So my story begins. Or should I say, continues! 33 years worth now for me. And that’s a lot of stories! We began our 33rd year at the end of April last month by splashing in the Ashtabula River for the season amongst some of the rainiest, nastiest conditions in recent years memory. In fact, it was a challenge finding a window in the weather just to get the boat yard to hoist me in! But finally we got the old girl back in the water where she belongs and THE TROPHY couldn’t be any happier!
We eventually worked our way back to our dock at River Marine only to be shocked by how high the water level is this year! Without me sounding too dramatic, this is right from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers website: “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports that the water level of both Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair has reached a record high for the month of May. The water level of Lake Erie rose 10" in the last month. The lake is 7" higher than one year ago and is now 27" higher than the May average. The level is now 1" higher than the previous record high level set in 1986. Erie PA is 2.63" above average precipitation since Jan. 1. and Toledo OH is +2.87" for the year”. That’s a lot of water and the lake is not done rising yet! Predictions are for the lake to reach peak heights this year only at the end of June before starting the seasonal drop over the summer months due to evaporation and no more snow run offs up on the upper lakes and waterways. It is said the lake could rise yet another 6 inches or more before this starts to happen! YIKES!
The first couple of weeks of May wasn't very conducive for charter fishing and I didn’t even push the issue even though I had about half a dozen groups or so on stand by that said that they would come if the weather and fishing was good. The weather certainly was not favorable! Finally we broke the seal and got our first trip in last weekend. We landed 12 Walleyes and had about another 5 or 6 others come off shortly after the pull back. All in all a fun day and it felt good to be back in the saddle again. The second trip of the year, and the third trip of the year and the fourth trip of the year, LIMITS! LIMITS! LIMITS! baby! It didn’t take us long to get back into our winning ways and pick right back up where we left off last season. A sure great sign of things to come! The rest of this past weekend was FINALLY very summer like as well and the fishing was on fire for us aboard THE TROPHY!
Techniques are the usual early season near shore methods that have worked for me in the past 32 years. Planer boards with Jet Divers and Dipsy Divers set very shallow using little Stinger Scorpion spoons. I personally am not buying into all the hype of all the new crank baits that seemingly come out every year and that most early season Walleye fisherman seem to be dragging around anymore. And the recent rage of all the expensive custom painted bait colors to boot cracks me up too! When I know fishing is going to be tough, when I go to my box of lures, I pick out the most banged up, beat up, scratched veteran's that I can find! Many hardly with a shred of paint left on them! True veterans that have been around and around and have been hit many hundreds, possibly thousands of times in previous seasons. Lures that for whatever reason have the exact wobble and action that a Walleye simply can not resist! I mean, think about it. With the game on the line, do you want a flashy young Johnny Manziel in there playing for you or a seasoned proven rough and tough old Brett Favre? Lol, well that’s kinda how I feel about the whole situation! By the way, did I mention that I am a creature of habit? There's a thing or two to be said about being habitually repetitious! Haha! OK, that’s about it for episode one here for this week. I should have much more material related to daily fishing trips after this coming week. Stay tuned...
Capt. Walt
*We are already into the thick of our schedule but I do have Wednesday May the 29th which is still open. Anyone interested can call me anytime 24/7 at (216)387-2656
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