The Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer vacations and the start of another school year. On the other hand, the month of September brings great fishing and the official start of the early hunting season.

On Sept. 1, I was on Lake Erie with some excellent traveling companions. We were with Capt. Walt Ermansons on his boat, the Trophy, for the second time in a few short weeks because the fishing out of Ashtabula, Ohio, was so fabulous that we had to return.

Captain Walt is a full-time fishing guide on Lake Erie and provides a state-of-the-art charter service.

The great thing about having lots of like-minded friends is that it doesn't take long to round up a crew for some outdoors activities. The past year had been a rough time for many and it was an opportunity to blow off some steam and maybe even catch some trophy walleyes.

The fishing had been spotty because of the weather, heat and the fish being scattered all over the lake. I kept a watchful eye on Lake Erie fishing reports and found that Captain Walt kept a pretty nice weekly blog about his daily trips on the lake.

Based on the start of cooler weather and the need for fish to start their feeding frenzy for the winter months, I picked Sept. 1 as the best day for our trip.

The 4 a.m. meeting at the sportsmen's club went off without a hitch and the drive to Ashtabula went smoothly. We loaded onto the 30-foot Cherokee Sport Fisherman and left the docks in the cool darkness of pre-dawn.

We traveled 15 miles out to one of the widest points of Lake Erie in about 75 feet of water. The sunrise was magnificent and we were able to see the planet Venus shining brightly without the city lights dimming our view.

For the technology buffs, it would have been like a geek convention as we gathered around to see the workings of the electronics, including full color radar and chart plotter, GPS, color video and the autopilot.

It would be a bad day for walleyes, if what we saw popping up on the screen parlayed into fish in the cooler. We would be trolling at about 2 mph and throwing both spoons and plugs at the walleyes.

We found that this was not a sit-and-wait-your-turn trip, as we all had to get into the action. We deployed planning boards, dipsy divers, down riggers and even wire flat lines with diving plugs trailing from 300 to 400 feet behind the Trophy to entice the walleyes.

It didn't take long before one of those flat lines took a hit and I knew a jumbo walleye would be both a fight and an endurance test to land. The forearms start to burn when a fish pulls against the trolling boat and is the length of a football field away. We all cheered Sim on with the first fish of the trip.

The neat thing about fishing is that you always get a few surprises along the way. Last week, I had quite the battle while trying to land a 3-inch steelhead trout, a magnificent fish that was silver and fresh from the cooler Canadian waters.

When I took a hit this week, I landed a jumbo sheephead, which is considered a rough fish and is thrown back in the water. He might be a rough fish but he gave me a whale of a fight.

The highlight of the day was when we had four walleyes hooked simultaneously and netted them all with the same landing net.

Take my advice: Round up a few of your favorite fishing buddies and celebrate the end of the summer months on a sweet note — and maybe even land a trophy.