| EZMARC'S 2002 Fishing reports |
| January: 1st: Fished at Indian Lake through the ice with GFO'rs Corey, Tonto, Mike?, Buck and of course Chris(Spooner)and another guy that I can't remember the name of, sorry about that. Not a very good day of catching but I met Buck after hearing him and seeing him off Huron a few times. 1 small saugeye, 1 perch, a couple catfish and a White Bass was all we had to show for drilling about 50 holes. We had the IL guru showing us around and even Lucky was around for awhile(I think he left to watch the Michigan massacre). Picture 12th: Buck and I busted up the ice at the Huron ramp. Just as we got put in the wind and weather turned on us and made for a pretty miserable night of fishing.. No fish caught and no pullbacks but it was cool just getting out. 14th: I went out with Kent(Nightranger) and his dog. Kent has a propane heater on board that allowed us to fish in light clothing. We had another skunk trip though. 26th: Went out with Matt Davis, there were quite a few people out but no one caught any eyes. 27th: Me and Chris went in my boat and got zipped again. We'll keep trying though when the weather lets us. February 2002: 9th: Me and Chris went out of Huron and fished by the Castle because of dirty water everywhere else. We had at least 10 pullbacks but got nothing in the boat. We quit at dark as the wind kicked up from the NE 23rd: Chris and I fished the Kelleys area with no luck. The water was clean and lots of fish on the screen but no luck getting them going. Lots of bait! March 2002: 13th: Finally got my first fish of the year after 7 trips. Blue/silver Husky jerk in 15 feet of water by Locust Point reef. Water was dirty inside but clear out a mile or so with clean patches scattered here and ther. This fish was an oddball in that it was about 22-23 inches but weighed 6 pounds. It looked like a basketball! 29th: WOW! The wind and rain and snow finally quit. We (Me and Foots) got 2 fish NW of Middle Island on the Canadian Line (just inside). Both fish came on the small blue/silver Husky Jerks at about 1 MPH off the bottom. We spent most of the day just east of Kelley's with several other boats. We saw no other action. This was one nice day! Water temp was 34 degrees. 31st: SKUNKED AGAIN! Fished Ballast and east to Middle, around N. Bass (dirty), Rattlesnake(Dirty), then to Niagra where it was clean and busy. Saw one small eye caught all day! 9 trips 3 fish. Bad year so far! April 2002: 3rd: I got to fish with Julia (JULS) Davis in the Detroit River RCL. This was her first tourney as a Pro and my first time handlining, I thought she was great. I had a ball & I got to learn handlining the currents and even caught a few. I think we were in 71st place after the 1st day with 9+ pounds/5fish. Handlining was the mainreason I signed up for this event. So it was a perfect day. I had the rare experience of catching 2fish fish on one lure. 4th: Detroit RCL again. I fished with Keith Esbaugh, a pro out of Pennsylvania. We jigged the river and ironically that was another thing I wanted out of this event. We caught our fish fairly early and then made a run looking for bigger fish but couldn't find any willing to go. We returned to the Trenton Channel and then drifted down a ways to undisturbed water a picked up a few upgrade fish. I really enjoyed the day and am looking forward to hooking up with him again for the PWT in Port Clinton. I wish him well. He's a great guy and a good teacherwith great boat handling skills. We wound up with 5 fish and 17 pounds , which moved me into 28th place and just out of the cut. 700 Bucks came in handy plus I'm in the Championship if I want. 6th: Me and Chris fished the Niagra area for a few hours . We only picked up 2 fish, both males. 1 on a hrnes and 1 on a Reefrunner. 7th: Fished the Catawba WWA tourney with Chris. 2 fish again for 6.8 pounds and 8th place. The Sandusky Bay produced the hot bite for this event. It took over forty pound to get in the money. I won't mention that Chris was skunked both days. I think she's holding out for a Ryde-Glyde seat. 13th: Fished out by B Can and Cone reef. It was a rare day when the fish jumped in the boat. BIG fish. Top 5 weighed 51 pounds with the biggest at 10.7- 7 hours after we caught them. Everything worked stickbaits deepdivers, harnesses, etc. I fished with Eric Gahn and Bruce Below. this was Bruce's first time trolling. hope he doesn't expect all trips to be like this one was. 14th: Started out at B Can then went east to just north of Cone reef since the water had cleaned up over night. Chris was with me and was a fish hog. She got all 6 fish, weighing 9-11 pounds. All in all a very good day. People were catching more but I decided to stay with the big girls while I knew about where they were. 16 trips so far this year. Things are looking up! 20th & 21st: Fished at Mosquito Lake. this was my very first time on an Inland and was for a WWA tourney on the 21st. We caught lots and lots of fish but they were small and 14" keepers were hard to find. Finished 4th which is much better than I expected, but man it's hard to take after all those Lake Erie pigs we've gotten the last few years. Berlin will be my next inland. Next week is the RCL in Pierre, S Dakota. Should be fun and different.Trip 17 & 18 24th: Foots was looking at a new boat, so we took it out for a spin and fished the Green Island area. His depth finder pretty much sucked so we stayed around a pack thinking they might know what they were doing. Mistake! Saw one fish netted and we blanked. 19 trips. May 2002: 1-2: Fished at Lake sharpe in the RCL as a Co-angler. The first day was with Bobby Crow. Bobby started out trolling a break line at the edge of the River. Everybody I saw was using Shad Raps. We couldn't get anything going trolling so we started jigging and started picking up some fish. The slots there meant we could keep 4 fish under 18", so really hard decisions were made in trying to keep decent fish but Bobby made the right choices and we wound up in 27th for the day. the 2nd day I fished with Aaron McQuoid. We caught fish all day long jigging but never got the right ones. As it turned out if we would have kept some of the early fish we could both have moved in the standings but when we really needed just anything they shut down on us. I dropped from 27 to 99th spot. Wound up in 8th place over all for the circuit so far, but I'm dropping the rest of the circuit and am only going to do the Championship in Set. at the Mississippi River. 21 trips 4th-5th: Me and chris prefished on the 4th for the Huron WWA on the 5th. The water had been stirred up pretty good west of Huron so we stayed in the Ruggles area. Got 2 fish on Mud Minnow lures about 15 feet back under board stalling manuevers(S-turns). Sunday we tried the same program in the same spot and got one fish early and then worked that spot for about an hour and a half with no more luck. We then wasted the rest of the day by running to Kelleys and North Bass looking for biters. Shoulda stayed where we were as most people over there weren't getting them either. Lots and lots of fish are in this area now and we need stable weather to fire them up. 23 trips. 9th: Haven't been out for a while. Wind, rain and dirty water is the reason. I've got no more tourneys scheduled for a while and will miss the WWA on the 2nd due to my son's graduation. It's going to be fun fishin for a while if the weather gets better. 18th & 19th: Fished after dark at Vermilion with Chris on the 18th. This was a fun but frustrating trip a lot like the one on Feb. 9th. The fish wanted dark colored Ripsticks trolled fast in shallow water. Chris had weight on at least7 times and numerous other boards go. Never got one in the boat though. The fish wouldn't touch a lure except on mono. I thought it was just my side syndrome again but when I put a mono line out my side I was getting action too. Go figure! Sunday we perch fished out of Lorain. We only got 30+ fish and only tried for eyes late in the day for a 1/2 hour or so. This coming week ought to fire them up again as we have some decent weather coming our way. 25 trips 23rd: Fished the evening bite at Vermilion. Man there was a lot of boats out off Sherrod Park. We fished west of there and got a couple but it was slow and no big ones. Best was about 4 pounds. 26 trips 26th, 27th & 28th: fished with the GFO guys and gals in their perch outing off the chagrin river on Saturday. Me and chris got lucky and found some nice fish out in deep water (50') after the fish had been in closer for the last week or so. We got our limit but had to work at it. The fish at the end of the day were big. All 12" plus. We had a great feed after fishing and good company. Thanks TPET for all the hard work. Sunday me and Chris fished the Vermilion area for walleye. It was a slow day and not much action, especially for Chris, all the action was on my side for a change. We got into them fast and furious at about 6 PM in 32' of water and then ran out of gas in the kicker and had dead electric motor batteries. Oh Well..... Monday was a Holiday and I fished for a couple hours with Foots west of W. Sister Island. I don't know what possessed him but he decided to troll right thru a huge pack of boats and then B&M the whole way thru. We got ZIP. 29 trips June 2002: 1st and 2nd: Saturday the 1st me and Chris fished the Vermilion area starting about noon. We only got 1 6 pounder despite beating the water hard all day. sunday the 2nd we opted for numbers instead of size and fished the area between B Can and west Sister Island. It turned out to be a pretty good move, Most of the fish came on a 3/4 ounce flipping harness style rig with a small gold spinner 75' back. Speed changes both up and down seemed to trigger hits. Got 9 in the 1st 45 minutes then went stale and it took another 2 hours to finish our limits. 31 trips 15th: Me and Chris fished the Kar-Kare tourney out of Paradise Acres campground. We fished it twice last year. What a great little tourney with lots of good people and a great feed afterwards. the high light was winning about $900 between the 2 of us for 1st and sencend place with a 25 3/4 and a 24" The fish were caught trolling 3/4 ounceHawg harnesses 90-100 feet back in 30-36 feet of water. Half a worm was the clencher, more and they just pulled it off and less they wouldn't hit. We had to come in with some 7' footers rolling over on us. Nasty day! 10 fish with most in the 21" range. 32 trips 20th and 21st: I fished alone on Thursday afternoon cause of short notice. I found fish at Kelleys but they were small, some were extremely small, like 8". Big dipseys and copper spoons worked great but they had to be fast (2.5+). I can't remember ever catching those little guys at that speed before. Caught 7 keepers and zillions of Sheephead. Friday the 21st, I fished with Charlie Peck off of Huron. Lots of sheephead and White bass again but we also got lots of Walleye. 18-21 was the rule but we did get 2 of them at about 25". Quit early to take care of the banks and to rest up a little before the tourney on Saturday. 34 trips. 22nd & 23rd: Saturday me, Foots and Charlie fished off Vermilion. I had noticed larger marks the day before and figured the bigger fish were in deeper water. It was a good move as we picked up 2 over 27" and a bunch in the 21-25" range. We won the tourney we were in rather decisively. It was a fun day with lots of fish cvaught. We went thru about 11 dozen worms. Sunday the 23rd: Me and Chris went fun fishing in the same area I fished the day before. It was hot, humid and the flies were biting better than the fish but we managed to get our limit. Water temps went up 9 degrees since Friday and mayfly carcasses were showing up in larger numbers. The bite was on meat all weekend but I experimented with a spoon and dipsey for a while and picked up 2 fish that way also. The dipsy bite should take off real soon. Fairport is next up! 36 trips 28th & 29th: Friday, prefished off Fairport in 68-70' of water for the FHRRA tourney . Great day, got a late start but put fish in the boat all day long with an hour and a half dead spell about 1:30 in the afternoon. I got 1 32"'r in the boat and Chris turned in a 29" for a FO. Meat and large gold spinners brought in most of the big fish and smalll gold spinners were catching the smaller 20" fish. Saturday was a different story. We fished the same area and the fishing slowed down on us. We stuck with the program though and landed 1 30" (picture) plus fish and a 30" steelie (picture) plus a bunch of 20 inchers. on the same program as Friday. We lost 2 big eyes at the dreaded 30' head shake stage that probably would have earned as a few hundred more in winnings. As it turned out we got 5th place/ long walleye/long steelhead for a $422.00 check. I'm getting used to this winning stuff this makes 3 weeks in a row now getting in the winners circle. We're having fun! 38 trips July 2002: 7th: Me and Chris went out of Lorain. I experimented with lead core and dipsy's plus I messed with a hillbilly looking welding wire rig that charlie Peck introduced me to. We did catch and release on all the fish we caught as the frezer has plenty and i didn't want to deal with cleaning them. Caught about 10-15 fish but the bugs were terrible and as bad as I can remember seeing them. 39 trips 9th: Went out smallie fishing with Raybob, Skipnskul, Buck, Scoutin Sam on rodbenders boat. It was a fun trip with noone real serious about catching . We boated some smallies but overall it was a slow day but great cool weather without too many bugs. 40 trips 12th, 13th & 14th: Dunkirk New York American/New York Walleye Association tourny for 3 days. Great summer time fishery. From my research it appears this is where the older walleye spend there summers. We prefished Friday and got several 5 pounders and then lucked into a 8-9 and decided to fish the first day of the tourny in that area. We pulled 2 fish all day long and lost another but with about 1 1/2 hours left made a move about 7 miles away which turned into a good decision. We popped 2 in about 45 minutes of fishing that gave us 23.8 for the day but left us out of the running unless we could pull about 60 pounds the 2nd day. The second day we went right back and pulled 4 more fish with a much better average weight for 30+ pounds but we still couldn't keep them going and never lost a fish. Great place to fish, beautiful weather and a well run tournament after some initial rules controversy. 43 trips 18th, 19th,20th,21st: We went up early for the Geneva WWA tourney. The first night there we fished close to Geneva in the less than 40' range with nothinbg to show for it except sheephead and white perch and a couple rather nice yellow perch. Friday we tried the less than 60' depths from Geneva all the way to Astabula, we caught Sheephead like crazy and several nice perch but no eyes in the boat although we did connect with a couple. Saturday we got serious about making a run for them and launched at Ashtabula to be closer to the reported catches going on. By the time we trailered over there ramped the boat and made that incredibly long idle to the lake we found it would have been better to just launch at Geneva and make the run by boat. We did connect with some nice fish though and did a lot of roaming and searching for the next day tourney. Sunday we launched with the rest of the guys and made the shorter run to Ashtabula in relatively light waves. Right of the bat Chris pulled 2 small 2 pounders and then I picked up a 9+ fish on lead core and Renosky. I missed a couple then Chris popped a 5 pounder and another 2 pounder which gave us our tourney limit. In the meantime I was losing nice fish on the lead core and dipsey. We made a 13 mile run north to an area of nice fish at noon to try and upgrade with no luck at all. Time was running short and we started our almost 30 mile run back to Geneva with a short helter skelter stop about half way in where we lucked out with another 8+ pounder and then making it right before the bell. 3rd place $298 check 5 fish weighed 26.9 pounds total and the Geneva hex is finally over. 47 trips 27th & 28th: Tim Joseph (Toolman) tagged along with me and Chris on a spur of the moment Saginaw Bay trip. None of us had ever been there before and it was a learning experience for us. We started out the trip like typical tourists and fished in the area of other boats. That didn't work so we drove around for a while punching in icons in favorable looking locations and then made a long run north of the Charitys.No walleyes a few catfish, sheephead and perch and a long run back in pretty choppy water. Sunday we were on a short schedule and ramped further south in the bay. We fished the 18 to 20 foot water in one long troll and picked up 1 fish on a 3 way spoon combo. It was fun fishing with Tim but the weather really sucked with lots of thunder and a spectacular light show on Saturday night. Picture 49 trips |
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