Had a good day.... still quiting

 Well, I couldn't find anyone to go to Lake Michigan with yesterday so I made it a me day. I wanted to be up and out by 2am, what actually happens when you don't set your alarm is you get up at 4am. I didn't have a whole lot to get ready, so I mosied around the house, had my coffee and left out for the lake around 5am. Since I knew I had all day it was a pretty realaxing drive, not in a hurry but putting a plan together. When I got to the launch, I was getting my boat ready and realized I didn't bother to get a fishing license😲. So I got on my phone (which I hate doing😠) and bought one, as it turns out I really didn't need it...... If anyone asked for it, I would've told them I was only washing lures, not fishing. That would've been very truthful, I hammered away at it all day from around sunnup 'til sundown before I called it a day and a year. I did have alot of company on the water, they were not helpful in my attempt to find fish however.

I turned out to be a pretty good day, it got pretty windy and cappy at times but I stayed pretty close to shore. The wind was out of the east which was where shore was, so the further out I went the worse it got, and I didn't want to get bounced around all day.
 

If I would've at least caught one I would've probably tried one more time but as it turns out.... nope. So I'll get the boat put to bed, along with my gear 'til next year.

I KNOW

 So here we are Wednesday afternoon, I should be fishing, but the rain doesn't wanna stop. And the wind doesn't wanna stop, so I'm contemplating what to do. I really, really, really want to go this week. Because if I don't many of the fish are going to be running upstream. So as next week shows up with rain, in the forecast more fish will be going upstream. I am contemplating going out tonight into tomorrow. Which I realize is Thursday, my home day, my I don't wanna do anything day, but as today progresses, I'm pretty sure I'm going to do that. With being said, I will not do a blog except this one, for this week. So you won't know what happened to me tonight into tomorrow. Until next week? And hopefully whatever happens is good. So until then, be safe, lots of love.

 

OK forget all that, the change in the weather has made me sit on the sidelines for this week. I got up this morning at 2a to see if I could/should try and get out. The rain just hung around all morning and all day, after 9a I'm glad I didn't go. However I will say, with next week being my last before the boat goes away, I am going to really try and get out.

 

This week I did get a camera I bought last year, set up and deployed. I set it out to see what's going on, on the property since I won't be bow hunting this year, so I just wanna keep tabs on it. 

Here's the first pic I got.

Decent pic with a nice doe

Oh yeah I forgot these last week so here we go.

pic of the moon before my goose hunt, I have no idea why the moon looks like that. 

When I took the pic it looked normal. 

found this guy North of the public I hunted for doves

 That's it for this week... Hope yours was great, be safe.

Quick

 That was how this early season started and closed for me... Dove opened on the first, and for the first time in 25 years I missed the draw.... don't know how but I did. So I sat out last week's dove opener and then goose opened on the 5th, which was as we all know, "a day of work", so I sat out on that also. 

I was getting good reports of geese from one of my buddies I hunt on so after work on Sunday I headed over to see for myself. I watched the neighbors set up and shoot a couple, but the magnawad just wasn't there. So I took Monday off with it being Labor day and everyone being out. 

Tuesday I did this...

That was the beginning and the end of my early goose season... 

I was going to go again last night but I got really lazy after the dove "hunt" had yesterday morning.

Speaking of dove hunting I walked all the fields on Tuesday morning and they were all crap but one. So I walked to the far end and waited. 

I ended up with 2 doves that field was also the field I hunted Wed. morning and "saw" 5 birds. So to end the early season I got 1 goose and 2 doves... I'll be fishing for the next couple weeks, then the boat goes away.

Nope, not this week.

 This week like next week did not look good and since I didn't find anyone to go this week I just stayed home. I have gotten pretty spoiled with running 6 rods and since all this week was questionable I just went around in Fort Wayne and made sure I still had hunting spots. I did get permission on all my spots so... that was good. However when I went to the river to do some planned trimming this is what I found.

their used to be a huge log here.... this is where I sat

That's the log to the right of me

Boy I gotta tell ya they had some water coming through done here this last spring, this is what I showed up to.

  If I were sitting in that chair looking out over the river this would've been the view I had. Do you see that huge root ball on that tree?

Just amazing.... I did end up cutting some limbs and found a new spot for this year. I sure hope the snow and rains come again next year and clear this mess.
 

Anyway I got that done, then headed up to my deer property and did some more trimming. I also got permission for 2 early season goose spots which opens on the 5th. 

So I hope to get in 2 goose hunts and a fishing trip next week, I really hope the weather holds. 

 

First trip

 After my last trip to Erie I swore it was my last this year. I followed through on that this week and made my way to Holland, MI. for my first trip on Lake Michigan.

We got a really late start because of getting kids on the bus, but I really wasn't too concerned. With the moon being full they kings seem to chew all night and will kinda start again late 🌄. We got to the launch about 10ish set up the boat, launched and headed out to the lake..... which was slicked out and gorgeous. We were going to start around 8o's but ran to around 100 fow to set rods and start the troll.

Once we got the 6 rods set it really wasn't too long before we had our first hook up. We caught and landed a decent steelhead to start the day.

It wasn't  too long before we had the second fish on which also turned out to be a steelhead. 

 

As you can see that one was... well, "special" not only was his face deformed but he only had half a tail. I realized now that I should've gotten a better picture. 

Anyway after that fish we had a lull where I did the usual by changing lures, speed, and direction to no avail. We did have a couple drive by's, before our last fish hit. I grabbed the rod and reeled in a nice Coho he's the fish in the left.

That was our last fish for the day. 

Moonrise

Me taking a pic of Cliff taking a pic of the sunset.

We did troll 'til dark and we were going to troll into the first hour or so in the dark, but my lights wouldn't work so that put the kibosh on that. We broke the boat down pointed the headlights I brought to the front and headed in.

After cleaning the fish I got in the house around 2am, yep another long fun day, but really good start for my salmon season.

 

We went 3 for 5 and got a real good idea for next week. 👍