BY MARK CAHLIK

Trolling for walleye has been the key to limit catches, with purple diving plugs a hot topic for anglers.

Lake Erie walleye fishermen battled big winds early this past week, but the big waters settled down quite a bit and the hungry walleye responded. Limit catches and big walleye were the order of the day by the middle of the week, producing a very nice grade of walleye.

The best fishing has been west of the Lake Erie Islands, with good catches reported a couple of miles northeast of the Niagara Reef complex. The walleye were also biting around the C Can and F Can reef markers on the Lake Erie Firing Zone.

To the east, anglers are still finding success around Kelleys Island, and to the north along the Canadian line. The best trolling speeds have been 1.8 to 2.0 miles per hour with Deadeye and Bandit lures running 80 to 90 feet behind the boat.

Casters are starting to transition from casting lead-head jigs to nightcrawler harnesses, and the drift-and-cast tactics are expected to get better as the warmer weather fires up in the coming days. Anchoring and dunking emerald shiner minnows for yellow perch has yet to perk up. The channel catfish are just starting to come in to the the fish cleaning shops, and we’ll have a report on that Sandusky Bay favorite next week.