We are back home in Ashtabula ! After running my last charter last Sunday and getting done rather early at that , I jumped back in the boat and under a very choppy north east sea condition took it across the 114 miles of open lake and arrived in Ashtabula for the summer season about 6 hours later and a 111 hours lighter on fuel. Just in time for the new spike in fuel prices. I knew it was coming. I predicted it back in January when we adjusted our charter rates for the upcoming summer trips only. After taking a real beating at the marina pumps last summer, we did what we had to do and all I can say is here we go again. Big oil companies should be held accountable. There is no real reason they should be allowed to manipulate the prices as bad as they do, only because they can. I better change the subject. It just discusts me ...
Sadly, the fishing back home is starting out kind of slow as well as I was afraid it might because of the late spring conditions and everything seemingly running as much as 2 weeks behind. I have never been one to sugar coat any of my fishing reports and I try to tell it as it is. The last few years if you go back through any of my Ashtabula reports you would find we opened up good in fish back home here and never looked back. This year is a completely different year for me and my slow start to Port Clinton's fishing this spring has seemingly followed me back out east. Although we are still catching fish, it certainly is not as good as it ought to be by my standards. Hopefully we are only days away from turning things around and getting back to "crazy good" fishing !
As I suspected, River Marine's restoration project has not been completed on time either due to a variety of complications but we are so close now that I can hardly wait ! For at least a few more days "The Trophy will still docked at the Oar House Saloons courtesy dock, the same place I ended up late last summer after River Marines tragic collapse into the Ashtabula River after the dredging operations. The concrete is supposed to be poured now after 2 re-schedules on this Monday, June the 1st. I should be able to bring the boat back around for good shortly after. As I mentioned, I am so excited I can hardly wait. It will be nicer then ever ! For a awesome slide show of the entire construction project, log on to my website www.trophycharters.com and click on the news page and then click on the "Rebuilding River Marine Pictures" link. Quite fascinating !
So we are back in Ashtabula, have not missed a thing yet and things should only get better with each passing day. I have not been out enough yet to get everything figured out but with each outing a clearer picture should start to emerge for me as where we need to be and what we need to be doing to get the job done. We still have 4 dates available for the rest of this month and they are far enough down the road where things should be happening as they always do around here. The dates available as of right now are June 8th, 11th, 18th, and 25th. All excellent choices and as always, still a much better choice then even a good day at work wherever that might be for you ! The weather is finally getting delightful as well so give me a call as always on my boat/ mobile # 216-387-2656 to reserve your spot. Tight lines ...
Capt. Walt
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