Headed out of Erieau yesterday morning. Primary intention was to stir up some rainbows with a helping of walleye on the side.
Got to the launch by 645. Dead calm (Windy was correct)....and while it was only 17 now, it was gonna be a cooker today. Set up and headed out. Plan, based on intel, was to get to 56-ish...and run spoons to try find bows. Later in the morn, turn to harnesses and 'finish' the limit on walleye (he says, hopefully). Crystal clear water....CRYSTAL clear. Nothing ever like this at Burwell or Bruce. I went straight out of the harbour....between the islands. Going over the rocky shoal (10'dpw) just on the edge of the harbour, I watched several big walleye cruising the rocks...and sheephead.
Went straight out/south to 45dpw before setting up. There were large pods of boats, both the east and west of the port...and a couple WAY out south.....none straight out with me in the 45-60dpw. Set the jets (30 and 20) and spoons and started running. Marking fish constantly, I was soon into my first sheephead of the 20 and purple mini-streak. Ran straight out to 58-59....and decided to turn toward the pod to the west. The 20 purple lure paint stripped off...so changed to a purple spotted mini-streak. It immediately caught a silver bass. The 30 with a green/red/black spot (not a mini-streak) was silent so changed it to watermelon of the same type (blunt nosed spoon style). Near immediately, I hook and land my first walleye on the 30....a nice 4#-ish fish.
So, ran basically parallel to shore in the 58-59...running towards either pod of boats east and west but never meeting them. The odd time, a boat would break from those pods and come through 'my' area....but none stayed. I continued to run back and forth and was constantly fighting fish of some species...EXCEPT rainbows.
With the sun high....and 4 chunky walleye on the stringer...and me MILES off shore (still dead straight out of the port).....I decide to put the harnesses on and do the slow, long run back to port. That and the stringer of fish at my side were making it hard maintain spoon speed so changing to harnesses would be easier to run.
Soon, each harness gets hits....big sheephead, then silver bass. Then....pink panty harness goes off hard.....and I think...big sheep. I grab up the rod and bear down....then see the other rod (purple haze harness) go off also....DOUBLE HEADER! Real (no pun intended) good fight and surprised to see a big walleye...maybe pushing 6+#...and it comes to net. Grab up the other rod and happy to see I am still into that fish. Shorter fight later...3#ish walleye! Awesome...and my limit is done! My biggest and smallest walleye of the day....came as a double header on harnesses.
All in all...landed 12 sheephead, 6 silver bass and 6 walleye; 5 of which are over 4 pounds and at least 1 over 5. I lost several fish in fight and double that in in hit and runs. Watermelon was the primary hit though the Nascar mini-streak (where I ended up) was constant. All species hit all colours. My plan was near perfect EXCEPT that no bows wanted to play.
King Joe, Outa Here!
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