With so many fish locally around the sandbar and avon lake, it has been hard not to stay local and keep fishing those fish, even be that they are smaller fish. However, I had a birthday gift charter with some of the neighborhood kids the other day, and we decided to take the trip out to Astubula in search of some of the bigger migratory walleyes out East, boy were we rewarded…
We fished with in a 2 mile radius of the 10 45, and absolutely smoked em! Within 3 hours, we had 18 fish in the boat, and had to release another 2 we caught while clearing the lines. The thing that made it so great was the grade of fish, all between 6-9lbs. I think the highlight of the day was a triple we hooked into, where we landed all 3 fish, all being 8+ lbs. The program was simple, #3 setting dipsys, 100 back, chartreuse or pink colorado blades, 1.6mph. The 100 back on boards with a 3 oz weight also worked well. It is classic thermocline fishing, as the fish are set up between 38-44 feet down, just above a thermocline at 45 feet. The Lowrance HDS Gen 2 tells you exactly where the thermocline is, and its on!
After driving all the way out there, and making the long boat run, we didn’t want to keep fishing for walleye after a limit, as it is tough on the fish to release them after being pulled from 45′ down, and in 78 degree water, but we didn’t want to quit fishing either, so we put away the trolling gear, got out the drop shotting rigs, and decided to target some bronze backs.
I moved into the 20-35 foot of water range, and turned on my structure scan to being scanning for any rock piles or structure that might hold some smallies. Our first spot was a rocky ledge from 30-35 feet just east of the river that had some decent marks on it. After a short pass through and no results, I moved in closer and found the intake water pipe for the powerplant that runs in from 25 feet of water into the shoreline. Using my Lowrance structure scan and bow mount Terrova, I slowly hovered along the pipe and BOOM! a nice smallie cracked one of the kids plastic gobies on a drop shot rig. It was the biggest smallie of his life, what a thrill. We hooked a few more, and decided to call it a day and head back to clean some fish. What a great day! Bula we’ll be back!
I have been super busy, as this charter was a few days ago, and since then, I have been finalizing my wedding plans for September 8th with Julia, and packing for Alaska. That’s why I am a little late writing this blog as I sit here in the Anchorage airport waiting for Julia to get in on her flight (I took a FedEx flight through the night that she isn’t aloud to ride on, airline privileges!). I am smiling, because I just can’t wait to show Julia this place that has meant so much to me and taught me so much. For the next 5 days, I get to show the love of my life the greatest fishery on earth, what else could a guy ask for?? She’ll be headed home on the 20th, and I will stay up here another 2 weeks guiding until Sept 1st, and then be home for the wedding on Sept 8th. Exciting times! Here are some pics from the charter out of Astubula…
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