It Was a Short Day

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the upper 50's and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 70's. The wind was mostly out of the south southwest with waves around a foot. The water temp is 71 Degrees. Started fishing at the S- Buoy trolling towards the northeast side of the dumping grounds with bandits set at 55 and 65 feet behind the boards. We were catching a lot of short walleye and we only had 1 keeper. Joe decided to put the mini disk on with spoons set at 90 feet back and we started to catch a few more keeper walleye. We were fishing on the back side of the dumping grounds on the Michigan side of the border. Both the mini disk and the bandits were catching fish but we were catching way too many short walleye. We just stayed in this area and sorted through all the small walleye to try and get our limit. Our biggest problem was, as soon as you put a pole out, there was probably a short walleye on it. Not complaining because that is a good problem to have. We kept our 12 walleye and put back a countless amount of short walleye. Oh, forgot to mention, Joe caught another catfish again today. Starting to call him the garbage man now!

Tough Day Fishing For Us

Fished with Joe and Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70's. The wind was light and variable with waves less than a foot.The water temp is 72 Degrees. Got a report that they were catching some fish by the dumping grounds. We drove by there and looked for fish on the fish finder but it did not look very promising, so we headed to our hot spot. We set up there and we did not even get a hit. Started trolling towards Sputnik with bandits set at 130 feet back and Daryl suggested we put jet 40's with spoons on one side. We put the jets on and the fishing was on fire, too bad most of the fish were under size walleye. At this point, we were about a mile east of Sputnik. We were catching a few keeper walleye so we put both sides to the jet 40's. We worked this area for a while and then we headed for Sputnik where we started to catch a few more keeper walleye. Spent the rest of the trip trolling between Sputnik and the first set of buoys west of Sputnik and then we called it a day. Kept 16 walleye and 2 perch.  We also caught 2 catfish (one weighed around 8 lbs.) and 1 sheep head that went back to the lake.We lost track of how many short walleye we caught, but we were guessing around 35. Today was the perfect day to be fishing on Lake Erie, a light breeze and no bugs.

The Fishing is Still Hot!

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the middle 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70's. The cooler air felt good for a change. The wind was out of the southwest 10 to 15 knots with waves 2 feet or less. The water temp is 71 Degrees. Set up fishing where we have been the last couple of trips. We were marking some fish and it did not take too long before we had our first walleye running bandits 130 feet behind the boards. We ran one straight troll with the wind to our backs just picking away at the fish. Caught a lot of short walleye and the net man missed a few walleye, but we managed. Kept 12 walleye and we were done around 9:00 am.

Another Good Day!

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the middle 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70's. The wind was mostly out of the west southwest around 10 knots with waves about a foot. The water temp is 73 Degrees. Started fishing where we left off on Tuesday running the same program, bandits set at 130 feet back. We were marking some fish and it did not take too long for the action to begin. We were hoping to catch our fish on one pass but we had to turn around to catch the last couple of fish. Just like Tuesday, we were pulling lines and we had to put some nice fish back. Even though the hi lo driver showed up late to put the boat in the water we were done fishing by 9:30 am. Kept 12 walleye. Only caught 2 sheephead and about 8 short walleye that we put back. The mayfly hatch was bad on shore but on the water we did not see too many carcasses floating on the water.

Daryl Found the Fish Today

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the lower 70's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 90's. The heat wave is continuing. When we started fishing the wind was out of the southwest around 10 knots with waves about a foot and after a couple of hours the wind switched and the waves were less than a foot. The water temp is 72 Degrees. Started fishing in Brest Bay trolling towards Fermi with jet 40's and spoons set at 70 feet back and bandits set at 130 feet back. Trolled this way for about a hour without a bite and things were not looking good. Got a call from Daryl and he was on some walleye about 3 miles north of Sputnik so pulled lines and headed out that way. We set up with the same program and nothing was happening,so we put our jet 40's back to 90 feet. Caught a couple of walleye off the bandits and one walleye off the jets, so we put both sides to bandits at 130 feet. It was game on and we had our fish pretty quick. We actually caught too many keeper walleye when we were done fishing and had to put some back. The mayfly hatch is starting. On the ride back to port we were driving through batches of mayfly carcasses. Our best setup was the bandits set at 130 feet back. When we got back to port most of the boats were using the jet 40's set at 70 feet back and catching their limits. Kept 12 walleye and we only had 4 short walleye that we put back. Did not catch any junk fish today.

After the Catch, Dinner at Trappers

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the middle 50's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70's. The wind was light and variable with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 68 Degrees. Started fishing the southeast corner of the dump running bandits set at 100 feet back and spoons and dipsy's set at 95 feet back. Started to catch a few fish and then it just shut right down. We were catching a lot of short walleye, but no keeper walleye. We pulled lines and headed out to the east side of the Ohio dump and set up there with bandits set at 130 feet back and 140 feet back. Started to catch some fish off the 130 setup so we switched both sides to the 130 feet back. We still caught a lot of short walleye but we were catching some nice keepers. Once we moved out to the deeper water we did not catch any junk fish. Kept 12 walleye and put back a whole lot of short walleye. Captain Daryl fished with his friends so we cleaned all the fish together and went to Trappers for a fresh walleye dinner. It doesn't get any better than that!

Cold and Windy Trip

Fished with Captain Daryl and Tom. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 60's. The wind was out of the north northeast less than 10 knots when we started fishing with waves around a foot and when we quit fishing it was just under 20 knots with waves 2 to 3 feet. The water temp is 67 degrees. Started trolling east of the Ohio dumping grounds with wiggle warts set at 75 and 85 feet behind the boards. We started catching fish with both setups until the wind started to pick up. Once the wind started blowing we turned and trolled with the wind and waves to our backs. Only caught one keeper walleye on this troll and it was getting hard to stand up so we called it a day. Kept 4 walleye and had the usual short walleye that we put back.

A Nice But Crowded Day on the Lake

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70's. The wind was mostly out of the east less than 10 knots with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 67 Degrees. Started fishing where we left off the last trip running the same program. The catching was pretty slow for the first half hour, then we were on some active fish. We were sorting through the walleye and enjoying the day until we got to 10 walleye in the cooler and the catching just shut right off. We were trying different lures and different depths with no results. After a couple of hours we finally caught our last 2 keepers. We had to put the dipsy's and spoons back to 95 feet instead of the 75 feet back. Kept 12 walleye and only caught 3 junk fish. We lost track of how many under size walleye that we put back.

Finally!

Fished with Joe and Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70's. The wind was light out of the north with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 67 Degrees. Started fishing just east of the E-Buoy trolling east with bandits set at 55 and 65 feet back. We were catching a few fish but there were just too many weeds floating on the surface. Started trolling to the south east of the E-Buoy and we switched over to spoons and dipsy's set at 75 feet back and we started to catch some more fish. We only had to make one pass through this area and we had our limit. Kept 18 walleye and we probably put back that many short walleye. Only caught 3 silver bass.