Lake Erie Perch

This weekend we put about 500 miles on our vehicles. Saturday Christina, the kids and Gene and I went to King's Island. Christina got free tickets from her company and had a company picnic in the park.

We got back around 10:30 Saturday night and the next morning Gene and I were up at 3:00 to drive to lake erie. Gene's brother Glenn also came with us. We had reserved a spot on a head boat from the Drawbridge Marina to go perch fishing.

They took us out close to Canadian waters. We caught quite a few perch, but only ended up keeping about 18. We found out after the trip that we should have been keeping the small ones instead of throwing them back. They just seemed so small and couldn't have had much meat on them. Eighteen fish of the size we kept was plenty for eating and will provide several meals.

As far as the fun factor goes, perch fishing is not as fun as walleye. We were using a 1 1/2 oz. weight on the spreader to reach the bottom and most of the perch we caught just felt like some added weight when you were bringing them up.

If I were to go out again, I would take an ultralight rod and a lot smaller weights to increase the fight. I would also try to figure out how to catch the great big ones. Those are fun.

We waited several hours for our fish to be cleaned once we got back and had a walleye dinner at Jolly Rogers in Port Clinton. Their dinners are awesome and come with a ton of fish, slaw and waffle fries.

Completely stuffed we went back to Drawbridge Marina and got completely schooled by Gene on how to catch fish after fish on a jighead with a piece of worm. He caught rock bass, bluegill, gobies and bullhead over and over, while Glen and I caught a gobie a piece. I also got 1 bluegill.

The fish were finally cleaned and we headed back home.

The Jig Bite is On! Lake Erie Walleye

I looked up Fisherman's Wharf's website to see if they were sending out walk-on headboats yet this year. Not only are they going out but looking at the pictures on their website this month they have been getting a lot of good fish. It says the jig bite is on. Here is the website http://www.wecatchfish.com/

There are quite a few headboat's that leave from Port Clinton, Ohio but I always use Fisherman's Wharf. They have an extreemly friendly helpful staff. Their headboats can accomodate up to 40 people and they have 3 different boats. The price to go out on the weekend is 39.00 per person. On the weekday it is 36.00 for adults (16-60) and 33.00 for Seniors and Children. In April they have 1 daily trip from 8AM-3PM. Starting in May they will have Two trips daily from 7AM-2PM and 3PM-10PM.

They take you out and drift you over the prime walleye spots for the season. All you have to do is sit or stand and catch fish. You can't beat that!

I am going to try to schedule a morning fish on May 9th. I'm just waiting to see if Gene is up for it.

Weekend Update # 2

There was noise coming from downstairs as I awoke from a good night of sleep. My sons were playing with their toys as they normally do on weekend mornings around 8:30. I grabbed my glasses from the nightstand and made my way down to the living area and kitchen. My son grabs my leg and gives me my morning hug.

Still a little tired I see that Gene had not slept on the couch as usual on Saturday night. I walked outside to see if his car was at the house. It was not but as I rounded the corner Mizike had the garage door open and was gathering his gear to put in the van. I gave him a funny look and asked about the 9:00 time that we were originally going to start loading. He said that he could not sleep and had already been to wash and vacuum the van to prep it for packing.

As I smoked a cigarette still half asleep I called to make sure Gene was up and on his way. Right after I got off the phone Thomas called and said he was about at the house. It had been quite a while since we had been fishing together so I gave him directions until he reached the house.

As I took a shower Gene showed up and the 3 continued loading the van. The shower helped me wake up and gave me focus on the day. I started to get excited. We were about to set off on an adventure to one of the greatest walleye fisheries in the world.

We finally had everything packed and sent the wife and kids off to church then it was our turn to get on the road. The 3 hour trip to the lake went quick with all of the joking and talking we were doing. Once we arrived to Port Clinton we stopped at a gas station to get some cash. The ATM was down so we continued down the road to a bank ATM to get some cash to enter the big fish competition and to tip the first mate on the head boat.

Next, we continued on to Fisherman's Wharf. It was pretty quiet near the store. It was Sunday and a lot of the crowd that had been there for the weekend were already on their way home. We found a spot to park and went into the store to get paid up. The store was unusually quiet as well and we were able to pay for the boat rather quickly. When we paid there were only 6 of us signed up. That was pretty exciting, that meant we would be able to fish off any part of the boat we wanted.

We picked up some Subway to take on the boat with us then came back to the van to wait to load into the boat. After about an hour of waiting in 95 degree heat we finally loaded. The boat we were originally going to take was out of commission due to the batteries not taking a recharge so they put us on another boat that still needed gas. We sat on the boat for almost another hour before taking off. That was a little frustrating because the captain and first mate said the last trip out they had found the walleye and caught most of their fish on the last drift. The conditions were changing and I knew that if we did not get out there to catch some right away we might not keep up with them or find them that evening.

The boat was filled up and we headed out for our 6 hour instead of 7 hour trip. We travelled further North than I have been in the head boats. I wasn't worried since we had taken plenty of beverages with us to keep us occupied on the trip out.

Once we arrived to our destination there were 3 to 4 foot swells. There were only 11 of us fishing but I decided I was going to fish off the bow so I could cast and reel instead of drift. It was rough on the bow because it lifted and lowered more with each wave than the rest of the boat. I was having a hard time getting my sea legs and had to hold onto the rail several times to keep from falling.

I finally figured out that it would only toss us around once out of 4 or 5 waves and the rest of the time I could manage to get a cast out and start reeling. The front of the boat paid off as I had my first hit as I was slowly lifting my harness off the bottom. I reeled it in and had a fairly large white perch. Mizike had a white perch on just about the same time. We fished for a while longer before the captain finally pulled in the first walleye. I followed with a small 16 incher.

One other guy on the boat caught a walleye on the first spot we tried. We had caught a few more white perch and some sheep heads. Finally the captain decided that he had lost the walleye they had been on earlier and made a half hour trip back towards port clinton.

Fishing there was not any better. Thomas caught a small walleye and the rest of the boat caught a couple more walleye as well as some yellow perch and more white perch. One guy on the back of the boat also caught a nice catfish. We were fishing a sunken ship.

It was probably a good thing we moved from the last spot because a storm had came in and looked like it was over where we had been. The captain commented on that being the reason we were not getting a good bite. The barometric pressure was changing and had shut off the bite.

The last 2 times we had been out the bite was slow. I am wondering if Lake Erie is getting fished out since they have not had a good walleye hatch for several years. The fish we had caught were just moving into keeper size. That could be a possibility. It could be that we just had 2 poor trips out to Erie due to the weather this year.

It was still good to be out there fishing. I might have as good of luck in the inland lakes but the potential to really get into em' goes way up when you go to Erie.

I will probably wait until next year to go back. I guess I will have to find some saugeye around home to catch to eat or live on crappie until next year.

Lake Erie Weekend

Mizike took Friday off and we had plans to head to Lake Erie for the weekend. Mizike me and his girlfriend were going to take off Friday morning and drive to Lake Erie. We would find a campsite when we got there sign up for a head boat on Saturday evening and then go fish that evening then come back to camp and drink and have fun.

Thursday at work got a little crazy and I had to come in Friday to sort some things out. I worked for 2.5 hours from 8 to 10:30. I got home and we were on the road by noon.

We stopped at KFC / Long John Silvers on our way out of town. We ordered our food and they said they were out of biscuits and it would take about 9 minutes for them to be done. We decided we would wait so the drive through guy gave us our drinks for free. That saved us 5 bucks for 9 minutes of our time. They had us pull forward to wait.

Mizike was complaining because the last 2 times he stopped KFC was out of Crispy Chicken and this time they were out of biscuits. About 2 minutes into waiting a guy brought our food out. I thought it was strange so I had Mizike's girlfriend check through the bag to make sure everything was there. We were missing fries from one of the meals and all of the biscuits.

I pulled into a parking stall and Mizike went racing inside to complain. He was very irritated. By the time I got inside he was already calm. He said the guy that brought the food out got yelled at for taking the food out too quickly. As I was sitting there waiting they told another guy they were out of wings. They must have the worst order person of all time working there to be out of so much all the time. Looks like I know a good place to get free soda's.

It was not long and we were on the road again. It took about 3 hours with a gas stop to reach the lake. Mizike and his girlfriend had never been there. We went over Sandusky Bay. It was really neat. Then drove into Port Clinton. It reminds you of a small beach town next to the ocean. They thought it was really awesome especially the bridge that raises up to let boats through.

We stopped at Fisherman's Wharf to sign up for a head boat. I always go there because the staff is super friendly and helpful every time. They were booked full for Saturday. They said they would put us on reserve and call us if a spot opened. They had lots of openings on Sunday so we were o.k. with that. They helped us locate some primitive camping next to the portage river so we went to check it out.

At first we were skeptical about the campground. It was full of year round campers but had one small area for tents with a firering and picnic tables. We drove and checked out East Harbor State Campground. It was nice but not near the water and they don't allow alcoholic beverages so we opted for the private campground.

We set up camp and headed to the river to wet some lines. Mizike's girlfriend caught a small rock bass right away. She then caught a sheephead. Mizike followed with a catfish. I didn't have any luck. My worm was drowned and untouched by the time we left.

We had saw a sign for Crabby Joe's on the way to East Harbor so we drove back that way to find Crabby Joe's. We found it a little past the campground. It didn't look great from the outside but on the inside had a deck over the water so it seemed worth the stop. A band started playing right after we got there and they had awesome food. I got the walleye platter. Mizike got the cheeseburger and his girlfriend got the crab legs. We split an order of clams served in a beer pitcher. They were fantastic.

They had a claw game that had lobsters in it. If you caught a lobster and dropped it they would cook it and serve it with baked potato and a full meat. It was 2.00 to play and Mizike tried it. He started moving the claw and a crowd gathered around. He got a good grab from the far side of the tank and the claw lifted the lobster out of the water. It was slow moving across the tank. Right as it got to the other side the lobster started moving and slid out of the claw. Another 2 inches and he'd have been lobster dinner.

We had a fantastic dinner and a couple drinks then headed back to camp after buying some firewood. We got the fire started then Mizike grabbed a stick that had been in the fire pit and laid it across to burn. I started to grab it back out to use as a poker and Mizike say's "Don't grab that stick." I asked why. He said, "I got poo on my hands." His girfriend says "Poo Poo?" I look down as Mizike says "Yes Poo Poo!" and see something dripping off the end of the stick. Somebody had stabbed poo with it and thrown it in the pit to be burned and Mizike had grabbed the bad end.

Mizike headed towards the bathroom to wash his hands while we burned his poo stick. A little after we left we heard 2 cats making screaching noises. We joked that Mizike had been attacked for smelling like dog poo. It took a while and when Mizike returned he looked very unhappy. He said that when he had gotten the poo of his hands he had needed to poo himself. The light switch was on a timer and as he was taking care of business he realized he had taken too long when he heard a click and darkness fell upon him. He had to use the light of his cell phone to finish.

The rest of the night was filled with drinking, and drinking, and drinking. At one point I watched as Mizike grabbed a burning end of a log and rotated it. He had just pulled it out of the fire to burn the log in 2. I yelled stop but it was too late. He had ahold of it and didn't realize it was hot. I had him put his hand in the cooler right away and after a couple of seconds he felt the burning.

We made a lot of stick jokes the rest of the weekend. We were able to get out on the headboat Saturday evening but a coldfront moved through so we only caught a couple of walleye before they quit biting. The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful.

We did stop at Wal-mart on Sunday and purchase a Spiderman 2 piece pole for my oldest son and fished off a pier. Mizike caught a bullhead catfish. We didn't have any luck other than that.

TNT 4 5 and Kansas trip

We fished O'Shaughnessy for tournament number 4. We had moved into the top 60% of the field with our 1 catch of the year due to making all of the tournaments and getting points for showing. We didn't have any luck. I had 2 keepers on but lost them both at the boat. The first I pulled in from bank. The other I had hit at the boat and flopped off when I went to lift it in.

Tournament number 5 was at Alum Creek. I was not here so Mizike and our alternate fished the tournament. They caught a 1.88 pound smallmouth that was setting up next to a rock. It was raining hard and the rest of the field struggled as well. We still did not place.

Kansas fishing was awesome! I got to the lake last Monday. I set up the tent and blew up the air beds and set up the rest of camp then went to unload Dad's Lund to go after some fish. It was afternoon by the time I had gotten my fishing liscence and made it to the lake from the in-laws. We had a few hours to fish in the evening. We caught some wiper, white bass, and a couple walleye trolling. Then a few more walleye drifting over the spot we had just trolled and caught the first walleye.

The next morning I woke up at 3:30 A.M. anxious to get back out to catch more fish. I sat around the campfire ring until about 5:00 A.M. and decided it was almost light enough to see the shore from the water. I grabbed my pole and walked down to the bank of the cove we were camping next to. I cast out a white 1.5 inch grub with a pink 1/16th oz head and caught a small crappie on the first cast. For the next hour I caught a fish every cast. In that mix I had 5 keeper smallmouths and 8 cleaning size crappie. I usually only keep crappie 9 inches or longer. I threw the bass back of course. I still have never tried eating a bass.

I woke up Dad as soon as it was light and told him he better get down there the bite is on. He got a cup of coffee and ended up coming down as well. He caught 3 crappie and the sun popped up. The bite turned off almost instantly. I think the fish moved to deeper water or had fed well on the small fry that were in the area and moved to cover to sit out the sun. A crappie guy at work thinks that they were still feeding and I needed to try a different color. I will try that next time. The water was extreemly clear there though so I still think they moved.

The rest of the day we had a white bass and wiper fest. There were times Mom Dad and I would all have fish on at once. My oldest son had fun sitting in the boat all day. I took a couple toys and he played with them and played in the livewell. He also liked reeling in a fish every once in a while. I ended up with a decent looking 4 pound Wiper and Dad caught a 3 pound 21 inch walleye. We got some pictures with them.

My son lost his scooby doo pole over the side of the boat at some point while we were drifting for walleye. He might have snagged or had a fish hit. I wasn't watching at the time. He was pretty upset about it. He ended up crying himself to sleep. He did tell me that Wal-mart has a spiderman pole and that we needed to go get it. He points it out to me every time we are there.

We found a walleye spot on the last day I was there right before I had to go pick up my youngest son. We went across the hump 3 times and every time picked up a walleye. They were definately schooled there. I would have like to had some more time to hit that spot. It was a good thing I had to go though. It was over 90 degrees and I was burning fast. By the time I made the trip to meet my mother in law I was red as a lobster. We had only had 2 80 degree days so far in Ohio. I think I got a little sick from the sun or the heat that evening.

On our way back to Ohio we stopped at the Kansas City Bass Pro to pick up some fishing supplies. That is a really nice store. After we crossed through Indianapolis on I70 there was a deer in the slow lane. I saw it a little to late to get to a stop and merged to the fast lane to get around it. It ran at the same time and I got it with the passenger front of the mini-van. It did some pretty good damage as it got the light, the bumper, hood, front quarter panel, and the passenger side door. It took an hour for the highway patrol to arrive and make a report after I called them. He said this was his third deer strike report of the night.

We were able to drive the rest of the way home and made it around 4 AM. The next day I layed around all day watching TV. I was drained from the long week and the late and stressful night. We took the van to the insurance place for an estimate last night. They said 3000.00 worth of damage. Thank goodness for insurance.

We have our tournament Thursday evening then I think we will go to Lake Erie on Friday for the weekend. We're going to camp near Port Clinton and take a head boat out on Saturday. For 35.00 they take you out for a 7 hour trip and drift you across some walleye hot spots. I have gotten my limit almost every time I have been out on the headboats. I have only been out on Fisherman's Wharf Headboats. They are very good.