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| A tale of two Perch. On the left you see what anymore is really a rare and exotic fish. A Jumbo Yellow Perch! Lol! And on the right is what I believe is the reason why they are so rare. It's a baby Yellow Perch that one of our Walleyes that we caught puked up. I really believe that the hundreds of millions of Walleye in the lake nowadays are scarfing up anything that hatches out there and that they can get into their mouths. Most likely especially when they are tiny, tiny fry and just hatched. We see the Walleyes spew tiny little fry up all the time of all colors but so small that I can't really identify them. This little guy was a bit bigger then that but it didn't stop the Walleye from chowing down on it. And there is still a lot of commercial netting operations going on targeting whatever adult Perch are still left out there. So it's a one, two punch in my opinion. The record amount of Walleyes are eating the baby Perch and like I said the commercials are getting what's left of the bigger ones. That's at least my theory why there is hardly any Perch being caught in the central basin anymore. I think it's a very valid theory! |
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| Speaking of exotic fish, we did it again! After writing about how we captured a true rare Lake Trout (Laker) back in May and how rare they really are out our way off of Ashtabula, we captured yet another one! The one that we got back in May as I wrote about was only the 4th one that we've ever caught in 40 years of full time chartering and thousands of trips run. Now we're up to 5 with two coming in the very same summer! And it's really crazy, especially when you add in the factor that this whole season so far we've only caught one Steelhead Trout! We've caught more Lakers then Steelies this year thus far! Just nuts! This one came on a #2 Dipsy about 120 ft back in about 70 ft of water. The bigger one we that got back in May was on a Jet Diver off of the big Planer Boards caught in about 40 ft of water. Both fish slammed a spoon and put up quite the tussle. How fun! |
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| It looks like we've finally settled into some real summer like weather with some days being near record high, high temperatures. And with quite the high pressure system settling in over the great lakes, the wind and waves have been very reasonable. I am so happy that all of my groups are very used to our early morning departure times from the dock giving us the chance to beat the mid day heat plus cash in on the excellent early morning dawn bite that Joyce and I affectionately refer too as crazy hour! Just reminding all of my upcoming trips that until further notice, we are now on a strict 4:30am departure time. And although it sounds way early, it's breaking daylight at 5am and again we do not want to miss out on "Crazy Hour"! We also are going out further and further now so we have some travel time to deal with as well. And as I mentioned before, it is way more comfortable out there in the cool of the morning before the old haymaker starts to cook everything and everyone! |
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| So June is history now and we are well into July already unbelievably. The 4th of July has come and gone and I like to think that we are now about at the halfway point of our season. The dog days of summer are definitely upon us and the 3 H's are setting in. Hot, Humid and Hazy! Gotta love summer here on the north coast. The Walleye fishing remains silly good. No, let me rephrase that...ridiculously easy and FANTASTIC! Just like it has been for us since mid May. Amazing! I chose not to use any rack shot pictures this week but everyday has been the same ole same ole. Massive full racks completely full of boat limit Walleye catches including one's that Joyce and I have also reeled in! Did I mention, how fun! And before I sign off, I want to thank everyone for their extream generosity in this year's crisis fuel fiasco situation. Price per gallon at the marina pumps is stubbornly stuck at $6.00 a gallon and it has been the entire season so far We have not raised our own rates in many years while absolutely everything else has been skyrocketing around us. Insurance, maintenance & repairs. Supplies, dockage rent... its endless. But the fuel price is the real enemy right now and your generous tips have gone a long way to keeping me in the game. And more and more people are "taking care of the first mate" now as it should be. Joyce works very hard for everyone! I'm sure way harder then me! I'm usually up at the helm doing, you know, "capt stuff" (which may or not involve coffee & cookies)! Lol! It's really nice when people personally hand her a gratuity. She really appreciates it and is happy that folks know how hard she's been working for them. The two of us are having fun with everyone this year and our 40th anniversary really does seem very special this year. I'm starting to see visions of a year 41! Ha! Thanks again everyone! Capt. Walt |
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