Fishing Report by Capt. Walt Ermansons



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Fishing report for the week of Sept. 19, 2010.

From bad to worst. My luck that is... Well after sinking a ton of money into repairs to the starboard engine about a month ago, "The Trophy" experienced another setback this past Wednesday while returning home from a long ass run from the OH - PA line after running our final Walleye trip of the season. We blew an engine on the port side ! This time it was a catastrophic failure requiring total engine replacement with a brand new motor. Ouch ! And just like de' ja' vu , Ronny at Jacks Marine dropped what he was doing and bent over backwards to get me up and running by Saturday morning for my scheduled Perch charter. While the blown engine was being removed , he sent a man to Detroit to personally pick up and bring back the new motor because we could not wait to have it shipped. And as with the last time, true to his word late Friday evening we were back in the water and heading back to my dock at River Marine.

Although nothing lasts forever, I have to believe that all the super long grueling punishing rides back and fourth each day to the fishing grounds these past few months contributed to these break downs. There is a HUGE difference between putting out a few miles and starting to troll as opposed to running the boat so hard so long just even one way to get my guys to the very best spots that I was aware of as quickly as possible. I felt bad for my boat each day knowing that I was pounding the motors and racking up the engine hours. All I could do was change the oil faithfully and hope for the best. It did not work out so well. :( Now with fresh power on the Port side I have no choice but to repower the starboard side also. That's just how it works. You never swap one motor out and leave in a opposing tired worn out engine. That's just how it works... I hope to do this as soon as next month when my schedule lightens up. This will make the 3rd set of engines that "The Trophy" has received in her career. Like I said, nothing lasts forever.

Overshadowing everything else, there was actually some fishing that took place. I had mostly Perch trips this past week however as previously mentioned, we did squeeze in our final Walleye outing. Wednesday was a great weather day on the pond and I think the only day that it did not really blow. The rest of the week the lake was quite choppy. A great trolling day Wednesday though ! Too bad the Walleyes did not think so ! We worked very hard just east of Conneaut and tight on the PA line and only managed to capture 10 walleyes for our efforts. In my own defense, we really did have quite a few others on and off that escaped but that just does not help put fish sandwiches on the table, LOL ! Funny how on the slow days the ones that got away always seem to loom heavy on my mind ! When they are coming good, it's no big deal, but... Anyway, it was pretty sucky and by about 1:30 we just flat gave up. Perhaps if I only 2 people like I did the week before we might have been able to hang in there and force a couple of more for bragging rights but I did not and it was just not to be on this final day of the Walleye season for me. And my break down on the way in that day just capped off a tough and very expensive end to my trolling season. Weather and break downs. Something you just can't do anything about.

The rest of the week was spent Perching including the two days "The Trophy" was down for repairs. And once again I was able to run my trips on those days on my friend Capt. Taylors identical Cherokee boat, the "Taylor Made" Thank you Taylor ! Most trips went very well with nice limits of Perch except for Friday where sea sickness ended the trip a bit early. Like I said... It was a choppy week. We have plenty of open days now available for anyone looking for a awesome fall Perch outing. Tuesday and Wednesday is available this coming week. We even just had a super prime Saturday open up because of some confusion in scheduling. This available open date is Saturday, Oct. the 2nd. A great rare prime Saturday for whoever may be interested. Perching really is great fun and the big bags of tasty Perch fillets at the end of the trip is reason enough to go. If you've never Perch jerked, you just don't know what you are missing ! Hopefully this coming week will be a little less eventful and we can just focus on FISHING !!!

Capt. Walt
* REMINDER There are no fishing licenses available at the marina this summer. You need to get them ahead of time ! Questions, CALL ME



Source: Capt. Walt Ermansons September 19, 2010 at 15:36:20


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