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| Good and fast! Fishing is going good and summer is flying by fast! I could almost end my report with just that and not rehash how fabulous the fishing continues to be here off of Ashtabula Harbor in Ashtabula, Ohio this summer. Day after day, week after week, month after month. It seems like it’s been years now since we've had to say that we have our “good days and we have our bad days” Other then the never ending weather woes, fishing is just fantastic everyday for absolutely everyone. It is truly unbelievable how many Walleye must be in the lake nowadays. All the younger guys that fish now don’t even have a clue how hard we had to work at it sometimes to even get a half a limit for everyone onboard on some of the days over the past years. We used to have a saying back then that if you had 10 by 10, you were doing well! And speaking of fast, all of this fun is making this summer really fly by. It didn’t go nearly as fast those years that we were struggling and putting in full 9 or 10 hour days each day, 7 days a week! Lol! I find it incredible that my next report will be coming at you almost a full week into August already! Like I said, it’s going fast. |
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| And I guess my report wouldn’t seem like it’s mine if I didn’t mention our “weather woes” that we had these past 2 weeks again. For starters, out of the clear blue we all lost yet another 2 days of trips due to a little thing called Hurricane Beryl. Ugh! I find it incredulous to believe that a little storm cell that starts off the coast of friggin Africa can eventually peter out over our heads here in northeast Ohio. But that it did. While no longer a hurricane, it brought along a threat of heavy rains and thunderstorms along with substantial winds. While we dodged a bullet with the heavy rains, it did set off small craft advisories along with the potential for storms thus warranting that the boats stayed tied to the dock again. And just for fun this past week Mother Nature out of the clear blue threw us a scary bad one day blow day. All the weather apps showed that Tuesday was going to be a horrendous wind day. I think everybody took heed and canceled their trips. I slept in myself and was feeling really bad about canceling when I woke up because it really didn’t seem all too bad. Till about a little after 7am that is when it went from a little “breezy” of 15-20 mph to a wall of wind instantly of 54 mph plus! HOLY CRAP! We had one more kinda windy day on Thursday where some fished and some didn’t. It was another blown forecast by the National Weather Service where they were calling for only 1 to 3”s. As always, the crew that you have for the day usually determines whether you go or not. |
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| But that was about it. The lake otherwise was gorgeous everyday before and after the little Beryl event and same as before and after the one day event that I just described here on Tuesday and the marginal day on Thursday. Nothing changed with the fish after these wind events. I think life for them goes on no matter how turbulent or how calm the seas are above their heads on the surface. I figure the bulk of the fish that we are catching now offshore are about 60 foot down so I doubt that they even feel anything of a 7 or 8 foot wave. It’s a little different story late in the summer or early fall when you get the substantial cold fronts that sweep thru along with heavy seas. There is always a threat of the lake then “rolling over” or “flipping”. That’s when the thermocline in the water column gets disturbed and the cold water on the bottom of the lake gets kicked to the surface while the warmer upper half of the water sinks to the bottom. Now this will definitely screw things up for a few days! I see it almost every fall. You can literally smell the stinkier water that has risen along with a significant drop in surface temps. Fish are just everywhere in the water column on the fish finder but quite lethargic and not too eager to hit your lures. If it's a dramatic enough of a flip, there is even a associated fish kill along with it sometimes. I’ve seen that too over the many of years! |
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| Speaking of water temperatures, We are now pushing 80 degrees out here in the Central Basin. I think the official lake temps have been flirting around 76 degrees. That’s just plain crazy! I think if we hold the coarse we will see the rare event of 80 degree water temperatures for sure in Lake Erie next month. August is traditionally our hottest month with the dog days of summer settling in. The 3 H’s... Hot, Humid & Hazy everyday. As if we haven’t had enough of that already this year! Ha! Aboard THE TROPHY we continue to depart the dock every morning between 4:15am and 4:30am at the latest so that we can fish in the cool of the morning. It takes about an hour or so after we pull off the dock anyway to get to the happy fishing grounds plus we for sure want to get our lines in the water and be ready for the first light of dawn when the bite is the very best! All my guys know this routine and really seem to love it but I am still reminding everyone that has an upcoming trip that is what the schedule is unless I tell you otherwise or until further notice. We’re not sceered of the dark! Lol! Dare I say that the upcoming weeks weather looks very nice for all of us. Maybe I’ll finally be able to talk just about the fabulous fishing that’s going on this year and not have to play weatherman. Again... We’ll see! Till then, tight lines everyone. Capt. Walt Trophy Charters |
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