When you buy a harness or purchase blades to build your own, put the following blades on your shopping list.

• Chartruse
• Copper
• Silver
• White
• Gold  

Looking at the list, most who fish Erie will say that gold and copper blades are no brainers.  Older experienced anglers will say chartruse works pretty darn good too.  Silver will not make too many Erie anglers turn their heads, and white blades probably won’t get a response at all.

Every one of the colors or metals mentioned are just the base colors of a blade.  Now, it might make a lil’ more sense.  Take white for an example, from Saginaw Bay down to the waters of Erie white blades are producing.  White is the base color in Pink Panties, Frozen Toes, I Don’t Care, Bloody Nose and either Purple Descent or Erie Descent.  It all makes sense when you consider that pink and white, or red and white have been popular choices in jigs or other types of lures for years and years.

Now look at chartruse based blades.  Used in combination with green or orange, and all of a sudden lots of people will say those two color combinations have worked for decades.  They continue to do so today.  One of the best blades color patterns I have used this year is a Northland Chartruse/Orange Holographic blade.

Most Erie walleye fisherman have gold and copper blades or spoons in their arsenal.  Silver is looked upon with disdain, but for those who don’t have at least one silver based blade on the other end of a rod while fishing Erie are missing out.  Do not forsake those gold and copper blades, because they do produce.  Up on Saginaw Bay,  Michigan’s other walleye capitol, Silver blades rule with such color patterns as Clown, Watermelon and Confusion.  Yes, Confusion, even those funky dots work on a silver blade and will catch fish up there.

The kicker is, they work down here too.  All of them will work on the Upper Peninsula’s other walleye capitol, the Bays de Noc.  If you have a combination of these five blades, in just about an color added to them, you will be able to catch fish on any of these Great Lake bodies of water.

After trolling for the early limits,  I spent another hour and half tossing weapons to land a few more fish.  Would tell you what colors, but I paint my weapon blades myself, so kind of hard to discribe.

When I came in, some of the older guys said they had good success perching around Sputnik.

Just check Captain Mike’s report from Matthew’s B&T, and they have much the same.  My best blades for walleye trolling were Moldy Muffin, Confusion and Purple Parrot.  Mike and Jason said they are loaded up with bait for the Holiday Weekend, and have some fresh GPS pts for their customers to try on their next trip.

Fishlander has closed it’s doors and shut down the shop.  Details are a bit sketchy, but lets call it putting trust in the wrong folks and money issues.

Although I have many, many Silver Streak blades that I have purchased from Frank’s and Matthew’s here locally, its still sad to hear.  Fishlander offered a product that couldn’t be found from other companies, an Ultra Glow blade for walleye harnesses.

Walleyes can be a fickle fish, the right colors and sizes out produce others when the conditions are right.  Those Ultra Glow blades were a favorite of mine on dark and overcast mornings.  I tried looking for more to no prevail.

Look for some of their spoons to be picked up by Warrior Lures, another Michigan company.  Warrior, like many spoon companies, started off making salmon spoons.  They will be coming out with a walleye spoon in time for next spring.

All spoons are now $3.29 each.  True I just wrote about the big news at Bass Pro,  but I can buy a whole lot more locally than it would cost me in gas to drive down to Perrysburg.  I like the Silver Streak blades and spoons pattern choices a little better than the Stingers anyway.  But that’s just me, my preference.  Besides when you can help out a local business and they offer you a great service, give them a good look.  We all remember what it was like not to have that second bait shop in the harbour operating.  Good people, good service and support the locals first.

Now for the deals:  Any Reef Runner in the 500, 600,  700 or 800 Series, you get 5 for $20 bucks.  Thats a buck 69 off each.  $55 Daiwa Accudepth reel and Firewolf trolling rod combos.  Your favorite Thundersticks, Tots, Stinger Scorpion Spoons or Northland Rainbow Image shiner or crawler harnesses are only $2.98 each.  Load up on Hot n Tots and Stingers for that price.

That same deep fryer that I picked up and used this past weekend that I showed with the pics, is on sale ofr $29.99.  The remote sensor I used for the smoker is on sale for $24.99.  Love that because I can be anywhere 100 ft away and I know what the temp is inside the meat being smoked.

Those are some of the fishing highlights, there are guns, combo’s, furniture and clothing for sale as well, plus many more stars of the outdoor world visiting as well.

WE fished today and did OK. We ended up taking 25 Walleyes trolling spoons and cranks out from Stoney Point in 27′ of water. We took quite a few small eyes today as well probably 10 or so. Good to see the little guys around, good fishing for years to come.

Capt. MIke

Step by step pics.  First off, just fired it up.

Bringing the oil up to 350′.  Which by the way is creamy canola fry oil from GFS.

Cooking up the walleye taken from Matthew’s 1st Annual Tournament.

This the walleye, after everyone (five of us) had taken their share.  A little slow with the camera this time.

Tried some shrimp too.

At 10 and half quart capacity, you really can make quite a bit of perch.

Weather permitting,  will be heading out shortly this morning.

Walleye are now being caught right out front of Bolles Harbor near E-Bouy. Had multiple reports that you have to pick threw the junk fish, but they are there. Trolling with crawler harnesses, gold and copper (mayfly colors) have been producing the most fish.

Perch are still being picked up in front of Luna Pier. Many 8-9″ fish are being brought in to be cleaned with the occasional 11-12″ in the mix.

There will be a sidewalk sale this weekend in front of the store. So stop in and see the old lures and fishing equipment you can’t live without.

Thank you.

Jason