September! Well it took all summer to FINALLY get a whole week that actually felt like summer! And it happens to come in SEPTEMBER! This past week was as good as it gets. The weather was simply beautiful! Warm with wall to wall sunshine and just a light chop on the water all week long. No cold fronts. No big wind. No rain. After the way things had been going up here lately it almost felt sur-real out there. I really enjoyed it! And the Walleye fishing for us aboard “The Trophy” was very good as well. But things are changing out there in a hurry now. At least in the Walleye department.
Although we caught good fish, for the most part it was not real easy. The fish are really moving around now. Way out north close to the Canadian line where it was so good for so very long it is now virtually a ghost town out there. Guys that were still trying it up there this past week were coming back empty handed. Last weekends good bite straight out but 6-7 miles this side of the border that everybody got in on is virtually over with too. Those fish disappeared almost over night. What it seems like that we are left with now is small pockets of dense fish here and there that are still very much actively feeding heavily.
You would troll along with nothing for extended periods of time and then all of a sudden you would have multiple hook ups. And as in the last couple of weeks, most of these fish are still choking full of Smelt and other bait fish. I’ve seen them cough up little shiners, baby Perch and even Gobies indicating how deep and close to the bottom a lot of these fish are. And that’s where this weeks great weather was the saving grace for us. When we would hit a good pocket I would mark it up quickly on the chart plotter and then with the calm seas, I would circle the wagons repeatedly and keep working that area till it quit producing fish and then we would move on and keep looking. We had many nice sized fish too this past week! These fish are good sized to begin with but they are really fat now with how good they are eating!
The real down side of this past week for us was the stinking Sheephead. No big surprise. I see this every year towards the end of summer. And they are feeding just as viciously as the packs of Walleyes. If you are unfortunate enough to run into a patch of those creeps, you’re in for a work out! World class huge spiraling, twisting sideways snagged Sheephead that you can hardly budge flopping on the surface 500 foot back. Ugh! And the White Bass still seem to be everywhere and in all parts of the water column. Lots of cranking, lots of sorting, lots of work. But as always we worked our way through it all, got our Walleyes and came home. We’ll see how things go this week. I have a strong feeling that we will find fish way closer to home this coming week. I am a little concerned however about a big change in the weather that I am seeing for the latter part of this coming week. But it’s still way too far out to panic yet. We can always go Perching if it comes to that. I have all of my Perch gear onboard now as well and people that are Perching are finally doing very well. So that’s it for yet another week. Happy Labor Day by the way to everyone!
Capt. Walt
*I would like to remind all of my upcoming charters. As I have been simply asking all along now for the last few years, please try your very hardest to keep your group size to a very comfortable, more personal experience of 4 people for everyone involved. I myself just flat out DO NOT WANT more then that on my boat anymore for these summer trolling trips. This is not a hard rule or policy (yet) but if you folks want to keep me happy and chartering for years to come, you will do this for me and for yourselves. Also, we ABSOLUTELY need to be off the dock now by 5:00am at the VERY LATEST! Our best fishing is ALWAYS at the crack of dawn and WE DO NOT WANT TO MISS OUT ON THAT OPPORTUNITY! Please, DO NOT BE Late! I am at the boat and ready to roll everyday by 5:00am and if you want to catch lots of fish, you will be ready as well!
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