There was a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump yesterday.
“Robert Kennedy, whose summer home is eight miles from the home I live in all year round, was shot two nights ago. He died last night. So it goes. Martin Luther King was shot a month ago. He died, too. So it goes." - Kurt Vonnegut
Very possible the best non sequitur in literary history (from Slaughterhouse-Five).
Richard Simmons died yesterday. His "Sweating to the Oldies" was a staple of TV commercials in the 1980's. He was 76 years old - a mere 3 years beyond "average." So it goes.
He was a joke to us kids. His real name was also Milton (TIL).
Dr. Ruth died yesterday at 96 years old. Maybe sex is better for longevity than exercise?
It hasn't been an easy year. I've spent more time at the doctor this year than I have the last 20 years combined ... with more to come. If this is what the next 30 years will look like, you can color me ... gone.
I took Friday off to get a few things done including target shooting for bear hunting, which is not all that far off. It went well, but Friday was far wetter than I had hoped. And today I head north for another attempt at Lake Erie walleye.
But first, the recent rains made the state of the lawn right on the edge of needing mowing. I mowed just the dog part of the back yard before getting ready and heading over to Dave’s. We drove to Nick’s where most in the group met briefly before heading north to Lake Erie. Twelve people total on this trip: Dave, Chris, Tim, Mike, Dan, Craig, Tom, Tim, Lou, Jim and myself. It was just Dave and I in the car; I always enjoy talking with Dave.
Once up in Port Clinton, we found our Condo. There were no surprises – good enough, but only enough. Dinner was hamburgers and brats – I thought the simpler approach of this year was better than some of the previous year’s more extravagant offerings. We all sat on the back deck after eating. I enjoyed sitting back and watching some of the personalities; my natural state is fly-on-the-wall. This was the first time I’ve been on one of these trips where one of the other people is a former boss; it wasn’t as weird as I had anticipated. The evening was humid but with a heavy rain squall earlier in the day when we were driving north and arriving, the temperature had moderated significantly. Once it got dark, I quickly headed to bed.
I knew sleep was going to be an issue and I wasn’t wrong. I slept very little. The loft area was initially freezing, but turned tepid and clammy as the night went on. I could feel a migraine coming on as well.
Morning came and I had one quick cup of coffee before we all headed to the boats. I was on Ned’s boat – which I was glad about. The other boat had Captain Steve who I fished with in 2018. As it got lighter, we headed away from the docks.
We stayed in Ohio and fished (I think) north of Kelley’s Island for our first spot. A few walleye came in the boat, but I hammered the catfish instead, bringing in four of the ugly behemoths. With limited success, Ned tried several other places around the island. None of the places were great, but I oddly continued to reel in catfish. I wasn’t too disappointed by this as they were much bigger than walleye and fought much harder. Walleye have to be the least engaging fish to catch – reeling in a walleye is not too different from reeling in a shoe; a big walleye is like reeling in a boot. In fact, at one point I thought I had a really big walleye on, only to find it was a big rock with my line wrapped around zebra mussels. All catfish were returned to do catfish stuff in the water.
I did catch a few walleye, but continued catching catfish – reeling in well into the double digits of them through the day. A few of them were absolute monsters. Temperatures started cool and humid. A heavy rain squall did approach, but fell apart before it got to us, ending with just a few sprinkles over the boat. Later in the day it actually got really sunny and nice. We really lucked out on the weather. Depending on where we were, the wind was light – being blocked by the island or really windy with more waves. It didn’t seem to affect the fishing either way.
With a small number of fish in the boat, Ned eventually took us to the other side of the island within site of Cedar Point and just off a rocky point. This ended up being “the spot” for the day. There was one area which couldn’t have been more than a few hundred yards where every drift brought in a handful of walleye. Ned just kept working around to bring us across in another drift.
While the other boat started off strong, our fish ended up being bigger even though we were fishing shallow water – especially for walleye. In some places we were in less than 10’ of water. Our boat limited out with a catch by Nick at just a hair over 15 inches. The other boat was just short (32 fish I think).
We re-congregated at the condo where the 2-nighters were staying while waiting for the fish to get cleaned. Once the fish were cleaned, there was a bit too much yakking. I was tired and my migraine was still affecting me. Eventually it was time to go. Dave grabbed his phone off the table, and we left. Several miles down the road a phone call came in. I thought it was odd that Dave’s phone was on the table before we left – and in front for Chris. But Chris hadn’t said anything despite it being his phone that Dave had picked up. We had to circle back to drop the phone off. My headache was not happy, but it was best just to roll with the punches. The condo-dwellers had their own issues later that evening as the air conditioning went belly up. I couldn’t imagine trying to sleep in that sultry humidity.
Soon enough we were en route back home for real. It always seems like the drive home is longer…
A few hours later we were back and Nick’s, where Nick and Lou were dropped off. Then back to Dave’s. Then me … home. I was exhausted and it was late. Work the following day felt painfully close. I wished I had worked the previous Friday and taken the day after fishing off. I did the bare minimum, dropping the fish in the refrigerator before calling it a day.
I always look forward to this trip. Even with some shop talk, it is interesting to get together with a fun, smart group of people. And the fish (soon) to be in the freezer will be great in stir fry or maybe even fried.
