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. 👍 

New firsts

 As much as I didn't want to I ended up at Erie again this week. Once again the weathermen lied to me. It was supposed to be >1 ft waves all day and when I got out it was just a little more. Before I left at noon thirty they were hitting 1- 3 with caps.... which kinda sucked and what made it worse was all the grass in the water. I had 2 fish in the box and was getting tired of getting tossed around so I called in and started packing up. 

I was shut down and had my secondary net resting on the cooler up front and the handle between my seats. A large 🛥 went by and threw me into a wake I was ready for.... my net was not. It fell into the lake and sunk ever so slowly 😫. Fortunately it was my secondary net and not my good one, but still....🤬.

After I gave Poseidon my net, I had the boat ready to roll, and started to the launch. The waves were choppy so I was going kinda slow as to not beat my boat up. I always keep an eye on my kicker when I'm under power so it doesn't flop over, I like it standing straight up. Well, it flopped so I slowed and put it back where it should be. The next time I checked it, the prop was dragging in the water, so I slowed and fixed it again. I haven't ever had it pop out and drop down so that was kinda unsettling. I see people run with their kickers down but I don't like to. 

So anyway I got back to the dock, loaded up and headed West. 

Not a terrible day, but the last day this year I'll spend on Erie. From here on out it's hunting or Lake Michigan. 

Well... I fished

 I had all intentions to go to Erie this week, even with the weather that moved in. My intended day turned out to be Wednesday, but when I got up and looked at the forecast again I just got that, "I don't want to roll the dice feeling" and decided to stay home, instead of taking my boat for a 6 hour drive..... So I texted my neighbor and asked if I could borrow his kayak to fish my lake, he said yes and off I went.

I was fairly unprepared even though this was a pretty impromptu fishing trip. I didn't kill 'em by any means... however I fished for around 5 hours and caught a handle full of fish. 

Yep they weren't huge but they were fun, and it was pretty relaxing. The fog and clouds stayed until around noonish when I got off the water because of the change from heavy mist to some raindrops. I'm glad I did when I did.

This bad boy was on it's way and got here not much after I screenshot this.

 

I'm hoping to get up to MI next week for some salmon, I got some new lures to try...