Frustrated

[Hoss928]

Well, to be honest, frustrated is putting it mildly. Bought a boat to fish Erie last year. We didn't do well. Everytime I go out, seems like I am always a day late or early or whatever. Just can't seem to catch a single walleye.

Went out to Gull today. We tried to troll, we tried to drift. E en did a little casting. We used deep reef runners, worm harnesses, and spoons. All we could catch were sheephead and white bass. Not sure if anyone else from here was out there, but for those who were, what do you do differently that worked? It is hard getting days off work to coincside with the weather so I can get out. Then when I do, zilch.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

John

I'm feeling your pain. I've decided to do one of the recomended things here. I am gonna try to setup for trolling and make adjustments until I catch some dang fish.
I know what you mean when time is a killer. Budget, Getting work off and weather to go together and not have a honey-do list is almost impossible sometimes.
There are others like you out here. Stick with it.

[Longliner]

Two of us fished from 10am till 3pm caught five with two additional 15"ers turned loose. We didn't catch any after 1pm. You didn't mention if you have a good fish finder and were marking fish and just couldn't get them to bite. We caught all of the fish in deep water west of most of the boats. We marked fish and trolled. Caught one keeper on each trip as when the fish didn't show on the finder we went back and started thru the same area again.

We used a trolling plate which limits boat control but it is very user friendly. Because of the limited control it is easiest to troll with the waves. I use pole holders and just straight line back. Lazy mans fishing but we catch our share. Another advantage of trolling with the wind is that when we hook a fish we can take the boat out of gear and fight the fish. The other lines still drag true and the change of speed when we slow and start back up sometimes produce more strikes.

Caught them all but one on bouncers with harnesses only two on the same color one bit on a plug. I did not see a lot of nets out there.