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Walleye 101 "Spring Fling" April 26-29, 2007

Lake Erie, Port Clinton, Ohio

The second annual "Spring Fling" Trophy Hunt in Port Clinton, Ohio proved once again that Lake Erie is the walleye capital of the world!  Our first trip at the Microtel Inn at Huron, Ohio was the largest group to date ever to attend a Trophy Hunt with 76 anglers, with about 25 being first timers, heading out each day to look for Erie gold.  We were joined by 2 gentlemen from Tennessee, who easily win the "farthest away" award for a Trophy Hunt!

Compared to the 2006 Spring trip this year was a little tougher.  Warmer water temps and dirty water had moved fish past the Bass Islands to areas north and east of last years hot spots.  The West and North side of Kelley's Island, the Northeast side of North Bass Island and the Southwest corner of Middle Island were this years best spots.

Crawler harnesses were definitely the presentation of choice and speeds around 1.0 - 1.5 mph seemed to be working the best.  Both inline weights ran close to the bottom and bottom bouncers caught lots of fish every day.

Day 1 saw the worst weather of the weekend with a good overnight blow staying through most of the day.  2-4' waves greeted the anglers as they left the launches late in the morning.  Those who went out had decent fishing with most boats catching 6-8 fish, with a total of 160 fish brought to the net.  But it soon became apparent that some boats, especially Bob Sallee and Ron Foss aboard "Bird Dog" were on the fish big time!  They landed over 30 walleye and boated big fish of the day and the week with a beauty closing in on 10 lbs!  They were fishing an area we call "The Abyss"-a deep water area between North Bass and Middle Island that is known for big spring walleye.  Bob and Ron were in the spirit of Walleye101 as they shared their spots and methods with the group that evening.  Another large pod of fish had been located on the Northwest side of Kelley's Island, and although the fish were in the 3-6lb range, there were lots of them to be caught.

Day 2 saw the weather cooperate a little but there was still a little chop greeting the anglers in the morning.  The wind had shifted to a better direction and the sun even made an appearance throughout the day.  Thanks to "Bird Dog" sharing his key location, the radio was alive with reports of better catches.  At the end of the day 354 walleye were boated with no boats catching less than 4 legal fish.  Many boats caught their limit of 4 fish per angler and were throwing fish back for most of the day!  The Jirel gang along with Steve Browning netted the big fish Day 2 with another fish pushing up towards the 10 lb mark.  At the end of the day everyone was ready for the fish fry and a good night's sleep.

Day 3 was the best weather day of the weekend with a slight breeze and sunny skies.  Most everyone headed out in the morning for one last day of fishing.  From the radio chatter it seemed that fishing was even better then it had been on Day 2.  The final tally for the day was around 300 fish and most anglers were done fishing and on the way home by 2 pm. 

All in all it was another great Trophy Hunt on Lake Erie.  A special thanks goes out to Andrea and the staff at Microtel.  They did a wonderful hosting their first Trophy Hunt and the accommodations were second to none.  Matt Bouza, Mark Van Kampen and their crew of Mike Hengstebeck and Rob Bernheitel took care of the fish cleaning area and disposing of the fish carcasses.  This was a thankless job-all done behind the scenes-without which this trip could not have happened.  Also a big thank you to the fish fry crew for another great meal!  Rocco Papandrea from Bio-Kleen joined us for the weekend of fishing and was kind enough to donate some great prizes for the Saturday night raffle.

(click on a picture to enlarge)