Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 708 is my conversation with Jeff Liskay, a veteran Great Lakes fly fishing guide who has spent more than forty years on the water. Jeff lives on the south shore of Lake Erie, the most fertile of the Great Lakes, and chases steelhead, smallmouth bass, and walleye across Erie, Lake St. Clair, and the surrounding tributaries. We talk about why the Great Lakes fish like inland oceans, how he finds solitude on heavily pressured water, and the patterns that have kept him learning for four decades.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · Press play in the player above to watch.
Jeff Liskay is a veteran Great Lakes fly fishing guide based on the south shore of Lake Erie. He has fished the Great Lakes for more than forty years, guiding for steelhead, smallmouth bass, and walleye across Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, and the surrounding tributaries. He started by netting walleye and smallmouth as a first mate before switching to fly fishing, and he is highly regarded in the fly fishing community, with April Vokey calling him the best fisherman she knows.
Jeff targets steelhead, smallmouth bass, and walleye as his core species, but the Great Lakes hold far more. He sight fishes for bowfin, drum, and smallmouth in skinny water, trolls the deep for cold-water species, and works the tributaries for migratory trout. He describes Lake Erie as a natural breeding ground for warm-water species, which is why he calls the Great Lakes the inland oceans.
Jeff says Lake Erie is the most fertile of the Great Lakes because it is very shallow, with only a couple of deeper pockets off Cleveland and Long Point. That shallow, fertile water makes it a natural breeding ground for warm-water species and supports a huge population of walleye along with trophy smallmouth and stocked migratory steelhead in the tributaries.
Jeff acknowledges Lake Erie is heavily pressured, with large fleets of bass anglers and even more traffic since COVID and flexible work schedules. His answer is local knowledge: he says on any given day you can still find your own little piece of the world if you know the water, and he can shift from deep to shallow to escape the crowds.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 708 with Jeff Liskay is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
The Great Lakes are a complete blind spot for me. I have fished a lot of the country but never up there, and it is one of the great fishing mysteries in my mind. Jeff comes with about the highest praise possible — April Vokey told me he is the best fisherman she knows. My friend Derek DeYoung sends me videos of the smallmouth he catches up there and it looks unreal. I wanted Jeff to pull back the curtain on a fishery most saltwater guys like me have never touched.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the full story.
Jeff calls the Great Lakes the inland oceans, and once he describes them you understand why. He lives on Lake Erie, which is shallow and incredibly fertile — a natural breeding ground for warm-water species — with a couple of deep pockets off Cleveland and Long Point. He fishes everything from sight casting to bowfin, drum, and smallmouth in eighteen inches of water to trolling the deep. The variety rivals the salt. Listen to how he describes the scale of the system.
Between the tributaries of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Jeff has a steelhead realm most anglers never see, plus a huge population of walleye and trophy smallmouth. He explains the mix of stocked migratory trout and the few wild fish running the Canadian rivers, and what triggers the big ones. This is the part that had me ready to book a trip. Hear his breakdown in the episode.
Erie is crowded — big, fast, glittery bass boats everywhere, and Jeff says COVID and flexible schedules only added to the pressure. Yet he insists you can always find your own little piece of the world during the day if you know where to look. How a forty-year veteran does that on water this busy is a master class in local knowledge. Watch the YouTube player above for his approach.
Jeff has watched the fishery shift, just like I have in the salt. He says the fish are going more pelagic and less structure-oriented than they used to be, and he is still playing the old game while learning the new one. That honesty about adapting after four decades is exactly why guys like Derek DeYoung and April Vokey rate him so highly. Listen to that part of the conversation.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
The day after talking to Jeff, I was a little embarrassed I have never fished the Great Lakes, and a lot more motivated to fix that. He made a region I knew almost nothing about sound like one of the best and most varied fisheries in the country.
What stuck with me is the depth of his local knowledge. Forty years on the same water and he is still learning it, still finding new water, still adapting as the fish change. That is the mark of a real guide.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 708 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Jeff Liskay · Lake Erie · Lake St. Clair · Great Lakes · April Vokey · Derek DeYoung · Cleveland, Ohio · Upper Peninsula, Michigan
Jeff Liskay is a veteran Great Lakes fly fishing guide who has spent more than forty years on the water. Based on the south shore of Lake Erie, the most fertile of the Great Lakes, he guides for steelhead, smallmouth bass, and walleye across Erie, Lake St. Clair, and the tributaries of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. He started out netting walleye and smallmouth as a first mate before switching to the fly, and still mixes fly and light conventional tackle. He is widely respected in the angling world, with April Vokey calling him the best fisherman she knows.
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