A pretty good week. Things went as they should this past week. The weather was summer like. The Walleye fishing was great. And my stress levels were back to normal. Well, almost. Along with the good weather and the good fishing, Every Tom, Dick and Harry that had a boat was out there fishing. I mean there was an incredible amount of boat traffic out there ! It has been years since I had to play such drastic dodge em and worry so much about so many little boats cutting me off and trying to run over my stuff. It didn't take long for the word to get out that the the "bite" was on in front of Ashtabula Harbor. Every boat out of Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors were out there criss crossing and trying to fish the same 3 or 4 mile patch of water which I am not denying is holding the best walleye fishing that we have seen to date this lousy season. The fish have finally showed up and now everybody is a Walleye "expert" LOL ! Most of these slaps now fishing didn't even try to Walleye fish when you had to work hard for your fish like I have all year.
Does not surprise me. I predicted it all year. Nobody wants to look for fish. They just want to follow the charters around when it gets good and be led to the promised land without going thru the many hours and days of looking and trying. I guess if you can have the luxury of only fishing when the hot bite is on, this is your time of year. You waited patiently for the fish to become suicidal and people like myself to post reports that the game is on and spell out exactly where the fish are. Now you can go out there, catch some fish and go home and brag what a good walleye fisherman you are and how you "found" them and figured things out. If you are noticing a bit of sarcasm in this report, you are right. I am sick and tired of people following me around like a puppy dog only to constantly be in my way and once again complicating my job. I think I've mentioned it before in many numerous past reports. It's always something on Erie. Even when it's good ...
The other thing that I was not real happy about this past week was the fact that the Sheep head are really starting to fire up. Even though the Walleyes are heavy out there right now along with them is a crap load of drum that have arrived and fired up as well and it is not pretty. We've had numerous times where every rod on the boat has been wiped out by the stupid Sheep head which in turn kills your chances at catching the prized Walleyes when all the hooks are buried deep in old rubber lips. You can't catch Walleyes when you are dragging Sheep's around and fighting to land some of these bruisers for sometimes 20 minutes at a whack. And you never loose these Bastards either. You just look at a Walleye funny and they are coming off. The sheep head, they are coming in. Every tough inch of the way. Usually dragging in a bunch of our other lines as well as they come in spinning and skiing sideways the whole way. Did I mention it is always something on Erie ? Yikes.
So we are now entering the second half of August already. We used to have full fledged daylight at 5:30am. Now a strange darkness lingers on till almost 6:30. Summer is winding down. People are talking about kids going back to school and the new football season. I have mixed emotions about it all. After the year that I have had this summer couldn't have ended soon enough. Now that it actually is and the Walleye fishing has gotten pretty decent it saddens me. I am not really ready for the fall season that is knocking on the door. We have been cheated out of summer this year and the fact that it is seemingly almost over any which way saddens me. My only hope is that the Walleye fishing remains strong the remainder of what I have booked which is less then a month now before I make the switch to the Jumbo Perch fishing to round out our season. Which reminds me to remind you of this upcoming last chance season and a last chance to stock the freezer with those tasty yellow Perch fillets. We have lots of days to choose from for the Perch trips and we actually have a few open days left fore a last chance Walleye trip aboard "The Trophy". As always, give me a call at 216-387-2656. I'll be glad to hook you up !
Capt. Walt
|