Back From The Island


Tominator

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Back in the saddle.

Had a good time at Kelleys Island again--it's a great place if you ever get the chance, go.

Weather cooperated this year and Uncle Ray finally let me launch his boat on my own. :D

I took my kids, brother and nephew fishing everyday. Here's a pic from the first day:

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That's my nephew Steve on the left with one of his giant sheepsheads he caught on the trip. That one weighed in the neighborhood of 5 lbs I'd say.

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This is my son Michael with one of his sheepshead

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Smores around the campfire after day 1. Left to right--niece Caroline, nephew Willy, son Michael, son Matthew and nephew Steve.

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Day 2 we finally hooked into some edible fish. Steve's holding our stringer of 3 walleye, 2 perch, 2 white bass and 1 white perch.

I taught my nephew how to seine for minnows and we took those out first for some perch. The perch were hitting the minnies as soon as it hit the bottom, but all of them were too small except for the 2 that my nephew caught, one was 8" the other 9". We ran out of minnows in about an hour so we headed to a nearby reef. Again we started catching trash fish--sheephead, gobies, and yes, tons of catfish (sorry Jason :D)

On about the 5th drift I landed a nice walleye, it weighed in the neighborhood of 4 lbs I'd say. I had a good idea of where the fish were now so I put the boat over the same part of the reef and drifted again, and bam, caught another one. This one was smaller though. Now, my nephew is a heck of a fisherman, and he has never caught a walleye, so Uncle Chris was bound and determined to get him his first 'eye. I drifted again and caught the usual non-keepers, but Steve didn't want to quit (even though his dad did :D) so I asked "One more drift?" and Steve said "yeah..." :cool: So I put him over the hole again and just before we were off the reef, bam, he hooked into something, but it got off... :( I could see he was dejected so I said "One more drift?" Steve perked up and said "One more drift, I've got to catch a walleye..." :D

On the last drift Steve caught 2 more sheephead and my brother and I were teasing him "man, that looks like an 'eye.." "man, it's coming straight in, just like an 'eye...." etc. We got him pretty riled up. Well, the drift was just about over and I said "you're almost off the reef again, better cast." So Steve said "OK, one more cast...."

Wouldn't you know. :D Talk about the Grace of God. I swear God just waggles a finger sometimes and says "give the kid a walleye...." LOL. Last cast Steve hooked into something and my brother and I started teasing again, but he got it up a little and I could see the bullet shape and white tail of the walleye, and I just started laughing. My nephew went crazy "YES, WALLEYE, NET IT DADDY NET IT..." My brother slipped the net under him and that was that, Steve caught his first 'eye. Sure am glad I was there to help him.

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Steve with his first walleye. Don't ask me about his glower. He's a happy kid, but glowers a lot. :D

Oh, one more picture for Jason

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This is me throwing back one of the several cats I caught over the course of 3 days. This is the smallest I'd say. The biggest was probably around 8 lbs. :cool2:

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Great pics Chris! Looks like a blast! :cool:

Those cats look familiar, hard to catch the big channel cats up here! We do get a lot of smaller ones though, under 8lbs, and they put up a fight!!! :eek:Wish I could get my hands on some of the huge flat heads like Jason and them catch down south. :D

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