Mark Martin often catches big walleyes like this one when he works extra hard on Lake Erie. But poor spawning seasons over the last six years have lowered the number of big 'eyes annually caught by recreational anglers. Photo by Tracy Breen.

Lake Erie holds legendary status among walleye fishermen. In fact, anglers from coast to coast have heard about Lake Erie largely because it's a great walleye fishery.

In recent years, residents of Michigan and many of the neighboring states have known if they wanted to catch walleyes, the place to go was Lake Erie. One professional angler who has always enjoyed Lake Erie is Mark Martin. Martin makes his living fishing for walleyes so it's easy to see why he loves Lake Erie.

"Fifteen or 20 years ago, you could fish Lake Erie and catch your limit in a few hours. In many cases, the smallest fish was 5 or 6 pounds," he reveals, "and it wasn't uncommon to regularly catch walleyes in the 8- to 10-pound range. In fact, when I was fishing tournaments on Lake Erie, I often threw the 5- or 6-pound fish back in the water because I knew, in order to win a tournament on the lake, a much bigger walleye was needed."

But time has changed Lake Erie's walleye fishing over the last decade. Big walleyes don't hide "behind every log" like they once did. Walleyes are often smaller now and there are fewer of them. Anglers have changed the way they fish the lake because big-fish catches are lower and invasive species of aquatic life have changed the fisheries -- of note, the walleye fishery -- of Lake Erie.

"Twenty years ago, the lake was relatively dirty, so you could troll over an area with planer boards close to the boat and catch walleye after walleye. You could fish the same pod of fish and catch fish all day long. Those days are long gone," Martin explains. "Zebra mussels have made the water very clear, and walleyes are often spooky because they can see the planer boards and the boat overhead, especially when they are feeding near the surface of the water. This has forced us to fish Lake Erie differently. Now, we keep the planer boards 150 feet away from the boat, and I always make sure my boat is going over the top of a school of fish."

Martin relies heavily on a good GPS (Global Positioning System) unit and a good fish finder. There are many high-quality brands of these electronics available, including Low­rance and Garmin as two of the preferred brands for anglers.

"There used to be so many walleyes in Lake Erie that one school of fish was several miles long. You could follow that school around all day and catch fish," Martin says. "Now, the schools are much smaller, so you need to pay attention to what you're doing to ensure you continue to catch fish."

Martin explains that he uses his fish finder to locate a school of walleyes; then, he uses his GPS unit to mark where he finds them. In that way, he can keep track of where the small pod is and troll accordingly.

"If I lose track of the fish, I can go back to my starting point and try to find them again," he points out. "In the past, you could keep trolling and never run out of fish once you found them. Now, I heavily rely on electronics to keep an eye on the walleyes and where they're going. With a small pod of fish, you can lose them easily."