[July]
August 2001
[September]
I was up this morning at 4am, reviewing my lake maps as well as any email messages I had filed containing information on fishing this area. Shortly before seven I launched the boat in Sandusky Bay, and with assurances from the marina that the winds were not going to be bad today, headed out into the big lake.
After running about ten miles out to one of the big shoals, I settled down in the midst of about thirty other boats, some bass boats but many of them charter boats, all working this shoal. I tossed out a tube in 25 feet of water and dragged it behind the boat as I pulled out some more rods and other equipment. By the time I was ready to stand up and fish, I had a three-and-a-half pound smallmouth jumping behind the boat trying to spit my tube. Off to a good start.
I worked that area for another hour though and never got another bite, so I left and headed off to another shoal. I arrived and tossed out my tube, and it never hit bottom before my line started thumping. This time I boated a two-and-a-half pound’er. Again I worked this shoal for about an hour, and again I never got another bite.
My plan for today was to hit as many different areas, islands and shoals, as I could. I traveled all the way up to Pelee Island in Canada, then moved west and fished my way back down the Bass Islands. I burned thirty gallons of gas and fished at least twenty different areas, but other than those first two fish this morning I never got another bite all day! After such a promising start, this was very disappointing.
Annie writes:
I slept in and got caught up on some much needed rest. Then, I spent the majority of the day trying to get internet access with our cell phone. I had no luck and am very concerned, because my final school paper is due this week for my college course and I MUST get online. After finally giving up on this, I caught up on my offline-computer work, then sat out to read a book. It was actually quite nice to just let things go for a few hours.
Dan came home around 7pm, and just as I was lighting the grill he informed me that he was taking me & Cooper-dog out for a surprise. We got in the car and drove about a mile to this beach, and it was so nice. We took off our shoes and walked way out in the water. Two hundred yards out the water was only up to our knees. Copper loved it, he could run around and play.
Back in the truck we hooked the computer up to the cell-phone and in this location, with great difficulty, we were able to get online just long enough to send and receive email messages. We came home around nine and were quite hungry, and the grill I had lit at seven had just enough heat left to cook hot dogs.
We made it about ten miles, or half way, before encountering four and five-foot waves. I splashed one into the boat that drenched Larry from head to foot, so we stopped to fish one of the shoals out there and also to give us time to reconsider whether we really wanted to continue across to Canada. The further north we went the worse the conditions were going to get with this south wind, and there was every reason to believe the wind would get stronger as the day wore on, so we made the decision not to proceed.
After backtracking to Sandusky we spent the rest of the day on the south shore, working our way down to Ruggle’s Reef. By 1pm we had not caught a single smallmouth, so I gave up on them and moved inshore to see if there were any largemouth to be found. Larry caught two on a spinnerbait and I caught one cranking, but there was no size to them and they certainly cannot compete with the big-lake smallmouth. We spent the last two hours back out smallmouth hunting, but those fish just will not bite today.
Annie writes:
I am really enjoying this tent camping, it is so different than camping with a motorhome. When the wind blows, you know. When it rains during the night, you know. And if you have a few holes in your tent when it is raining, you know, mainly because your stuff gets wet!. I think we will need to invest in a new tent if this is the route we are going to continue on.
Spent most of the day working on my college final. It is getting stressful and I still cannot get internet access, which I need.
We had a northwest wind today blowing 15-20 knots. Worse than yesterday, mostly because of the direction, and it got worse as the day wore on. It was impossible to fish anywhere but the lee side of the island, which is what fifteen or so boats were doing, but nobody was catching anything. We eventually agreed that the smallmouth simply were not biting, and that we should go look for something entirely different.
After strapping everything down we made the wet and pounding ride back to the mainland, where we spent the afternoon flipping and cranking for largemouth in the harbors. I finally caught my first keeper in two days cranking some rip-rap, and we caught a few short fish as well, but it would appear that the largemouth are not much more aggressive than the smallmouth at this point.
We finished the day up in the far end of Sandusky Bay itself, again fishing the rip-rap, but caught no more fish. The two of us are extremely frustrated, and are left wondering what could have shut these fish off, and what we need to do to catch even one fish, here in what is considered by many to be the number-one smallmouth fishing spot in the world.
Annie writes:
It rained most of the day, so Cooper and I had to hide out in the tent. I had plenty to do as I am still working on my final paper for my English class. When Dan came home I drove into town to try and get our cell phone modem to work, no luck. It has worked every other night, but tonight it is not going to happen. Dan found out there is a computer in the main building, so tomorrow I will give that a try.
We headed further north, to the west side of Pelee Island, and fished a couple of hours without a bite before moving over to the east side. We both caught a keeper on the first shoal we stopped at here (Chickenolee Reef), and then continued up the east side looking for more. At the north end of the island we separated, Scott going one way and me another, and shortly afterwards I bumped into a friend who, after hearing me describe how many fish I’ve caught so far this week, threw some baits into my boat, saying "Try these, and try the shoal on that marker buoy way out there in the distance." I did, and I caught two fish on my first drift across it, so things are starting to look a lot better for tomorrow.
That’s all I had time for today, but, weather permitting, I’m a lot more optimistic about catching fish now than I was when I went to bed last night.
Annie writes:
I got up early, took my shower and was ready to get the majority of my English paper done today. I went to the office and they had no problem with me using the computer. I figured out how to get it online, tried to do some searches, and the computer is so old, it takes longer for it to search for something than our computer does using a cell phone modem. I am not being unthankful, I plugged away at it and waited for it to find my information and I was on my way to finding something, when off in the distance, I hear this barking. YUP, that’s my dog. He does not like being left alone and the only place I can put him is the tent, so he barks until I come home. He is not allowed in the office, so there goes my research for today. Dan came home around 5:00, we had to leave here by 6:00 for the meeting. We worked on the boat and his tackle and drove out of here at 6:05. We arrived at the doors of the meeting at approximately 6:29, that was close. After the meeting we went out to eat with Dick and Lena Bowman. Dick was Dan’s practice partner for the FLW and we haven’t seen them in a while.
I headed over to the helicopter pad and made a few drifts across the edge of the drop. In three passes we had not one bite, yet the boat next to us caught five fish during this time. When I let him know how poorly we were doing thus far, he was nice enough to clue me in to a color change we should make, and once we did we started getting bit. Or at least my partner did. In fact, before I stripped all the ten-pound line off me reel and respooled with eight, may partner had his five fish limit while I still had none! We were throwing the same tube with the same weight and the same hook, yet he was getting all the bites.
With the eight-pound line I finally caught three keepers, and with five minutes left to fish had a fourth one flopping around right at the net but just wouldn’t go in, and instead ended up spitting the bait out right in front of us.
The weather was nasty, and for a ride that took forty minutes to get out we allowed two hours to get back. That was unfortunate because it took only half that, and I could have used that extra hour to maybe finish out my limit out there. I finished the day with three fish that weighed 8.7 pounds, less an eight ounce dead-fish penalty. Had I not lost those other two today I could have weighed fourteen-and-a-half and been right there at the top-30 cutoff.
Annie writes:
I was up at 4:45am as I had to go with Dan this morning so I could have the truck to get to the weigh in this afternoon. I decided to bring the computer and see if I might possibly get a connection in another town. I sat in the parking lot and watched them take off as I tried to get online with my computer. IT WORKED!! I spent 45 minutes there doing research and got some great information for my paper.
I spent the rest of the morning at our campsite, working on my paper, we are nearing the end. I went to the weigh in early to try and do my final research on the computer, but I could not get back on.
Dan arrived in at 4:00 with 3 fish, I was fairly happy with that. I guess I did not have high expectations due to the way his practice went. We arrived home around 6:30 and it was raining, it rained for the rest of the night and I did a lot of mopping up in the tent. We both agreed, we need a new tent.
My partner for today, Rick Shepherd, was interesting. He fishes some smaller tournaments back home in West Virginia, but this was his first EverStart tournament, and he just wanted to come out an see what it was like. We talked about his antique business, his work in the coal mines, the fact that he develops and maintains his own web site like I do, but perhaps the most interesting thing about him today was... he didn’t fish! Periodically throughout the morning he would pull out a rod, tie a new bait on, and just as I thought he was getting ready to make a cast, he’d put the rod back and sit down again! When I questioned him about this he said he was content just to sit back and observe, and the next time I asked the said that all he wanted to do was to net all the big fish I was going to catch. We had taken off this morning at 6:30, and it was not until 1pm that he finally made his first cast! Now I don’t know if he had employed this relaxed attitude in his fishing yesterday, but I do know that the one fish he caught yesterday was a four-pounder. And now get this - not five minutes after making his first cast out of my boat today he was calling for the net, and exclaiming "Fish on! Big fish!" The one fish he caught with me today weighed four pounds, eight ounces, and almost took big fish prize for the day!
I finished the day with three fish, nine pounds, and over two days I weighed six fish for about seventeen pounds. I had five keeper bites each day, and each day boated only three of the five. I was upset about this, and found myself adding up "what could have been," had I put those fish in the boat. The more I’ve thought about it though, I more I’m now acknowledging that this is what happens to everybody when fishing for big-lake smallmouth. These fish are simply more adept at spitting the hook, partly because of their nature and their athletic ability, and partly because you frequently have three, four or five times more line out when you set the hook. Not only does that give you far less hook-setting power (due to line stretch,) but it gives the fish much more time to perform their acrobatics as well. The bottom line is that when fishing for Lake Erie smallmouth, you have to expect that you’re going to lose some of the ones you hook. It follows then that you have to be able to get bit more than five times a day in order to put five fish in the livewell, and I couldn’t do that this week.
Annie writes:
Up at 4:30 with Dan, boy I do not do mornings, today is especially bad, it seems like everything is wet. It rained all night, and the tent has some good puddles. I managed to put two loads of laundry in before we left the campground. I watched Dan take off and could not get back on the internet, so I went back to the campground to pack up. We decided last night that I would try to pack up the campsite, and be ready for when Dan got in this afternoon. Boy did I work my tail off, everything was drenched and I was drenched. I took my shower and got cleaned up just before I drove out of the campground. It will be very messy once we get home as everything needs to be set up again and dried out, but for now, it all fit in the truck, just don’t open any doors or it will all come tumbling out.
I was waiting on the ramp at 3:00 for Dan when he came in. He did well, and caught nine more pounds, but not enough to keep us here for tomorrow. Just as well, since the car is packed and ready to go. We drove out of town at 6:30pm, and Dan actually drove for about a hundred miles which is good. We stopped to eat and then I drove while Dan slept. I managed to get in about 300 miles before I had to sleep, it was 2:00am.
As for this week, Chris is still playing football every day; Jeff just started work at the local grocery store, and Kate and Dan played in a local tennis tournament where, thanks to Dan’s exceptional display of playing ability, they got their butts kicked.
Finally, on Saturday we attended the surprise 60th birthday party for Annie’s dad, Bob.
He was genuinely surprised, and also seemed genuinely happy to have all the attention lavished on him for the day.