Duane, his Son, Tanner, and his Father in Law Dell arrived at my house this morning at 5:15...right on time, and after maneuvering his boat to the dedicated location they piled in my truck; we were off.
Since the boat was already gassed, oiled, cleaned, all we had to do was stop for some crawlers and ice at Hi Way bait before heading to Mazurik's.
We launched a little before 6am and headed to the East side of Kelly's Island.
After setting in on a line in 38' of water, we headed North at 1.5-1.7mph pulling double willow leaf crawler harnesses behind #2 Tadpoles and 1 oz inlines anywhere from 8-16 feet down.
We caught 6 nice eaters in the first hour, and then it got tougher. The wind had picked up and the marks were less and less. So, we picked up and made another pass in closer to the shoal in 32 foot of water, but they weren't there. Caught a few whites and picked up again to head back down to set in again where we started.
After a panic attack, because my iPilot remote wasn't seeing my Terrova...even though the green light was lit on the Terrova, and removing/replacing the battery from the remote didn't help, Dell suggested I unplug the trolling motor up front and plug it back in again. I could see as soon as I approached it that it wasn't tight in the plug, which was probably due to the bouncy ride the waves were causing. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and it worked...whew! Problem averted.
You don't realize how dependent you become on that "captain" driving your boat while you're busy working. lol
I could have done it the old fashioned way with the kicker motor, but I really wasn't looking forward to having to do that. How spoiled we become, eh? :)
Anyway, a little later I received a text from a friend that said that the sky was black by Maumee and the wind really kicked up, so thinking that it was coming our way, I relayed the message to my crew and the decision was made to move over to the lighthouse on the lee side. From some of the comments, I could tell they were not all that comfortable in the waves that were building to 2-4's, so it was an easy decision to move.
There were marks galore over there and many looked like walleye, so we set lines. We didn't catch any walleye, but we had a good show with a big ship coming to port and kept busy with some whites and sheephead.
The wind switched from SE to SW and did kick up, so that part of the report was right, but the darkened skies must have stayed to the south.
With customers, I always like to err to the side of caution, than not.
Those 6 walleye were the only eyes caught by us today, but they had a good time anyway. And, let me tell you, they were a joy to have in the boat today. They had run lines on mast systems, but never with inlines, and they had it down pat with only the first instruction. I got to really relax and just enjoy the morning while they set lines, took boards off, netted fish, and got the fish out of the net. I didn't have to do anything but drive the boat...woot! woot! :)
After we got off the water at noon, we went over to Bay's Edge to get the fish cleaned. Being the first ones there, they were done in only 10 minutes. Then, they took me to lunch at Casa Las Palmas before heading back here to the house to pick up their truck and head over to South Bass Island for the rest of the week. I gave them all the fishing info I had for them, and they should do very well staying out there.
I'll have to check the forecast, but earlier when I looked, it was supposed to blow harder than it was today, so I'm not sure my trip will be a go or not. I'll keep ya posted.
