The alarm went off in the wee hours of the morning and I groggily woke up to what I was hoping would be a good day.

We were heading to Lake Erie and planned on tangling with the plentiful schools of walleye that have been a boon to the Great Lakes fishing industry. We had made plans to meet up with Captain Walt Ermanson of Trophy Charters out of Ashtabula Harbor. The trip runs us about 90 minutes of driving time, a pit stop at Sheetz and immediately off the docks at 4:45 a.m.

Our crew this morning would consist of my brother Jim, my nephew BJ and our friend Ken Bryan. We have been fishing with Captain Walt for many years and have made this trip a regularly scheduled family adventure since BJ was a youngster.

Now that we are all much older, it can be a fun and leisurely trip without too much extra planning. Trophy Charters really have the walleye fishing in Lake Erie down to a science.

Charters are not cheap, but when you consider the boat, fuel, equipment costs and the years of experience … you get a lot of bang for your buck for a world class fishing experience.

We settled in for the boat ride out to the fishing grounds, which took about 45 minutes and settled into the 65-70 feet depth of water. We would help put out planning boards on each side of the Trophy. The planning boards are wooden sled-like floating gear that travel parallel to the boat.

A long line is connecting them to the boat and along this line we attach three fishing rod lines that have line counter level wind reels. The wire line is set out at 300 feet with a Storm Deep ThunderStick as the lure.

The color of choice was Tequila Glow, which didn’t surprise me as the Captain is a big Jimmy Buffett fan and it also reminded me of a yellow perch or baby rainbow trout.

Along with the planning boards, we set rods using a dipsey diver apparatus hooked up with flashy spoons in the 80-foot range directly behind the boat’s path. We had the lake to ourselves in the predawn morning except for the Canada Steamship Lines freighter that was cruising the waters nearby.

The 700-foot ship crossed behind us on its way to Canada and beyond, reminding us that it truly is a big world out there! According to Captain Walt, they are regular visitors between the port cities along the Great Lakes in the U.S and Canada.

I didn’t have much time to worry about international shipping routes as the walleye started to pound our lures and we had three fish on the rods in no time.

I happened to look at the time and found it wasn’t even 5:30 a.m. yet! The daily limit of walleye on Lake Erie is six fish with a 15-inch minimum size. The fish we would catch on this day ranged in the 20-24-inch range, as we would call perfect table fare.

Ken Bryan had to mess up our morning bite by hooking onto a steelhead trout that he wanted for the smoker experience. I can’t say much as later I caught into a good one that we lost at the boat as we prepared to net him.

My personal best is one around 33 inches and a hefty taxidermist bill from Bob McGinnis Taxidermy, which he completed before his retirement a few years back. I kid Bob about making so much money on that fish that he could finally retire in style!

The time was around 8 a.m. when we were looking for our final fish for the day’s limit of 24 fish. The fish started to really cooperate and we had to start pulling lines out of the water lest we overdue the limits for our party.

We pulled in all the equipment and headed for the docks to get our fish cleaned and be on time for breakfast at the Litehouse Restaurant in Ashtabula. The same family has run the local eatery for decades and they always treat us like royalty!

We picked up our fish at the marina and got ready to be on the road home. We said our goodbyes to Captain Walt as he used his famous line, “It’s just another day on the Trophy!”

For information on charter trips out of Ashtabula, contact Walt at www.trophycharters.com or call at 216-387-2656. The one-day Ohio licenses are reasonably priced at $14 per adult angler.

Doe licenses

The first round of doe licenses has started to be awarded and I see that my check was cashed, meaning that I was awarded a license.

The next round of licenses goes on sale Aug. 3 with 34,567 licenses still available to all hunters wanting one in WMU 2D.

Until we meet again, get out in the fresh air and enjoy the great outdoors!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle