J. Sparrow

Thanks for the report PD.....The other day, out of the Catt, I saw some very cold water on the bottom..... and tried to keep baits just above it. It sucks to loose a cannonball, but at least there wasn't a probe on it.....

Got a solo limit out of the Catt today in 76 - 80 fow.... all on harnesses. wire diver out 200 on 2.5 and a 10 color core off a big board. Silver Spin n Glow harness took 3. beautiful day. lots of boats got fish today, but not huge numbers that I spoke with.....

I don't have any theories, but the mayfly hatch theory intrigues me........ Are there still large numbers of insect "carcasses" floating on the surface? In the western basin, they utilize "weapon rigs" to imitate mayflies. Last year I tied up a couple and ran them behind divers. On the very first deployment, within 30 seconds, we had a walleye..... and I was thinking "yes! I finally figured something out!"..... well, I trolled that rig for the next 3 hours and never took another fish....... I ran them several more times last season, with very limited success. On one of my 2 trips this year, I BB'd a weapon rig when we were seeing insect carcasses on the surface.... and although I took hits, I never brought any walleyes in the boat with the weapon rig. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make as many trips to Erie this season as last...... and without the guys who contribute here, I would have no information at all..... so thanks to everyone who is willing to share their trip information. I was hoping to make a trip tomorrow, but as "luck" would have it I've got wood to split...............

also, there's a sizable plume of mud coming out of the Catt, West past Dunkirk..... but there's a clear water slice inside of the plume. We fished inside.......

Fished Dunkirk today and never moved a rod. Ran W out of the harbor about 7 miles and fished back to port, looking in 45 to 85 fow....... marked alot of bait and not many fish until getting back in front of the port. Then just a little E of port in 60 - 65 fow there were many fish from 40 to the bottom, with the majority at about 52 down. I though for sure when we saw those fish ( without much bait) we'd at least take a few.......... Notta. Harnesses, flutter spoons, sticks, wire divers, riggers, 4 color, 7 color....... nothing. Just a waste of $100 in gas.............

USGS Current Conditions for USGS 04213500 CATTARAUGUS CREEK AT GOWANDA NY Looks like the Catt peaked yesterday at over 20,000 CFS! And an area between Gowanda and Springville got over 7 inches of rain in the past 72 hours. Nuts.............. back on July 11, she was running at 300 CFS.......

We also had traditional chirp returns up high on Tuesday in the same area. I think it was mostly bait, but I'm positive they weren't fish. I had a second sonar unit(Panoptix) on board Tuesday to compliment traditional chirp, and the Panoptix never showed fish up high, off the sides of the boat. We also saw a lot of insect "carcasses" floating on the surface....... I'm not sure if they were from mayflies or from what type of insects, but some of those returns could have been insects coming to the surface.

Pretty tough day for us out of SP today. We ran to the line at Pt. Abino, and scanned going East...... not seeing much until about 1 - 2 miles from "the elbow"...... there, we trolled for a couple hours and never took a hit, seeing occasional marks down 45 - 50...... but we did see a few taken BBing. At about 10 we ran back towards the launch, stopping at Myers where we took 2 fish BBing......... so roughly 5 hours for 2 walleyes and a couple sheepies......The marina at SP was like a ghost town. Sad.

One thing to consider is that there is much deeper water off Barcelona and Dunkirk, than say Buffalo and Sturgeon Point. The Western ports offer access to cold water species if you would like to change it up during your trip. While the entire NY portion of Lake Erie offers pretty good walleye fishing in July/August, the cold water off the Western ports holds some pretty good Lake Trout fishing...... with occasional steelhead.

Congratulations and great fishing. Thanks for the report.

And..... Thank you for your service.

Damn..... hope you figure them out soon and have a great season! And if we don't remember in a few weeks...... happy 75th birthday!

Nice report..... thanks.

Does anyone know if the launch at SP was open for business today?

Nice Report Stoner........... thanks.

We boated 55 perch today out of the Catt ....... beautiful day to spend on the water. 58 fow was the best for us.

We worked pretty hard for 37 perch today out of the Catt ......... just got back to the dock when it started to rain. 53 to 58 fow.

Pretty good perchin out of the Catt today..... 53 to 60 fow......and the rain stayed away.......

To have a resource like Lake Erie, and a facility like the marina at Sturgeon Point..... and have that all go stagnant is unforgivable. The local politicians should be embarrassed beyond their terms. They should be replaced for allowing this to happen.

Beautiful Bucks! How about some details of the adventure?

Hoping to be retired next year, and I'll be able to take advantage of the perch bite more often!

When do they pull the docks from the Hanover launch? Weather has been terrible.

It's a "strategic location" , and you hate to see it fill in and go unused. With roughly 25 miles as the gull flies between the Catt and Buffalo, there's a safety component to a marina in that location that shouldn't be ignored. As anglers and boaters, the more noise we can make to the local politicians, the better.