Lorain trolling

After getting skunked here a month ago, we were back 10/6 looking for walleyes. Left Hot Waters under a banana moon. It was 45 degrees out. Surface temperature was 66. The forecast was for 7 knot winds and smooth seas. It did start with a good "walleye chop" but it became saturated with whitecaps before we even started fishing. It was never anything close to "smooth seas."
Headed NNE from Lorain. Kept going past the dump. Saw some good marks in 54 feet of water about 8 miles out from the ramp and put down our lines.
We ran 2 Bandits and 2 smaller cranks with 4 oz snap weights. These were anywhere from 40+40 back to 60+60. Also had two spoons with Tru-trips running between 60 and 100 back. Every line had a small inline planer board. Speed was 1.9 to 3.1 depending on whether we were climbing up a wave or sliding down one. Just kept trolling on that NNE bearing, marking a few good fish every few minutes, mostly suspended 35 - 45 feet deep.
Finally started catching one here and there. 12 miles from the ramp it was 62 feet deep. We made a U-turn because the waves got too scary - some were close to 4 feet. The wind was fierce. Not smooth seas! But it was not scary enough to stop fishing... And there were 5 other boats fishing out there too.
So we trolled into the wind back toward land, maybe a mile east of our original track. We caught fish on the way back too. It was never fast and furious but we were busy between the occasional walleye and the frequent tangles as the wind blew our lines across each other.
There was no grass here, by the way. No drum, no bass, no white perch. We did throw back one dink. We lost our nicest eye at the net. Still managed to take home 11 keepers before we ran out of time. That's pretty good for me. They were all 17 - 20".
Back at Hot Waters, a guy said he and his family got 18 perch today "over by Beaver." There were about 20 trailers in the parking lot.
Picture shows the lures that caught - and they all caught more than one. I assume that skyline at the sunrise is Cleveland. Beautiful day on the lake.

Attachment 9575Attachment 9576

Thanks for the post and good work catching in those tough conditions.

Thanks for posting!!