Another 12 hour day fishing

 Went back to Vermilion yesterday the wind had been coming out of the WSW for a couple days and Wednesday was no different. The only saving grace was it was suppose to die down in the afternoon. It was a little bumpy to start the day

Pictures don't do this justice.

so I started my troll to the West and went to the East. I intentionally made a long troll to cover depths and ground with 1 taker. So I picked up and did it again, this time I moved in a little to 28 fow where I found good signs of life. I had gone all the way out to 40 with plenty of fish on the bottom but either they didn't want my offering or I couldn't get it down deep enough. Anyway the 28' mark worked just fine for me. I caught a couple fish a pass and once I figured out the depth and color it didn't take long to put a limit together.

I didn't know Ohio had a blimp?

Did some more prospecting

I gotta write this quick just in case I need to make a quick getaway. It seems the Vermilion Police have sent out a BOLO for me.... more at the end of this post. 

 I noticed that when the summer hits one of the Charter Captains (Juls) on the walleye forum I follow heads East. On her last post she put in out of Vermilion. So I messaged her for some advice about the usual info needed to catch fish, namely depth and location. She was very helpful in her answer so I decided to head over there yesterday and see if it was any good. 

To say the least I was impressed, the water was alot cleaner. What I mean is over by the islands this time of year you have to continually pull and clean your lures to keep the eel grass from fouling it. I didn't have that issue out of Vermilion which was really nice, the spiny water fleas were also not as bad. I'm pretty sure I'll be heading back there. Probably not as often as I would like with there being there is a 7$ put in fee, all the same it was a good day. The water was a little bumpy but not bad enough to keep me off it. My first troll had me almost all the way down to the next launch which is Lorain. The best way to get back was pull and run, so that's what I did along with the 2 fish from my first run. Once I got set back up and trolling it took me only a couple hours to put the rest of my limit in the box. 

Oh, I forgot to mention on my first run there was some scattered dark clouds that were moving through and I swear I saw a water spout form, die and reform a couple of times before the cloud passed. The spout was to my West headed my direction and I had no intention of pulling and running before it had passed. At least where I was I could've made it to Lorain rather quickly, or at least to shore which wasn't that far away.

Anyway after the cloud passed the skies were sunny again and when the wind switched it even died down a little.

Yeah I know I chopped my head off, the fish were sooo big I couldn't get everything in the pic because I was in a hurry. 

 I fished out of Vermilion and this pic was taken at Mazuriks which is where I wanted to end up but I had to vacate Vermilion in a hurry.

Which leads me to the rest of the story: Why is the Vermilion PD looking for me?

Well, let me explain.

Apparently when I was coming in from the lake motoring down the river. I was throwing a ripple of a wake, in a no wake zone. Some busy buddy was on his phone taking pics of me and my boat while telling the police all the info..... 

Yep I got reported by a "concerned citizen" for a wake violation. You may be asking yourself, well how does he know he was reported? The dock commander at the launch came over to talk to me and tell me he was there and overheard the conversation. He also said if the cops come looking he never saw me, in addition to that he wanted to know how I did.

So I'll probably stay out of Vermilion for at least a week and let the heat die down before showing my face in that town again.

Epic failure

 I had a soon to be son in law of a buddy, who's property I have hunted for years join me on Monday for a little walleye fishing on Erie. He is from ND and comes to visit a couple times a year, and the weather was going to be good Monday so we left the house at 2:50 headed to Erie. 

That was the good news and that is pretty much where the good news ended. I asked on the way there where he would like to fish... a spot I can almost always catch a limit... or a place I've been prospecting but have the possibility of catching a decent fish. He chose the latter and I thought... not a great idea I'll go to the first spot he won't know and we'll still catch fish. I wasn't happy with his choice so I asked again, and again he chose the latter. I should've went with my gut because after 11 hours we had only boated 1 walleye, and he was short and had to go back. 

The trash fish kept us busy, mostly gaspergoo's, a cat and a small white bass. But the walleye just eluded me, and it wasn't for lack of trying. Many lure changes, direction changes, and depth changes nothing worked unless we wanted to catch goo's. At one point we had 4 rods in the boat after boating 4 goo's it was a literal goo-fest.We trolled all the way around Kelly Island looking for a couple walleye, trolling to the landing I finally hooked up with a keeper walleye. After he went into the box Justin threw in the towel.... didn't really matter I could see the launch when he started pulling rods. So we cleared the boat, I loaded it up and strapped it down, while Justin cleaned  our 1 walleye.... Dammit

He said he had a good time and we did catch alot of fish... when we got back to the house I gave him a limit I had in the freezer. At least the family can get a meal out of the deal.

Why I had to fish 12 hours

 I got up and out on time again this week, I even remembered my fishing poles. I got to the launch all fueled up and ready to go out and concur some new areas. I started where I left off last week, after a 2 hour N to S pass with no luck I headed NE of Kelly to start prospecting. I started just N of Kelly and within an hour or so I had 2 16's in the box, with a 19 not far after that. I trolled a while hooked up a couple more times, but with less than stellar net work I lost 2 right at the back of the boat. It took me a couple hours and 3 or so gaspergoo's, but finally was able to boat 2 within a couple minutes of each other. 

What's a gaspergoo???

That's a gaspergoo- AKA freshwater drum

Then another lull when I looked at the clock it was 6pm and I started contemplating how long to stay, when my back rod fired. When I stared fighting the fish it felt like another gaspergoo, so I haphazardly started horsing him in. When he got close enough for me to see him I saw a really good walleye. So I cut the motor and gingerly coaxed him into the net, finished off a long day with the biggest fish of the day, and with that I started wrapping up and headed to the launch.

Couple firsts today.....

 Got up and out on time (3am) for the first time in... well, I can't even remember the last time that happened. As I was driving through town I started running down my checklist in my head and (first #1) remembered I forgot to throw my rods in the boat. So I turned around and headed back to the house to grab my rods. Stupid....

Freshstart... back on my way to Erie made it through town and to the landing by 6am. Got the boat prepped to launch and had to use the facilities, so I threw my tackle bag in the truck and took care of some needed business. Launched the boat and headed out to some of the same marks as 2 weeks ago. Got the kicker running and started setting rods. After I got the corner rod set I went after my long rod, put the inline sinker on it and looked for my leader which is in my bag and.... dammit (first #2) I left the tackle bag in the truck. 

I had to pull up my trolling gear and head the 4 miles back to the launch. 

Freshstart... so now I have rods and lures I think I'm ready to fish??

Run the 4 miles back out and start setting up again, this time I'm ready to fish.

I boxed 3-16's in a matter of minutes and felt confident that I was going to put a limit in the cooler so I decided to sort for some bigger fish. The next fish on was a 21" so he went in the box, troll on. After a couple run backs and the fiasco in the morning I started to wonder if I had enough gas to make it in. I turned the key and it looked like a quarter tank. I'm not exactly sure how far that would get me but it was lower than I felt comfortable with so I started trolling in. By this time I hadn't had a hit in a while and I was pouring through my tackle looking for the lure that will bring me home. I put an oldie but a goodie on, a rattling hot tot in UV blue and pink. It didn't take long before it got hit and came unbuttoned as soon as it hit the surface. So I put it back out again, and again it got hit this time he made it into the net and the box. One more time for one last fish, within minutes I had another fish on. He also made it to the net and the cooler. 3 of the biggest fish came on 2 of the smaller lures that I was running that day. 

Needless to say when I got home I ordered 7 more Hot tots.