An Outdoorsman's Journal

High Seas Walleye Trip

Hello friends,

   I am about to write about a can't miss annual trip for myself, that I use to do alone either in my canoe or one of my boats. Last year my old buddy Doug Cibulka joined me and this year Doug along with my really old buddy, Jeff Moll joined the party along with my golden retriever Red and we had about as much fun as is possible for 3 rednecks from the class of ‘79 and ‘80.

   Tuesday, May 19th
   High 60, low 35

   We would be camping at a county park in Oconto County that is right on the bay, it would be quite windy all 3 days and a major cold spell would hit that would slow down the fish catching, kindof. Jeff had things to do this afternoon so Doug and I would have 4 daylight hours to troll with either my electric motor or sometimes with my 90hsp Etec which pushes my 18.6 War Eagle. The War Eagle is humongous on the floor space but is low in the bow and stern and has an ability to have waves go over the hull, a good bilge pump is a must.
   Long story short, 4 hours of pulling night crawler harnesses, 1 hit and that would be a beautiful 23-inch walleye just before dark.

   Wednesday, May 20th
   High 54, low 34

   A cold north/northeast wind would make boat handling and running planer boards a challenge, I always tell the guys, fall in the boat, not out. The Three Musketeers fished for 5 hours and caught nothing, then a perch was caught that would win Mr. Walters the big perch bet for the trip, yay me! I came up with an idea of a way that I have fished in the past and that was to drift without being pushed by a motor and just control the angle of the boat with the electric motor. We ran 5 planer boards and one line without. The wind had become quite a challenge and we were taking on water about every 4th wave.
   Good news came our way when my rod without a planer board started bending that was signaling a fish had been fooled into thinking I would let it go if I caught it trying to steal my crawler. A beautiful 23-inch walleye was allowed to swim free in my live well and just like that two things happened at 4:00 in the afternoon. First, believe it or not, both Moll and Cibulka caught a walleye, 2nd and not near as unusual as my buddies catching a fish, every wave was coming over the bow and we had to quit for the day.

   Thursday, May 21st
   High 52, low 32

   If you were not wearing long johns in the boat this morning, you were cold. I think it is safe to admit that yesterday we figured out how to catch cold front walleye. Today we started out slow but steady, the wind was out of the north and pushed us along fast, yet slow enough to have the crawler harnesses do their magic. The waves are a constant and you can fall, especially during our 3-man circus of landing a fish and pulling boards.
   Early in the day Jeff and I had our first double, Jeff's fish was a 14-pound flathead catfish, mine was a 22-inch walleye. By noon we had 3 walleye in the well but it was slow going. About 3, it must have become dinnertime as we slowly but steadily started catching walleye and it was really, really fun.
   About an hour before dark Jeff Moll caught walleye number 15 and we had us a limit. We had to make the ride real slow back to camp or sink. We filleted our walleye and then had us a "LIMIT PARTY" while Mr. Moll cooked us some real fine pork chops.
   If that is not enough to make for a perfect few days, Red looked pretty interested in a male/neutered dog at camp and the day after I made it home, Red and Max decided they were in love. Around July 23rd there might be a litter of golden retriever pups. Let me know if you are interested, exceptional genetics and temperament.

   Sunset