UNCURSED

Most writers have experienced the “writer’s curse.”  You head for a hunting, hiking or fishing destination and Mother Nature and Lady Luck team up to cast aside the best laid plans or make the hot bite cold as ice. So it was for many of the anglers who headed for Chautauqua County, New York for the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers annual “Cast and Blast” last May.
The prime fishing destination for the trip was to be Lake Erie with abundant walleye, smallmouth bass and other fish. Lake Erie looked more like a frozen daiquiri than a fishing destination with ice chunks the size of basketballs covering the surface. Lake Chautauqua, westernmost of New York’s famed finger lakes provided a great substitute but only a substitute for those of us wanting to fish Lake Erie.
So the Chautauqua County Tourism people invited us back and I took them up on the offer. You know you are off to a good day of fishing when one of the group boats a mega-walleye in the first few minutes of fishing. Using tactics familiar to me (as a Lake Michigan troller) we boated walleye after walleye (with lake trout, white bass and sheepheads in the mix, as well.)
Western New York is beautiful country. Fields, forests, vinyards, Great Lakes and inland lakes. And good fishing whether you are an outdoor writer or not!