Photo by @WillsWorldOutdoors Vivid spinner-worm willow leaf blade colors can be a straightforward and simple difference that catches fish when other colors may not.

Did someone say walleye fishing in Lake Erie was easy?

They did. That was 10 days ago. Limit after limit.

Then we had four days of easterly wind that created a lake turnover, shoving the surface water temperature at Barcelona Harbor to 42 degrees! With water temperatures of 59-62 degrees that had surged a hungry hot fish bite just before that, the change to “no fish” was hard to imagine.

However, it was real. The fish, resilient as ever, moved with the temperature shift to the upper 40 feet in 110-140 feet of depth, about 8 or 9 miles out, instead of in 50 feet of water 20-30 feet down and 1-3 miles offshore. This adaptability of the fish is from nature; the adaptability of the anglers to move requires experience to know when to move.

Today, closer to shore, wind direction and water temperature are returning to normal. If you have not yet fancied the change in sonar techniques with forward-facing sonar (FFS), then like many others, it is ordinary side-scan, down-scan, and old-fashioned trolling with modern tactics and gear. Learning about the usual standards helps us each find and catch more walleyes than last year.

In the old days, it was a monofilament line and rubber band weights of 1-4 ounces 50 feet from a spinner and worm deployed 150 feet back. It still works and you don’t need to reel in 500 feet of leadcore line.

We can share words, texts, pictures and telephone talks, but when someone creates a video using modern clip-on snap weights with how to, what to and when to information on walleye fishing Lake Erie out of Barcelona or Dunkirk, it pays to take a peek at the episode. Especially when the episode producer is local and shares talk of rods, reels, lines, lures, baits, and, more importantly, how to make them work when conditions are changing. Entitled “The Secrets to FAST Walleye Limits – Lake Erie Walleye Fishing,” the video shares details of Okuma Blue Diamond rods and Coldwater reels (and what’s notable about them), locally made worm harnesses (3D)with their new exotic worm blade colors, fish netting skills – get the right size net, preserving the fish for your table, snap weights, planer boards, and more.

Local angler William Schwartz and his dad are the stars of the show, which is 52 minutes in length. The show begins at sunrise with a father-son discussion; some mistakes in netting fish alongside the boat are shared, with suggestions on what to do next time, which are also captured later in the show. They discuss their favorite color spinner-worm rig of the morning, Nuclear Purple, and where to find them (Buffalo Tackle) with a discount code. They are running six lines between them; some are running shallow, and some are deep, with a rationale for the variation in where the lures run. During the episode, the wind changes from west to east, and then the cottonwood seeds fly around and land on the boat several miles offshore. This is the beauty of nature in fishing.

Remember, these guys started fishing just after sunrise and are heading back to the Barcelona boat launch with the 12-fish limit before 9 a.m. This is significant because the number of fish per hour is far above the usual. The little things make a difference. Simple fishing makes a difference. We can learn from each other. Pay attention to the clip-on weight size variations and distance back from the planer board. Visit YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=txgb5S86kTk#bottom-sheet.

Gotta love the outdoors.

Outdoors Calendar:

June 25: Chautauqua County Federation of Sportsmen, monthly meeting in the new Conservation Building, Chautauqua Fairgrounds, 7 p.m. start.

June 27: WALLEYE. WNY Heroes Day (Dunkirk), Contact Jim Steel; 716-481-5348; visit https://wnyheroes.org/.

July 28: Lew Mead Memorial Kids Memorial Fishing Derby, 16 and under, no fishing license required for adult help, Dale Road Boat Launch is registration site, starts at 7 a.m., Derby at 11 a.m. with weigh-in. Info: Steve Wickmark, 716-595-2900.