Maumee River Walleye Run 2012

 This winter and spring has been one of the warmest on record. Last year when I hit the spring Maumee River walleye run, it was mid April and the water was still bitter cold. This year it wasn't even mid March when they started running in numbers and the weather was perfect. I was scheduled two days off in a row one week, which doesn't happen often, so I decided to take advantage of it and go fishing. I called Alex to see if he could skip school to join me. He informed me that it was the perfect couple of days to skip because his school had Junior testing going on so his days were significantly shorter. We went shopping at Dick's and Walmart and set off on a Tuesday after I walked the kids to school.

As we drove up to Toledo, Alex said out of the blue that he was in the mood to hear The Sound of Silence. I have a homemade cd with this and similar songs on it that we listen to together on road trips a lot. Unfortunately I had forgotten to bring any cds in our hurry to get out. Not two minutes later however, what song started playing on a local Toledo station, The Sound of Silence! We also heard the Kid Rock song "All Summer Long" that references "catching walleye from the dock." We decided it was destiny that we were going to have a successful fishing trip. This is important because we have been on quite a few trip that he has been completely skunked and had very bad luck. This was his first experience with walleye so I hoped the best for him.

We arrived at Maumee Tackle at about 1:30 to pick up the hardware. The popular assortment consisted of pink and orange 3 inch twister tails on medium sized floating jig head (also orange, pink or yellow). I saved a bunch of money by buying them in thirty count bags. We also bought some weights that I have only been able to find at this particular shop. We then headed to the river.

We first tried the parking lot at Orleans Park without any luck so I took him to the trail further up stream that John and I found the previous year. There are never any people here but there were a lot more snags. We didn't stay long. We decided to try the lot again. Good thing too.

After finding a good spot closest to a boat that was catching fish. After awhile the action picked up. Before long I had landed, with the help of Alex's awesome new net, three big walleye. The first was about the same size I landed last year which was great. the second and third were 8+ lb bohemoths. The funny thing was I was the only one on the line catching any fish at all. It was great! I felt real sorry for Alex because he was very disappointed but I was thrilled about my own luck.

At about 7:00PM we decided it was time to give it up for the day and go set up camp. We camped at Maumee Bay State Park that was on the other side of Toledo, about 25 minutes away. We had the entire park to ourselves. In fact we actually realized, once the tent was up and it was too late we decided, that only a portion of the park campgrounds is open to camping that time of year. Woops. We stayed anyways and the ranger didn't say anything as he drove by the next morning. It was great though. Birds fille dthe air with music late into the evening and early in the morning. It was a great sunset and I had a neighboring site's table to clean the fiah on too. That was messy. They were filled with all kinds of spawning juices.....

We decided to eat the smallest of the fish which was plenty big enough to feed us both sufficiently. I only had cracker crumbs, salt, pepper and a stick of butter but that was all I needed. Alex was very precarious about trying it because he normally doesn't like fish but I told him to have no fear. He was wishing for tarter sauce but once he tried it he was amazed. It didn't have any fishy flavor and wasabsolutely perfect. The Ritz cracker crumbs surprised him too as a breading. We threw in some beans and chips and had the perfect shore lunch. Of course, we washed it down with IBC cream soda.

We fished hard the next day but to no avail. We tried the rapids and Orleans Park again but no luck . I snagged af few but Alex had no hook ups at all. He was crushed and I think he is convinced he will never catch anything as long as he is with me. Sorry Alex. It was still a great time though and we both look forward to making it a yearly event.

As for the other two fish, i had clenaed them but not filleted them so that my kids could behold their beauty. They were all excited, especially Max. We ate one that week and the other when Sara's mom was in town. She had never tried walleye before and was amazed at how mild they were too.

After all was said and done, not only did Alex and I have a great time camping by ourselves in a beautiful location, but I also caught my two biggest walleye. Both would have won the Biggest Walleye Weekly constest at the shop but it was closed by the time we got out of the river. One was over 8 pounds and the other almost ten!