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| Really good fishing! Walleye fishing out of Ashtabula Harbor for us aboard “The Trophy” and the rest of the charter fleet this past week was probably the best thus far of this whole season. I don’t know anyone that isn’t limiting out right now. The real question has been just how long will it take. The answer to that here lately has been, not too long! Thursday every charter boat at the River Marine marina was out on a charter trip and every boat at the marina was back to the dock with limit catches by 10:00am, regardless of their party size. Boy was the fish cutter swamped! Billy, the fish cutter at River Marine is probably the hardest working guy I know this time of year. He is a big part in making the end of everyone's fishing trip a complete and hassle free experience. The marina has lowered the price on cleaning Walleyes this summer because the average size of the catch is down. The fish cutters that work for the marina only make half of what they charge with the rest of the charge going to the house so he is making even less money this year. I hope everyone remembers to tip their hard working fish cleaner who has a tough thankless job standing there all day cleaning everyone's fish. Thank you Billy! We would be lost without you! |
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| Speaking of Thursday, not only was the bite hot and heavy that morning, the average size of everyone's catch was dramatically much better with plenty of wall hangers showing up in everyone's catch as well that day. Aboard “The Trophy” that morning we had a interesting thing happen that I don’t remember happening even in the best of times in the years when all the fish tended to run big. In a matter of mere minutes we took back to back to back five monster Walleyes! The smallest being 28 1/2” inches and the largest at 31” inches. A true tournament winning bag of 5 fish in just a few minutes time! Talk about being at the right place at the right time and doing everything right! All 5 of those fish made the “Fish Ohio” citation program where the minimum size on a Walleye is 28” inches. Very cool that every one of my guests that morning got a “Fish Ohio” Walleye at the almost the exact very same time! Sometimes some of my guests go seasons before they get a eligible qualifying Walleye. For those of you this year that have gotten a Walleye that big and would like to get their free hat pin and certificate from the Ohio's Division of Wildlife, a reminder to you that there is a quick link on my charters website www.trophycharters.com to the State's Fish Ohio program. |
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| Maybe the Walleye were on fire Thursday because it was the calm before all the storms and high winds that moved into the area for Friday and Saturday resulting once again in no fishing for most everyone and shutting down the entire fleet for yet another two days. The thunderstorms and torrential rains actually started late on Thursday afternoon and carried right on thru most all of the day on Friday. Numerous very intense cells pounded the Ashtabula harbor area and boy did it put down the rain in sheets of squalls at times. It actually came down at one point so hard that it flooded the River Marine stores' floor where I am docked. I have never seen that before! And behind that line of storms was the cold front which ushered in the cooler powerful winds which shut down any thoughts of fishing on Saturday. The National Weather Service called for 5 to 9 feet! YIKES! I guess this summer's tough run of almost weekly set backs in the weather department is going to continue for a while for us. The hits just keep coming. |
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| So we are now entering the second week of August already. This coming week's weather appears to be rather tranquil for a change. Winds seem to be on the low side through out the entire period as far out as I can see at this point. Temperatures are supposedly to be in the 70’s. Perfect weather for Walleye fishing as far as I am concerned. Many years most of August meant temperatures in the 90’s. I certainly do not want any part of that! We are still departing the dock everyday till further notice around 4:00 to 4:30am at the very latest. We may be bumping that back a bit towards the end of this month as the days begin to stay dark longer and longer. A sign that summer is nearing its end. Also one thing that I’ve been meaning to mention all along but keep forgetting to do so. If you are coming up to fish from the Pittsburgh area and normally run I80 west to Rt. 11 north, the on ramp for 11 north is closed and the detour is poorly marked I guess. Please allow for some extra travel time especially if you are just coming up early in the morning the day of your trip. I always encourage everyone if at all possible to just come up the night before and make your get away that much more pleasant for yourself and not be so very rushed. Get a room and get some rest, enjoy a nice meal the night before with friends and family and show up bright and early all wide eyed for your fishing adventure! Well that’s about it for another week. Capt. Walt Trophy Charters |
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