Live Bait Shops

Fishermen come to Lake Erie from all over the USA. They come here to catch a great gamefish the Sander Vitreus better known as the Lake Erie Walleye and a lesser game fish the Lake Erie Perch. A lot of the fishermen arrive on Lake Erie not knowing about the Live Bait Shops

These shops are essential to both walleye fishing and perch fishing. Trolling a worm harness is a very effective way to catch walleye. Using a spreader with emerald shiner minnows is almost always used for perch fishing. Both of these baits require a nearby source of live bait shops.

It’s important to know that all shops are not created equal. A lot of the shops have live bait in very limited quantities and concentrate on the artificial baits. Others specialize in live baits and carry a limited supply of artificial baits. Then there are the true live bait shops that carry both items in large quantities. These shops are aware of which baits are currently taking fish and where the fish are in the Lake.

If you arrive at the lake and don’t know where these shops are you will waste a lot of valuable fishing time trying to locate one that has what you need. I suggest doing a Google search for them. Look for the shops that have a good website. It should provide a description of what they sell, their phone number, a map showing directions to the shop and a fishing report.

If you are planning a trip, try to locate a shop close to the marina you will be fishing out of. Call ahead to make sure of their hours and to make sure they have the live bait you require. It is best to have the location of more than one because it is not unusual for them to run out of bait if the fish are biting well. A peculiarity you should be aware of is the fact that most places will not have emerald shiner minnows during the full moon. The brightness of the moon causes the emerald shiner schools to disperse.

Most shops will have frozen shiners during this time and other types of minnows. The frozen minnows get soft very quickly and are hard to keep on the hook while the other types of minnows just don’t produce the bite that the emerald shiners does.

A fishing trip to Lake Erie can be expensive. Prior planning to locate the bait shops and looking at the lunar calendar can go a long ways towards making your trip a successful one.