I woke up "late" Sunday. I was wondering why the older dog was almost sitting on top of me. Most likely she was hungry.
My morning with coffee, waffles, and tea sent me to a dark place on the internet (dark as in where the world is). I'm not sure it is fair to say that the world is changing so fast - that has probably (almost) always been the case. But too often, it seems like I need to just make it to... What that "to" might be is always changing.
The company I work for has announced downsizing. People keep asking me when I'm going to retire, or if I'd leave if offered the chance. I don't want to get my hopes up one way or the other. Keeping my game face on is hard enough at times. My response remains either: "It depends on the day." or "I'm not old enough yet - I only look like I'm 90." I'm still well aware that where I am is objectively at least good enough.
After a morning dog walk, a few chores and doing the push-mowing, I packed up and headed to Dave's. The roads were infected with pokey Sunday-morning drivers, but I wasn't in a hurry. Dave was packing when I got there. After hellos, we packed up and headed over to Nick's house. Fishing this year was myself, Dave, Nick, Lou, Chris and Phil. Everyone else piled into Nick's van while Dave and I stayed in his car.
The trip north wasn't the most fun. There were several rounds of rain, and at times it was a deluge which was hard to see through. But the inclement weather was selective; Port Clinton and Lake Erie got almost no rain.
We were staying in a hotel this year instead of the condos. The rooms felt like a sanatorium - just a little bit too much like the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. But all we needed was a place to sleep before fishing. We went to eat at a local tourist restaurant. It was crazy busy, but the food was decent. I ordered shrimp instead of Erie walleye or perch - which seemed sacrilegious.
We stopped by the Marina before heading back to the hotel for the night. The sun was just near setting, which was beautiful. It was hard to recall the heavy rain just to the south not that long previous.
Davis-Besse was churning out megawatts for our enjoyment.
With an early morning on tap, we all turned in relatively early. I was feeling the beginnings of a headache and hoped a good night sleep would keep that tiger in a cage.
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But it was not to be. I woke up with a full migraine brewing. The rest of the crew went to breakfast while I stayed at the room and just ate the fruit I had brought with me. This was the healthier option...
We met Ned at his boat at the appointed time. Soon enough we were headed out onto the lake with Ned's comment, "It's going to be a bit rough." The wind wasn't that bad, but the lake was roiling. We had well over an hour to enjoy the chop to to get Northeast where we were fishing in deeper water near the Canadian border.
The fish finder was marking lots of fish so we started fishing. Between my migraine, the rough water and the smells, I got as queasy as I ever have on a boat. At one point I set my pole down and backed off into the cabin just feeling like survival was in question. Thankfully I was able to recover enough to resume fishing.
Instead of the shorter drifts we usually do in shallower water, we did much longer drifts across the open, flat plains of deep Erie. Fishing through the day was good, but there were long slow stretches as well.
There were lots of theories why, but Ned and I absolutely hammered the walleye. I think Ned caught about a third of what was caught, I caught a third and the rest of the boat caught a third. This did serve to distract me from feeling on edge.
There was a bit too much shop-talk during the fishing, but I suspect this is to be expected when everyone in the boat had work history together. I mostly stayed in the background. Weather through the day was great and the wind died down which also brought the waves down.
We caught 41 fish out of the limit of 42. We desperately searched for the last fish and thought we had it until Chris brought in the one and only sheepshead of the day. Oddly, I never grabbed a picture of me with any fish - despite a few decent sized ones.
With a long boat ride back, we packed it up around 1:30. The trip back was much better was minimal waves. Back on terra firma, we dropped the fish off to be cleaned before putzing around a bit. With clean fish in hand, Dave and I headed south directly to his house since there wasn't any reason to go back to Nick's.
The trip back went fast enough. Traffic and weather cooperated. I grabbed my fish and headed home from Dave's. Back at home just before sunset, the dogs were happy to see me. I wisely planned Tuesday off of work. S/O and I separated fish out and into the freezer before turning in for a blessed night back in my own normal.
