“I
said I didn't have much use for one. Didn't say I didn't know how to
use it.” Tom
Selleck as Matthew Quigley, “Quigley Down Under”
PORT CLINTON – As
40th anniversary parties go the Lake Erie Shores and
Islands and the Ohio Division of Wildlife really knew how to throw a good bash.
Party favors for the
four-decades-old Governor’s Fish Ohio Day event included these
really cool soup-size embossed mugs, the traditional assortment of
(your choice) Fish Ohio Day hats or sun visors, and most useful of
all, Fish Ohio Day towels that can be clipped on a belt. If I were to
wear a belt but I don suspenders. Don’t ask; it’s a fat, crippled
old man’s thing.
Anyway, the towel
was not of much good, at least not on the Lake Erie Charter Boat
Association volunteer vessel I was assigned to anyway. For the second
consecutive outing I had been assigned to this same boat and for the
second consecutive outing the results had the same dismally
disappointing outcome; namely lots of fishing but little catching.
And no less in the
fabled Lake Erie Western Basin where promotional fluff by the
outdoors media, tourism folk and fisheries experts alike pretty much
say you don’t even need a fishing pole with the walleye practically
jumping into the boat all on their own.
Well, they didn’t
on my Fish Ohio Day trip, a fact I had foreseen. I even cautioned a
newbie Fish Ohio participant against going on any boat to which I was
assigned. A smart warning given that our boat landed just eight
walleye.
There is not much of
a point to simmer the stew pot too much as to the whys I believe the
four guests and the boat operator (I still hesitate to use the word
“captain” or “guide” here) did so poorly. Suffice to say,
many who know my angling preferences are aware of my general lack of
enthusiasm for Lake Erie angling in general and fishing for its
walleye in particular. I much prefer streams for hunting steelhead
and trout or else farm ponds and lakes for searching out bass and
panfish. Lake Erie is often enough a dull place to fish and the
walleye is - also often enough - a dull fish to fish for.
The way I saw it,
the boat operator simply didn’t adapt to the challenges, failing to
adjust the kind of bait-tossing gear the guests were handed. Just as
bad in my opinion was when we trolled, the boat speed was not dialed
back from 2.4-2.5 miles per hour – which is great if you are after
salmon but terribly quick by at least one-half mile per hour if it’s
walleye you are seeking.
It’s sort of like
that lead-in quote said by Tom Selleck in his best-ever role, Matthew
Quigley. I don’t do much Lake Erie walleye fishing but when I do,
it’s with an eye toward observation.
Of course, other
volunteer charter captains did better. I heard several did much
better, in fact. The boat that outdoors writer Steve Pollick was
aboard managed to wade through 75 fish in order to secure its limit
of fish, for example.
Anyway, those
personal appraisals aside, the trip got me to thinking. Lake Erie is
rightfully called “The Walleye Capital Of The World.” I harbor no
ill thoughts against that title which was coined during the
first-ever Fish Ohio Day by then-governor James A Rhodes. And six
Ohio governors later the case for that claim remains solid and
indisputable.
Nor can I fault the
western end of Lake Erie for attempting to place on its head the
title’s crown.
Only it’s not, and
not by a long shot. Fact is, after observing for more than 40 years
the fishing techniques of professional and non-professional anglers
alike in both the lake’s Western Basin and Central Basin, I have
come to believe that the latter are better at the game.
For starters, they
are quicker to learn from others. When in the late 1980s an early
1990s the Central Basin played host to a series of professional
walleye contests the anglers here more readily adopted and then
amended their techniques.
The same goes for
their equipment as well. Central Basin fishers soon learned that
in-line planer boards are sometimes better than the outrigger styles,
the former allowing a boat to swerve rapidly back into a small pod of
fish. They also began tooling with Jet and directional divers
earlier, experimenting with downriggers and heaven knows what else.
For any number of
them – not all, of course, but for the smart ones in the Central
Basin – fishing became as much (or more) of an educational
challenge than one of simply catching walleye.
They also hooked on
to night walleye fishing, starting at the western fringe of the
Central Basin and working east. Admittedly, most late-season Central
Basin walleye hunters have not gotten it into their heads yet that
the night bite can be just as good off the Chagrin and Grand rivers
as it is off Cleveland. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before
they figure that one out on their own or via social media.
The Ohio Department
of Natural Resources is equal in sharing blame for the disparity as
to which side of the lake is best worthy of the title. Almost
certainly this indifference is not intentional though it does exist.
The Governor’s Fish Ohio Day’s location, for instance, has budged
hardly a dozen or so miles in four decades. It’s stuck in a rut, as
if participants would plummet off the earth if they were to travel
east of Kelleys Island.
And not lost is the
agency’s own words, or a lack of them, if you please. A look at
this year’s four-page full-color Fish Ohio Day pass-out has the
Wildlife Division’s expected blessing regarding the lake’s
walleye and perch fisheries, including a mention of the Central
Basin, thank you.
Yet near the last
part of the document is the heading “Additional opportunities”
and you’ll read points about the lake’s smallmouth bass and even
largemouth bass.
However, no where in
“Additional opportunities” does the Wildlife Division even bother
to cite steelhead, a tremendously illustrative oversight, if truth be
told. Look at just about any Central Basin charter captain’s
business card and you’ll likely see the word “steelhead,”
printed alongside “walleye,” “perch,” and “bass” as the
boat’s targets. Many of these charters even proudly proclaim they
go after trout by plastering the side of their vessels with that
important detail – and one Western Basin charter captains cannot
honestly use.
Come to think about,
I cannot recall ever hearing any Natural Resources director, deputy
director, assistant director, Wildlife Division chief ever even
mentioning coming to fish down this way. If they do, I suspect it’s
not on a regular basis or with the same promotional zeal they hold
for the lake’s Western Basin.
Perhaps the highway
watershed out of Columbus to the Western Basin runs more swiftly and
with a wider estuary than it does toward the Central Basin.
I will give you
this, though, the charter captains and the tourism folks of the
Western Basin outshine their counterparts in the Central Basin when
it comes to promotion They have been much, much better – and much,
much more successful – at energizing their respective bases in
competently convincing the country how the Western Basin is the
Walleye Capital of the World.
But I’m here to
tell you that while Lake Erie is unquestionably the Walleye Capital
of the World, Port Clinton is not its White House. For my money I’d
say that crown belongs to Geneva, which in many respects is like the
Western Basin’s Put-in-Bay.
I am also firmly
convinced that any Central Basin angler – be he a good private
fisher or a licensed fishing guide – would more certainly fill the
cooler with a boat limit of larger walleye. Or else die trying.
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
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