No experience on Erie here, but I love to fish St. Clair, just upstream. Awesome smallmouth fishery. We've always flipped tubes up against riprap and breakwalls, with white being the hot color. If the fish have moved off of those locations, then we casted cranks out on the flats. Rat-L-Traps have always been my hot lure - chrome and light colors. I'm fond of the Tequila Sunrise pattern.

Good luck!