Lake Erie, BLACKTOP CHARTERS, Walleye Report, 13&14 June 2015

[Dog]

Friday June 12th

Guns, Flag, Dog and the Walleye Rookie rdvz’d at the Lakehouse in North Springfield, PA… We arrived in time to enjoy an Aunt Em feast, some great family hospitality, and soak in a glowing lake Erie sunset from their back yard which overlooks the lake.

Saturday June 13th

After a short night’s rest, the daily eye-lid inspection ended at 0430 so we could get to the dock by 0515. Eric met us there coming off of shift to make 5 total in our group.

The fog was thick departing the dock, but despite the limited visibility, Capn Ken and Blacktop got us westward with no issues. Once on station, Doug got to work getting the lines in the water with his usual efficiency.

Visibility increased but the weather forecast still looked less than ideal with winds out the east-north-east, a slightly dropping barometer and sporadic rain showers throughout the day. None of that mattered to us, as I lay there looking up at the sky while the lines were getting deployed, all we saw was, mostly cloudy with a 80% chance of Walleye in the forecast!


The Walleye Rookie was first up on the reel, coming all the way from the sunshine state for the weekend, he boated this as the first walleye of his life!


Eric was next up and after a short battle in the rain,

followed up with this walleye…


Dog landed a non-walleye species and then flag was up…

Not to be outdone by the Rookie, Flag boated this behometh!


The Walleye Rookie answered Flag's catch with the largest walleye of the trip... this bad boy!


Back to the dock we went and Ken and Doug broke out the fillet knives …



full service!
Today we left the dock with 3 huge bags of wild-caught, walleye fillets and had an absolute blast!
[Pictures were limited this first day due to no one wanting to get their camera/phones wet. Despite less than ideal weather conditions, thanks to Capn Ken and Doug persistence and professionalism, we were still able to catch 13 and boat 12 walleyes (1 spitter before it got close enough to net) on this day while other charters were having results more in line with the weather… ]

Following the catch-fest, we went up the street to the Upick 6 Taphouse for a late afternoon lunch and beer tasting which was just as good as last year. Then it was back to the Lakehouse to regroup and get rested up to do it all over again tomorrow.

Sunday June 14th

Same early departure as yesterday with slightly better weather conditions (but far from ideal), the lake was calmer and the winds shifted from out of the south, south west, but the rain and clouds came in spurts today (is it raining?) but the fishing forecast looked promising with partly sunny (at times) and 95% chance of walleye conditions…


Today saw us back to grind it out in the same general area we fished yesterday as there was no reason to expect better results anywhere else (e.g. never leave fun to find fun).
With improving weather, we were hoping the catching results would follow suit and we were not disappointed…
We started the day with a triple header,


then flag pulled in a nice one while Capn Ken dropped in to photo bomb…


Guns got in on the action…


And then the Walleye Rookie caught a nice smallmouth bass…


Flag and dog got a double header going, neither were species worth keeping but fun to fight with nonetheless…


Dog working hard at watching the rod tips for a bite while enjoying the late morning sunshine…


Guns took 30 minutes to land this catfish which was a heck of an ordeal… he learned a new landing technique called the “Copper Walk” and was so spent by the time Doug landed the fish he decided not even to hold it for a picture.


Eric and Dog got a double header going in a torrential downpour and boated a few more edibles for the kill box…


Guns and Flag got a Double going…


Then Dog Landed a final walleye for the box…


Before a closing shot out on the water…

From Left to Right: Guns, Flag, Orange (The fisherman formerly known as Walleye Rookie), Dog, and Eric (what's up with no handle for this guy?!)

We headed back to the dock and in the harbor we did a port to port pass with this bad boy…


With lines tied up, it was time for the kill shot with some of our catch …



Today we boated 18 walleyes and left the dock with another 4 huge bags of fresh fillets.

In total for both days we caught 30 walleyes and 4 other species in various quantities that we didn’t keep (1 catfish, 2 smallies, a few silver bass, and several thousand sheephead). Needless to say, the action was steady despite less than ideal weather conditions.

We all headed our separate ways after another great weekend on lake Erie with Capn Ken and Doug of Blacktop Charters.
Flag, Dog, and “Orange”, formerly known as the Walleye Rookie, baked up some of the walleye on Sunday night once back in the Burgh n’at for dinner, amazingly fresh and flaky walleye!

Closing Thoughts

Captain Ken and 1st Doug (who also has his Captain license) operate a 5-Star charter service with BLACKTOP.
If you’re looking for a catching charter on Lake Erie, BLACKTOP should be your first call!
We’ll be going back next year for walleye again and maybe also give Lake Trout a try since the Laker season was so good this year!

[SgtCrabby]

Nice trip. Thanks.
But did you leave any fish in the lake for next year?

I presume you rendered the appropriate salute when you passed the Niagara port to port.

[Jay Thomas]

Nice trip report Nate. Thanks for sharing.

Jay

[johnny walleye]

yes nice trip report

[Oarin]

Thanks Nate ! I grew up in Tonawanda, not far from the Niagara River and Lake Erie. When I was a kid the River and Lake were pretty much dead from all the pollution from Hooker Chemical and other plants. There were days when parts of the River actually would run in different colors, depending on what color paper the International Paper Plant was running that day!! It's really nice to see how far back it has come. My Dad used to tell me how great the fishing was when he was a kid back in the early 1900's. Some day I hope to give a trip a try.

[Fort Wisers]

As usual Nate, great report......

[600 miles north]

     Great pics and report as always Nate! Wish I would have been able to make the trip with you guys! Turns out we made a spur of the moment trip to the outer banks of North Carolina this past week that the kids were excited to go do, and the wedding I told you about is in two weeks... someone had it marked on the calendar wrong, originally.

     That had to be cool passing Black Beard in the harbor there  . What a nice looking ship that was!

Brad

[getthenet]

Sweet !!!

[Dog]

Nice trip. Thanks.
But did you leave any fish in the lake for next year?

I presume you rendered the appropriate salute when you passed the Niagara port to port.

@SgtCrabby
there's over 20 million walleye in lake erie and over 100 million perch at last study report, so it's an awesome fishery!
No honors rendered but yes, it was neat to watch steam by under it's own power!

@600 miles north brad no worries, there's plenty of time...

Lastly, if anyone wants to organize a forum charter trip with Blacktop, I'd be in for one day.
5 people is ideal so that brings to the cost per man to $150 (plus tip for the 1st mate) which in my eyes can't be beat. All you have to do is show up and catch walleye and leave with a bunch of fillets. Think of it as grocery shopping while drinking a few beers:-)

[RHYBAK]

Dog

I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to depart and am very glad to have found your walleye report.
It will keep me going during this boring Alaskan cruise

[Dog]

Dog

I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to depart and am very glad to have found your walleye report.
It will keep me going during this boring Alaskan cruise

Did you pack your collapsable pole so you can troll off the fantail at night? haha