Grand Lake St. Marys: Bass fishing has been good. Look for any kind of structure along the channel banks. Anglers are throwing spinnerbaits and plastic worms mostly. Crappies are hitting jigs and minnows in the brush and along the rocks. Use ice jigs tipped with waxworms to catch bluegills around docks and seawalls. Catfish are hitting cut shad and nightcrawlers.
Rocky Fork Lake: Crappies are 8-12 feet deep, hitting minnows or vertical jigged blue/chartreuse tubes. Look for laydowns and other structure. Bluegills are around docks and brush, hitting waxworms. Bass fishing has been very good around weeds with spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. Use crankbaits if fishing points. Around wood, try a black/grape Baby Brush Hog. For saugeyes, troll in front of both beaches and around the bays with crawler harnesses. For white bass, look for the jumps and toss an inline spinner.
Paint Creek Lake: Crappies are being caught around wood along the channel banks but most are small. Minnows or small tubes and twisters are working. Bass are hitting black Baby Brush Hogs or shad-color Shad-Raps. Fish for cats in the creek arms with cut shad and nightcrawlers. In the spillway, saugeyes are hitting chartreuse/red fleck twisters, crappies are biting on minnows and catfish are taking nightcrawlers and chicken liver.
Caesar Creek Lake: Bass fishermen are doing well early in the morning or in the evening throwing topwater lures. Plastics seem to work best during the day. Crappies are 25-feet deep, found around structure and drop-offs. Try tightlining with a jig tipped with a minnow in the mouths of coves. Bluegills are about 8 feet deep around stickups. Drifting and tightlining over the flats is your best bet for catching saugeyes, probably with a nightcrawler or bass minnow. Also try trolling a crankbait around the island. Catfish are hitting stink baits in the creek mouths. Look for jumps and throw a white inline spinner.
Indian Lake: Excess rain has changed fishing over the past week. In fact, the best fishing has been in the spillway where anglers are catching large numbers of crappies, mostly on minnows. Saugeyes have also been caught in the spillway with nightcrawlers and bass minnows. Catfish are hitting nightcrawlers, leeches, bass minnows and cut shad all over the lake. The lake is very muddy.
Acton Lake: Anglers are trolling and casting for saugeyes. Try trolling a nightcrawler harness or a brightly colored twister tipped with a piece of nightcrawler. For crappies, look for some deep structure and fish with a jig tipped with a minnow. Bass are being caught with topwater baits early and late. Catfish are biting on cut shad, chicken liver, chubs and nightcrawlers.
Lake Erie: Walleyes have been caught south of the Gravel Pit, west of West Sister Island (within 2 miles), around Gull Island Shoal and around Kelleys Island Shoal.
Yellow perch have been caught near the Toledo harbor light, south of the Gravel Pit, west of West Sister Island, near the turnaround buoy of the Toledo shipping channel, between Rattlesnake Island and Middle Bass Island, north of North Bass Island and off the Marblehead Lighthouse. Smallmouth bass have been caught along the shorelines of the Bass Islands. Largemouth bass have been caught on the main lake shoreline around Catawba and Marblehead and in harbors in the same area.
For Lake Erie information, visit wildohio.com or call (888) HOOK-FISH.
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