Recharged the batteries

Ended up going to Wawasee this week to do some casting for bass for 2 reasons. One was, after the beat down last week on Erie, I was a little gun shy to head East this week. The second is that I wanted to stay kinda close to home because I had some goose to get ready to marinade for Thursday grill day. Anyway, I actually did pretty well yesterday, I caught quite a few bass. I didn't get into any big'ens but boy are they chunky on that lake. I caught most of my fish on a strike king strobe jerkbait, which is the way I prefer to catch them. I didn't fish all day but I did stay 'til around 3p. After that the lake beaters started coming out in force, that was my cue to head for the house.

Oh, yeah how 'bout some pics?

 All of the bass were pretty much cookie cutters, but man were they chunky.
Well, after this week I think I got the casting bug out of my system for a while. Next week weather willing I just might venture East again... What about West you ask? Well, I picked up a new set of downriggers for the boat a couple weeks ago and I'm going to tackle that project in March. I could use my old set but I kinda want to wait 'til I get the Cannons mounted. So the next time I'll get on Lake Michigan will be April for those spring Coho.

Wheels fell off

One of the landowners that allows me to goose hunt enjoys fishing on Erie for walleye. So, to thank him for allowing me to hunt, I had him out on a fishing trip Tuesday. Keep in mind his has been the first number I've called all year just trying to get him out, he is very busy. Finally, he said he could make it Tues. morning so I checked the weather Monday night and it was supposed to be a decent day. Tuesday morning we got to the launch right on time and I noticed it was a little bumpy, which I knew about. The winds were slated to slack mid-morning and the water was going to get almost slick. So we pressed on and got set up East of South Bass Island to start. That sheltered us from the brunt of the wind and waves. After a couple hours, we noticed the wind was dying a little, and with the slight change in direction, the waves were down some. So we pulled lines and ran West to where I caught 'em last week. We made one longggg troll to the SE the whole way pulling white bass and shorts. Long sad story short we didn't boat one keeper and I held my buddy hostage until we passed the 10-12 hour mark on the water. When we finally did pull lines the waves were an easy 2' with some stand up 3's thrown in for good measure. We had a very wet slow ride back to the launch. So yeah, the thank you I wanted to give him turned into a long day on the water with a 4-hour truck ride and a free shower thrown in for good measure, with not even one walleye to show for it. 😡
I hope he still lets me hunt this year.
So without a fish to show for Tuesday, I decided to hit an area lake this week just to try and put some pics up.

still catching short walleye

I missed a pike that was at least 2-3 inches bigger 😮

 Not a super week for me, but I had some fun and nothing broke. I'll try again next week and hopefully will have some better pics to share.

Well... it couldn't last forever

Just when I thought I had it figured out, Erie threw me a curve this week. The day started out a little bumpy and near blackout due to clouds. In hindsight the weird thing is in the first 10 minutes I had my first fish in the cooler, so I thought it was going to be business as usual. However, it took me 10 hours to put my second and third fish in the box, of course, that was after the sun had made an appearance. I figured out in a hurry Erie is much like Lake Michigan for me, I have a hard time catching on either one when it is cloudy out. It should've been easier, 'eyes like it better when it's a little darker, but these guys apparently didn't get the memo. All that being said I will say that it's not like I didn't stretch a line all day. I hooked up and released at least 5 shorts and one white bass. I also had 3 LDR's (long-distance releases) and one at boat side. Which brought me to the realization that I need to start bringing my long net again, especially when I'm by myself. The fish I lost boat side was barely hooked and I was trying to figure out how to get him in the boat, just swing him or grab the ne... he gone.
 Considering I didn't have all day to spend on the water (I wanted to work on Wed) I had to start trolling in around 3 pm. So with 3 in the box, I was able to pick up 2 more before I had to pull lines and head to the house.
With over 12 hours on the water, I definitely washed my fair share of lures...

most of them went fishless, however, some caught multiples

 It's weird how some colors and brands are super hot one day and then don't catch a fish the next. Like the lure in the lower left was so hot one day I had one on all 3 poles, same with the husky jerk right above it. Since then they barely catch a fish, same goes for the white and redhead bandit. One day it slayed them on my back corner rod and the next I couldn't buy a bite on it. The clouds definitely threw me for a loop this week, not sure what they wanted but given enough time I should be able to dial it in.

Yep, one short this week I did have my opportunities though, it should've been a full board. Well, that's ok I guess, sometimes you have to leave a couple for seed.

Sleep deprived man takes a kid fishing....

Made plans to take Cliff to Erie for the first time this year. And for the first time, I/we actually made it to the lake when I have wanted to, right at sunup it was awesome.
The day started out decent, the waves were a little bigger than I thought they were supposed to be but it didn't delay our start.
We started where I was last week when I caught my limit out by the armada. When we got out there of course there were only a couple boats off in the distance. So it was still a crapshoot, the charters don't start 'til later in the day and it looked like everyone else slept in.
Anywho, as I was getting us rigged up to start the troll, Cliff was doing his best to ask 101 questions so he could help. He's a good helper, but it was easier for me to just get things set up and get the day started. So, once I got the boat going and we were on the troll this happened.

how do I hold it?

Like this...

image for demonstrational purposes only

The next fish was pulling hard so I gave it to Cliff, while he was fighting that one, one of our other rods fired. I grabbed that one and fought my fish to the boat only to have him throw the hook boat side. I almost started crying, it was a really nice walleye, when I looked to see how cliff was doing he almost had his fish to the boat and when I looked back I noticed he also had all of our other lines tangled with the GOO he was bringing in.
Well, if all went as planned irritability would've been at a minimum but that's just never the case. Once I was able to unhook the goo and assess the situation I came to the conclusion, "Well, we're done for the day". The rat's nest was unparalleled in all my years fishing, WOW what a friggin' mess except I didn't say friggin' alot. After a 10-minute expletive fest and anger release, I grabbed a casting rod that I bring with, rigged it, handed it to Cliff so he could fish. I got to work on trying to salvage our day. I would say around 20 minutes later after a little alot more cussing, I had untangled the whole mess and the only line I lost was the knots on the swivels, I was able to save everything. 👍👌👌👍👏👏👏👏
Since everything was in the boat already and the wind had pushed us almost the entirety of our troll we cranked up the big motor and headed back upwind to start the troll again. It was like we started anew, and the boat was a happier place once this started happening on a constant basis.

#only net the big ones

When we started loading the cooler the day got alot better, the wind also started dying down which really slicked out the water. Not really great for catching walleye, we definitely caught most of our fish when it was a little rougher, but we still didn't go long without catching. Then of course there was the byproduct fish, which we didn't catch too many of on this trip.

if you hold out your arms the fish looks huge 😁

Not a whole lot of shorts either, the bonus was the 22"ers we were hooking, they fought so hard I thought they were goo's until they got boat side.
We didn't manage anything this big...

which we would've released anyway, but we caught some quality fish.
After our limit was met we shed some clothes and went for a swim, the water was awesome. 70+ degrees with some cool spots felt really good on the warm mainly windless day. When we got done swimming, we broke down the boat and headed for the launch.

Next time I'll put my shorts back on... no one wants to see that.

It ended up being a super great day, I had the privilege to spend with a good friend.

Motor's up and running

Since I fixed the motor last Thursday I continued with the quest for Erie walleye's this week. It was a scorcher on the lake with little to no breeze the first half of the day. I know the second half of the day had some wind because I was still there.... It took me forever to land my first walleye, which happened after noon. Previous to landing my first walleye, I had lost a +-20"er, let me explain. When I forgot my net a couple trips ago I have found it advantageous to boat swing my walleye. Well, when I got the first walleye to the boat I realized it was a decent fish and while I was contemplating whether or not to use the net, he shook off right at the boat.... oops.
Hopefully, that won't happen again, he was a really nice walleye too.
Anywho, I was in fish all day just not always the correct flavor....

catfish on a bandit

whitebass on a Smithwick with an incredibly fat belly

of course, caught 4-5 goo's (not the actual pic of any goo's caught)

the outcome when I found them

 Funny story I was having a pretty rough day when I noticed a congregation of boats about a mile away. I tried to get a pic but it didn't turn out. After trolling the morning away I pointed the nose of the boat toward the pack and trolled out to see what was going on. Every time I fish my way to the fleet I think of my Mom saying, "let's go where all the boats are, there's gotta be fish there". Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but I think of her every time. Well, on my way to the fleet I started hitting my fish, I even had on my first triple, 2 of which I landed. The sad part was after I had landed my limit fish I was reeling in a fish I had on my other rod and not only was it a walleye it was a 20" walleye.

This guy got to go back 

So after a long funfilled fish catching day, I packed it in and headed for the house. By the way, I had my top up on the boat all day and still got too much sun on my melon. I will definitely wear a hat next time.


bonus-
Tuesday night I called a buddy and we headed to MI with an empty trailer and came back with this.👇

2000 Kawasucky Praire 300 automatic.
Now you know what I spent my covid money on.
This should lighten the load in the 2021 duck/goose season.