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| A very volatile two week period. I hate it when every year it seems like that my fishing reports by mid summer become more of a weather blog then a fishing report. And there is no shortage of weather to discuss here from these past couple of weeks. Although it was quite localized and mostly along Lake Erie's south shores, we had three separate major flooding situations here in Ashtabula Harbor. All only a few days apart. We got as much as five inches of rain that dumped on us in mere hours on those days. And all of that water has to go somewhere and that somewhere is the Ashtabula River where THE TROPHY is docked resulting in a raging swollen river with a just a undescribable amount of debris whistling on down river. To the point where it was just unsafe to untie the dock lines and cast off to go fishing resulting in lost trips. |
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| Many of you know that in season I stay at a campgrounds about a mile upriver from where THE TROPHY is docked. Here is a picture looking off my deck. This campgrounds is also another marina located on the Ashtabula River with many boats docked here. After each of these rain events the rapid rise of water which just didn’t have time to run off as fast as the rain was coming down left everything severely underwater. Trees came toppling down because the roots were washed out. Some docks were destroyed from the strain of the running water pushing onto the docks. Fortunately somehow no boats were sunk or even damaged. We watched in horror as entire trees, railroad ties, stumps and logs along with picnic tables and pieces of busted up docks and everything else got swept down the river at a high rate of speed and swept out to the open lake. All of this leading to nerve racking stressful conditions when we did manage to get out. Man, my eyes are about cross eyed from staring so hard into the water just ahead of us looking for logs as we motored out from the harbor. So much risk hitting some debris and damaging your running gear! Especially in boats such as THE TROPHY which has fixed underwater props, rudders, struts & shafts on the fixed inboards that you can’t lift out of the water. |
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| And just for good measure we also had a couple of associated cold fronts that dropped thru the area these past couple of weeks. This brought much needed relief from the heat wave that we were experiencing but unfortunately also came in with so much wind that again we lost a couple of additional trips because it was just too rough to go. Ugh. It just seemed like we just couldn’t catch a break! But we did get some fishing in with some really nice catches. Most days now are spent 15 miles plus out resulting in some ugly fuel bills now. 15 miles out, troll around all morning and then 15 miles back. Ouch! I knew these days were coming but almost never quite so early in the year. Blame it on the unusually warm water this year that I discussed in my last fishing report. Along with the fish moving out further and further now, as per every year when they move that far offshore the Walleyes are now quite deep in the water column. Aboard THE TROPHY we've made the necessary adjustments and the rods have been just a snapping! Also our friends the Steelhead Trout are finally making their presence known. Rare is the trip now where we don’t wrestle with a few each day. Some make it to the boat, some not so much! Ha! |
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| So unbelievably now, the 4th of July has already come and gone. The unofficial half way point of our season. At least my season anyway. I dare say a little bit of fatigue is starting to set in for me already. Anymore I’m not a real fan of these long offshore rides. Seems like even on the very fishable days the lake is always quite choppy that far offshore. You no longer get any kind of reprieve from the south shore as you do with a stiff south wind or even a southwest or southeast wind. Anything past that magical 5 nautical mile mark offshore is a whole another world. A lot of times not that pretty of a world other than the huge schools of Walleyes that roam around out there that lure boaters with even the tiniest of crafts into making some foolish decisions. But we all go where the fish are and apply all of our tools and knowledge the best that we can to keep everyone safe and happy. I guess I'm the only one that frets about it as I look around at all of the happy faces everyday reeling in Walleye after Walleye out there each day. And as it should be... Here’s hoping that my next report will be more fishing related and not so much of all of this crazy weather nonsense! Capt. Walt Trophy Charters |
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