This is going to be a long one, which is not usual for my perch fishing reports…sorry, not sorry. 🙂
This morning, I was really looking forward to fishing with Lisa again. She and two of her friends were here back in April, for the total solar eclipse, and wanted to get some walleye fishing in. Lisa has a bucket list of fish she wants to catch, and walleye and perch were two of the freshwater fish she hadn’t caught, yet. We did very well on the walleye that day, and she was happy.
She came all the way over from West Virginia, with her dog “Max”, to fish for perch, this time. (This afternoon, I got to meet Max, and he is a real sweetheart! I wanted to keep him.)
I cleaned the boat up yesterday, and left the house 45 minutes early, this morning, even though the Air-BNB where she is staying is only a mile and a half down the road from me. I stopped off at Wozniak’s Sunoco, on Lakeshore Dr, for some Emerald Shiners and ice, first. The shiners were the perfect 2-2 1/2″ inch size, that I like to use. They are perfect for splitting in half. I also had some frozen shiners in Wintergreen Rubbing Alcohol along for the ride, too.
I drove through the Portage River Boat Access’s parking lot…to the DNR road between the boat ramp and Vacation Wonderland, or whatever it’s called over there, and drove down the road. It’s the road where I walk my dogs most days, so I know it well. There was a problem though….
At the other end, the road just outside the gates were filled with piles of stone and dirt. Someone had dumped it there, so I vehicle couldn’t pass through, and I had to try and make a tight turn, where I would come within inches of hitting my truck on a telephone pole. “I’m fucked”, I thought…starting to panic a little.
I couldn’t make the turn. The truck made it, but the boat was going to hit the upright post of the fence that is around the end of the road, on the port side. I had 4″ of space before I stopped trying to make the turn.
Then, Lisa showed up, and I told her “I might be screwed here… I’m stuck. I have a pole up here and a fence back there, let me think about this a second.” I got in the truck, and started backing up…making sure I didn’t hit the telephone pole, or the boat, and once I made it past the pole, I was able to make a three point turn with the trailer, and go back down the way I came in.
(So, thanks to whoever put the piles of stone and dirt in the middle of the road…you made my adrenal levels skyrocket. lol)
We had everything we needed, and headed to Catawba to launch. The wind was forecast, out of the east at 14-18mph, so that was going to be bumpy. Starting out of the launch, we headed over to the green buoy to start looking for some gold. We didn’t find any good marks on the sonar, so we kept moving and looking.
The Davis Besse smoke stack wasn’t too bent over, so I didn’t think it was that bad out, and headed to G Can. But, when we got over there, the waves were 2-3s with some 4s thrown in for good measure…and, the water was pretty dirty, so I said we were going to head back to the lee side of Catawba. I looked over by Clinton Reef…marked some, and Lisa caught one. It was a dandy for her first one, and she was able to check a perch off her bucket list. We didn’t stay more than a 1/2 hour, and moved towards the point of Catawba.
Lisa caught a couple more, but the marks were bleak, so I said, “I don’t think the wind is supposed to get any worse, so we should drive up to the islands…we can ride the trough up, so it shouldn’t be too bad of a ride. The water will probably be cleaner up there, too.” Lisa was game, so off we went.
I was right about the ride…it was a little wet, because of the cross-wind, but it wasn’t bad. I pointed the Vexus to Middle Bass Island, once we rounded the corner of South Bass, and stopped on the north end of the island, near the underwater “wall”, as I call it….(the one between Middle Bass and Rattlesnake).
We were in 29′ of water.
It was slow, but then we started getting bites. Then, I looked up and saw a bunch of sailboats come out of Put-in-Bay…like a club race event. The first 15 minutes they stayed over by South Bass, but then they started coming closer. A horn sounded, and the first flight headed north…we were sitting directly north of them. “Ugh”, I thought…”This should be fun”.
Sure enough, three flights of sailboats went between us, and two other boats that were between me and land, and on the outside of us. Several of them, were as close as 20 feet from our boat….when they had a ton of open water to the west of me. I was the outside boat of the three of us that were perching there. I don’t have to tell you that our bite died.
But, it did start picking up again after the third flight disappeared to the north side of North Bass, so we stuck it out.
We didn’t limit, but Lisa was having a great time, and said she will be back again next year, with her girlfriends to try and get walleye and perch in the same trip….and, that makes me happy!
Lisa is staying in Port Clinton until Monday, so after dropping my boat off at home, I headed over to the place she staying at, because I wanted to see the VRBO she rented.
It’s a very old (but, very well maintained), and charming house on the Portage River, owned by Mark and Tammy Collins. (Tammy, if you’re reading this…those old wood floors in that house are stunning!)
That’s when I got to meet Max….and, I was starving, so I asked if she wanted to go for Mexican, and she said, “Yes”. Lunch was great, as usual.
Tomorrow’s trip is rescheduled to next Sunday (13th), due to the wind forecast of low to mid 30s out of the SW. And, Monday’s trip is rescheduled to Friday the 11th, due to a gusty NW wind in the forecast.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
