July 2023 Fishing Report

Fished out of Lorain this morning. Planned on going out of Gordon Park, but heard the good bite was out near the dump grounds in 62-68 feet. With the wind conditions, we didn't want to make that run.

It's been a long time since we fished Lorain, but it was nice to get back there. As a kid, we would fish out of hot waters for perch all summer. The ramp has definitely went downhill over the years. Ramps were clear of debris and are not steep. The middle dock is starting to come apart, but still works. There was quite a line to launch around 6:00 am, but the majority of people knew what they were doing and it moved along fairly quick. Not nearly as crowded when we pulled the boat.

Now onto the fishing. We wrapped the lighthouse and headed north towards the dump grounds. We stopped on the southwest corner (square box on your GPS). We let the wind carry us north along the western edge. There were quite a few other boats in the area. We had three lines with harnesses and one with an Erie Dearie. We were drifting and swing casting with a boat speed of around 1.2 mph.

About 5 minutes in it was game on. First keeper walleye around 17". We drifted just north of the dump grounds picking up 11 keepers on that drift. The farther north we went, we caught less fish and the fish we did catch were shorts. We caught at least as many shorts as keepers. Needing one more keeper, we went back to the south side of the dump and finished our limit within a few minutes. We were back in, with the boat on the trailer by 9:15.

Can't really say one bait out-fished another. Rods were popping so fast, we didn't have time to switch baits and had no need to. We ran a 1 oz. gold Earie Dearie, two old fashioned harnesses with a 1 oz. weight, and a new harness we're going to call White Russian, also with a 1 oz. weight. It's a gold hammered blade with white beads. Drifting, we targeted near the bottom. A 12-second count down seemed to work best for swing casting.

Super fun morning, full of action. Get some harnesses and hit the water. They're out there!