Great Weekend!!

[Madd Matt]

We drove up Friday with no plans of fishing on Saturday, but went out anyways. Glad that we did. We caught our 5 man limit of perch in a little over 2 hours. We initially went to the pack South of Kelly's... Good marks, but no fish in the first 10 minutes. Larry Patterson from Spoonfeeder Charters was over there but left and went North West toward Ballast... I waited a few minutes then decided to go see if I could find him. When I got close to the monument I thought that I saw his boat South of Ballast... It wasn't him, but there was a lone boat there and I had great marks. So I anchored all alone (other boat was about .25 mile away) and IT WAS ON! Pure luck! In about 30 minutes we had about 32 perch between 5 of us... Two of the 20 year olds were bored and hot, so they went swimming for a while and we went down to 3 rods.

In about 2 hours we had our limit, and there were about 4-5 charters around us and other boats. At least 4 of those boats got their full limit (210 - 240).

That's the way it should always be!

Sunday we chartered Bob Troxel (http://lakeeriesmallmouth.com/) for some Smallmouth action. I have never really targeted Smallmouth on Lake Erie (fished it for over 35 years though). All I can say is that we had a blast! I caught a few nice sized ones, but my father and the two friends that I took all caught 4 lb+ Smallmouth!!! We didn't catch the 40-60 fish that you hear about when things are on fire (unless you count sheephead), but we caught plenty and had a great time. Bob Troxel was a tournament bass fisherman on Erie for over 25 years before starting Smallmouth charters in 1991. He may not be on this site, and he may not be a sponsor... But Ive been a registered user on this site since 2010, so if I want to tell everyone about what a great job a captain did, I think that's okay. Plus, I don't know of anyone on here that truly targets Smallmouth as their main species.

Monday I decided to stick with bass and launched our 17' Ranger and fished for Largemouth in East Harbor the next 2 days. If you want to get tired of reeling in 2 lb fish all day because you can't keep a line in the water then you need to fish East Harbor. I always get frustrated with those bass boats in the channel... Now I realize why they are there! Find the rocks, cast in, and catch a fish!

Like I said. Great Weekend... Never even caught a walleye, nor tried... We did get a throwback while SM Bass fishing.

-Matt