Author: Admin 1

Partial day trips the last two days out of PiB? Spent decent time on the line between Middle Bass and Kelleys, just west of Gull Reef, where there were reports of limits?. Marked and caught very little. Picked up 2 eyes during a 1 hour troll with a couple sheep mixed in. Picked up lines and ran over North of Kelley?s and marked a lot of fish, but they were mostly glued to bottom and deep in 48-50. Ended up catching 4 on a worm burner behind large dipsy over there, one fish was almost 27? which was a nice bonus.

Caught nothing on the mini dipsy and spoon combo which is normally our go to.. pretty surprising.

I also fish Shallow reefs around Starve early AM and late PM.. usually do very well, but pretty quiet this weekend. The mayfly hatch is off the charts so I am guessing that has slowed things down a bit overall, plus the heavy winds.

Good luck all, be safe and tight lines.

I was having difficulty logging into the site as the system wants to grab my old email which I have tried to replace a couple of years ago. Juls contacted the system administrator and they contacted me thanks to Juls and got me straighted up.
Juls, the local school systems would love to have you for a substitute teacher as so are such a good speaker, your writing is terrific, and you are so organized. I bet you you are good at math and could help all ages with math.
But a big thank you for helping me, and thank you for ALL the reports you give us on how to fish, where to fish, and what to use .
I know everyone on this site is appreciative for all you do for us.
Bruce
Lucky Duck

Day 3 with Steve, Dave, and Doug?6/17/2026

No report today?and was too busy to get fish pics this morning, too?sorry!

We went out of Huron again, and duplicated yesterday?s report, but got done by 8:15 instead of 8:45 this time. 

Tomorrow?s trip is cancelled due to the forecast, and they are headed back to Minnesota and Wyoming with lots of fish!

I have to cut the grass and tend the gardens before this big weather system comes in later this afternoon?

Next trip is scheduled for Saturday?.

Stay tuned?

Capt Juls

Question: When looking at the precision app I?m only seeing inline trolling weights. Does it matter depth wise when running harness off boards if I use snap weights or inline? Guessing not but thought id ask. Also with harnesses are you guys using the 50+2?

Thanks!

Kratz

Same as the last eight days, but it took a little longer to get a limit. Between Middle Bass Island and Kelleys Island, up near the border, drifting or trolling.

I didn’t write a report for Day one of Steve, Dave, and Doug’s trip, because we had a late start, and by the time I got home, I only had time to feed the dogs, go to the bank, and make a quick dinner. For those that know me, you know what time I go to bed…for those that don’t know me, I am going to bed when most normal people are sitting down to dinner. I like to get up at 2am, so by the time I have to meet my customers, I am in a good mood, and I’ve already gotten lots of things done before I leave the house. It’s not for everyone, but it works for me. 😉

Anyway…day one, we caught their 3-person limit and a couple of mine. We fished the SE side of Kelly’s with spoons behind dipsies and Bandits behind the Off Shore boards. The spoons outfished the cranks, but the crank fish were still larger on average.

Day 2:

I got up at 1:30, feeling like I slept very well, and was feeling good. While sitting on the back deck with the dogs and my hot cup of coffee, I remembered telling them I would make them some of my brownies today, so after checking all my weather forecast apps, we went back inside.

I whipped up the brownies, and while they baked in the oven, I jumped in the shower and got ready. When I went outside to put stuff in the boat, I saw it….my electrical cord was on the ground. #%@*/! Ugh….I forgot to plug the charger in when we got back late. I said a few words, knowing I was the only one to blame.

Luckily, I have “Miller Tech” lithium batteries in the boat for the Ulterra. They have an app that lets me check the percentage of usage, and it showed there was still 65% left on all three batteries. Whew! If they were still AGMs, I would have been in a panic, knowing the batteries wouldn’t last for a second trip without a charge.

The forecast was calling for wind out of the SW at 10-18mph.
The air temp was 64 degrees at 4:30, and I could see some stars in the sky, so I figured it was clear to partly cloudy. The high today would only reach the mid 70s.

My guys are staying at Camp Perry, which is 2 miles west of my house, so they met me at my house and jumped in my truck for the ride to the launch.
This morning, I thought it would be a good idea to launch out of Huron, because of the wind direction and the location of the area I wanted to fish. It would be closer and not as rough as launching out of Mazurik’s and fishing the east side of Kelly’s.
These friends are in their mid to late 70’s, so I didn’t want them to take a rough boat ride if I could help it.

After stopping at the Speedway on 250 and Rt2 to get ice, we hit the Huron launch a little after 5am.
**Note: If you’re driving in from the west, you need to get off on Rt6 West and go through town, because 6 East is closed.

I got the boat ready and took the Bandits off the port side and attached Flicker Minnow11s instead. I wanted to try a smaller profile to see if the fish preferred those to a Bandit right now.

We didn’t go far out of the river and headed west until I hit 25′ of water. The fish marks were good, so I shut the big Merc off and deployed the Ulterra. The baby Merc and Fish Hawk were also deployed. The FishHawk usually gets set at 18′ down, because that’s far enough to get a good reading of opposite currents.

The target speed was 2.5mph, and the course was set in the direction of the dump.

The wind was still light when we started and was less than 5mph. By the time we would end, it would be blowing at 15mph(ish), and the lake would go from calm to 1-3s a mile out, 2-3s two miles out, and 2-4s on the north side of the dump.

Dipsies ran off the two back corners, as usual. Two on each side. The zero setting started out at 25 and 30 back, and the three settings were initially set to 50 and 60 back. They would be let out as we got over deeper water to what has been working the past two weeks.
The zero settings at 35 and 54, and the three settings at 64 and 72 back.
The Yeck spoons, DJ Custom Eye Lures, paints the bellies blue for me were consistently catching fish. I don’t know the name of the other Yeck color, but it has a pink belly and orange/chart/and pink on the back. It did well, too.

The Off Shore boards on the starboard side pulled Bandits at 100, 90, 80, and 63 back. (I run the long leads on the outside and shorter leads on the inside…it works for me).
Colors were:
“Sunspot” (stock color) 100 back
“Blue Shiner” (stock color) 90 back
“Halographic Natural Shiner” (Slim Shady Custom) 80 back
“Fruit Dots” (stock color) 63 back

The port side ran Flicker Minnow 11s (unassisted) at 115, 90, 80, and 63 back.
Colors were all stock colors:
“Firetail Chrome Candy” (115)
“Firetail Hot Perch” (90)
“Flashy Chartreuse” (80)
“Racy Shad” (63)

All but the Fruit Dots caught one or more fish this morning. Slim Shady’s “Halographic Nat. Shiner” caught the most of all the cranks, though. I need to order another 3 or 4 of those. I only have one in my box, and I really like that one. 🙂

Thankfully, my crew had a day of training before we had the kind of bite we had. And, they knew more about what to do. Dave was helping set dipsies, but they left the board setting to me. They helped net each other’s fish while I was busy resetting lines.

The first pass was from inside to the north side of the dump. We picked everything up and made a run back to the start, so we could make another pass. The first pass had produced 12 keepers and several throwbacks. The second pass gave us the other 12, along with more Sheephead Dave wanted to keep for his traps back home. He called them “Bobcat Bait”.

They caught their 3-person limit, and I reeled in mine, too. We had our 24 by 8:45 this morning, which made my guys very happy. Steve said, “This is the kind of experience we always read about, when people talk about Lake Erie…thanks, Juls”. I smiled, and nodded, and that made me happy! 🙂

They have two more days scheduled with me, and it looks like tomorrow will be the last day, because Thursday’s forecast looks nasty!

We’ll be headed back to Huron in the morning…

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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had a great day by west sister yesterday. One of my walleyes had a lamprey eel on it. Never saw that before – anyone else seen this?

Also for the readers from Toledo and West who don’t want to pull all the way over to Mazuriks to fish “the western basin” we went out of the Turtle creek area – Magee East ramp $5. Just west and north of West Sister is the duck bill and anvil formations. First eye on before 2nd rod set. Using fluorescent orange Flatfish and 2 oz Bass Pro shop 2 ounce snaps 50/2 and 20. also running blue fox vibra spin inline spiiners off a tru-trip 30 with a 2″ pinch of night crawler – 90 to 115 let back. These 2 accounted for most fish – bandits nothing, spoons brought in sheeps

Same as last few days. Boats limiting out and back at dock by 10am. Same place – between South Bass / Middle Bass and Kelleys Islands, from the center point up to the Canadian line. Drifting or trolling. Fish are often up high due to Mayfly hatch.

I beat the alarm clock again and got up at 1:45, due to my Golden Retriever pacing the floor, because he wanted me to get up. My alarm is set for 2am. I said to the maniac, “I guess it’s time to get up, eh? Okay, you win…only because it’s only 15 minutes”.

The back deck was calm, dry, and warm. The forecast was calling for sunshine and winds out of the SW at 5-13mph, so I knew it was going to be a good day. I left the house at 4:40 and went to the Whitecaps Motel to pick up my guys, who had a 5am pickup. I wanted a few minutes to wipe down the trailer. I did the boat yesterday, but forgot to do the trailer, so it was bugging me.

I sent a text to Ken to let them know I was there, that I was early, and there was no hurry. They walked out at 4:50 and jumped in the truck. We only had to pick up ice for the fish-cooler and a couple of snacks, so we made a quick stop at the Speedway in town. Apparently, the lights were not turned off last night, so the entire place was covered in a thick layer of Mayflies. While they can be bothersome, it’s always great to see them, because it’s a clear sign of a healthy lake.

We got in the water at Mazurik’s at 5:30, and after the big motor was warmed up to 140 degrees, we set off. The Vexus was pointed to the east, instead of north this time, and we just drove until we got out of the river channel (more wind in the channel). I was marking good fish marks on the Garmin, so we stopped. We set up over 28′ of water, and kept the boat pointing east for our trolling pass.

The Ulterra gets deployed first and set to a power level of 5, with the iPilot taking control. The baby Merc goes next, and is powered up enough to get the FishHawk to read 2.3-2.5mph on its graph. For those reading these reports for the first time, the FishHawk is a probe that runs down below in the undercurrent. It tells me the speed and temp down there. The surface current and the undercurrent are very seldom the same, so it’s good to know how fast your baits are actually swimming down below.

Ken and Jeff were not old gents like I thought they were in my last report, so it was a pleasant surprise to see these two walk up to the truck. I knew they would have no issues standing up in the boat. They told me they wanted to learn, so I showed them how dipsies work, and how the boards work, and then showed them how to set all of them out.

It took a few tries, but they picked it up pretty quick and were setting lines and netting fish in no time.

Dipsies were set out first. You know the settings….a zero and a three on each side of the boat.
The zero settings started out at 28 and 35 when we were over 28′ of water.
The three settings started out at 50 and 72.
Yeck and BadMo Arrow spoons were used.

The dipsies definitely outfished the cranks, but the crank fish were consistently bigger.

As we got out to 43′ of water, the dipsies were adjusted to:
Zero settings were 54 and 47, and the three settings were 64 and 72.

The Off Shore boards pulled Bandits behind them…two on each side.
The port side ran one at 67 and 57 back, early, and then at 97 and 67 as the sun got higher.
The starboard side ran them at 100 and 80.

Colors that caught were:
“Halographic Natural Shad” (Slim Shady Custom)
“Whiskey and Water” (Slim Shady Custom)
“Psycho Killer” (Slim Shady)
“SunSpot” (stock color)

Water temp on the surface was 69.6, and the temp down below was 71.

Ken and Jeff did a great job after getting the hang of it and were running the back of the boat by themselves. I just reeled in my fish, and let them set lines. I believe they will now be able to do the same in their own boats.

They said they had a great time and learned a lot, so that makes me happy! Mission accomplished…:)

I’m off tomorrow, and then I have a 4-day trip starting on Monday. Monday and Tuesday look good, but Wednesday and Thursday are iffy, right now. Hopefully, it changes for the better. My guys are coming all the way from Wyoming, so I want them to get all 4 days in while they are here. Fingers crossed!

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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