Not the easiest of weeks. At least, not till this past weekend starting with Friday where things rebounded very nicely. But if you’re part of the weekend warrior crowd that usually only fishes on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, you probably don’t even have a clue about how lousy our weather really was and all the difficulties that all of that subsequently caused us full timers who have to fish everyday. Every group that comes up is as eager to have a great day and catch fish whether it’s a Monday, a Wednesday or a Saturday. Somehow though we fished through most all of what Mother Erie threw at us, but it was not prettiest or the easiest.
All my fears from my last fishing report pretty much came true to create kind of a “perfect storm” of why the fishing was tougher the first part of the week. Starting with the good ole “Super Moon”. It just did us no favors. The Walleyes just don’t bite very good by daylight after feeding heavily all night by moonlight. It’s a fact. I’ve experienced it a hundred times plus. Plain sucks. Then add to that one of the more colder cold fronts that anyone has experienced or remembered in the month of July in a long time and you really have a loosing combination. Anyone that knows anything at all about Walleye fishing knows that cold fronts and Walleye fishing does not mix. For whatever reason, it just shuts them down.
And as if all of that is not enough, now you’re fishing in very rough water which makes for it’s own set of challenges even when the fish are suicidal which they were not early on in the week this past week. The mid summer “polar vortex” was not really as cold as all the hype hyped up on the Weather Channel and news but it sure came in with lots of wind as I had also feared last week when I did my report. We had about 4 days that down right stunk. Of the 4, we threw in the towel early on a couple of those days. Mostly because I couldn’t take another minute of all the pukers. And before everybody thinks that I am not very sympathetic, quite the contrary. All my ill guests that I had onboard in granted fairly heavy seas was bragging as they were boarding first thing in the morning about all the bars that they had closed up and how much they had drank. And they were the ones that paid for it while fishing with me a few hours later. It ruined their day and it dragged their friends down along with them. Yup, trip over. I’m not going to listen to that crap all day long. Some people just don’t learn.
But as I mentioned, by Friday it was like a distant memory already. The weather on the lake straitened out nicely and just like someone flipped a switch, the fishing was a burn again for us aboard “The Trophy”. Ah, if you could only pick and choose the very nicest days and only go then. But on Erie, that’s not a lot and we don’t have that luxury. Like someone once said. It’s like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. And when you book a trip so far in advance, it’s all about the luck of the draw. We do amazing things in very tough conditions many times but there is just days where things just don’t go well. Throw in big bad moons, nasty cold fronts and winds plus very drunk guests and you have a recipe for disaster. And then when we do get a picture perfect day, I always hear, “you have my dream job captain” Lol, yeah, it’s a dream alright! See everyone again in a few short days... Capt. Walt
* It is imperative to be setting lines with the very first hint of daylight. And with that said, I would like to have all of my upcoming trips that might be reading this report to take note and PLEASE be at the dock between 4:30 and 5:00am at the VERY latest. Fishing is the very best the first few hours of daylight and we DO NOT want to miss out on that opportunity! Also, please remember that there are no fishing license sales at the marina and that those must be secured else where ahead of time. Any questions, call me 216-387-2656
|