Author: Admin 1

I was trolling last week a few miles East of Kelley’s in 38-42 FOW and using big amish planer boards & size 40 jet divers to get my spoons down to 30 feet into the water column. I noticed that several times the jet diver would barrel roll and swim erratically and eventually surface because it flipped upside down (it happened with more than one of them so I don’t think it was just a defective one). It seemed most prevalent when I was using the dreamweaver Trip-Z divers but still occasionally happened with the Big Fish Tuff Tru-Trips 40s. A google search said this can happen at speeds in excess of 2.5mph and if pulling heavy tackle but I was trying to keep speeds 2.2-2.5mph and was just pulling stinger spoons. Is it possible that there was strong current to blame? Winds were only 8-10mph and 1-2 foot of chop so it wasn’t anything crazy. And if so, is there anyway to combat this and keep jet divers running properly?

For those who run big boards, what is your preferred diver to get spoons down to at least a depth of 30 feet? I do have size 3 tadpoles but I imagine that jets do a better job with bait presentation with their back and forth swimming.

Does anyone have any luck running size 40 jet divers at speeds > 2.5mph? If so, what is your secret to keeping them diving properly without surfacing? On the day I was fishing, I heard reports of people catching at 2.6-2.7mph so there will be times I will need to troll faster.

Is one jet diver better than the rest for it’s ability to dive properly? Dreamweaver vs. Big Fish Tuff vs. Luhrs Jensen.

It was frustrating to say the least having to keep resetting my lines and I was getting a lot of tangles from the jet divers swimming so erratically…Thanks in advance for any insight 🙂

My daughter and I are coming Wednesday.. anyone want to share where to start would be greatly appreciated.. Thank you

I contacted Jeremy yesterday to see if he wanted a fishing trip before I contacted anyone else that’s on the list of “Give me call if…” people. He quickly confirmed it after talking to his wife, Erika, and moving some work stuff around.

I normally like to see the sunrise on the lake, not only for its majestic beauty, but also, because the walleye bite is usually pretty strong right before sun-up. It’s also nice to be able to get at least one pass in before anyone else shows up to get in the way. 😉

However, they drove up from Columbus with a 7-year-old boy this morning, so we did a later start and didn’t launch until 7:30. There was already a big pack of boats over where I had been fishing, so I decided to go west towards G-Can, since there was no one over there…just to see if there were any fish there. The wind would also be behind us on our troll back towards the east, making the boat less bouncy and more comfortable for the little dude.

The Garmin was marking fish, thankfully, so we stopped…and set up over 21 feet of water. The FishHawk speed was 2.5-2.7 mph.

The dipsies went down first. The zero settings were 20 and 23, and the three settings were both set to 30 back. Both three settings ran Yeck spoons with both sides of the spoon sporting a lot of orange. Those two dipsies outfished the zero settings by a lot. It could also be that as soon as the zero settings went down, a little White Perch would jump on it, and were never noticed until it was time to check them.

The Bill Lewis PWC Lites are still going strong. Best lead was 50/25 with 2oz…(total line out was 75). Several times, as soon as the board was locked in to jog to its spot….a fish would have already hit it.

“Green Tiger”, “Purple Tiger”, “Red Tiger”, and “Chrome Barbie” were the colors again. All caught fish.

We were able to have an enjoyable morning without having to dodge a lot of boat traffic, and the boy reeled in so many fish his arms hurt. lol

We only fished a few hours, and went in per Jeremy’s directive. The wind had died along with the bite…the sun was hot, the air was heavy with humidity, and the bugs were starting to find us, so we went in. We like to keep the experience a fun one for Luke, so his enthusiasm to fish with his dad doesn’t wane.

Jeremy has his own Ranger boat, but likes to hire me so he can relax and enjoy the family stuff without having to do everything else, too. Now that he’s had a refresher course in dipsies, he’s going to be getting his boat out next week, and taking his Dad and Luke out fishing on their boat. 🙂

After dropping their fish off at Bay’s Edge Fishing Cleaning, we met over at Casa Las Palmas for a quick lunch, so we could visit more and they could wait on their fish cleaning to get done. It’s always nice to spend time with folks who feel more like family than just customers.

They all said they had a fantastic morning, even though we didn’t limit out. We only put 8 keepers in the cooler, but caught a lot of fish. Unfortunately, there were a lot of White Perch, Sheephead, and short walleye, too. It kept it busy and fun for Luke, while Jeremy picked up some tips on how to do some things. So it was a successful trip in their eyes, and that makes me happy!

I don’t have anything else scheduled until the 17th and 18th, next week, but if I get a call, I’ll be sure to report.

I’m hearing that the hot and humid weather will be back next week….again….deep sigh. On one hand, I’m glad I’m not fishing in that weather, and on the other…I want to go fishing. There are several good wind days next week…with Tuesday looking the best right now.

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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What WEATHER we have been having, Hot, MAYFLIES, and Heavy rains. For Port Clinton and the Islands and NW Ohio.
~Kept this Dog on the porch

Today, SE of G can 22 fow 15 yellow gold and three sheep head. Nice swing, 2 hours, shiners, spreaders, no bling.
I always bring some crawlers just in case the Yellow Gold are not in the mood. (my honey hole gps # is posted on my profile)

Head boats and other boats were a ways north of me and one went in at 10:30, so they got what they went for, my thoughts are they were there for the walleyes.

Spit pile shows they are eating gobies! (on ice and will clean tomorrow, will update date if anything is different in the gut
pile.)

Be safe and wear the life jacket for you and our guests.
Back soon, as the weather allows.

Water Dog

There was no sleeping in this morning. At 1:30 a.m., Ella decided I had been asleep long enough, and it was time to get up and go out on the back deck. As soon as the blankets were thrown back, Alfie shot up and started dancing on the bed…..deep sigh. To be honest, I could have kept sleeping, but I was fishing today, so it was better to get an early start.

When the coffee was ready and the dog treats dispersed, we hit the back deck to check the weather apps. The forecast was calling for winds less than 10 out of the WSW, clear skies, and no rain. I was just hoping there would be no bugs this morning.

Caleb and his twin brother have fished with me several times in the past. Their Dad would drop them off at Mazurik’s to jump in my boat, then launch us and park the truck. Then, they would send him a text when we were done and on our way back in, so he could meet us there and pick up the boys. Back then, they were in their mid to late teens, I think. I have taken them bass fishing a couple of times, walleye fishing, and perch fishing before. Their dad only went when we did the perch trip.
I was sad to learn that their Dad passed away from COVID a few years ago; he was a great guy. 🙁

Melinda and Caleb came up from Waco, TX to visit family in Lakeside. Caleb reached out to me last week to set up a fishing trip for his mom and him, so we landed on this morning to make that happen.

I jumped in the truck at 4:30 and headed to the gas station for some ice. It felt good to have my truck back. Matt Wieland put new injectors and spark plug wires in it yesterday, and it’s running like a champ. There are so many new parts on this truck now that it’s “newer” than the day I bought it in 2020 (it’s a 2016 GMC Sierra). Anyway…it’s running great, so I think she’ll be around for a while.

I arrived at Mazurik’s at 5 a.m., but wasn’t expecting them until 5:30. I readied the boat and polished up the motors while I waited for them.
They showed up right on time, and off we went. If you read the previous report, you know where I went on Sunday. The plan was to go back there again, and hope the fish hadn’t moved yet. I was concerned, because of the big storm system that came through here on Monday. Thankfully, as I approached the area NNW of Catawba, the marks on the Garmin started showing up. As soon as the Vexus came off plane, the screen lit up with good marks. It was time to fish.

I started out with the same program that I ran Sunday. The water depth right there was 25 feet.

The dispsies went out first. The zero settings at 20 and 23 back.
The three settings went out at 37 and 42 back.

Speed was 2.5mph on the FishHawk.

Bill Lewis PWC Lites with 2oz snap-weights ran behind the Off Shore boards. Two boards per side.
Colors on the port side were: “Green Tiger” and “Red Tiger”
The starboard side ran “Purple Tiger” and “Chrome Barbie”.

On the port side, the outside board was running 50/25 (weight goes on at the 50 mark and the second number is how much additional line is let out before the planer board is attached. So, 50 (weight) +25=75 total line out.
Now, to make it confusing for you…some people, including myself, will sometimes write it 50/75…meaning, the weight goes on at the 50 mark and the second number is the total amount of line out before attaching the board.

Anyway…I digress…

Port Side:
50/25 outside board (75)
50/11 inside board (61)

Starboard side:
50/30 outside board (80)
50/24 inside board (74)

All took fish. We had our 18 in the cooler in about 2 1/2 hours. I didn’t look at the clock. We caught some Sheephead, short walleye, and White Perch, too, so that kept us very busy. The bite slowed a little as the sun got higher, so we were all glad that we were able to get out early and catch the tail end of a feeding frenzy.

They asked about fish cleaning, so I told them to follow me into downtown Port Clinton, so we could drop the fish off to be cleaned there. I knew that they would be able to get them cut fast, because we got there within a 1/2 hour of them being open. There would be several cutters to help process them. They were done in less than 10 minutes. If you come in after the “Fishermn’s Wharf” headboats get in across the street, you’ll be waiting longer. They usually have a lot more fish to clean when that happens.

Melinda and Caleb had a great time, and said they will be back, and that makes me happy. 🙂

Looks like I have a two-week dry spell now; I’m not scheduled to fish until the 17th and 18th.
If I pick something up between now and then, I’ll be sure to report.

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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I took my neighbors Dave and Danielle, and our friend Keith out as a “Thank you” for letting me use his truck this past week to tow the boat for my trips. My truck has an issue that should be fixed Monday morning. Fingers crossed!

Anyway…

We didn’t go to Huron, and launched out of Catawba instead. There was rain in the forecast that would be showing up in about three hours, so we didn’t want to waste any time driving and get that time on the water.

I had gotten a report of a large school of fish near the cans, so we went to check it out. The report was right. We didn’t go far from the launch before I said, “We are marking fish…let’s fish”. So, we got the dipsies and Bill Lewis PWC Lites in the water and started catching right away.

Zero dipsies set at 20 and 25, and the three settings at 40 back started catching right away, so it took a few minutes before we got the cranks out behind the Off Shore boards.

The PWC’s were set at a total of line out at 60 (2), 65, and 74 back. The 2oz snap weights were all put on at the 50 mark. Same colors I’ve been using in Huron…”Purple Tiger”, “Green Tiger”, and Red Tiger”….all caught fish.

We also caught some Sheephead, White Bass, and White Perch, along with some short walleye that we threw back. I was watching the radar the entire time, because the system that was moving in was expanding as it neared the lake, and the colors were going from green (just rain) to orange, yellow, and red (heavy rain). I was watching for lightning strikes on the Radar as it moved in, and when it showed some, I said, “It’s time to head in”.

We had 12 nice eaters in the cooler in about an hour and a half, but had caught a lot more than that with the junk fish and shorts, so it was a fun morning.

A funny tidbit was my favorite pair of pliers disappeared, and I thought they went overboard…we looked everywhere, but they were gone. I could only suspect that someone accidentally sent them overboard when a line that was being reset quickly got tangled in them. I know this can happen, because I did it myself earlier this year on a pair of pliers I didn’t really like. lol
However, out of the 4 pairs I had on the boat, that is the one I used all the time, so it made me sad. I kept saying they went overboard, and Keith kept saying, “I don’t think so, I think I would have heard them go in the water”. I just shook my head.

After we got in, we decided to go to Casa Las Palmas for breakfast, and while were standing at the door waiting to be seated, Keith was digging in his pockets and then pulled out my favorite pair of pliers! He didn’t realize he stuck them in the deep pocket and didn’t feel them until then. Ha! I was so happy! 🙂

We were lucky we got off the water when we did, because it rained hard, and there was some lightning while we were eating breakfast.

It was a fun morning, and it felt good to just go “fun fishing” with friends…everyone had a good time, including me! 🙂

My next trip is scheduled for Wednesday, with a previous customer from years ago, whose dad would drive his twin boys to the launch, and send them off with me to go fishing, and then pick them up when we got back. Unfortunately, their Dad died of COVID a few years ago, and his twin can’t make it, so his Mom is going to go fishing with him this time. They were mid to late teens when I first started taking them, and I fished with them 3 times, I think, so now he’s got to be in his early 20s.
Tuesday is their preferred day to go, but it looks like the NNE wind will still be gusting on Tuesday, and Wednesday looks calm, so if Tuesday’s forecast changes, we will go tomorrow; but if it doesn’t, we will go Wednesday. I’m pretty positive it’s going to be a Wednesday trip, though.

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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Chris contacted me yesterday afternoon, after I got home from fishing, and asked if I still had Friday open, and I told him I did, so we set up a meeting time at Huron for this morning. I asked them to be there between 5 and 5:15a.m.

I was up early again and managed to get the kitchen clean, gardens watered, dogs fed, cat fed, showered, emails returned, and messages answered before walking out the door at 3:45.

I hit the gas station for some ice and headed to Huron. I would be early, but I needed that time to clean the boat a little. It was too hot to do it when I got home yesterday, so I took advantage of the 81-degree temp at 4:30 a.m. to do it.

I only had to do the windshield and get the fish slime off the black 400. Only one side gets the fish slime from the netting process, whereas the other side is just water spots and wipes off easily. Fish slime takes a little more elbow grease to remove it.
The windshield just had some bugs on it from the ride over, so that was easy enough.

Chris and his Dad Jeff showed up at 5:10, and we launched. The ramp was busier than it had been at that time of the morning for the last few days. This morning, there were probably 8-10 boats launching at 5:15.

As we headed out the river, we talked about the program I’m running, and they told me how they hired me, because they wanted to learn to troll. They have only done drift casting with their own boat. It’s not really set up for trolling, so Chris wanted to see how I troll and what gear I use to make my trolling more efficient, so he could take some ideas back and implement them on his own boat.

We didn’t go far before I shut the Black Mama-Jama down and deployed the Ulterra and baby Merc. While the Ulterra kept us on course, I let the kicker warm up, and I put the FishHawk down to 18′. Then, I adjusted the iTroll controller to get the kicker’s speed up to 2.5mph.

We started in 25′ of water, with good marks….Like I have the past several days out, but this time they were mostly White Perch, Sheephead, and White Bass, with a couple of walleye mixed in. The past few days, by the time we were near the south side of the dump, there would be 2 limits in the cooler already. This morning, we had 7. They were kept busy with removing undesirables from the lines and resetting the lines.

I showed them how to use the dipsies and set them out. Short rod on the inside (furthest rod holder to the rear), and the long rod on the outside, and how to get the outside rod set without tangling in the inside rod line.

The inside rods ran dipsies on the zero setting, and the outside rods ran on three settings.
Zero settings started at 25 and 27 back. As the sun rose and we traveled over deeper water, they were lowered to 33 and 41 back.
The three settings started at 40 and 50 back, and then lowered to 64 and 82.

Bill Lewis PWC Lites ran behind the Off Shore boards with 2oz snap-weights…leads were:
50/100, 50/85, 50/80, and 50/75. (Put the weight on at the 50 mark, and then the second number is the total amount of line out, before you put the board on).
Colors used were:
“Purple Tiger” (2 of them)
“Green Tiger”
“Red Tiger”
They all caught fish.

When we got to the top of the Huron Dump, I turned the Vexus east-northeast for a bit, before turning back around to go back over our trail. Sometimes, it’s just a directional issue, and I wanted to see if they would bite better going back the other way.

I got off course, though, when some boats showed up right at the moment my Ulterra remote said, “I’m done. I need new batteries”. I had to quickly change them out, so I could operate the motor. I had a boat heading straight on at me, and I needed to turn to starboard. Luckily, it happened, so the crisis was averted. Whew!
Thankfully, I keep a lot of extra batteries in the boat, and have them handy at all times.
Yes, I know, I could have turned the big motor on to control direction….but, it’s still a panicky/icky feeling when you see something out of your control, and there’s a big boat in front of you. 😉
All is well…

I let Chris and his Dad set lines as I watched and gave instruction when needed, so they could remember how to do it more easily. People only learn when they can actually do it for themselves, and figure it out. Chris and Jeff certainly did that. I wanted them to do everything together, because they fish together, so they also netted each other’s fish, which was funny to watch. The only advice I gave them was, “Use the net like a shovel and not a pool skimmer when you reach for the fish”. After they started doing that, they got the fish in easily. 🙂

After the remote mishap, we were headed from east to west over 38′ of water, and just kept going. We picked a walleye here and there and more junk fish.
The marks on the Garmin were getting fewer… and what looked like bugs coming up were showing on the screen instead. So, I turned the boat north to start a turn to go back. We had trolled maybe a 1/4 mile when one of the planer boards went floating away after it released from the front clip. One of them had not properly secured the line on the Snapper release before letting it out.

We picked up all the dipsies and brought the boards in, then headed back to where it floated away. It was a pretty calm morning, so it was easy to find. I don’t think the wind ever got over 10mph at any time this morning. After picking up the board, I just turned the boat to the east, which was the plan in the first place, so that board floating away right when it did was pretty fortuitous, because we hit a frenzy of bites as soon as we got set up. I wouldn’t have hit that area in my turn if we had kept going.

We set the dipsies out and got the planer boards out, and they suddenly went bonkers.
“Fish on the inside dipsey”, “Fish on the outside board”, “Fish on the inside board opposite side”, Fish on the other board now, too”, “There goes the other dipsey”. lol They thought that was great and were giggling throughout the chaos. We put the last fish in the cooler and headed in. They got their limits this morning, and I reeled in mine too.

It was getting hot out, and I knew it was going to be even hotter when we got back on land. The good news is, there were no bugs out this morning. That would have been miserable, as humid as it was. They would be sticking to every inch of exposed skin…ick.

The water temp out there was 79 degrees on the surface and 18′ down. The water is getting hot now, too.

I’m off tomorrow, but will be fishing with my neighbors Danielle and Dave, and our friend Keith (whose boat we sometimes take instead of mine) on Sunday.

My truck goes into the shop on Monday. Dave has been generously letting me use his truck for the past several trips, so I wouldn’t blow mine up before I can get it fixed. Thanks, Dave! 🙂

Stay tuned…

Capt Juls

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I had gone to bed earlier than usual and slept until 1 a.m. The dogs and I went out to the back deck to check the weather forecast for the day. The air was thick and muggy, and the air temp was already 81 degrees. The sky was partly cloudy. The wind was less than 10mph out of the SW.

Thankfully, Gary told me he and the boys would meet me early at the Huron ramp. I had told him 5:15, because of how dark it still is at 5am, but they showed up at 4:50, so we waited around and chatted a little before launching.

Matthew is 13 years old, and Milo is 10. Both looked like fishermen to me, so I was looking forward to the morning. Gary is their grandpa, and has his own 22′ boat, but it’s in the shop right now, and he wanted to get the boys out on the water, so he hired me. I’m glad he did, too! Those boys were awesome in the boat!

Matthew played “First Mate” after a quick refresher course on setting dipsies. He’s run them before, but it’s been a little while, and it didn’t take very long for him to start doing it on his own.

Milo, he was watching the rods like a Hawk and was often the first one to the rod. He did great with both the dipsies and the boards. He didn’t set any boards, but his brother did. He did set the dipsies, though. I was really impressed by both of them.
Grandpa takes them fishing a lot. 🙂

We headed out of the Huron River at 5:15 and headed back to the same area I have been fishing the past two weeks….but, it’s expanding. There are fish in close and out by the dump, and deeper, so there’s a lot of water to choose from to catch fish.

We ran the same program I’ve been running over there the past two weeks.

Two dipsies off each back corner… the inside rod is set on zero, and the longer outside rod is set on the three setting. Leads were the zero setting at 25 and 27 back, in shallower water (24-25′). and then dropped to 33 and 47 back over 39′-42′ of water.

The three settings started at 47 and 50 back, then dropped to 64 and 72 back over deeper water.

Speed was 2.5-2.9 on the FishHawk.

We caught fish going from directions south to north, west to east, and north to south. The bite was best very early, and as the sun got higher, the bite slowed down for us, but it was still steady enough to keep it fun.

The Bill Lewis PWC Lites did fantastic behind the Off Shore boards this morning, too. I only ran two boards per side; even though I could have run 4, I wanted to keep it simple for the boys, and it worked out.
I started out with the PWCs on the starboard side and the Flicker Minnow 11s on the port side, but took the Flickers off eventually and replaced them with more PWCs.

The best lead for the PWC Lites was 50/30 and 50/35 with a 2oz snap weight. The best colors were the “Purple Tiger” and “Green Tiger”. I ended up running 3 Purple Tigers and 1 Green Tiger. All of them were catching fish. The larger fish came on the cranks over the spoons, though.

It was a beautiful morning to be on the water. We caught fish and got off the water before it got too hot out.
They all said they had a great time, and that makes me happy!
Spending time with their Grandpa, and doing fun stuff…that’s what it’s all about. Memories made. 🙂

Tomorrow…hmmmm…
Well, at this point in time, I may or may not have a trip tomorrow. I’m waiting at the moment for a decision from them.

If I don’t have a trip, friends want me to go with them, so I’ll be fishing either way. 🙂

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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We fished today, Thursday NE of Kelly’s near old C can.Got an early start to beat the heat.Fished from 6-8am and sorted at 18″ again.Just the two of us fished today so ran 4 dipseys.Had 2 monkey puke spoons,spoon harness and a double Willow harness out.The 3 settings were set from 60-70 and one setting 45-55.First hour the spoons caught equal to worms but second hour the keeper walleye preferred the worms so changed to an extra spoon harness.Speed 2.2-2.5 mph.Nothing big today.Our 12 weighed 30 lbs.Was able to close up the boat before it got too hot,so had another great day.