Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Door County Shootout final report When we headed out Saturday morning, Nooo Problem struggled to keep on course in the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal because so many boats were going out at once that there were waves and counter-waves tossing everyone around. Capt. Bill Luer decided that would not happen on Sunday, so he informed us all that we would leave the dock at 3:45 a.m. SHARP. Key word there was "sharp." The canal was calm at that hour, but when we motored out to the Banks, I counted the lights of 35 boats that were already fishing. Those were all smaller boats, it turned out. We were the first charter to arrive. Several others followed close behind us, but we were already catching fish by 4:30 a.m. We had 10 in the box before 5:00 a.m. When First Mate Eric Tracy woke up some time after that, the action had slowed to an occasional hit. At one point just before sunup, every boat within sight was fighting a fish! We quit before 8:00 a.m. and headed in for breakfast with 19 kings in the box. One of our fish looked like it might make the board, but when we got back to port, it weighed only 17.3 pounds. It made the board for a few hours, just below Eric's at 17.35 from the day before, but was later bumped. When the final fish was weighed, though, Eric's fish from Friday was big enough to earn Nooo Problem third place in the charter boat division. Janet Eileen won that division with a 20.42-pounder, and Elite Fishing Charter took second with an 18.27-pounder. The leader board told the final story. Andy Stuth took the grand prize of $3500 cash with a salmon that weighed 20.97 pounds, one of only a few fish over 20 pounds. Bill had been telling us the average size of mature kings was down from loastg year. It appears there are fewer alewives in the lake, but no one knows for sure if that is because kings are more abundant (There is some natural reproduction in northern Door County now.) or if something is going on with the alewive population itself. No doubt it is a complex issue that bears a call to DNR fisheries biologist Paul Peeters, who has been studying the problem. At any rate, don't count on catching too many 20-pounders in the lake this summer or in the streams come fall. The fish we caught were lean, mean and strong for their size. Maybe they were just hungry! In the other divisions,  Brian Peterson took first place and $1000, with a 17.70-pound brown. Barb Bellin won the rainbow trout division with a 13.70-pounder. Brian Miller registered the largest lake trout, a 10.13-pounder. After the tournament, I unwound with a few holes of golf on the Leathem Smith par-three course, then headed home. I found a dead doe on Highway 42/57 just south of the high bridge across Sturgeon Bay and photographed it for a story I wrote for Wisconsin Sportsman magazine. It was a great weekend of fishing, but an exhausting one. I averaged about three hours of sleep for each of the three nights. From that perspective, it was a lot like turkey hunting! Later... 9:58:14 PM    comment []

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