Lake Effect

Mario Campos has been operating Maumee Tackle for decades and knows all there is to know about the world-famous walleye run, which happens every spring. And yes, world famous – folks from many states and countries come to wade the river in cold and dreary conditions. Let’s talk to Mario and pick his brain on fishing the river for Lake Erie walleye.

Ben Simon, Shores & Islands marketing director, talks about the ins and outs of promoting Erie and Ottawa counties in Ohio. The greatest attraction is Lake Erie, he says, but there is plenty more than just a giant, beautiful lake filled with delicious fish....

Fifth generation winemaker Dustin Heineman talks about growing up on South Bass Island and operating the family vineyard. His great-great grandfather Gustav, a German immigrant, began planting grapevines in the 1880s. Heineman’s Winery has been in business for 137 years, produces more than a dozen varieties of wine and is the oldest family-owned winery in Ohio. He also covers the 1897 discovery of Crystal Cave, the largest known geode in the world, and how it saved the family business during Prohibition.

Let’s visit the bustling Erie-Ottawa International Airport in Port Clinton and chat with Kara Clifford, chief pilot and director of training at Griffing Flying Service. We’ll also talk to her father-in-law Tom Griffing, whose family founded the company in 1937.The airline owns or operates 17 aircraft, including several jets,and is a vital link between the Lake Erie Islands and the mainland – especially in the winter months after ferries that service the islands shut down.

For decades Mona Rutger has operated Back to the Wild in Castalia, a few miles from Sandusky Bay. She and her dedicated staff at the wildlife rehabilitation center have taken in and released thousands of animals, including many Lake Erie birds such as eagles, swans and other feathered creatures but also including rabbits, possums and other woodsy residents. Let’s visit and chat with this advocate for all wild animals.

Catawba Island resident Cathy Coffman has turned her hobby, scouring beaches for old glass, into a long-time business on Kelleys Island. She uses beach glass and stones of various geological origins from island beaches to create one-of-a-kind earrings and pendants. Let’s visit with Cathy to find out more about beach glass, how to find it and what can be done with it.

While most people think of taxi cabs as a big city thing, on Lake Erie’s Kelleys Island, taxi cabs are the only thing for folks who don’t drive or have had a few adult beverages. The ins-and-outs of this family-run business, Island Rides,are irritating, amusing and heartwarming. Let’s talk to Bobby and Natasha Skeans and find out more....

Kenny Kreutzfeld began working on vintage wood boats when he was a kid. And now more than 50 years later he’s still at it, operating K & M Restorations in Marblehead. From turn-of-the-century boats to more “modern” Chris Crafts and Lymans from the 1950s and 1960s, he tears them apart and puts them back together, troubleshooting and eliminating the number one problem with wooden boats: leaks. And some of the industrial equipment he uses is more than a century old. Let’s visit his workshop and talk about old wood boats.

Alberto Rey fled Cuba with his parents as a child. More recently he retired as a distinguished professor from SUNY –Fredonia. The painter, Orvis-endorsed fly fishing guide and conservationist talks art, kids, water and fishing from his studio on the banks of Lake Erie tributary and steelhead stream, Canadaway Creek in Chautauqua County, New York.

Let’s visit with long-time Kelleys Island resident Vicki Finnegan and Ploy, one of her many “adopted” grandchildren. Ploy (Wassana Prommanat) is one of many international students who visit and work on the island and in the region each year during the summer season as a part of a U.S. Department of State program that allows college students from abroad to live and work in the country temporarily. Vicki takes students under her wing on the island, and they call her “Grandma….”

Dick Carstensen is one of thousands of landowners nationwide who participates in one of several programs that pays for or shares the cost of improving or restoring wetlands or creating new wetlands in critical areas. His 135 acre Jerusalem Township farm near Lake Erie is now about half marsh. He waterfowl hunts there and his wife photographs birds. In this episode we’ll visit with Dick and a friend on the marsh.

Kimberly Kaufman, executive director of Black Swamp Bird Observatory in Oak Harbor talks conservation, birds and the Biggest Week in American Birding, which takes place in early May. Each year tens of thousands of birders flock to northwest Ohio to check out all types of birds including the stars of the show, migrating warblers which pass through the area traveling from the Caribbean, Central and South America to their nesting grounds in Canada and Alaska. She also talks about the recent expansion of habitat conservation in the region.

Mike Ferner and Susan Carter have been tireless advocates for Lake Erie during the last decade. Their organization (formerly Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie) is not afraid of controversy and welcomes media coverage on the topics they care about. Both live in Point Place and are concerned about the growing tide of factory farm manure that's making its way into the Western Basin watershed, and the lake, through rivers and streams. Our visit with the pair will explore Lake Erie Advocates, its current work and future vision.

Retired educator Sue Hartman has been tending to the Marblehead Lighthouse for years. As a member of the Marblehead Lighthouse Historical Society, she’s involved in day-to-day operations at the Marblehead Lighthouse State Park during the season as well as fund-raising and managing the park’s lifesaving station and museum. Let’s visit with Sue to find out more about the Great Lakes’ oldest continually operating lighthouse and the group that helps keep it one of the most popular tourism sites in the state.

At the Castalia Fish Hatchery, ODNR employees are tasked with producing about a half million rainbow trout and steelhead each year. Superintendent Andy Jarrett supervises the operation and talks about the ins and outs of raising fish including predators that want to eat them, feeding the fish and hosting anglers, hunters and visitors at the hatchery.

On Lake Erie’s Western Basin, East Harbor is hands-down the most popular and consistent ice fishing spot. During years when the lake doesn’t provide fishable ice, East Harbor always presents itself as the go-to place for panfishing – even if only for a week. This year it’s provided at least a month of fishing. So let’s chat with Bobby Nickel and learn a little about fishing for bluegill, yellow perch and whatever else may bite. Nickel has been heading to the harbor since he was a kid and returns every year to do some mid-winter hardwater fishing.

Let’s meet Michigan resident and charter captain Lance Valentine, who walked out of his banking job without notice more than two decades ago to become a “fishing educator.” Huh? We’ll talk fishing in general, safety and the ins and outs of teaching folks about fishing for walleye on Lake Erie. Valentine works on the water with anglers, creates written and digital content and aims to bring smiles to folks as they reel in fish.

Dave Barus talks about promoting fishing and the outdoors at the eastern end of Lake Erie, in Chautauqua County, New York. In addition he talks conservation, massive muskies, and all things Lake Erie and tributaries.

John Tibbels talks charters and the business of fishing from vessels his father built decades ago to get people onto the lake. From cleaning worms to teaching fishing, captains do all things required to ensure customers catch fish, have fun and return.

In this episode, we’ll chat with Travis Hartman and Matt Faust, ODNR fisheries biologists who work out of the Sandusky Fisheries Research Station. The pair, along with other staff in Sandusky and Fairport Harbor, monitor and manage Lake Erie fish populations and health including the two most popular fish, walleye and yellow perch

In this episode of Lake Effect we’ll visit with Marblehead resident D’Arcy Egan about his half-century of outdoor reporting including his 30-plus years at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. But mostly about his special relationship with Lake Erie, the evolution of walleye fishing on the lake and a little about sharing the outdoors with others and being a good person.

In this episode we’ll meet with Port Clinton native Rick Henkel. He’s a well-known Pittsburgh-based commercial illustrator whose odyssey to create a completely accurate architectural cut-a-way fine art print of the Marblehead Lighthouse took nearly a decade. We’ll hear about the ups-and-downs and ins-and-outs of his research and work on this personal project. And also about why he still loves Lake Erie – and the lighthouse.

East Toledo native Scott Carpenter, a former news reporter and editor has been working for Toledo Metroparks for almost three decades. His love of Lake Erie and all it has to offer has helped him forge a strong bond between Metroparks visitors and the lake, its marshes, tributaries and wildlife.

Cleveland native Cary Ferguson moved his studio, and life, to Marblehead more than two decades ago earning a living as a glass artist and painter. His art is almost exclusively centered on the lake and its flora, fauna and people. In this episode, Ferguson shares a little about his work, history with the lake and the future of the area.

Let's Visit with Peggy Debien, curator of the Ottawa County Museum. This former U.S. Navy officer grew up in Port Clinton, left and returned home. And now she knows, and catalogs, everything Ottawa County and Lake Erie.

In this episode, James checks in with 92-year-old Bob Reynolds, whose grandfather founded the Matthews Boat Company on a little creek in Seneca County but whose boats and yachts became treasured possessions for people around the world. The company also launched wooden boats for the Allies in both world wars. Unfortunately, the advent of fiberglass boats in the 1960s spelled the end for Matthews.

James Proffitt speaks with Scudder Mackey, chief of ODNR's Office of Coastal Management. All things related to where water meets land on Ohio's North Coast.

What began a decade ago as a small end-of-winter gathering has morphed into a massive business-boosting bash that raises thousands of dollars for local charities and culminates with the burning of a 30-foot "snowman" on the shores of Lake Erie. For some businesses, the last Saturday in February is the busiest day of the year.

Let's visit Fremont resident Steve Pollick, retired outdoor editor at the Toledo Blade who spent 40 years bringing all things Lake Erie and outdoors to readers in northwest Ohio.