Lake Erie Captain Jeffrey Linz

I love fishing....I love the Outdoors....And I obsessed with Lake Erie Walleye Fishing....

I started fishing around 4 years old.  We started just on local lakes, rivers, ect.  I was interested, and enjoyed catching anything that would bend a rod over.  It wasn't until I was around 8 years old that I found my way to fishing Lake Erie.  My dad booked us a trip on a walleye charter and we had a fun day catching our limit of Lake Erie walleye.  That was the day the light switch went on.  I was hooked on Lake Erie Walleye Fishing.

From there we bought a small boat and started stumbling around learning the ropes of fishing smaller lakes and local reservoirs and occasionally would try our luck walleye fishing Lake Erie on our own.  We would have some success, but it wasn't until we bought a bigger boat and got better equipped for Lake Erie, that we started to put this Lake Erie Walleye Fishing together and became successful.  I’ll never forget the day we limited out for the very first time, it was an accomplishment of years of trying and failing.  We just kept getting more consistent and started paying more attention to detail. Beacuse of this, our results kept getting better year after year.  

I then began running as a first mate for a few charters in my 20s. I continued to do so till I graduated college.  I learned the ropes of running bigger spreads more common with larger groups on a Charter Boat.  Filling larger daily limits charter fishing with more rods is pretty much the common practice while running walleye trips. I also learned how less can be more when it comes to fishing, and how a few rods set perfectly can out-fish or certainly keep up with more rods in a bigger spread that take longer to set.

At 25, I decided I wanted to start my own Lake Erie Charters in the summer months, to earn a little more money doing something I truly loved.  I bought a Sport-Craft 272 and rigged it, fished it for a year while I obtained my Captains License.  In 2008 I started running fishing charters in Conneaut Ohio.  My business has grown from the idea of making a few bucks fishing, to a charter business that is honestly as busy as it needs to be for my life.  Since starting in the fishing business I got married, had 2 kids and cannot wait to share this passion with my own family. In 2020, I was able to finally purchase a boat I've dreamed of owning that I now offer as part of my business and to my family.

I truly believe I learned how to fish Lake Erie the “hard way”.  There was no internet, or even cell phones when I was growing up fishing (Sounds crazy!).  We learned things by talking to people. Getting help from those who have "done it" longer than you and knew a thing or two, and were willing to share and help.  We still learn that way to this day.  We built relationships by actually talking to people face to face, and I believe that helps you not just in running fishing charters, but connecting and communicating with people on a day to day basis in life.  I still am very open to talk to other fishermen and other captains. Because of this our network on the lake is fantastic.  Most kids whose noses rarely come up from the tablet or phone, and even future fishermen will not know how that shapes you as a human being.  I honestly feel that with how the internet and technology is these days, that I am one of the last of my kind.

Many of my clients have bought boats and have started to try their own hand at fishing Lake Erie.  wonder how many of them will be writing a story similar to this someday.....

Capt. Jeff Linz