Felt Like the Deadliest Catch

Fished with Captain Daryl, the last trip of the year on the boats. Temperature this morning was in the lower 40s and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 50s. The wind was out of the north at 18 to 22 knots with waves 2 to 3 feet with the occasional 4 footer. I had to wear my raincoat because when the waves came over the stearn we would get at least 10 gallons of water in the boat with each large wave - it actually looked and felt like the deadliest catch! I was sopping wet for most of the trip and it took all I had to stand up. Started fishing on the south side of the dumping grounds and we only caught 3 fish. Made some moves in this area and it did not help our fishing. Moved to the humps and we picked up one more fish. Made the move out to the Toledo Light House (further out into the lake) and we tried 3 spots out there where we only caught a couple of fish. The weather was not getting any better so we moved back into shallower water. Caught a few keeper perch and then we called it a day. Boy was I happy, after pulling the anchor in rough water about 9 times I was getting beat up and had enough. Kept 13 perch and that was not how we wanted to finish the year. Could have been the nasty weather or all the hard work we had trying to catch them, but we had the perch for dinner tonight and it was some of the best fish we had all year. It was a very tough finish to a pretty good year of fishing. Tomorrow we put the boats to rest for the winter. I have some major work to do on the boat but that will be another story. I plan on fishing off the docks until the water freezes over.

And Then There Was One

Fished with Daryl and Mike. Temperature this morning was 41 degrees and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 50s. The wind was out of the southeast at 10 knots when we started fishing and then it switched to the south at 10 knots with waves around a foot. The water temp is 67 degrees. Started fishing in our old hot spot and it did not produce. Made a move to the Toledo Light House and we started to catch some fish. Stayed there for most of the trip and then Daryl wanted to look around for another spot for Friday. Moved to the east side of the light house and caught nothing. Moved to the south side of the dumping grounds and we caught some very nice fish. Kept 72 perch and we finally caught some fish when we took Mike out fishing. We have one more trip planned and then we put the boats to rest for the winter.

Back to Back Nice Days

Fished with Captain Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70s, another great day on the water. The wind was light (less than 5 knots) out of the west and there were no waves. Started fishing on the south side of the dumping grounds and we caught a few perch but we decided to move back to the our old hot spot and give that a try. The fish were a lot larger here but the catching was slow. After a couple of hours Daryl could not stand the slow action so we headed out to McDonald's and fished on the north side of the channel in small pack of boats. Everybody was catching fish but they were all 7 to 9 inches, just to small for us. Stayed there for a while and only put a few small perch in the cooler and then we called it a day. Kept 32 perch for the trip.

Beautiful October Day on Lake Erie

Fished with Joe, Daryl and Chris. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70s. The wind was 5 to 10 knots out of the west with very little waves, just a great day to be on the water. The water temp is 60 degrees. Started fishing on the south side of the dumping grounds and we caught some fish but the action was pretty slow. Made a move to our original hot spot on the humps and we only picked up a few more fish. Saw a pack of boats by the Toledo Light House so we headed out there. Made a pass through the pack of boats and saw no one catch a fish so we went back to the dumping grounds. We stayed there and just picked away at the fish. On the way back in we stopped by the S Buoy without any luck and then we made a ride into the swamp. Talked to John who was fishing the swamp and they had no bites so we just called it a day. Kept 30 perch and we all enjoyed the sunshine. We also caught 1 walleye about 5 inches long. Only 5 more days to fish!!

Saved by the Kicker

Fished with Captain Doug and Daryl. Temperature this morning was 49 degrees and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70s. The wind was out of the west northwest 20 to 23 knots with waves over 2 feet, and it was very cold this morning. We could not program Doug's GPS to fish our way points so we had to guess where we were on the water. Started fishing at the first location and we caught some fish but the guys were not happy so we moved to our old location from the previous weeks (Doug had that stored in the GPS). Only caught 2 perch here so we went back to our last spot. Started catching some fish, they were not very large, but at least we were on fish. Between Daryl and I working with the GPS, one of the boat batteries went dead. Doug put the switch on battery #2 and it was dead, not a good thing when you're 4 miles out on the lake. We waited about a half an hour and tried to start the motor again. It turned over very slow but would not start. We decided to wait a little while longer and start the kicker motor. Got the kicker to start so we let it run for 45 minutes to charge the battery and then we tried the big motor. It would turn over but would not start, it was flooded. We pulled anchor and started to head in with the kicker when we tried the big motor again, low and behold, it started. Kept 69 perch and we had a very interesting trip.

They're Back!!

Fished with Daryl. Temperature this morning was 42 degrees and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 60s. The wind was out of the north northwest 15 to 20 knots with waves around 2 feet. With the wind and the cold temp it was pretty cold this morning. The water temp is 55 degrees. Started fishing in our usual spot and we caught some nice fish but the catching was slow. Moved a couple hundred feet and we caught a few more fish but it was not steady action. Made a move into the dumping grounds (41 47 617 / 083 20 913) where the water was dirty from all the wind lately and we started to catch some fish. Stayed here for the rest of the trip. Kept 64 perch (22 lbs. 2oz) with the largest measuring 13 inches.

What's Up With the Perch Fishing

Fished with Joe Barson, Chad, Neil and Steve. Temperature this morning was 47 degrees and when quit fishing it was in the lower 60s. The wind was out of the northwest 18 to 21 knots with waves 2 to 3 feet. Later on in the day the wind started to switch and the lake laid down to 1 to 2 foot waves. Started fishing in our usual spot and we had no bites! Don't know what's up with that but things are not looking good. Made a small move in this area and still no bites. Made a move to the northeast side of the dumping grounds and we started to catch some fish, just not very fast. Stayed there about an hour and then we went into the swamp. Made a couple of moves there and caught a couple of small perch and decided to move back to the original spot. Dropped anchor and fished for 30 minutes with out a bite so we made one last move to the W Buoy. Fished there about 15 minutes without any perch and called it a day. Kept 13 perch, which now makes this our worst trip of the year for catching perch.