Walleye fishing has been good at Lake Erie this year since spring when anglers were catching them by casting from the beaches. Now a huge school of walleye is reportedly moving eastward from Ohio, adding to very good fishing for the local walleye population.

Since spring, trollers and drifters have been making good catches of walleye in relatively shallow water, starting in depths of about 15 feet to 20 feet during May. More recently, those local walleye have been caught in the depth range of 40 feet to 60 feet.

The Pennsylvania portion of Lake Erie has two distinctly different walleye populations. One which spawns locally tends to inhabit shallower water, generally 60 feet and shallower. The other is a migratory walleye population which moves into Pennsylvania from the Western Basin and Central Basin. These walleye tend to remain in deep water, 90 feet and deeper.

Catching Lake Erie walleye requires some adjustments for anglers who are more accustomed to fishing for walleye at inland lakes and rivers.

Foremost of the adjustments is fishing for suspended walleye. At Lake Erie, walleye feed heavily on shiners and other bait fish which may suspend well above bottom. Walleye are commonly caught at depths of 15 feet to 45 feet, suspended over bottoms that are 60 feet to 135 feet.

Walleye that are suspended at depths of approximately 30 feet to 45 feet, and deeper, can be seen on a sonar screen. There is a trick to interpreting the sonar screen.

Signals from the sonar transducer travel downward in the shape of a cone, continually widening the farther it gets from the transducer. Directly down from the center of the transducer, the signal reaches any giver depth faster than it reaches that same depth along the outside of the cone.

Fish that are directly below the transducer will be marked on the sonar screen at an accurate depth.

Fish that are along the outside edges of the cone will be interpreted by the sonar screen at a greater depth since it takes the signal longer to reach and bounce back from those fish. This apparent difference can be several feet, even though the fish are at the same depth. Fish that actually are suspended at the same depth will show on the screen as being at various depths. The deeper the fish, the greater the range of depths.

This means you should try to keep your lures slightly above the shallower fish signals. If the signals range from 40 feet to 49 feet, set lures at about 39 feet, as an example.

Walleye eyes are set to look up, which is the reason for running lures just above the fish.

No all walleye will appear on the sonar screen.

Walleye that are close to the surface seldom appear on a sonar screen. This is due to a couple of reasons. The signal cone is too small close to the transducer to catch walleye that are not directly below the transducer. Walleye tend to move off to the sides when a boat passes, so they will seldom be directly below the transducer. Never assume that there are no walleye close to the surface.

This is the reason, other than a larger lure spread, that planer boards are so effective.

Choppy water tends to hide a boat, so walleye are less likely to shy away from a boat, more so in more choppy water.

Over the long run, nightcrawler harnesses probably have accounted for more Lake Erie walleye than other lures. However, this year it seems that stick baits and spoons have been particularly effective.

One of the more effective lure spreads is spoons run behind Dipsy Divers, and stick baits run behind lead core lines. Deep-diving stick baits are very effective for walleye that are no deeper than about 20 feet.

Lure color can be very important. Lures with purple and green in the color pattern have been most popular. Also, at times any stick bait with orange on the belly has been effective.

As of late, there has been good walleye fishing on the west side of Erie at the First Trench and the Second Trench. On the east side of Erie, look for walleye in depths of 45 feet to 60 feet in the Shade’s Beach area, and from Shorewood to the New York border, fish just inside the Mountain, or outside the Mountain as deep as 120 feet. In the Dunkirk area, fish from 60 feet to 100 feet.