Take a few minutes and let Bill Nacopolous from BAC Bait & Tackle put you onto bass, perch and panfish in Presque Isle Bay.

This week’s Erie-area fishing report from Randy Leighton, deputy waterways conservation officer for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission:

Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s Erie-area fishing report from Randy Leighton, deputy waterways conservation officers for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission:

Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s Erie-area fishing report from Randy Leighton, deputy waterways conservation officer for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission:

Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s Erie-area fishing report from Randy Leighton, deputy waterways conservation officer for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission:

Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday afternoon’s early weather was as scary as it gets, but other than some lingering wind it turned out be quite a nice evening, the type that invited fishing at Presque Ise State Park.

The chop was on Presque Isle Bay, as well as on our preferred fishing grounds on the east side of Misery Bay, so we headed for the protected head of Marina Lake.

Where we joined a growing list of anglers who had the very same idea.

The sheltered and shaded cove was crowded with anglers tossing heavy rigs from the bank, working the depths from bass boats and wading the shallows. I could have done without the two nitwit shallows-waders who sloshed through and slapped at the water regardless of the fact others already were staked out there, but, hey, at least they shared a cell phone conversation and a never-ending stream of vulgarities with the rest of us.

My wife got into some panfish with her 4-weight right away, and a bass broke her off early in the outing. I caught nothing until the nitwits left, then broke the ice by casting a small popper to naive pumpkinseed.

I could see bass cruising after baitfish, but had not luck until I switched to a much larger frog popper. A few casts in I missed a take, then brought to hand two largemouth in the next half-hour, the second larger than the first.

It was a pleasant way to end the day, and prompted a promise to return to the park Sunday. We did, this time to Misery Bay, where the wave action made top-water fishing off the west shore once again unrealistic. The north shore, though, was placid, and lively with feeding pumpkinseed. Only one bass made an appearance, breaking off too-light tippet on my 7-weight. But I did get into what’s scientifically known as “a mess” of panfish, and the day that’s no longer fun is the day I’ll hang up the rod for good.

This week’s Erie-area fishing report from Randy Leighton, deputy waterways conservation officer for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission:

Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s Erie-area fishing report from Randy Leighton, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission deputy waterways conservation officer in west Erie County:

Read the rest of this entry »