Fishing Lake Erie

Wow! What a trip!

The boss pitched for a two day fishing extravaganza on Lake Erie that turned out to be an excellent time, and quite a learning experience. We learned about their favorite choices of tackle, got to know some locals, and had some great cookouts.

The trip in and out was long.... about a 15 hour drive. But the time there was well worth it.....

The first day, we showed up late (night before). Car trouble caused us to lose six hours, landing us in at 10 pm. Not much time for sleep before fishing, but we decided to make some supper anyways. Hamburgers off the grill, with beans. Can't much quicker than that (screw the microwave).

The second day we bought our fishing licenses and met our captain. "Rick" from 'Chief Charters' was (quoted by the boss) 'Hands down, the best fishing charter captain we've ever had.' This was my first trip, so I didn't know the difference, but the boss has been on several and on the first day he knew that he'd been robbed on all the other trips. So if you're ever in the Marblehead area of Ohio, look up Chief Charters. Rick is an excellent captain, found us all the fish we could ever want, and even put in EXTRA TIME so that we'd catch our limit..... despite the terribly cold and cloudy environment that we faced all day long. We were all frozen to the bone. That night, the crew cleaned the fish (36 fishies, yeah!), and we grilled T-Bones for supper. Combined with potatoes (off the grill), beans, and chips. Probably the best meal of my entire life.

On the third day, Rick took us out again. This time, the weather was much more agreeable. Sunshine all day long, and again.... caught our limit. This time Rick didn't need to spend any extra time on the water with us, however... he DID let us fish on HIS TICKET. How cool is that?!?! Maybe he figured it was the least he could do since we invited him for a fish fry that night, which in itself turned out to be an excellent event. Rick indeed did show up, and we had one hell of a cook out. "Here's to you Rick!"

The next day showed no mercy as we headed out. The 15 hour drive was fairly quiet the last 12 hours. We were just tired, and didn't really believe the experience was all over. Oh well. I hope we get to go again next year.

Now on to the tackle....
When we were buying our liscense, right away I noticed that the bait shops were selling the spinner blades found here - Hagen's Fishing Tackle Manufacturer

It's a nice feeling seeing your product in another store 1000 miles away (total guess). Turns out, just about everyone uses those spinner blades on their walleye rigs. Combine those with a few plastic beads and you got yourself a simple, yet effective Walleye Fishing Lure.

Two ways to fish these walleye rigs - Bottom Bouncing - Simple rig that keeps the leader (walleye spinner snell) off the bottom of the lake floor. Combined with the drift fishing, the spinner will spin only occasionally as you move along.

Then there was the bait casting - Put a lead weight on there and let it fly. Countdown to 8 or 12, and just start bringing your bait in slowly. The spinner blade with do it's thing the whole way through the water. Didn't catch anything? Cast and do it again!

We didn't use any planer boards, plugs, spoons, or what ever. Just a simple rig and a worm for some scent.

If you would like to make your own spinner fishing rigs, you can contact Hagen's for a complete fishing tackle lure components catalog, or if you prefer to purchase the finished product, you can find some basic harness's here - www.willylures.com

Fishing Academy

I just had to read this story, as I never heard of a full blown fishing academy before. Turns out, it's something similar to an after school kind of thing. The guy teaches kids how to fish, builds self confidence, and promotes clean living. Not a bad way to spend your day I suppose.

One thing I noticed tho was - "...Parents just don't have time to spend with their kids any more..."

That's kinda sad when you think about it. Has our society gone so far down hill in personal relationships with our children that we need to ship them to special camps just to get that one-on-one parenting deal? Pathetic, I say.

Hat's off to Mr. John Hoffman for putting an organization together to help these young folk.

Another interesting tidbit from the article shows where Mr. Hoffman tossed out some pieces of bread into the water, presumably to see where the fish were. Hmmm... Makes you wonder how effective those fishing lures REALLY are.

But I digress. Much can be done in many communities to help teach a kid to fish. A great place to start is www.takemefishing.org . They have a wealth of information just a few clicks away!

Cheating at Fishing

Some folks that frequent the local fishing tournament have at one time or another thought about cheating.

Before you consider such a thing, read this story.

Poor shlum is going away for a while.... Dumbass.

Not like he was going for a $1,000,000 jackpot or something. If he got away with it, he would've walked away with a lousy $800.

Hmmmm.... $800 or potentially lose everything you have? Gee, such a tough question.

Need A Boat?

Shore fishing isn't a whole lot of fun (which I'm slowly coming to terms with). But that doesn't mean you're stuck with whats for sale in the paper, or paying high prices at a dealership!

Just did a quick search on-line and found some sites for you to check out!

Boats Depot - Lots of boats to be found here, and good prices too. The only thing setting this site back is the fact that you can't seem to search (or narrow down your search) by State.... leaving you to sift through all the boats by hand. Oh well, good place to start anyways.

Boats.com - The site isn't as fancy, but the search options are much better. In no time flat, I found a few boats in my neck of the woods, and lots of options.

Yacht World - Ok, I had to throw this one out there for fun... Some of you just might interested in what they offer. Either way, a boat is a boat... these just get a lot bigger. hahaha

There are several more out there I'm sure (sheesh... not going to fill up a whole page with nothing but boat sites), but those sites make a great start. Just remember, DON'T attempt to make large purchases on-line. Contact the people in person, and go see the goods for yourself.