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I heard it would be too muddy and I heard it would be too buggy. But the wave forecast was for “slight chop” and there was no moon last night. So we headed out of Mazurik’s before sun up. The plan was to fish east of Kelly’s and circle counter-clockwise around the island looking for marks. But due east of the southern end of Kelly’s, in 42 fow, we started marking fish. The water there was not muddy. No bugs. So we put in our lines and headed ENE at 2.0 sog.
We had a purple bandit 80 back unassisted, a purple flicker minnow 110 back unassisted, a couple mostly orange spoons with 2oz weights at 20+60 and 20+80, and a couple crawler harnesses with 2 oz weights, 20+30 back and 20+ 40 back.
By the time we got about half way up Kelly’s in 44 fow, we had one of our two limits, so we turned around and trolled back to where we started. There were about 35 boats in sight over there at that time but more were coming. We did start to get some midges by 8am but they weren’t bad.
We ended up with our 12 eyes plus 2 tasty drum by 8:55 am. Threw back 3 shorts. Had a triple and a double today, which hardly left me any time to eat my Pop-tarts. Biggest was 28″.
Another big fat one still had her eggs. I didn’t find that out until I got home because the cleaning station was padlocked closed. What’s up with that? They have a sign saying it is open from 9am to 9pm. I can’t imagine why it can’t be open 24×7. But it was closed today at 9:45 am when we needed it.
Didn’t bother me too much, though, because that’s my fastest limit on Lake Erie ever. Awesome day on the lake!

I got up at 2 AM this morning…but, I still had 7 1/2 hours of sleep, so I was feeling refreshed.

Grabbed my cup of coffee, fed the dogs, grabbed their tennis balls, and hit the back deck, to check the weather.


It was 55 degrees, clear sky, and not a breath of wind. I smiled, knowing that it would be a fun day on the lake.


Jay, had scheduled this trip for last week, but Mother Nature was having another Tizzy-Fit, and their day would be rescheduled to today.


Jay, Jimmy, and Bob would be meeting me at Mazurik’s at 5:15. I made sure I was there 1/2 hour early, so I could ready things before they arrived. I like to do things in the quiet of the morning, so I don’t get distracted and miss something.


They showed up right on time, and we launched. The sky was glowing to the east, but still dark to the west. We headed back up to the ENE side of Kelly’s, where we would start.


I didn’t want to pull crawler harnesses, slow, again, so I had swapped them out for Bandits on the port side, and a new-to-me lure…the “EBS Walleye Minnow 111”, by “Livingston” (a Texas Company, I believe). It’s similar to the Flicker Minnow 11s, but they dive deeper than the Flickers. Example…the Flicker at 15 feet would be 74 back. The Walleye Minnow is only 55 back. They also have a different rattle sound than the Flickers.


Both sides ran the same distances back, behind the Off Shore boards, in the beginning….120′ (outside), 80′, 67′, and 57′ (inside), but eventually the 120s became 97 feet back, and took a lot of fish.


The “Sunspot” Bandit was hot, so we changed out a couple of the others and had three of them running out there. They all produced.


The Walleye Minnow 111 colors were… “LimeLight”, “Sherbert”, and “Chrome xxx Shad” (ran two of those), and they all took several fish. At one point, I was ready to take them off, due to no action, but as soon as I tripped the outside board to bring in the Walleye Minnow, and change it out to a Bandit, two of the inside boards took off. Needless to say, they stayed out and caught a lot of fish from then on. I didn’t keep track, but it seemed like it was a pretty even tally between them and the Bandits.


Dipsies started out with a couple of “Worm-Burners” on the starboard side, and a couple of Yeck spoons on the port side. The Yeck out produced the worms for us, so eventually, the worms were removed and more spoons put out.


The zero setting was catching at 30′ back, and the 3 setting was catching at 60 back.


I have a few Yeck spoons that DJ (DJ’s Custom Eye Lures) painted the bellies of them for me with a royal blue. The top side is a mix of gold/copper/red/and black.
That was a hot spoon, so we ended up with three of those out, too. The fourth one was a mostly orange one…orange belly with wide edge strips of orange, over gold, was on the top side.


Speed was 2.0-2.2 on the FishHawk. Most of the time, SOG was 3-4 tenths faster.


The water temp on the surface was 57 and down 18 feet, it was 58.7.


We made one big half circle, from east of the south end of the shoal…out to the NE side of Cedar Point, and then back towards the dumping grounds. The bite was spotty…we would get one here and one there, and then we would have doubles or triples happening.


The crew did a great job, and said they had a blast, and learned a lot, and that makes me happy! I really had a good time with these guys, too! They worked me to near exhaustion, but it was worth it! Ha!


We had our 24, and threw back around a dozen, in just over 3 hours…most of which, would have been legal, but Jimmy’s kind heart said, “Let them live, to get bigger”….and, I can respect that.


I have tomorrow off, and will be back at it on Wednesday, with Dan Harris and his brother. Fingers crossed the weather doesn’t stop us.


Update: I got a phone call while I was writing this, and they must have had fun, and weren’t just saying that, to say it, because Jay’s friend, David, just called and booked June 3rd, for himself and two of his friends. Woot! Woot! Thanks, Jay!


Stay tuned….


Capt Juls

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Fished Sunday with John.Forcast looked great and left dock at 5:45 and headed east of Kellie’s.Was going to run dipsies first time all season and got a tip from charter buddy fish were biting 22-26 feet down.But as we looked at sonar noticed the fish were mostly 30 ft down and saw a bunch of white spots on the graph.John asked what those white spots were. I then pointed to a midge sitting on his console and said bugs.John really hates those messy bugs too.I set the dipsies on one side for the fish marking at 30 and other side for fish between 22 and 26.Dipsey settings at 1&3.The shallower dipsey started catching at 50 and 35 lead and I changed the other side to 55 and 40.Had a j9,worm harness and two worm burners on dipseys.They all caught.Put out a Marvin bandit at 110 and a Barbie Bill Lewis PWC at 90.They each caught 2 fish.Then put out 2 worm burners on a TT 40 on the 2 inline boards at 50 and 60.Speed was around 2.0 mph.Everything caught.Did not miss a fish,no junk and no shorts.Took us 2hrs to get our 18 fish and weight was 45 lbs.Biggest 24″.Midges were pretty messy after we were done.Another great day on Erie.

After yesterday’s cancelation, due to wind, my crew decided to stick around this morning, to make it out, before heading home later. Joe is my second cousin, and Nolan is his son, so I guess that makes him my third cousin (yes?). I told them I would pick them up at 5:15, and showed up 15 minutes early, as usual. They were ready to go, so they loaded in the truck and off we went.

We hit Mazurik’s at 5:30, before it got busy, and headed out…making it to an area and set up by 6am. We went to the east side of Kelly’s (where I think most boats that launched after us ended up, too.


The wind was around 5mph out of the south at Marblehead, and was expected to stay nice and calm all morning. The temp was 49 degrees, and the sky was partly cloudy.


The FishHawk was sent down, and showed a water temp at 58 degrees…down from my last time out. The surface temp was 55 degrees.


We were running slow, at 1.4-1.7mph (FH speed-SOG was usually at 1.8-2.0) with crawler harnesses using 2oz inlines and #6 Colorado blades, BadMo blades, and different bead color combos.
All colors worked, so I don’t think it matters.


Both sides ran behind Off Shore boards with 20 back on the outside, 30 back, 40 back, and 50 back on the inside. All leads took fish, and we went 18 for 23 in three hours.


After dropping the fish off at Port Clinton Fish Co., Joe was told it would only take 15 minutes, so since his gal, Angela, had shown up with the car, I didn’t have to take them back to the White Caps Motel, and came home to my tail-wagging dogs, who were patiently waiting for me. 🙂


I asked Nolan, “Since you hardly speak, or show any emotion, I have to ask…did you have fun this morning?” He said, “I did! I had a blast!”, and I think I even saw a smile crack his lips for a few seconds. lol He’s a great kid…just quiet. 🙂


Joe wants to come back with some of his buddies, either this fall or next spring, and that makes me happy! I was glad we were able to get out, and send them home with a cooler full of fish, to share with the family back home in Indiana.


Tomorrow, I have a trip with another group that I had to reschedule from last week’s blow days, and it’s looking like another nice morning to be had. Fingers crossed it doesn’t change!


Stay tuned….


Capt Juls

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Looking for info on size of harness. When casting what length you use casting an trolling. Going to make a few for my trip in a couple weeks. Always trolled cranks an spoons. Now going to try meat casting an trolling

After our recent charter with Capt. Sam, we discussed fishing in Canada. He said it’s possible i would need to check in with border Dept like we used to. So, i called both Border Info and Ontario NR. After both long holds on the line,found out that it is still only 2 lines per person when fishing. You do not need to call in and report when crossing the border to fish. As long as you don’t go on land,anchor the boat or moor next to another boat. As for acceptable ID when in canadian waters. A passport or the new Real ID and your original birth certificate need to be in your possession for all on board.And, as before, no alcohol permitted to be consumed while in canadian waters for all on board.

This past Friday went fishing with a group of friends on Porkchop Express Fishing Charters. Had a great time fishing and great weather to boot. We left Catawba ramp at 7am with 4 of us on Capt. Sams new Raider boat and another 4 on his other boat captained by his son Caleb. We headed north to check water around rattlesnake. Had good marks but was too dirty to try and fish. Headed west till found some cleaner water. Sam put out a couple of TT50 and one dipsey off the corners and ran 12 inline boards with cranks and spoons off TT40s.The boards caught the majority of fish with a marvin bandit and a Barbie Bill Lewis PWC catching well. A monkey puke scorpion did well too. Was targeting fish 15-20 ft down going 2.0 mph. Got our 30 fish by !230 and the other boat finished with their 30 a half hour later. Our 60 fish weighed 135lbs. Would highly recommend Capt. Sam to have an enjoyable day or learn a few things. I know im going to try a few things next time out.

25 -32 fow about 3 miles east of the southern end of South Bass yesterday. Picked up 18 of 30 on gold worm harnesses. Fished from 730-noon. Head boats were in there along with many chartering.