GREAT OUTDOORS: Fish are thick near Vermilion weather buoy

In the past several days, I got to go walleye fishing twice with captains running from Anchors Away Marina on East Harbor, boxing similar catches while using contrasting techniques. I went July 14 with Capt. Eric Hirzel, who runs Erie Gold Sport Fishing on a trolling trip and July 20 with Capt. Mark Cahlik on a casting trip. Captain Eric kept his streak of landing a walleye customer limit every trip this season alive, except one when a three generation family went out with him. Son had too many beers for breakfast and when the grandkids joined their dad to nap on the bow, grandad decided that 18 fish was enough. Captain Mark was pre-fishing to locate schools of fish ahead of filming a pair of new episodes of MidWest Outdoors TV featuring his Green Phantom Tackle products. The first will be a casting show featuring his a yet-to-be named walleye harness, made with Vicious premium fluorocarbon line; gold or Tommy Harris painted blades; and Slow Death hooks, expected to be available soon. The second program will showcase his Dead Eye walleye crank bait lures and 1-piece 6 ½ and 7-foot Green Phantom trolling rods. They fill the void left after a nearly identical and beloved Ugly Stick model was inexplicably discontinued. While there are walleyes still present at least as far west as Crane Creek, despite the seasonably warm water temperatures, fishing is usually better this time of the year in the cooler water east of the islands. In both cases, we went to the vicinity of the Vermilion weather buoy. On the earlier trip, we stayed just inside the Ohio border to catch our limit of walleyes in under three hours. During the more recent outing, we casted lures to large schools of fish appearing for miles across the line into Ontario. There was one poorly marked trap net that was encountered on the July 14 trip, likely set for yellow perch and other Ohio commercially legal fish species northeast of Kelleys Island. However, there was more commercial fishing activity on the Canadian side July 20 with seven gill net tugs seen operating about 6-7 miles north of the border while we fished. Despite their presence, there was rarely any time when fish were absent from the sonar either day. An almost constant parade of fish were displayed across the bottom and additional schools were frequently seen suspended 10-15 feet up off the bottom, an indication that they were actively feeding. In the presence of commercial fishing activity on both sides of the international border, we still made bountiful catches both times. Recreational and commercial fishing are compatible as long as quotas for safe harvest are followed. Those who blame commercial fishing for wiping out yellow perch populations are not accepting that nobody can catch what is not being recruited into the population due to biological bottlenecks. Meanwhile, some of the head boats are gearing up to run perch trips as catches are beginning to trickle into the fish cleaning houses. Civilian Marksmanship Program to conduct groundbreaking ceremony at Camp Perry Camp Perry has played a central role in American marksmanship for generations. There will be a groundbreaking ceremony at 10 a.m. Aug. 3 for a new year-round, state of the art, Civilian Marksmanship Program facility. Expected to be completed by the end of 2027, it will be used for national training, competition, and youth development. The event will be at Camp Perry's Training site Building 5042, followed with refreshments and light appetizers. For details, see thecmp.org.