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| And so it begins. “The Trophy” slipped quietly into water once again at the crack of dawn on March the 31st. Exactly one day after the western basin became ice free. And as almost every year, “The Trophy” was vessel # 1 launched on the Portage River in downtown Port Clinton. Hard to believe that by Memorial Day weekend when I go to leave this end of the lake, there will literally be thousands of other boats launched and docked here and throughout the Port Clinton area. |
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| “The Trophy” sat idle for the first few days as I rigged rods, stocked up on supplies and did a few last second maintenance chores to the boat which had slipped my mind when all of the major prep work was being done on her back home before launch. I did manage to sneak off Thursday morning on a buddies boat for a quick little scouting mission. The friends that I joined up with that morning had found some deep water Walleyes the day before and that’s where we headed. It didn't take too long to tie into our first few fish. We were jigging the old stand by of anymore, the big purple hair jigs but the boys were tipping them with big minnows. Something that I seldom do myself. It was working that morning though. We took a couple of handfuls of really nice fish in a couple of hours time before a strong line of thunderstorms sent us high tailing for the barn early. |
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| With the weekend and my first scheduled charters on Saturday and Sunday, my old nemesis the wind arrived right on time as is the case all to often in this business especially this early in the year. Saturday morning we were greeted with below freezing temperatures, ice on the decks and a stiff north wind gusting to 27 mile per hour and a very nasty wave action on the water. After putting my crew on a 2 hour weather delay and with no real improvement, my first trip of the year elected to just call it and head down the road. After much anticipation on my part to get the season started, my first day back was over before it ever got started. The old feeling of disappointment and some disgust was hard to suppress. The next morning the wind was howling again but with just a change of wind direction. With a west, southwest fetch we decided to go for it. Trying to get a bit of a reprieve from the wind from the shoreline, we stayed in relatively close to shore. Bouncing jigs in the screaming wind we managed once again to capture only a couple of handfuls of fish once again before we gave up. It was the best we could do. Perhaps if we would have landed the 7 or 8 that got off on us, the box would have looked a little better. It is what it is... |
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| So just like the first day of school, my first trip of 2015 is in the books and my 29th year in the business is now under way. This coming week I look to get real busy starting mid week but I am already uneasy as I look at the longer range forecasts. Rain and wind. Sigh. We’ll see I guess. One day at a time. As I look at my spring schedule in general, I do have some open dates that I hope to fill yet. Anybody looking for a trip, well just holler. Nobody's missed anything yet. I do think we are very close to some crazy good spring run action as these Walleyes come up on the reefs to spawn. On Sunday we observed some big females rolling on the surface closer to shore. A very good sign. We are very close now. If we can only catch a break from this relentless cold weather that is still hanging on from yet another brutal winter, I think it will be game on. BIG TIME! Stay tuned! And the story begins... Capt. Walt |
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