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What batteries are you using and do you like them?

Background: The lead acid batteries that came with my used boat wouldn’t hold a charge so I replaced them with a pair of 100 Ah LiFePO4 batteries. One is from Ampere Time and the other is from Li Time, which as far as I can tell is the same company.

They worked great for a year but now the Ampere Time is malfunctioning. My NOCO charger starts to charge it, but after a minute, it goes dark as if it isn’t even connected to a battery. Then it goes back to charging for another minute. Back and forth. Eventually it shows a full charge. The NOCO charges the other battery steadily with no disruption.

Switching batteries to the other NOCO circuit shows the problem is in the battery, not the charger.

With the batteries wired in series, I get 24 volts to power the Minn Kota and it works fine for a few hours. But then the Minn Kota dies and won’t come back on until I recharge. When the batteries were new, they ran the Minn Kota for 12+ hours. Judging by the charging time of the good one – the Li Time – I think the bad one – Ampere Time – is just shutting off before it is depleted.

The older of the two batteries is less than 3 years old with maybe 50 charges in its life. Still supposed to be covered by the warranty. Emails to Ampere Time Support have gone unanswered so it looks like the warranty will not be honored. So I’m looking for a better brand and will appreciate your input.

Went out of Huron on the 16th, every boat in front of me on the river headed for deep water as soon as they cleared the lighthouse. I headed NE out of the river and stopped to check marks at half a mile out, 32 ft of water, fish were stacked so we started trolling NE, running blue chrome and black chrome bandits 110 feet back on outside boards, inside boards we ran bandits 85 ft back. We also ran dipseys at the corners on 1 setting 40 ft back with monkey puke spoons. Everything hit, 3 man limit in 2.5 hours. Of the 18 keepers 16 of them were 23 inches or better. We were the only boat fishing in that area. I will be heading back out on the 23rd. Also we were trolling at 2.2 mph, they liked it slow that day.

Well it’s our final day, Got everything packed and left the house by 8. Different wind today so plan was to launch at Avon and travel east along the shore for wind break then turn and head north till we reached deep water. Took us about 40 min to get out to 65 fow. Setup and headed north toward the border. Same setup as before bandits behind boards Dhj12 on the corners and spoons over the side. Did better netting today, never missed a fish. Had 1 line break but the fish was floating on top with the crank bait stuck to him so we were able to circle around and net him….lol. Trolled from 10 to 2pm caught 4 man limit. Started in 65 fow and ended in 72 fow. The deeper we got the more fish we marked. marked fish from 25 ft to 50 ft. caught all of ours 30 to 45 ft deep. Looked like there might have been a thermocline right around 50ft with a lot of fish lingering there but we caught all our fish above that. Went back to ramp, cleaned fish and headed back to Indy.

Last night at Huron cleaning station talked to a guy that had limited out. He launched out of vermillion but said he had to go deep. He went all the way to the border. SO today we had a new plan. We launched out of Avon ramp cause it was closest to deep water. We ran out straight north out to 65 fow and started trolling north east. Same setup, bandits behind boards with 3oz weights Dhj12 off the corners and spoons over the side. Caught a few here and there but the deeper we got the hungrier the fish got. Had some issue with getting fish in the boat, lost 3 at the net and another 4 came off on the way to the boat. As we were trolling out deeper I noticed my trolling motor was not steering the boat like it was earlier. tried bumping up the speed but to no avail. Figured out how to turn kicker and big motor in order to control boat. Had a big tangle with 3 or 4 lines so we pulled them all in and I big motored back southwest so we could setup and troll with the waves again for better boat control. Set back up and started trolling for about another 1 1/2 hours, caught a few more eye then had another big tangle. It had been another very hot day and we had just ran out of cold drinks in the cooler. It was 4 pm and we been at it since about 830 am, so we decided to head in so we could cool down, hydrate and figure out problem with trolling motor. We still ended up with 19 and if we would have landed the ones we lost we would have limited it out so all n all pretty good day. Tomorrow supposed to have showers, and I have some boat issues to look into so not sure how tomorrow will go. Thursday taking kids to Cedar Point, so if I don’t make it out tomorrow I’ll definitely be out Friday before we head home.

Woke up at 1:45 and headed to the back deck with the dogs and a coffee in hand. The air was quiet and slightly heavy, the sky was dark but Jupiter and Venus were shining brightly to the east, and the temperature was around 70 degrees.

The forecast for the morning was for light winds out of the southeast and sunshine.

I arrived at the White Caps Motel at 5:40 am to pick up my crew from Indiana. Danny, his boy Daniel, and Danny’s friend, Jim, wanted to do some walleye fishing. (If you read yesterday’s report, you know that I did well out of Vermilion.)
But, I didn’t want to travel over there on a weekend, due to all the road construction on RT2 right now. The weekends are the worst for backups and accidents, and I didn’t want to hit a backup on our way back this afternoon, so we launched at Mazurik’s.

We headed northeast from the ramp, about 8 miles (43′ of water), when the Garmin showed some decent marks that I wanted to set up over, so we stopped. The marks looked just like what I was fishing over yesterday…swimming from 20-35 feet down.

Yesterday’s catching started out pretty fast in the morning, and then slowed as the sun got higher, but this morning was a slow start and finished better towards late morning. I struggled to find a working program, but eventually figured out enough to get them to their limit, but none of mine.

The dipsies were very slow, and the spoons were changed out often. BadMo spoons outshone the Yeck and Scorpion spoons by 3:1 today.

Zero settings were catching at 50 and 54 back. Three settings were catching at 77 and 90.

Speed was anywhere from 2.5-3.0mph

Bill Lewis PWC Lites with 2oz snap weights, ran behind the Off Shore boards on the port side, while Bandits ran on the starboard side. The PWCs were set at 50/47 and 50/27, and both were the “Purple Tiger” color. Both caught fish.

Slim Shady Custom Bandits in “Blue Lantern” and “Fire and Ice” caught at 120, 97, and 85 back with no snap weights.

Direction seemed to play a big role in our bite today, too. We had been going for miles in a NE direction, and then turned north towards the border. Once we were close to the border (now 12 miles from the launch), it was time to turn around. And that’s when the bite got better for us. The north-to-south troll seemed to be the ticket. That’s my story, anyway, and I’m sticking to it. 🙂

I had talked to a few people about the perch bite today, and they all had a tough time of it. After many hours of trying, they only had a couple of dinners in their buckets…nothing close to limits…even though they were marking lots of fish all morning.
So, I told my crew this information, because they had booked a second day with me to go perch fishing tomorrow. We decided not to do the trip tomorrow. I told them to save their money and come back again another time. They appreciated my honesty and said they would be calling me again next spring.

Yes, I’m sure a few folks got on a good bite somewhere, but I’m guessing the majority struggled today, so the decision was made in good faith.

They all said they had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful day on Lake Erie, and that makes me happy!

My next trip isn’t until Wednesday, but I’m watching that forecast, because it’s calling for gusty NNW winds, and a perch trip is scheduled. He’s retired, so changing days isn’t a problem.

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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I left the house at 4:15 to hit the gas station and head over to Vermilion by 5:15. Jeanne, who is the niece/cousin of my long-time customers, Steve and Jeremy Chapman, set this trip up for herself, husband Brad, and daughter Harper. It is Harper’s 16th birthday today, and she asked to go on a fishing trip, so that’s what we did. They live in Lakewood, so I thought it best for me to meet them in Vermilion, since it was closer to them and closer to where I wanted to fish.

I had told them to meet me there at 6:00 am since the sunrise was scheduled for 6:38 this morning. They showed up right on time. I thought the ramp would be busy, because it’s Friday and the weather was nice. The air temp at 6a.m. was 67 degrees, the sky was clear, and the wind was less than 5mph out of the SE. But the ramp was empty, except for one fella who launched about 5:45.
It was pretty nice having it to ourselves, because we could just take our time and not be in anyone’s way. 🙂

We headed a little WNW out of the river and went about 6 miles, when the Garmin started showing some good marks over 47′ of water. I slowed the Vexus down, and the marks continued, so we stopped. The Ulterra and baby Merc were lowered into position and set to a speed of 2.5mph according to the FishHawk. (The speed would eventually be upped to 2.7-3.0mph for a better catch rate.) The course was set to continue to the WNW until we hit the outer Vermilion Dumping Grounds, which were only a few miles away yet.

The dipsies went out first and were set on the zero and three settings.
The zero settings started out at 50 and 60 back. The three settings were set at 75 and 90. The zero settings were pretty steady at those depths, but we did lower them from time to time to 65 and 70 back, when the fish moved lower in the water column.
The three settings stayed at 75, and the 90 played at 97 and 100 a few times, and caught fish.

Badmo, Yeck, and Scorpion spoons were the flavor of the day. Greens with silver were the preferred color this morning.

We ended with their 3-person limit and 3 of mine. We did go in a 1/2 hour early on Jeanne’s suggestion, since they had to run to the store to buy a cooler, because they forgot to bring one to take the fish home in. 🙂

The bite was really good very early, and as the sun rose higher in the sky, it slowed down, but they kept biting. And, when the walleye wouldn’t…the white perch, white bass, and sheephead did. We caught one nice yellow perch on a BadMo spoon at 65 back, too.

Harper did a great job, and was setting dipsies and netting fish like a seasoned angler. Her mom sent a text after I sent them their pictures and said, “Harper had an absolutely amazing time, and I got a fancy new cooler out of it”, so that makes me happy!

Tomorrow and Sunday, I have the Danny Pearson crew of three…one day of walleye and one day of perch’n. But, if the perch reports don’t improve tomorrow…we may be doing two days of walleye.

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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Got a late start, 10 – 1 pm, Went to the honey hole G can area , 3 sheep head and several small yellow perch, no white perch. Looked to the west some ways off and there were two head boats working it. Gave some thoughts of moving west to join them in their area.
However, I decided to try H can, and there I caught two keeper yellow perch, 3 sheep head and that was it.

How many time do you consider a move and not know if it was the the best tactic. Well the two head boats that were seen west of me moved into the same area of H can but just west of me.

Anyway, I still enjoyed the time out there and will be back soon in the hunt for Yellow Gold.

As the lake cools, (in the future) I expect better numbers.

Be safe and put those life jackets on (when moving)
I know it is hot, but do put those on when you are on the move.

~Water Dog