and green seem to be the popular tail colors and three and four inches the popular length. Anglers are using 1/4 and 3/8-ounce jigheads.
"If the water clears up a little more, we can say the bite is on," said Whitt.
Chris Martin, of River Lures at Grand Rapids, said the first of the crappie anglers are buying minnow and getting out, but fish are reportedly running small so far.
However, 90-year-old Paul Dyer turned up at the shop with a 24-inch steelhead trout he took below the Grand Rapids Dam. He was on the Providence side, casting a quarter-ounce leadhead jig with a plastic minnow. "He fishes every day he can," Martin said.
Some stray steelhead run the Maumee and Sandusky watersheds to the dams every spring.
On western Lake Erie, walleye have moved en mass into typical inshore spring pre-spawn staging areas from Maumee Bay to off Camp Perry, and the first of the jig-and-minnow boat anglers are starting to test the water.
Most of the remaining ice just went out in the last few days and the lake is much colder than the rivers - in the mid-30-degree range compared to the mid-40s in the streams.
The forecast warming trend in the weather should do nothing but help when it comes to lake angling opportunities.
In related news, the Ohio Wildlife Council Wednesday officially dropped the yellow perch daily creel limit for sport anglers from 30 to 25 for all Ohio Lake Erie waters west of Huron. The rule, under public discussion since January, takes effect July 1. The limit east of Huron remains at 30.
The council also reduced the daily statewide muskellunge creel limit from two to one, and allowed motorboats with greater than 10 horsepower to operate on several Ohio Division of Wildlife lakes as long as the engines operate at idle speed. The lakes include Knox in Knox County, La Su An in Williams County, Oxbow in Defiance County, and Rupert in Vinton County.
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The Michigan Division of the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League has set its season opener for western Lake Erie for April 12 at Port Clinton.
The event can accommodate up to 200 entrants, fishing as boater/co-angler teams. Takeoff will be at the Nor Easter Club, 2801 North Harbor Causeway, 7 a.m., with weigh-in at 3 p.m. at Water Works Park downtown.
To enter the event call 270-252-1000 or visit FLWOutdoors.com. A registration also is set for April 11, 4 to 6 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center at 821 Jefferson St.
First Published April 4, 2008, 3:15 p.m.
