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...

24 hours

However before I get into what happened this week, I forgot to put this in last week. After I got back from Erie I still wanted to catch a fish so I got ahold of Cliff and asked if he wanted to bring the kids up and kayak the lake while fishing. He said he did and made it up the next day. 

We were on the lake for at least 5 hours, I caught a fish right away then nothing the rest of the day.

It took Cliff until the end of the day, but just when he least expected it, he hooked one.

The kids had a great time casting a little bit, paddling and just playing in the water.... it was a good day.

Now onto this week....

I got up at 2am to get ready and out by 3ish, Cliff answered the call to go this week. I didn't even have to send out a mass text to find a reason to run 3 more rods. We got loaded up and headed out a little after 3am and that put us there at a good time. We got the boat set up and launched, I headed out to start just South of Green island, even though we noticed the water was pretty dirty. We trolled North past rattlesnake and headed West across the basin..... oh yeah the weather? Well the weather had 1' waves with a chance of rain from 9 to 11.... this is how it looked.

Yep this is how it looked all day and that rain... well it never showed up thankfully. 

Back to the story- We hit a very large goo, a short and our first keeper on the troll West. Keep in mind we were around noon by this time. We got to the "corner" of how far I was willing to go West and headed South. We picked up a couple more shorts, a white bass and a decent perch, and one keeper. When we go to that "corner" I pointed the boat East and started trolling for the gap between South Bass and Catawba Island. That's when our luck started to change. We started hitting pods of walleye and were able to pull out 1-3 per pod. Now we started to fill the cooler, when we got to the West side of Green we turned around and headed back, still picking up fish. We did this 3 or 4 times and before too long we were only 4 fish from a limit. We were on the far West side and we decided to make one more pass hook around Green and head in still on the troll until we got into 26 fow before throwing in the towel. 

Well that's what "we" agreed to, I on the other hand decided to make one more loop before Green to try and limit. We managed a couple more then started the troll in towards the landing. On the way we finally hit out 11th and 12th fish. So we broke the boat down and headed for the launch. We got the boat pulled out and ready to roll, took our pics before it got dark. Then we headed over to Mazuriks to clean them, they put a nice fish cleaning station in a couple years ago, and I knew I wouldn't feel like cleaning fish after driving all the way home. It isn't that far and it didn't really take that long.... the skeeters were bad.

Once the fish were cleaned and put in the cooler we pointed the truck West and headed home. Not sure what time we got home but I got the boat in the garage gave Cliff his fish, took the rest of the gear inside, sat down and my alarm went off again.....2am.

Stop touching me......

Doomed from the start

 Left the house at 2:30 am almost got to the state line and realized I forgot my wallet. So I headed back to the house to get my wallet and some drinks. I knew I was going to be "late" so I didn't get all antsy, I just took my time and got there. I got the boat set up and launched and headed across the bay. I went against the wind which was already blowing pretty good, pretty much ensuring that I was only getting one troll.

Pictures never do the angry lake justice when it's bumpy. I couldn't even hold a steady speed... I was anywhere from 1.1-3.1 sog, and that doesn't help me at all.

I did catch one fish and it hit while I was setting my lines. I had the pole in my hands when he hit and when he did, I don't know what happened but he managed to open up my finger and I started bleeding all over the place. I knew as soon as he hit that I had a goo on, he did put up a good fight. I got him in and got him released, I didn't know it then but that would be the last fish I would touch that day. I made a 4-5 mile troll and didn't hit anything but waves, and they were getting worse. Once I got to the point of Catawba Island I decided to pack her in and head for the dock. That in and of itself took me at least and hour to do because of the waves. I had to go pretty slow for 2 reasons 1- to not beat the crap out of me and the boat and 2- stay dry. Anyway I finally made it in and tied off on the dock. I saw a boat that was launching before I did, I asked him how they did. He said not good, and pointed at his windshield. The large bent corner piece of his windshield was blown out 😲.  I gave him my condolences and went up to get my truck. There were a couple other fishermen taking out and breaking their boats down that also said they didn't do well, which made me feel a little better.

When I got up and started breaking down the boat, another boat pulled up and I made a boat to boat comparison.......

 This is the boat I had....

This is the boat I should've had...

The guy said he worked at a marina and he was just going to drop it in and run it to the owners dock... Apparently it is only a 340,000$ boat.... I told him all I have to do is sell half my lures, 3 rods and grab 20 bucks and I'll be in the market to get me one. 👍

 

Anyway, I got the boat buttoned down and headed for the house...  

Yep.... I should've gone

 On Monday.... I should've gone on Monday, the other days had both lakes all riled up. So I stayed around the house, pulled some weeds, cut some limbs, mowed some grass and fixed my bimini. So I really did get alot done just not what I wanted. 

That's ok.. there's always next week. 

I've been gone for too long

 I went to Erie for the first time this year, the good news is I got limit. The bad/other good news is I got to spend 12 hours doing it. Even though I forgot my weights, which are supposed to be in my tackle bag. I still managed to catch a limit in 25-30 FOW running maglip 3.5's, at 97 back unassisted and a slide diver back 33 and 45 with spoons, also taking fish. 

I did catch quite a few gaspergoo's, 1 perch, 1 white perch, 1 white bass, and 3 or 5 shorts. I baked all day in the 91 degree sun because.

1- because I wanted walleye

2- OHIO RAISED THE PRICE FOR YEARLY AND DAILY NON RESIDENTS.

Two years ago I paid 50 for a nonresident yearly, now.... it's 79. The guys I brought could get a daily for 10 bucks...... Now it's 27 for a daily.... A DAILY that is just robbery. I might go back 1 more time before switching to Lake Michigan for the year, not really sure. Their dailies are still 10 bucks in MI.... for now, the yearlies are the same. And since I am on the back side of summer, the kings will be showing up in Holland. I think I might as well get a yearly and head north. I'm just not sure how many yearly non resident licenses I can justify. Anyway not sure what the plan is but it sure looks like it's going to cost more money.... as everything does... it just feels a little wrong.

So this is the pic of my limit.... do you notice anything??

I thought it looked different but in the heat of battle I didn't look closely. It wasn't until I got home and cleaned this fish and saw the pic that I was like WOW that is different.

Apparently it's a silver walleye, they're are not really uncommon but still, it's the first one I've ever caught. 

 

Anyway not sure if I'm fishing next week, I gotta finish some work I did  on my bimini before I go out again. 

 

Be safe