Running out of time

 Running out of time this week. I will catch up this week with next week, and will be a double episode, see you next week take care, love you.

Sept. 1st until yesterday

 Since neither I nor Cliff got drawn for the dove hunt, we decided to go to a friends property. Now he doesn't farm for doves and didn't say he had them in abundance, but if we wanted to get out beggars can't be choosers. So, Cliff and I went out on the opener, got to the field, started setting up and promptly watched the first dove fly by. Needless to say I felt pretty optimistic, long story short we saw more birds than I thought we would, but only had a handful of chances and only put one bird down.

Yep all morning for this little morsel. Cliff said he had a good time regardless, so I guess it was a win.

 

Tuesday I was feeling a little sick so I stayed home and slept. Wednesday the public property opened up to everyone so I rolled out picked a field and had a pretty good time. There were still alot of birds around and my shooting was pretty good.

Yesterday I went back to the same field and didn't shoot near as good. The couple of good shots made up for all the misses. I only got 3 birds but I'm well on my way to a dove dinner. Already know what will be for supper that day.... dove and duck poppers with some turkey tenders all dropped in the grease.

Man does that sound good, I'll send pics....

dove count: 9

If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all.....

 Who else remembers that Hee-Haw skit??? Gloom, Despair and Agony on me.....

Before we get into what happened fishing, lets turn the clock back to Sunday when I got home from work. I had a decent day at work and was looking forward to a good day fishing on Monday, which was the day the weather was most cooperative with. Well as soon as I got into my house I knew something was amiss. It was a little hotter and muggier than it should of been. After a very little bit of sleuthing I found out my A/C fan wasn't turning and the top was fire hot. So, here I was 4pm on Sunday with no A/C and the only good news was I was going fishing Monday. With Monday and Tuesday looking to be the hottest couple days of the year I figured I would still be able to survive. 

Sunday night wasn't too bad, I turned the blower on my furnace to suck up the cooler air in the basement to keep the air cooler. I woke up at 2:30 got ready and headed off to go to Erie. Made it there by daylight, set up the boat, launched and attempted to start my big motor.... notice I said attempted. Yep that's right my big motor didn't want to start, I thought that might happened and I already resigned myself to just using the kicker to get out and troll all day. 

The kicker started right up I put it in forward and went to the steering wheel to steer with the big motor. This is the first time I've used the kicker to power the boat and steer inside the harbor. Needless to say it doesn't turn like the big motor and I was heading straight towards the dock. I freaked out went back grabbed the throttle arm of the kicker and turned it manually. As the boat started to turn I kept seeing the back get closer and closer to the dock.... dammit I hit the dock with the side of the boat. No damage except for my pride, as I motored out of the "harbor" I looked back to see one of the old guys standing on shore was just watching me in amazement. 

Well I thought, if that's the worse thing that happens today.....

Once again I fished from sun up until almost sun down and caught......

6 gaspergoo's

file pic

and one short walleye..... all day?..... yes all day....

Did I mention it was hot??? like melt the rubber off my tennis hot??? Yes that hot, it was miserable out there. I ran through many lures and only managed one small walleye. I did have a couple fish that hit and got off that I kinda thought were walleye's. And oh yeah, I almost forgot, when I was trolling in and only a block and a half from the launch I had a rod fire in 23' of  water and I immediately thought it was a goo. But then it started fighting like a walleye, I wasn't sure it was a walleye until it got to the back of the boat. Where I saw it was at least a 22" walleye, 

the pic in my head when I saw it was a walleye

so as calm and in the moment as I could, while acting like I've been here before I grabbed the net and ...... promptly  knocked the fish off with the net and hooked the lure in the net.....😱😢😩😢😱😭😭.

After that all I could do was laugh, so I laughed all the way to the launch, loaded my boat, and headed to the house.

Hunting starts on the first of Sept for dove and geese..... That has to go better doesn't it????

By the way fishing done for the year, I'm going to clean the boat out and set it up on marketplace. After I get the big motor tuned.

 New set of problems for next year.... hopefully.

Down but not out

 The NE winds didn't want me fishing Erie this week. 

The rollers started on Monday

and continued Tuesday

my first evening fish

and Wednesday

The best day to get out would've been today, but today is a rest day, as we all know. With nowhere to go and the reluctance to run the big motor, I stayed home and took my boat out on my lake. I went around most of the first basin under trolling motor power and did catch enough fish to consider it a good day.

I'm hoping to get the boat looked at next week, there's a guy in my neighborhood that works on outboards. I'm hoping he can look at it Sunday afternoon so maybe I can get out next week... we'll have to see. 

It runs just not as good as it should.

Erie is kicking my ass

 Alright before I get into what happened this week I have a couple addendums from last week.

1. First thing I did last week when I got to the launch was slip on the landing and almost end up in the water. Ended up hurting my left leg mid thigh and it just stopped hurting this week.

2. I worked on my motor until it's not running great, so I gotta have someone fine tune it. That brings me to the second, I've gotta slam the motor in forward or it will die. When I was trying to load it I got a little too close to the dock and I popped my corner trim off.  

 Already got a new one and will install soon.

There, now let's talk about this week.

I got to the launch pre-dawn and got set up to launch, really started out to be a great day. I motored out 3 miles and as soon as I laid off the gas I was covered in little moth flies. I mean as soon as I motored down they were all over me 

I know it doesn't look that bad, but they were EVERYWHERE

they didn't bite but they were constantly flying around and just being a nuisance. 

Now whatever I have said in the past about "how easy it is to catch on Erie" or "Erie isn't fishin' it's catchin' and if your not catchin' you're doin' something wrong". Well, this is the first trip that I've been able to put more than 2 fish into the box. The thing is I had to go all day to do that, I mean from sun up to sundown and I only boxed 4 walleye. 

That being said I did also catch 4 shorts that went back, some trash that went back.

I didn't weigh this gaspergoo but he was a beast

And this 26"er that went back.

He also was a beast, very healthy fish.

I made it in with a half hour or so to spare, got the boat broke down, fish cleaned and home by 12.

almost sunset

That was my day on Erie.... Oh yeah almost forgot... the eel grass was terrible, every 20 mins I was pulling lines and cleaning it off. It's amazing I caught any fish.....

 

Bank fishing Chronicles....

Wednesday I took the kayak out on my lake and realized one thing.... I couldn't straighten my back for 2 hours. I am going to get a better one for next year.

It was a good time 'til I tried to get out of the kayak and my body revolted. I went out this morning for a couple hours from shore and caught this guy. 

He wasn't that big but he hit as soon as my lure hit the water and fought all the way in, good times.