Fishing report
Walleye action picking up Trout stockings are just about finished until fall, but walleye action is picking up, and before long bass season will begin.
Scott Gates at S&S Bait and Tackle in Markleysburg was part of a local contingent to fish the Masters Walleye Circuit tournament on Lake Erie out of Port Clinton, Ohio, two weeks ago.
“It started out good, and then it went really bad,” Gates said. “We trolled eight hours the first day and never got a strike.
“We then fished the Niagara Reef and pounded a limit of walleye in the 19-inch range.
“The next day we got in a half-day of pre-fishing before the tournament, using spinners. We landed one 71/2-pounder and had eight in the boat in an hour and a half.
Gates and his partner Steve Popson finished 76th.
“We lost one really big one,” Gates said. “We caught two four pounders and a couple of 8 1/2-pounders while fishing in two- to four-foot waves.
“Then the weather got worse and we called it a day. It took us an hour and a half to go 11 miles in five- to six-foot rollers. It was the first time I was ever scared on Lake Erie.”
Gates and Popson plan to head out again for the Michigan Walleye Tournament June 6-7.
Last weekend the Yough Walleye Association held its season-opening club tournament at the Youghiogheny Reservoir.
“There wasn’t a single limit turned in,” Gates said. “The best any team did was four walleye. A major front came through Saturday and Sunday and shut them off. We lost a couple of fish because of wind drag. It was kind of a miserable day all around.”
The winning boat had a 91/2-pound lunker.
A total of 60 walleye were checked in.
The Association’s annual invitational was held Saturday. Forty-one teams registered early, but Gates said another 20 were expected before cast-off.
He said the price of gas is keeping some fishermen away.
He knows of at least one 12 1/2-pounder that has been caught at the Yough already.
He said that most of the walleye tournament fishermen have been fishing the Yough with few good reports out of Deep Creek.
The Yough Dam has been up all spring, so Gates said that if there was a walleye hatch, it could be a good one.
“You can catch walleye all the time at Deep Creek, but they are small,” he said.
Trout fishermen have been going well at the delayed harvest area on Meadow Run and Big Sandy, plus Ohiopyle and Confluence on the Youghiogheny River.
A lot of guys have also been heading for Bear Creek in Maryland, while White’s Creek in Somerset County is also attracting many trout fishermen.
“We sold a lot of flies two weeks ago, but it has slowed down,” Gates said.
LAKE ERIE REPORT: Following is the Erie County fishing report as posted on the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission website: “Spring conditions and little precipitation have left the West County tribs low and clear making the few remaining steelhead very finicky and requiring very light presentations. A few scattered steelhead remain at the Manchester Hole and lower Elk for those die-hards. Temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s will be bringing the spring steelhead season to a close shortly. There are plenty of stocked trout in Elk and Crooked Creeks and a good number of people are still pulling them out of the upper Gravel Pit Pond and the McKean hole off of I-79. Bass have been plentiful in Elk Creek, Presque Isle Bay, and along the lake shore in 25- to 30-feet of water. The opening season crowds have thinned out at the Gravel Pit Pond in Fairview making it an ideal spot for young anglers to test their skills.
“At last report Lake Erie water temperature off Toledo is 56 degrees; off Cleveland 50 degrees; and off the Port of Erie 50 degrees.”