Best Laid Plans of Mice and Fishermen.... 3/17/17

I picked up Grant, his Dad Jamie, and Phillip at their hotel at 6:30, so we could launch by 7am at Catawba. There was a group of 6 men, and as you all know, I only take 3, so they had a second boat with them.

They needed to stop and gas it up first, so we stopped off at the Speedway, so they could do so. No problem....we still made it down to Catawba with time to spare.

As I unhooked the boat, put my antenna up, unstrapped the port side, put the kicker up, unstrapped the starboard side, I reached up to trim up the G2, and......nothing.  Uh oh....what the heck?  Tried the trim at the throttle and nothing...but, it was cycling the motor and little computer thingy on the dash, so I knew it was getting power.  "This is not good", I thought.

I called "Dubbert's Marine Service" in town, but it was only 7am, and I know they don't open until 8am, but Dawn was in early and answered the phone. I told her what was going on, and she offered to have the guys come down to Catawba to help when they got in.  But, instead of waiting, I drove the boat over to them, so when they got in, it would go faster.

I was just hoping that it was something easy.....and, it was.  All it was was a ground wire in the trim relay that needed to be tightened down...whew!

Okay, so now we're an hour and a half late from starting. But, it was a beautiful morning, so that made things easier.

We were headed to the north side of Big Pickerel, and showed up there around 9am. Kevin had 6 in the box by the time we even showed up up there. We caught a  nice 7 1/2 pound walleye within the first 15 minutes of setting up, and thought it was going to be a great "catching day".  Well, it was for others, but not for us apparently.  We would go for a couple more hours with nothing, even though we were running the same program as my friends who were in the same area....(palm to forehead)  I wasn't marking anything on the Helix either, so I was having a hard time staying there, even though others were catching.  (In hindsight, I should have just stayed there all day) But, nooooo....I got impatient again. lol

I made a  move down to Niagra to check the water clarity and fish marks. The marks were better on the SE side of the reef, but the water was much more stained than on the north side of it. I could just make out the cavitation plate.

We did have better marks on the SE side though, so I thought setting up on the SE side and working my way north would be a good plan. We went from the SE corner of Niagara Reef to the north, but the marks were showing up less and less, so not such a good plan....deep sigh. "Just shoot me...shoot me now", I thought to myself. lol

We decided to go back to the first spot and try again. We picked up two more fish, but they were far and few between.  I don't know what was wrong with me yesterday, but whatever I was doing, it never felt "right"....my confidence was slim to none yesterday, I think.

Thank God, these guys were "happy people", because they sure made my miserable day an easier one. And, they really liked my brownies, so that made me happy. :)

We were doing an 8 hour day, so with three hours left, we headed over to North Bass area, and made a pass. Again, I wasn't marking anything up on West Reef, so we made one short pass and headed down to D, E, and F cans to check things out in case we needed a closer area for todays east wind conditions.  Again, in hindsight, I probably should have joined the group of boats fishing between Rattle Snake, Sugar, and North Bass, but again, my mind wasn't right yesterday, and I didn't go in there.

We set up between F and E cans and headed to F can. Fish marks were plentiful on the Helix, in the right zone, so I felt confident that we would pick up a few more fish. I was wrong.....ugh....nothing in the last two hours. Was it the east wind that started up? Or, was I just cursed yesterday? Who knows...(shaking my head).

I hate those kinds of days, but I now they happen. I've had days where I was the one catching and my friends were struggling, so I know sometimes it's just the way it goes. I've always said, "I would rather be lucky than good".  But, yesterday, luck sure wasn't on my side, and I wasn't very good either! ;)

Today, (Tuesday), I would have taken the other three guys that were in the other boat, and my guys would take the other boat. However, with stronger east winds forecast, they decided to head home this morning instead. I can't blame them.

They did say, however, that they learned a ton about how to run Off Shore boards, and would like to come back at a later date this summer, when the weather was more stable, so I guess they still enjoyed the whacky trip. lol

My regular customers for tomorrow, (Wednesday), are waiting for a weather report tonight, before I go to bed, to decide if we will go or not.  They are forecasting rain and thunderstorms for the AM tomorrow, with gusty south winds. So, we'll see....

Stay tuned...

Capt Juls