When I received the call I about jumped out of my skin. On the other end of the line all that I heard was, “its time”.
Long overdue on my bucket list was an Ohio, Lake Erie spring fishing trip. I had heard stories about a jig bite that focused on pre spawn walleyes and it was nothing short of world class. So when long time Pasha Lake Cabins guest Jonny Fickert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzmpMqxwE1E) called, I went into emergency prep mode.
A day and half later, my good fishing buddy John Olsen and I were on our way. We had a late start so we planned on stopping halfway to grab a hotel room and a couple hours sleep, but soon realized we were too excited. We blasted through and made the 12 hour drive, leaving our personal fuel tanks on an hour sleep.
When we arrived, the weather was gorgeous, 76 degrees and little wind. We purchased our licenses and ice, went over the gear and made the final boat preps. Shortly after, we were on the water wetting lines.
The first day started out a little slow. We were exhausted from the 36 hour marathon and we needed to work the kinks out since it was our maiden voyage of the year. We managed to land some nice walleyes and were looking forward to a couple hours sleep and regrouping for the next day.
Tuesday morning came early and we hit the water at day break. What happened next, I wouldn’t have dreamed of in a million years. We struggled to land one fish. What made it worse? Everyone around us was crushing them.
Every fisherman new to an area will tell you that local information is invaluable. Up to that point, our 411 was that a “rip jigging” presentation was the only way to catch walleyes. So we ripped, and ripped and ripped. We ripped so hard that I developed blisters on my hands and bruised my ribs. We stumbled onto a few, but we were beyond frustrated with ourselves.
When we broke for lunch and went to the fish cleaning station, I immediately noticed an elderly, and shall we say, a tad over weight gentleman who had a purple cast on his right arm. He was in a group of 4 and they had 16 gorgeous pigs they were getting ready to fillet. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in heck he was rip jigging all morning. At that point, I was completely demoralized.
After running a few errands in town and eating lunch, we stopped by a local tackle shop (http://www.wecatchfish.com/) and I ran into the owner’s son (Wolfie), who just happened to be a boat captain. In short order, he told me how that morning’s charter of 20 or so people limited out in no time. Did somebody just twist a knife into me?
When I explained to him the rip jigging technique we were using, he about fell off his boat laughing. He said that’s your problem. Your ripping it right out of the strike zone. Out of sheer embarrassment, I didn’t dare tell him that I owned a lodge in Canada and guide for walleye 100’s of days out of the year. We did chew the fat a bit longer and I eventually broke down and told him, saving face by explaining we had been a little misled by our local contact. After clearing the display shelf of his recommended hair jigs, we promptly jumped in the truck and headed back out to the lake.
What happened next is exactly what I expected. We slowed down our presentation and started hammering walleyes. The three of us had our limit in less than a half hour and the fun was on. We stayed until dark and checked out some recommended reefs. Once the sun hit the distant water line, there was about an hour where we caught hog walleyes at will. It was everything I dreamed of.
On Wednesday, we did the same thing. It was a little slower, but it would be very tough to beat the day before. Apparently the word was out though, because the boat traffic had tripled from the day before. It didn’t take long for us to separate from the crowds to find less pressured reefs. In the end, we sacrificed action to get away from everyone else, a decision I would make again in a heartbeat.
CON’s of the trip the trip are pretty limited. It was the first trip of the year, and a little better prep work was needed with the boat and gear. Not to mention, our decision to disregard the basics made our first morning of fishing a little disappointing. In other words, stick to the fundamentals. The drive was a tad long, but well worth it. When it came to finding out local information, we should have tapped multiple resources instead of relying on just one person to tell us about the dynamics of the fishery. On the second and third day, the crowds were growing which inevitably brings a few ignorant, disrespectful fisherman. In one instance, we had two boats drive at full throttle right up on to the reef we were fishing and drop lines within 50 yards of us. We were the only ones on the reef and they had plenty of open water to work with. Lastly, fuel prices made it difficult to stay within a budget.
PRO’s of the trip – The fishing was world class. The people in Port Clinton were extremely friendly and very helpful. Having an inside connection helped us avoid long lines when lunching and landing the boat. We didn’t have to mess with live bait which was really nice. We landed multiple species including walleye, sheepshead, white bass and smallmouth bass. The weather was picture perfect and we were able find numerous spawning reefs that were isolated and away from the crowds. It seems there is a marine dealer on every street corner so if you need something (in our case a Lowarnce transducer) you should be able to find it quickly. Despite the fuel prices, it was still a very reasonably priced trip.
One important note – make sure you familiarize yourself with the Ohio traffic and game laws. We were pulled over once for not having a trailer license, which in Ohio you need. It turned out to be nothing because we were legal in our home state. Also, there are special gear requirements you need before boating on Lake Erie.
If you have questions or want additional info, feel free to call me any time 817 715 4161.