Getting It Done
September 21, 2017
Another trip to the Raisin River yesterday ended with a trim switch and relay replacement after an issue on the water. The trim had been acting up lately and today it just stayed on, in the up position, leaving me to work on it while on the water. I managed to get it down to be able to run back to the ramp and I was quickly on my way for repairs. Intermittent problems are always difficult but they figured it out and had it fixed in a couple of hours. I also had a few adjustments done on the kicker adding to the time! The rewiring and switch change in the handle was the longest. I never knew there were so many small parts in the throttle! As always, they got me back up & running for my next outing!
Herm had drove in from upstate New York and hoping for walleye today. He fishes with me each fall for smallies but today he was looking for fish to eat. I figured this wouldn’t be a problem and we headed out before 8:00 searching for the gold!
The calm waters that we had been having lately were no longer as it was blowing 10 to 15 knots and out of the NE. This would definitely be a challenge! Usually Herm arrives with either a hurricane or rainy cold front in the late fall but today we only had the wrong wind direction. Piece of cake, or so I thought!
Our drifts over the shoals would now be against the flow and this was not going to be great for the fishing. He landed a few perch in the first 15 minutes and lost a couple of other fish that may have been walleye. We were drop shotting, but it wasn’t going great! I decided to try casting up current and bringing the rig back slowly while the boat drifted up current as well. This also didn’t work as well as I had hoped and not long after, I switched to a jig and began casting it to see what would happen. We had been marking all kinds of bait and big fish so I knew they were around. Now we just needed them to open their mouths and eat! Well on the very first cast, one of them did just that and we had a high end keeper going into the well. This was to be the start of the catching and I was glad something was finally working!
In the next three hours, we made many upstream drifts and managed to land plenty of fish. Too bad we only had a total of five in the livewell for Herm to take home. Although there were more caught, most of them were overs and released to fight another day. I decided to make a move in hopes of filling his limit!
Our next spot was a small area that had been good the last time out and I was looking for a repeat today. Unfortunately it only spit out one really good fish around 25 inches and we were headed to another place again.
This turned out to be our last stop of the day when Herm began catching both bass & walleye. He finished the limit pretty quickly and now we were culling up to better quality eyes. We stayed here for about three hours or so all the while hooking one fish after another. By the time it was all said and done, he had a great limit of Walters to bring home with him.
By moving around we were able to pick at the fish pretty good today and pound on them in our final spot. Herm had travelled far but it was worth the trip! He had a great time and landed loads of fish in the process. For a late September day, it also felt more like the end of July as the temps were in the 80’s. High humidity was also attached making it feel more like the 90’s! I guess the wrong direction wind wasn’t so bad after all as it was definitely better than no wind with these temps! Another great day for fishing!
