CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cabela’s Masters Walleye Circuit will bring its national team tournament to Lake Erie Friday morning and Saturday, and Sammy Cappelli of Youngstown and his partner, Anthony Naples of Canfield, will be the team to beat.
“Lake Erie is settling down after a pretty big blow (on Thursday), and we’re on a great pattern,” said Cappelli. “We’ve been catching 60 to 70 nice walleye a day from our target areas, off Geneva and Conneaut, with a forward-facing sonar technique that has become very popular.”
The system allows Cappelli, and many other walleye tournament pros, to use marine fish-finding sonar to identify big walleye swimming ahead of their fishing boat, and then cast lures to the trophy walleye target.
“It’s a bit like playing a video game,” said Cappelli, with a laugh. “I’m casting a slip bobber and a plastic Forward Facing Minnow attached to a tungsten jig to hook walleye I’ve targeted. It’s perfect for walleye suspended high in the water column and feeding.”
When walleye head to deeper water, and there’s plenty of that off the northeast corner of Ohio, Cappelli switches to trolling Bandit diving plugs.
Cappelli captured the MWC Team of the Year title a year ago with Tony Karrick of Elgin, Ill., who was filling in for Naples, sidelined by a family wedding.
“Anthony and I have been fishing friends since the sixth grade, and we’re a pretty smooth team. There are some great teams in this tournament, though, and we’ll need to work together to win this tournament,” he said.
The MWC tournament boats will roar out of Geneva Marina, a stone’s throw from Geneva-on-the-Lake, at 7 a.m. and weigh-ins today and Friday in front of the MWC trailer begin at 3 p.m.
The Lake Erie Walleye Trail will also be in action there today, with LEWT members competing in a rescheduled Fairport Harbor tournament.
“With so many of the top professionals competing here, it’s a rare opportunity for local walleye fishermen to learn from the professionals,” said Cappelli.
Lake Erie walleye on the move: Gale force winds chased away the Lake Erie anglers on Thursday around the Central Basin. Conditions began to calm down late yesterday, and it’s expected the schools of walleye will be spread out this weekend.
The northerly winds have pushed cooler water closer to the Ohio shoreline. With a bug hatch surfacing, look for some schools of walleye to move to shallow waters.
The drift-and-cast walleye anglers around the Central Basin have been finding good-sized fish hugging the lake bottom and difficult to identify on sonar units. Boosting the weight of the barrel sinkers on mayfly-style spinner rigs and weight-forward spinners tipped with nightcrawlers are needed to effectively fish the deeper depths, especially when Lake Erie gets a bit bumpy.
Steelhead move in early: The chilly, deep waters of central Lake Erie were pushed toward the Ohio shoreline yesterday, bringing with them schools of emerald shiners and smelt. Those are the favored snacks of feisty steelhead trout, and the big trout are reported to be feeding off Avon Point in 65-foot depths.
Steelhead trout fans may remember that’s the same scenario that connected Jason Brooks of Tallmage with the Ohio state record steelhead on June 25, 2010. The 38-inch trout weighed 21.3 pounds.
Largemouth bass in Lorain Harbor: Lake Erie smallmouth bass fishermen have been having a great deal of success casting bottom-bouncing tube jigs, drop shot rigs, jigs and crayfish and casting diving plugs in recent days. A real surprise around Lorain Harbor and the lower Black River has been the success largemouth bass fishermen are having while casting jigs and leeches around the rocks to catch and release trophy bass.
The Port Clinton party fishing boats are not catching consistent limits of walleye, but coming close, said Marc Wolfe at Fisherman’s Wharf. Anglers are anxious to kick off the yellow perch fishing, so Wolfe will send out party boats to give the perch fishing a try tomorrow and Sunday off Cedar Point and around the mouth of Sandusky Bay. Reservations are needed. Call 419-734-9002.
Catfish in the rivers: Fishermen out west continue to catch good numbers of channel catfish around Sandusky Bay, reports fishing guide Sam Horn of Angry Floater Fishing. Channel catfish are also becoming a popular quarry in the central Lake Erie rivers right now, especially the lower Grand, Black, Chagrin and Rocky rivers.
Grand River anglers have been fishing the deeper holes while casting slip floats using live crayfish for bait. Other top baits range from raw shrimp and nightcrawlers to processed baits, cut shad and raw chicken livers.
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