Trolling east kellies 8/11

We were initially going to fish Friday,but wind looked iffy so moved it to Sunday.IWindsurf kept changing forcast right up to last moment.They had wind sunday morning at 8am at 15mph out SW then 11am at 12mph then 8mph at 2pm.I figured with that early SW wind direction we would have 1-3ftrs.We got out to the east side of kellies around 930 and had solid 2-4ftrs with an occasional 5ftr thrown in for fun.I was thinking the higher waves was due to us being downwind of Sandusky Bay.There were 4 people and I was going to fish 6 rods,but it was too rough for inline boards so just set out 4 dipseys.Had a rookie 16yr old and let him reel in the fish.Well,he lost the first three fish we caught.He was fine after I explained the proper speed and position of rod when bringing in fish.We fished from 930 till 3pm and only caught 10/23lbs of fish.The lake laid down around noon and we were able to get the inline boards in and troll properly.The dipsies caught most of fish on spoons and spoon harness.Three setting 60 and 75 and one setting 40 and 50 caught fish.Got one fish on board with harness and the other board caught 3 on a blue chrome bandit at 40ft/2oz sinker/80ft for a total of 120ft.

I left Sandusky that morning at 6am and drifted about 6 miles north east east of kelly’s by myself. At the end of the drift I was right on the Canadian line.
Easy ride out going with the waves. Brought 4 Walleye home on one rod using gold worm harness on bottom bouncers on the bottom. Fished 630 to 9. Lost 3 at the boat and had several shorts. Never drifted so fast before. A good day is usually .8 sometimes I’ll get to 1mph. But on Sunday was moving 1.4mph.

Question.... weather bouy data was saying 2 foot wave height. I would say 3 to 4 with some bigger as itsbob said. Is weather buoy pretty accurate data? Usually don’t venture that far so I have no reference.

2nd question.....a 8” walleye swallowed the hook. He floated when i threw him back. I assumed he wouldn’t make it when i put him back in. Is that my only option with one like that?

Interesting Nfreund that you commented on the bouy info.When we are planning to fish I start looking at the IWindsurf app for Erie West location.Around 2 days out is when you have a good idea on wind direction and the velocity around the time you plan to fish.The night before and morning of fishing I start looking at weather bouy 45005 data to see what is actually going on in middle of lake.That weather bouy data said wave height for the time we were fishing peaked at 2ft.The actual waves were 4ft.So those wave heights at bouy are actually only half of actual wave.That bouy measurement must be from flat lake to top of wave.The other half is the trough which is below that flat lake level.The other thing I watch at bouy is water temp.Think last temp was 77degrees.The temp usually tops out at 78 to 77 degrees and starts going down the second week in sept.That doesn't take into account a big NE blow that mixes up all the water though.As for you keeping a dying short/illegal fish,the warden does not care if it was going to die anyway.You have to release all walleye under 15".

The buoy is tethered, which limits its ability to float completely up and down with wave action. A rough estimate of actual wave height from trough to tip is to double what the buoy shows. Not always exact, but better than taking the reported wave height at face value.