I had previously fished with a similar group in 2013 and enjoyed it, but also wasn't completely sure it was going to be something I'd want to do again. But when Dave sent out a note that they had a last-minute slot left for walleye fishing on Lake Erie, I jumped at the opportunity. The previous trip was fun, but the large group meant someone was always complaining at least a little bit and there were some personality conflicts. This trip was only 6 people, with me being the sixth. One of the guys fishing, Tony's son had a conflict opening up the spot.
My weekend progressed normally, thankfully getting the very long grass mowed on Saturday and a few other things done to allow me to head over to Dave's house mid-Sunday. Dave and I chatted a few moments before Dave drove over to Nick's house to rendezvous for the drive up to Lake Erie. Once at Nick's, Chris showed up, with one other participant planning on driving up himself. As it turned out, Tony had a family emergency and was almost certainly not going to be going at all, making it five for fishing.
With only four making the trip up to Northern Ohio, we all piled into Nick's Toyota Highlander. Everything fit and there was enough room, but the rear seats where I was sitting were definitely on the uncomfortable side. The trip north (and later south), proved to be something of a sciatic adventure in discomfort.
But the trip north passed enjoyably enough, with lots of talk of past and future adventures. I don't really know Dave all that well, and Nick and Chris even less well - so it was fun talking with them.
In short order, we were up at our Condo rental at Bay's Edge. Bay's Edge was much nicer than the place I stayed at in 2013 and was cleaner with a functioning air conditioner. It is a full service location offering just about everything fishing for Lake Erie. While we were checking in, a fisherman came in with a bucket of perch that could only be described as "an absolute mess of perch." I was surprised to see so many perch, but was hoping it would be a good sign for our fishing.
At the condo a back deck looked out onto an overfished pond which did appear to have a good number of bass and bluegill. We did a bit of fishing with artificial lures before turning to the only bait we could find - beef fat from our ribeye steaks. We weren't able to entice any bass with the cow, but apparently bluegills like beef. There were signs about the "trophy bass and bluegill." I'm not sure if we caught any "trophy" bluegill, but a couple were pretty good size. The lake is 100% catch and release, meaning the fish numbers were probably relatively high.
Todd came in as dinner was underway, just back from a family vacation in Utah.
About the time it was time to start cooking dinner, a small but intense rain squall moved it. Torrential rain came down along with a little bit of relatively large hail. It didn't last long, and we were soon able to cook up the ribeyes, corn, potatoes and some really good sauteed mushrooms. Some apple pie for dessert, and I was ready for bed.
I tried to sleep in from my normal awake time, but was up very early. I took a shower and poked around for some coffee. Finding none, I wished I had that lone can of energy drink I got for free which was in my home fridge. I'm not sure I'll ever drink it, so this may have been the one opportunity.
Soon enough everyone was moving. We packed up the condo and headed out to meet Ned, our fishing guide.
Ned took a few minutes to get ready before we boarded the Emily K and headed out. Fishing had been sporadic prior to our charter, but enough fish were being caught in Ohio that we were not going to be fishing in Canada.
It didn't take long to reach our first fishing spot near Kelly's Island and we started hooking into fish. In a way, it was probably advantageous that Tony couldn't make it since having six on the boat would have made quite cramped.
My first fish was a fairly decent walleye - definitely legal to keep for eating.
Weather started out cool by July standards and cloudy. Conditions improved through the day with clearing skies and warm, but not hot, temperatures. The lack of precipitation was nice and while it got warm, it never got painfully hot. The lake was calm, with only minimal chop. It was a great day to be on the water.
We continued fishing, drifting through pockets of fish and pockets that might as well have been the Sahara. Ned ran a pretty good boat, keeping up on netting fish. Terminal tackle was mostly Erie Dearie lures and mayfly rigs.
The fishing was pretty good. Walleye are not the most entertaining fish to catch as they really don't fight. At all. Bringing up a big walleye is not too different from bringing up a big snag. Luckily there were other fish to be caught, even if they were considered trash.
Altogether we caught seven or eight species throughout the day: walleye, drum (sheephead), catfish, yellow perch, white perch, gobie, and one smallmouth.
A few notable events through the day included a massive catfish caught by Ned that took a considerable amount of time to bring in.
And when Dave caught a double gobie on a trailing hook that he took a bit of flack for using. Yes, the picture below was actually CAUGHT on that lure; it is not the bait. Gobie must be very ambitious!
We had a slow spot through the middle of the day before ending up in a bay at the end of the afternoon. While the fish were a little smaller in the bay, action was really good - although a nearby Mennonite family in a small boat seemed to be doing MUCH better than we were.
"One final cast," I said as Ned was getting ready to bring us back in. I've never had this happen before, but on that final cast I managed to bring in one last legal walleye! Total catch for the group was somewhere around 20 walleye along with a few perch and other keepers. So it wasn't a stupendous limit-in-2-hours day, but it was still quite respectable. More importantly, it was a great day on the water.
Once back on shore, we unpacked the boat before piling in cars. We had the "executive" charter which included fish cleaning. Fish cleaning is somewhat unpleasant. I don't envy those jobs, but I guess people get used to everything. Since the charter owned the fish cleaning business, Ned was able to bump up our cleaning in the queue. Todd headed back south while Nick, Chris, Dave and I went for a quick McDonald's bite before picking up our fish.
The trip south was uneventful with the exception of some brief rain near Dayton. Once back at Nick's we transferred stuff quickly before heading out. I ended up getting home much later than I anticipated. Tuesday morning work was to come quickly.
I enjoyed my second Erie adventure. The smaller group worked a little better and was less chaotic than a group of 18 had been.
Clearly, walleye fishing was the better option compared to a kiddie adventure at a farm.
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