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| August, heat, Walleyes & masks. Let's get started. We have indeed now flipped the page on the calendar to August. This crazy, messed up summer is slipping away quickly. And I can’t honestly say that I am all that disappointed. After loosing so many trips in the first couple of months to Covid cancellations, we are finally starting to string some trips together. Just in time for this crazy heat wave to set in and for the fish to scatter so deep that everyday has become a real challenge. It just has not been that simple to limit out each day. Sure, we’ve had a few trips that might have seemed easy and quick for my guys but to me overall it’s been very frustrating dealing with wire line fishing again and fighting all the undersized dink Walleyes that seem to be following me around. To me, nothing is more frustrating then taking 5 minutes or so to run a long wire line out, feed it all the way out to the end of the planer board, set the rod in the rod holder and immediately see the same rod tip twitch a few times and then the feel of the lure disappears. Instant dinky Walleye on. Pop the line, pray that it don’t pick up another line which about 40% of the time it does because they don’t drop back like a larger fish does against the tow of the boat. Crank it all the way in, repeat the process only to see another dink on there! Ugh! Yes, August means that summer is starting to wind down for me. It is with very mixed emotions this year. |
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| And the heat. We did FINALLY get some relief in these past few days but before that, my God has it been hot out there! That has added to my frustration. I guess I’m not a big fan of a blazing hot sun and insane temperature's coupled with high humidity. Working feverishly in the back of the boat trying to keep lines in the water and everything untangled. After running nothing but Dipsy Divers the last two years in the later part of the summer and catching nothing but keepers as fast as you can go, this isn’t exactly how I thought my 34th year of chartering was going to be! Man and to have to do it all with the sweat pouring down my forehead, fogging my sunglasses and burning my eyes constantly plain sucks. And this stupid heat has really done some weird things to these Walleyes. Water temps have rocketed to almost 80 degrees! I just heard on the Cleveland news that Lake Erie is within a degree or two of a all time record warm water temperature! It has driven the fish super deep, scattered them just about everywhere and for whatever reason the fish are just not acting or hitting things like they normally do. Even though most days we are still hitting charter limits using wire line and Storm Jr. Thundersticks I am amazed how bad our Dipsy Divers have been most of this summer. We get a few fish on them each trip out but for the most part they have been very unproductive. Super disappointing! |
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| But we are catching Walleyes! And some really nice ones too! I don’t want to leave anyone with the impression that fishing is bad. It’s probably just back to normal except for the onslaught of little Walleyes in the lake. And that really is not a bad thing. We’ll get through this year and in a year or two all these youngsters will be legal sized insuring that fishing will be great for many more years to come! We’ve had other years that have been challenging as well. Years where we were exhaustingly sorting through White Bass or plagued with Sheephead. Though I complain about everything because that’s what I do in my old age, I gladly will take having to reel in these dink Walleyes over being inundated with big ass foul hooked Sheephead all the time! Been there, done that! Not fun at all! I still don’t think any massive migrating schools of Walleye have arrived from the west end of the lake but there is plenty of fish in the area. You just have to work harder to consistently fill the fish rack. |
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| Masks. Oh boy things are slipping backwards around here and everywhere. After cases of Covid have supposedly started to rise again, our Governor has joined many other states mandating that masks must be worn in all public locations. What that means for us is that everyone that comes to the marina to fish with us must have a mask with them and should be wearing them while on the marinas property. I am not asking anyone to wear one while fishing nor how could you really do so in this hot weather but you will need them if you plan on entering the marina store or anytime you can’t be 6 foot apart from other people back at the dock. Whether you agree with masks or not, it’s not my call and we have to abide with the orders and the marinas wishes if we have any hope of remaining open. River Marine is being watched by the health department and we don’t want to be the reason anybody gets in trouble. So most of you know how I like to hang out afterwards with everyone back at the marina when we get back Well don’t take it personally if I leave soon after taking care of my boat. I personally can’t stand to have a mask on so I’m not spending any extra time hanging out down there if I don’t have to. I do what I have to and head back to my air conditioned trailer where I can do whatever I want. So the “after parties” are pretty much over with the rest of this year as far as I am concerned. Sorry! But hey, we’ve already been together for 6 or 8 hours! Lol! Crazy times we are living in for sure. We just have to get through it the best that we can this season! Capt. Walt Trophy Charters |
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