 |
| Still a few big ones around! They are just few and far between. We are witnessing probably the biggest slaughter of Walleyes that I have ever seen here in the Ashtabula area. Everyone and I mean everyone is limiting out and limiting out easily everyday. Problem is (if it is a problem?) that so many of them are cookie cutter identical twins. 16” to 18” inchers. Some days almost the entire catch. I am guessing that these are all 3 year old fish. There must have been a unbelievable hatch back in 2019 that was just simply off the charts. And we thought 2015 was a monstrous crop! What is going on is certainly unprecedented. Odd thing is that all these fish had to be undersized juveniles last summer. I sure don’t remember handling this many throwbacks last year. Where were all these fish last year? But still if you put in enough days and enough hours, on certain days if you’re one of the luckier groups you do manage to come up with some real dandies. Just not as many as we are all accustomed to doing so here in recent years. |
 |
| My first picture featured in this weeks report is a beautiful nine and a half pound Walleye we caught a week ago aboard The Trophy that won me the weekly pot in River Marine's little River Marine captains only “Calcutta” tournament. Just for fun and for bragging rights, each week all 7 captains at River Marine throw in $50 bucks and whosever boat brings in the biggest Walleye that week, the captain wins the entire pot! The only catch is that it has to be at least nine pounds to qualify! If nobody has a nine pounder that week to weigh, everybody throws in another $50 bucks and the previous weeks money rolls over and builds the pot. Kind of like a mini Power Ball! Lol! Ironically it was exactly a year ago the very same week that I won a pot that had been building for 3 weeks with a ten pound monster. The pot this time around was only a single weeks worth because the week before my buddy Capt. Rick with the Tricky Rickey Charters also docked at River Marine won it with a nine and a quarter pound beauty. Like I said, there’s still a few big ones around! |
 |
| After claiming in my last report that things were heating up out in 70 ft. plus of water, strangely enough it seems like the bulk of the fish have shifted again back southward into the much shallower water where they are usually only found in May and early June. Aboard The Trophy this past week we chased the fish into water as shallow as 41 ft. Some nice chunky “eaters” in there and easy limits. But I never commit to just one depth. The wind always dictates where exactly I start. Every week I look at many different water depths. We had several heavy north winds in the past couple weeks where we were forced to start well offshore so we can put them on the tail and troll south with the wind and the waves giving all my guests the most comfortable ride possible. And that’s how I am rather confident that the fish have abruptly shifted their typical slow methodical march northward and actually appear to be holding out in the 50 ft. range. Plus or minus 10 ft. or so depending on the day. The fishing never got good till we got way shallower. Really weird. We should all be fishing in 70 ft. plus everyday now. But at least for now, that is not the case. |
 |
| So we have now flipped the calendar to July already. Couple more weeks and I’ll have hit the mid point of this fishing season for myself. I still hold out hope that a massive school of larger fish arrives sometime soon. But for now at least we are catching fish and lots of them at that. It could be much, much worst I suppose. Rather then huge Walleye hatches year after year now ever since 2015 we could have had poor to non existent hatches just as easily. I’ve lived through some of those years too and let me tell you, it’s not that fun staring at rods all day praying for a bite either. So far everyone has handled these smaller fish days better then I have and as it should be I suppose. The trip should be all about the outing itself and doing something that you just don’t get to do everyday. Catching fish should always just be a bonus! Although we all know that’s not necessarily the case for some people! Lol! But rest assured, I am trying my very, very hardest to catch everyone whoppers. After all, there’s this little contest... Ha! Capt. Walt Trophy Charters * These trips were not priced for this kind of fuel emergency that is facing us right now. Your generous tips will help us survive these tough times that lay ahead! THANK YOU! |
(166.137.12.77)