Friday, June 15, 2012

Fort Erie Walleye-ndas, June 15, 2012

Driving home from work at 4:00 pm from downtown Hamilton was met a abnormally higher amount of traffic on the QEW Niagara bound. Watching the clock at every minute and feeling like I was moving an inch each minute, was enough to bring my blood pressure up. I had plans to meet up with Mark Penner and fish in his boat “Freetime”, along with my son Aidan for an evening into night fish out of Fort Erie.

Then it dawned on me, “The Flying Wallendas” with an estimated 120,000 spectators making there way to Niagara Falls watch the tight rope walker, cross the brink and gorge of Niagara Falls from New York to Tablerock, Niagara falls, Ontario. It was the talk of the week but the reality had set when faced with the traffic situation.

After dropping off three reels to be spooled with fresh line at Grimsby Tackle, then get home to pick-up Aidan, put gas in the car, grab a bite to eat through the drive-through and finally make my way to Thorold in slow moving traffic, it was 5:20 arrival at Mark’s house. He was anxious to go, and I was sorry for the delay. But we hopped on the highway again going Fort Erie Bound and made it to the Nicholls ramp by 6:00 pm. We launched and made our way out into the lake pointed in the direction of a waypoint Mark was given.

We stopped short of the waypoint and the lake was flat without a ripple. Mark shutdown the outboard engine, put down the bowmount electric trolling motor and put it to 90% which moved us between 1.6 and 1.8 mph. First rod out was Mark’s worm harness with Pink/chartrous blades and beads. It was put behind a 20 TripZ and was let out 120 feet before clipping it onto a Mr Walleye Board and then out to the side.

We were nearly ready to deploy our second rod when the first line started pulling a loose drag. The board was heavy and started bobbing like a big red and white bobber on the flat lake and sinking while being pulled back. Mark brings the first fish in, a Walleye about 2 lbs. Broke the ice early.

That line when back out, and another three lines were put out when his rod went off again. Another walleye comes to the net, identical in size to the first one. Before letting out another line, we pulled the 5 colour leadcore that was running close to the bottom, and replaced it with another 20 TripZ out 130 ft and onto a Mr Walleye inline planerboard. We matched the colours with the first harness with Yeck blades. Aidan has been helping make worm ha rnesses and he was excited to try some of his creations. It was only minutes of being in the water when Aidan’s Worm harness gets bit and Aidan was on the rod pulling in a nice walleye at 4 lbs 11 oz. which was the largest of the night.

From Misc

Aidan was busy playing with the worms, singing them songs that entertained Mark and I for a hour or so as the sun was going down. The wind came up out of the east and the electric trolling motor wasn’t effective enough at maintaining our preferred speed of over 1.5 mph. So the outboard was started again and a drift sock off the bow cleat was tossed in the water to slow our troll.

From Misc

Dusk was upon us and we were nearly ready to pick-up and run to shallow water to start a minnow bait troll closer to the river. As we pulled lines, the one board was very heavy. Mark brought in another walleye at around 2 lbs while Aidan was curled up at the front of the boat falling asleep.

We clearer the lines and ran to Rosey’s Reef and trolled water between 14 and 20 ft. The darkness had set in and we tried our luck all along the drop off without a fish. But we enjoyed fireworks set off somewhere in Buffalo that was spectacular from the water. We also commented that Wallenda would be walking across the gorge when we looked at the time reading 10:15pm. Wondering if he took off his safety tether line and if he was successfully ma king it over the falls.

From Misc

We pulled lines at 10:45 and had the boat back on the trailer for 11:00 pm to hear the report on the radio and a recorded interview with Wallenda that successfully made it across the falls. Wallenda was a success and our catch of Fort Erie Walleye 18 miles away was also a success. Walleye-ndas!

Shane Thombs www.FINtasticcportfishing.com

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