Author: Admin 1

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Woke up early….(that’s a given)…

Took care of the dogs, critters, and chores before leaving the house at 5:30, to head to the gas station and Hi-Way Bait, before driving over to Huron, to meet my crew.

This isn’t a “Mom and Dad with the youngins”; this was a family trip, but related differently. Holly is Cory’s sister-n-law (I think her sister married Cory, if I have the story straight), and Collin is Holly’s boy. He’s 15. Sawyer is Cory’s boy, and he’s 9.

I got to Huron around 6:30 and had told them to meet me at 7am, since the sunrise isn’t until 7:30(ish), and took that opportunity to check all my lines in front of the crank baits, and cut some off, if I needed to. Only two were suspect, so it didn’t take long. Then, I pulled the dipsey rods out and checked the leaders. I changed two of the four leaders due to abrasion and changed out a couple of spoons to worm-burners.

They showed up right on time. We launched, and headed out the river. The sky was clear, the air temp was in the mid to high 50’s, but was forecasted to warm up to the 70s. The wind was light out of the SSE. The wind direction was NE yesterday, but was supposed to switch by early evening last night, so I was hoping it had enough time to lay down.

The rollers weren’t too bad, but just enough to keep me from going too fast. I didn’t want to beat up my customers, or the boat, so we took our time. As we rode out, I kept an eye on the Garmin, looking for good marks to start over.

We had headed towards Cranberry initially, because I was thinking of starting in close, thinking they might be in shallow that early, but changed my mind, and went towards deeper water instead.

I had a friend that was fishing the shallower stuff, and confirmed I had made the right decision. He wasn’t doing well, and he said there was a lot of floating grass in that area.

The Garmin started marking some fish over 36 feet of water, so I decided to start there. The Ulterra was deployed first, then the baby Merc, and then the FishHawk. I had the Ulterra pointed towards Vermilion, which was a few miles away yet, and looked at the FishHawk, so I could set my speed….but, it wasn’t working.
Long story short…I think the transducer cable, that has exposed wires at the plug in (that attaches to the unit), might be the culprit.
I’m already in communication with the company, so we’ll see what happens. They were unbelievably quick to respond, which I really appreciate! Woot! Woot!

Anyway….with my confidence gone, because I don’t know what speed my baits would be running down there…especially, when there are whacky currents happening…I set the speed to what the Garmin was showing for “Speed Over Ground”, and crossed my fingers. lol

While none of them had ever caught a Walleye before, they were well versed anglers with other species, so I knew they could at least handle a rod. I didn’t know what to expect from the youngest one, Sawyer, but I have to tell you, I couldn’t stop saying how impressed I was with this kid. He’s just the coolest! He’s quiet, but a critical thinker, LOVES fishing, and could handle the dipsey rods better than a lot of adults I know. lol His patience was something to be admired, too. Usually, young ones under 10 can get kind of fussy if there’s a slow bite happening, but not Sawyer……he’s so cool. 🙂

Collin picked up how to put the Off Shore boards on the lines and helped me set lines. He’s just an older version of Sawyer, so I think that family has some good genes and parenting happening. They were awesome!

I digress….

We started out with Flicker Minnow 11’s on the starboard side, behind the Off Shore boards, and Walleye Nation Creation Reapers on the port side. I was only running 3 per side, to keep it simple.

Two dipsies ran off each corner…
zero settings started at 40 (port side) and 54 (starboard), and the three settings at 70 (starboard) and 55 (port). BadMo, Yeck, and Scorpion spoons were used. I tried a couple of worm-burners for the first hour, but nothing touched them, so I put regular spoons back on. The best leads would end up being:
Zero setting at 60 and the three settings at 70 and 100 back.

Nothing was interested in the cranks this morning. Eventually, the Reapers came off, and were replaced with Bandits, and the Flickers were replaced with Bill Lewis Lites, with 2oz snap weights. The only fish that chased our cranks were a couple of walleye interested in the Baby Bill’s at 50/115, and 50/90 (50=where you attach the snap weight, and the other number is the total amount of line out).

We only ended up with 11 good eaters, but they were happy with that. They have a big family fish fry planned, and this catch would cover that event.
This family was so enjoyable to fish with, because they were so “chill”, and just kept a positive attitude.
They all said they had a great time, and that makes me happy! 🙂

It’s supposed to start cooling down again next week, so hopefully, that will kill the huge numbers of Spiney-Fleas in the system right now.
We marked fish here and there, but not in the numbers they are seeing way to the east yet. It will be nice when those fish decide to finally make the trek back this way.

My next trip is a 4-day perch trip with the two brothers from MI, who have come every fall for the past 8 years, I think. We always have a good time, and I always look forward to their time here. I’ve been hearing the bite is picking up, so fingers crossed it keeps improving!

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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My wife and I fished the Catawba Island green bouy which was protected from the east wind. Kept 28 nice size perch in 2 1/2 hrs. Used emerald shiners cut in half. We cut the day short to watch the baseball game. Should have kept fishing.

Got 12 nice eyes today out of Turtle Creek in 16-18 FOW
40 jets at 35 back with Monkey Puke, Green Puke and Chicken wing and some green spotted spoons.
2.5-2.7 MPH going with the strong NE wind at our backs.
2 bonus perch as well. Done by noon.

Hard to tell what the big blow tomorrow will do 🙁

I have been preserving emerald shiners for years in vodka and they work great! Have any of you tried doing this to leeches? If so how did it work?

Only two of us in the boat so we only needed 12. We got them. Departed from Hot Waters about 6:30 with our lights on. The water was rippled but smooth enough that I could go full speed without beating up boat or people. We went straight back to the 44′ “reef” system 9 miles NW from Lorain. (For exact GPS coordinate, see my post: “7/25/25 Trolling Report”). Sure enough, the great marks were still there 2 months later. This time, we did not troll to the weather buoy. We just trolled back and forth over the SE end of that line. Two other boats showed up in the vicinity but didn’t stick around. We got all 12 right there – plus two lost and one throw-back. Three were only 16″, but one was 28″. No other species. We caught on bandits, reef runners, flicker minnows and spoons. The hot lures were a smaller blue and chrome reef runner (7?), and a watermelon-color spoon. The cranks caught between 60 and 110 back unassisted. The spoons caught between 30/30 and 30/70 with a 4oz snap weight in between. 2.5 mph speed over ground. Great day on the lake!

I woke up at 2:00am, and remembered that I was finally going fishing again, and jumped out of bed. With coffee and dog treats in hand, I hit the back deck to check the weather. My apps said it was going to be a great day to be on the lake today, and that made me happy! 🙂

I was meeting Jim, Rusty, and Adam at the Vermilion ramp at 6:30, so I left my house at 5:00am, so I could hit the gas station and take my time on my way to Vermilion. The gas pump was super slow at the Speedway in Port Clinton, so I only filled up the truck, and decided, since I had all kinds of time, that I would hit the other Speedway in Sandusky, so I could top off the Vexus’s gas tank. Slow pumps could mean a clogged filter, and I don’t want yucky gas in my boat. I might be wrong, but I usually listen to my gut, and it keeps me out of most trouble.

I got to the ramp at 6:10, and parked. No one was there yet. After I put some warmer clothes on, a truck pulled in and parked. I kind of thought it might be my crew, since Jim knows I’m always early. After I paid the launch fee, and hit the bathroom, I walked back towards the truck, and three men were by my boat. I was right, they were my crew.

I have fished with Jim and his wife before, many years ago, when they hired me for a learning walleye trip. He had his own boat, so he did just fine, but has now sold the boat, and hired me again. This time, bringing two friends along…Rusty and Adam. Jim had kept in touch over the years, and when he was on the lake at the same time as me, we would share information with each other.

We launched at 6:30 and headed towards Lorain. It was a beautiful morning. The air temp was 54 degrees on the West side of Port Clinton, when I left the house, this morning, but was much warmer in Vermilion. It was 67 degrees by 7:30 out on the lake. Water temp was 64.8 degrees. The sky was clear, and the wind was less than 5 out of the NNE, so the lake looked flat, but had some of those small rollers coming in.

I was headed to the Lorain dump, when the Garmin lit up with marks in the middle of the east side of the dump….over 49′ of water. I figured it was a good place to start. I set the Ulterra on a northerly course (towards deeper water), and fired up the baby Merc. I dialed in the RPMs with the iTroll, and when the FishHawk showed a speed of 2.5 mph, I started puting the lines out.

Jim already knew how to do everything, so I gave Rusty and Adam instructions on how to set lines with dipsies and Off Shore boards.

The dipsies went out first. The zero settings were set to 54 and 45 back. The three settings were out at 70 and 75….running BadMo, Yeck, and Scorpion spoons. I changed colors out several times, but they hit on everything when they hit. There really wasn’t one that was hotter than the other. The best leads were 54 and 60 on the zero settings, and the three settings did best at 70-77 back.

Flicker Minnow 11s ran behind the Off Shore boards on both sides. I only ran 3 instead of 4 boards per side, because of the newbies on board, and I didn’t know what kind of bite awaited us. Sometimes, it’s best to keep it simple.

The Flickers ran at 110, 77, and 67 back on the Port Side, and 57, 80, and 110 on the starboard side (Yes, I run the longest leads on the outside boards).
Colors were:
“Slick Pearl Silver” (2) at 110 back
“Firetail Chrome Candy” at 80 back
“Slick Blue Alewife” at 57 back
“Slick Purple Bengal” at 67 back
“Slick Green Alewife” at 77 back

Everyone, including me, had a great time this morning. It started out a bit slow on that northerly troll, but when we made a direction change to the WNW, we started picking up fish on a more steady basis. They were a nicer grade than I had gotten my last time to Vermilion, so that was good to see.

The guys did a great job, and they all said they had a great time. Jim said he would be back for a fall trip, and that makes me happy!

I had a perch trip scheduled for tomorrow, but we are rescheduling that to next month, with the hopes that the perch bite continues to improve.

Stay tuned…

Capt Juls

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