Getting much tougher now! We worked very hard aboard “The Trophy” this past week to put some fish in the box. Last week I had mentioned that things were changing. I am now quite surprised myself how rapidly the Walleyes are really disappearing from within our reasonable striking distance. The offshore fishing is all but toast now. I am convinced of that. Where most of those fish went is anybody's guess. The only Walleyes that we were able to find this past week ourselves were much closer to shore then we have fished for the whole past two months. I am not even sure that these fish might not have been there all along and we have all just simply over ran them on our way out to the promised land and what we perceived to be the mother load way offshore.
This past week we worked in water only 50 to 60 foot deep for the most part. The Walleyes were still super deep though. In fact, I would go as far to say that we were pulling most of our fish right off the bottom of the lake. Not easy fishing when you are working a slope say from deep to shallower. One minute you are dialed in and pulling a few fish and next thing you know you’re hitting bottom with all your rods and loading your hooks up with Zebra Mussel shells and other crap from off the bottom. Ugh! So very much work clearing and resetting. And even though the Walleyes are fewer and further between it seems, the junk fish still abound everywhere. Lots of big Sheephead and plenty of the stinking White Bass to keep us very busy. Even more work! But aboard “The Trophy” we were still able to put some nice catches together. A couple of the days we were able to still capture 4 man limits for my parties of 4 guests and on a couple of our slowest days we were still able to get into the mid teens of fish caught also for my parties of 4 guests. Not really horrible especially considering how huge some of these fish were. In this weeks reports pictures I decided to just feature some of our bigger fish that we caught rather then our regular rack shots which after a while all start looking repetitious. These fish here were all 30 inchers and plus! Wow!
And in last weeks report, I also mentioned the possibility of some real rugged weather heading this way by weeks end. Well, we sure got it. After a nice run of great weather for all of the weekend warriors, this past weekend was absolutely horrible! A big cool down accompanied with torrential all day rains and high northerly winds shut down all thoughts of any fishing of any kind for everyone. I myself went ahead and cancelled Saturday’s, Sundays and even Mondays trips due to high winds and waves. So very disappointing for all involved. The lost work days for me and other captains continue to accumulate. What a year is all I can say! And what this big blow will further do to our diminishing Walleye fishing out there is also anybody's guess at this point. The real problem from here on moving forward is the fact that there just wont be that many others helping to look for the fish. Many have already switched completely over to Perch fishing now and a few that could go either way are just electing to go for the easier to catch Perch now that the Walleye fishing has gotten tougher.
Aboard “The Trophy” we will continue to go for whatever my guests choose to fish for as long as the weather allows us to do so. I do have a mix of Perch trips myself coming up with still a handful of Walleye trips. We will see. The good news is that once we get past this weekends nasty weather and the wind that looks to carry over into Monday, the rest of the week appears to be very delightful bouncing back to real summer like conditions. The forecasts that I am seeing are calling for very sunny days and temps back into the 80’s with light winds! Sounds good to me! OK, couple things here. First of all I took a cancellation for this Thursday, Sept. the 17th. This can be a Perch or Walleye trip. Your choice. Again, the weather looks great. And for all of those that have a trip of any kind booked now, we are further rolling back our departure time to 6am. It’s now staying dark for so very long in the mornings that it is pointless to leave any earlier. Especially now since we are no longer making those long Canadian runs. So that’s it for another week.
Capt. Walt
*I would like to remind all of my upcoming charters. As I have been simply asking all along now for the last few years, please try your very hardest to keep your group size to a very comfortable, more personal experience of 4 people for everyone involved. I myself just flat out DO NOT WANT more then that on my boat anymore for these summer trolling trips. This is not a hard rule or policy (yet) but if you folks want to keep me happy and chartering for years to come, you will do this for me and for yourselves. Also, we ABSOLUTELY need to be off the dock now by 6:00am at the VERY LATEST! Our best fishing is ALWAYS at the crack of dawn and WE DO NOT WANT TO MISS OUT ON THAT OPPORTUNITY! Please, DO NOT BE Late! I am at the boat and ready to roll everyday by 6:00am and if you want to catch lots of fish, you will be ready as well!
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