Seriously bad weather. This makes 3 weekends in a row that Mother Nature thru everything she had at us and again shutting down all thoughts of any fishing. After a very windy week anyway, things climaxed Friday evening when a very strong cold front collided with a passing warm front. It made for a VERY rough night in Port Clinton with Tornado sirens blasting all evening amongst the incredible lightning strikes, driving torrential rains and the incredible wind gusts. The following day, Saturday, westerly gales with winds to 55 mph ripped all day dropping water levels in the western basin to the critical marks. Everyone with a boat docked here spent a nerve racking day securing their vessels constantly adjusting dock lines and hoping for the best. There were lots of boats in the shallower marina's setting high and dry after the water levels dropped. Not good. As I sit here and type this report up on Sunday morning, we still have a strong N.W. wind howling out there and the lake appears to be super muddy near shore. We will be doing some serious running offshore this coming week to get into the cleaner water, I'm sure. |
With all the wind that we had this past week, it was not the best of weeks for "The Trophy" The earlier part of the week we struggled with the jigging program to the point where I just gave up and broke out the trolling gear. Of coarse when I decide to start trolling, it's under supper crappy conditions LOL ! Wednesday after a long dry troll we finally found some active big fish just N.E. of the Niagara Reef in 28 - 30 feet of water. Our best set up was #40 Jets with Stinger Scorpion spoons fished back 90 ft. behind the big planer boards. The big Dipseys on a 3 1/2 setting back 60 ft. and a 2 1/2 at 40 ft. with gold colored Jake 45 spoons by Savant accounted for a few fish. We didn't do a big box of fish that day having wasted most of the morning still trying to get them jigging and then after starting to troll, taking so long to find fish that would hit. I think if I would have worked that school of fish just off Niagara the whole entire day, the results would have been spectacular. Truly nice sized Walleyes ! |
Thursday was greeted with a rip roaring N.W. wind and once again we trolled in less then desirable conditions. Starting just S.W. of Green Island we made a long troll east ending up on the north side of Kelly's Island. We picked an occasional fish off the entire way but really started to get into them on the N.W. corner of Kelly's. Same Jets anywhere from 70 to 100 ft. back seemed to work the best. The big Divers did very well also at about the same counts. We ended the day in the high teens for 4 people. Nice fish. Friday, the last day we fished was spent on the west side of the Bass Islands with the best spot for us being just south of Rattlesnake Island. Very strong east winds all day again limited what we could do but we still ended up with 21 super nice sized Walleyes for another 4 man group. More then enough for dinner ! I often say, if you go fishing and catch enough for dinner, you had a great day. If you go fishing and catch enough to put a few in the freezer above and beyond that, you had a super day ! LOL ! |
So the weather man says 2 ft. or less for Monday. We'll see. I'm sure "The Trophy" will be way up north by the Canadian line somewhere looking for cleaner water and trolling will most likely again be the program that we go with. It's hard to argue with the results that we can achieve with the spread that we comb the open waters with in that fashion. At this time we have several open dates staring at me on my calendar. This coming Tue., Wed., and Thur. are all available for anyone that might like to go out and catch their "dinner" ! Of the 3 days available, perhaps Thursday would be the best pick giving the lake a few more days to settle after all of this wind. Anyone that may be interested as always can reach me at 216-387-2656. I am like a doctor on call. You can call as late as the night before and if the date is open, GAME ON ! Capt. Walt |
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