Second day out fishing

Fished Lake Erie this week... again it was another solo trip. Maybe it is me....
I left the house at 3:41am and hit the lake right about sunrise. You know how when you get ready to go somewhere and you can stop thinking, " I think I forgot something?" Well after an hour of thinking about what I forgot, I realized that I forgot my net at the house. After seeing every store was closed in the early am including Walmart I came to the conclusion that I will have to boat swing all my fish today. Anyway, onward through the fog, I headed out to South Bass Island from Catawba state park landing. Within' minutes I was setting lines in 28fow and only 8 minutes into the troll I brought my first walleye on board. Then there was a couple hour lull before I landed two, in short succession, then they came pretty steadily until I hit my limit at 11:45. I think I went something like 6 for 11, the hot lure was the white and redhead bandit.

After I hit my last fish I packed it up and headed in, it really was a super day. I hope next week will be just as kind.

Forgot this

 First off, I broke in the carpet....

Blood and scales

Then a victory lap for my Mommy, I know she loves this facemask!!!

Shakeout Cruise 2020

 I tried 8 of my buddies to see who the lucky one was going to be. It seems like no-body could make it and the list of excuses was as long as the list of people I called.
Gotta watch my covid kids, the wife has to work gotta watch the kids, gotta plant corn (seriously that's one of the actual best ones, I hunt his property), wife's B-day, gotta dig a ditch, workin' dirt (farmer), gotta work on the house, and even called someone who wants to go but never answers their phone.
Is it me????  Nah.
 So it was just me heading up to Lake Michigan for the first fishing trip of the year. I got to the landing right around sunrise and there wasn't another boat or truck in sight. Either everybody's back to work or the launch is shut down. Well, I launched so it had to be the first. The big motor started no problem, parked the truck, and started out on the lake. It was a little bumpy in the morning with the wind and waves from the West. I decided to head West and go to Gary light for 2 reasons- it is a beautiful morning and if it gets worse I can always troll back with the waves.

It was a little bit of a boat ride but "they" said the fish were hittin' over there, and it's always been a great early spring spot. So, off I went at just about 10 mph, yeah it took a minute. When I got there, there were only 2 other boats fishing so I got out of the way and started setting up my boat. The kicker started right up while it warmed I got the trolling motor down, board mast in place and the rest of the gear ready. After a bit, I engaged the motor and Holy crap is it idling high. I mean I can't get it to troll down less than 4.7 sog. Well, I installed my trollmaster this year and the only thing I can figure is I needed to adjust the tension bar. Of course, that meant shutting down, drifting, taking the cowl off all while bouncing in the waves, all while trying to loosen a screw and adjust the tension bar. It was a little too bouncy right off the bat so I fished. When I was going into the wind I actually was able to get it down to 2.6-3 and that's when I caught and landed my first coho for the day. After about an hour I thought the only way to make the day perfect was to try and fix my trollmaster. So, I got as far up into the pocket as I could

opened the cowl, found a loosened the screw, adjusted the tension bar, put the whole thing back together, started the motor, and hoped it worked. IT WORKED instantly I knew this is one of the best tools I put on my boat. I was able to keep my boat running an even 2.0-2.3 the rest of the day, and this is what the outcome was.

Limit by 11:30

One more short story: while I was fighting my 4th fish ( the king, the fish under the T) I thought that once I land it I'll start trolling back to the Ditch, to pick up my last fish. When all of a sudden my rigger rod popped and my limit fish was already on the line and jeopardizing the landing of my King. Well, needless to say, I was able to land the king first then land the smaller coho to fill out my limit.
Wish I had my camera rolling.

Hindsight

Have you ever heard the expression: "hindsight is 20/20"?
I've been kicking myself over a decision I made last week. Long story short I was turkey hunting and a turkey came in following a bearded hen. If the Tom had followed the exact path the hen took there would've been a pic of a happy hunter last week. So as you may have guessed something didn't happen the way it should have. Well, the Tom hung up short of a slam dunk shot and in fact started back the same way he came in. Instead of calling to either him or the hen to get the Tom to come closer, I waited until I had a headshot and took it. Well, that bird didn't drop, I did go and look for the bird... blood... feathers... I found none of the above.
Here's where we are today, I have hunted the magic 5 a couple times since that day and have yet to hear or see the Tom I missed. So he either packed his bags and headed to a clump of woods that no one shoots at you, or climbed under a deadfall or clump of grass and died. I can only hope it isn't the latter, no hunter wants to kill and not recover his quarry. We all dream of the perfect shot on the desired game animal and have that animal drop in his tracks. The fact is we make mistakes, take shots we shouldn't have, and have decisions haunt us for weeks. Which is what this has done, and hopefully, I will remember this lesson and never let it happen again.
 On a less crappy note, next week starts the fishing season for me, since I haven't gone once yet. I'm watching the weather and it looks like I should be able to get up to LM next week. I need to get some pics on here for this year, nobody likes to read and not see a pic. 😢