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Are the walleyes around yet and biting? Im not in brawl and wanting to get up there a couple times this fall. Just curious . Trying to decide when to come. Thanks for any info.

Went up this past weekend to clean and close up the boat with my cuz. weather obviously was a mess so we didnt get to fish as mush as we would have liked BUT I managed to get out sunday for a couple hours in the morning. Fished in a small pack between Lakeside and Kelleys. Good marks and lots of bites but ALL bait stealers. Caught maybe 10-12 in about an hour and a half and had about triple that in bait stealing tap tap bites. Nothing over 6″ so not worth keeping, thrown back to get bigger next year!

All done for the season unless I make it back for a charter with some friends or something so it will be river and reservoir fishing until next spring!

Thanks for all the guidance on here this season!! LOVE this forum and how helpful everyone is for a weekend warrior that between wife, house, kids, etc. only gets out about 1/5 of how much i would like lol

Good luck in the brawl and packing freezers with perch to everyone!!

Sunday morning, I went to run errands and stopped in at Fisherman’s Central to say, “Hi” to whoever was working there that morning. As I was standing near the register with the MGR, Dave, and associate, Cindy, a couple walked into the store. I said, “Good morning” to them, and Dave welcomed them, too. They said they were here from TX, and since it was a rainy morning, they were just out and about and stopped in.

After they browsed the store, they came over to talk to us. Mike said he was interested in the Vexus DVX22 as a new boat for himself. He’s a bass fisherman and has always had bass boats. He and Carrie wanted something a little more protective for their future fishing adventures.

I asked him, “Do you have rain gear with you? I’ll go get my boat and take you for a test ride this morning, if you want”. He said they didn’t. He and Carrie had a three-day charter set up with “Tarter Sauce Charters” for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday… and he has a 28′ Duckworth boat with an enclosed cabin, so they didn’t think to bring the rain gear.

At some point, Mike asked about fishing “tomorrow”, which would be the day before they went out with Tarter. I looked at the wind forecast and said, “I’m free if you want to go tomorrow. Do you want to walleye or perch fish?” They both said, “Either, or both is good; we just want to go fishing”. I smiled. “Well, we can start with walleye, and I can bring some frozen shiners along, too”.
We set up a plan to meet at Mazurik’s at 6:45 and go do some walleye fishing first.

I hadn’t been walleye fishing for close to a month, I think, because I’ve been doing perch trips, so I was looking forward to it. The wind forecast was calling for 10-15 out of the SSW, with the wind picking up to 15 mph later in the morning.

My last time out perch’n I had marked a lot of walleye looking marks off the Marblehead lighthouse, so I thought I would start looking there. We launched at 7am and headed east. The marks were no longer where they were three days ago, so we kept going east towards Huron.

It was still pretty dark out, so we took our time. I was amazed at how few marks there were from Cedar Point all the way to the Huron Dump for this time of year, so we kept going until we were at the dump. I was zig-zagging from 34′ of water out to 40’….looking. Nothing impressed me enough to stop, so we headed north from the east side of the dump.

I explained that the further north we went, that when it would get windy later, that the lake would get rougher, but that if it got too rough, we would head back and try for some perch near the launch. (I had marked some good schools right outside of Mazurik’s as we left).

After marking some walleye, I decided to just set up and keep heading north, and hope we hit better marks.
Air temp was 64 degrees…water temp was also 64 degrees.
Speed on the FishHawk was 2-0 to 2.4 mph.

The setup was two dipsies off each corner. The zero settings were at 33 and 45 to start, and the two settings were at 60 and 65 to start. Eventually, the zero settings were catching at 47 and 50, and the three settings caught at 75 and 80 back.

The Off Shore boards ran two Bandits on the starboard side and two PWC lites with 20oz snap weights on the port side. The PWCs were set at 50/50 and 40/40….the Bandits were 100 and 65 back.

Bandit colors started with Red Headed and Black Headed Wonderbread, but were changed out to the “Slim Shady” “Fermi” (painted version) and set to 107 back, and Slim’s “Green Lantern”. The Fermi took a nice fish, so I changed out the PWC lites to Bandits and put another Fermi on that side at 107 back, and that one took a nice fish, too. Those were the only two crankbait fish; the others came on the Scorpion, Stinger, and Yeck spoons.

The two settings at 75 and 80 back caught better than the zero settings did.

In the beginning, we went for quite a while with nothing to show for it, so I said, “Let’s change the angle of our dangle, because last night’s wind and this morning’s are opposite, so the currents are probably a little screwy this morning. I turned the Vexus to the NW, and kept the waves on the port corner. I didn’t want to go in a more westerly direction, to keep the ride a little smoother, since they were having a little trouble keeping their balance in the boat.

The wind had started picking up, but it was still 2′ or less out there, so we kept going. Then, the bite started, and we finally put fish in the cooler. Carrie caught her first walleye and was having fun. We only caught 8 out there before we decided it was getting a little rough for them, and decided to take a ride back to try for some perch near shore, where it was calmer.

Since Mike was interested in buying a new boat, I let him “Test Ride” the Vexus on the way back in. He and Carrie were both impressed with the boat and the ride, so chances are good they might buy one to replace the old bass boat. 🙂

They had a fun time and got to relax and enjoy the calm waters while perching (we put 6 in the cooler and threw back twice as many) before we loaded out. They are really nice and down-to-earth people, close to my age, so it was a very enjoyable experience for me, too, and that makes me happy! 🙂

My trip for this morning (Tuesday) has been rescheduled to the spring, due to the wind forecast of 18-28mph out of the SW. I did, however, get a call right before I went to bed last night from a grandfather who wanted to take his 22-year-old grandson fishing this week. Originally, he was looking at Friday, but it’s supposed to blow on Friday, so I asked if Wednesday was a possibility for them. He said it was, so we will be headed out of Huron’s launch at 7am tomorrow.

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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Fished today around B can, a lot of boats in a pack around the can. Fishing was slow and many throwbacks. Moved east to C can and picked up 30, 10 of which were 11 inches or better. Very slow day, had shiners from Al Szuch.

Fish seemed finicky, had to keep the spreader
Moving for them to even show interest.

After getting skunked here a month ago, we were back 10/6 looking for walleyes. Left Hot Waters under a banana moon. It was 45 degrees out. Surface temperature was 66. The forecast was for 7 knot winds and smooth seas. It did start with a good “walleye chop” but it became saturated with whitecaps before we even started fishing. It was never “smooth seas.”
Headed NNE from Lorain. Kept going past the dump. Saw some good marks in 54 feet of water about 8 miles out from the ramp and put down our lines.
We ran 2 Bandits and 2 smaller cranks with 4 oz snap weights. These were anywhere from 40+40 back to 60+60. Also had two spoons with Tru-trips running between 60 and 100 back. Every line had a small inline planer board. Speed was 1.9 to 3.1 depending on whether we were climbing up a wave or sliding down one. Just kept trolling on that NNE bearing, marking a few good fish every few minutes, mostly suspended 35 – 45 feet deep.
Finally started catching one here and there. 12 miles from the ramp it was 62 feet deep. We made a U-turn because the waves were too scary – but not scary enough to stop fishing. We just trolled into the wind back toward land, maybe a mile east of our original track. We caught fish on the way back too. It was never fast and furious but we were busy between the occasional walleye and the frequent tangles as the wind blew our lines across each other.
There was no grass here, by the way. No drum, no bass, no white perch. We did throw back one dink. We lost our nicest eye at the net. Still managed to take home 11 keepers before we ran out of time. That’s pretty good for me. They were all 17 – 20″.
Back at Hot Waters, a guy said he and his family got 18 perch today “over by Beaver.”
Picture shows the lures that caught – and they all caught more than one. I assume that skyline at the sunrise is Cleveland. Beautiful day on the lake.

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Any Reports around Kelleys ? I have a buddy bringing his son and a friend up for the weekend ……..and yes I have checked the weather I know its going to tuff !

Just curious, it seems like this site has gone total radio silent the last couple weeks. Is that because folks are hangin em up for the season or is everyone mum because of the big Erie Fall Brawl contest?

Planning an early Oct trip over to Huron area. Any advice for walleye or perch? There have been few reports lately. We fish the reefs complex every year in May but occasionally get a fall trip in. Any advice for walleye or perch much appreciated.

I have some visitors coming to fish perch on the big pond the first weekend of October. I?m based in Foxhaven on Catawba. Perching has been slow lately. If we don?t get any perch action going has anyone had any luck with Walleye around the islands? Capt Juls makes great reports and lately has been talking about Vermilion to Lorain. I?m not going to run that far east. Appreciate any insight!

This report is a day late, due to a gremlin that keeps tormenting me with mechanical issues. Yesterday, when we took our fish to PC Fish to have cleaned, my truck’s radiator fluid puddled up on the road. The reservoir was half empty, too. I’m glad we made it back from Vermilion without issue, though, because stopping on the side of the highway with a boat in tow is never fun.

The morning started its usual way, with a coffee and dogs out on the back deck. The air temp was 66 degrees, and the sky was partly cloudy. The wind was light from the southerly direction. It was going to be a beautiful day to be on the water.

Walter and Lisa met me at my house again, but they were a little earlier then the other day, due to us driving over to Vermilion this time…it would take longer to get there than going to Huron. They showed up right on time, and off we went.

We hit the gas station for some ice for the coolers and hit the highway. 40 minutes later we were in Vermilion. We were the only ones at the ramp, so launching was fast and easy. We idled out of the river while this couple from Nebraska marveled at the beautiful houses and boats lining the river. Lisa kept saying, “When I hit the Powerball we can do this”. 🙂

The plan was to head to Lorain from Vermilion and hope to run into some good marks to set up on. I stopped once when the screen was full, but I didn’t think they were the right fish, or even the right flavor of fish, so we moved further north… about halfway between Vermilion and Lorain.
The Garmin was marking fish the entire way, but they looked better in this area.

The Ulterra and Baby Merc were deployed and worked in unison to steer us to the NNE at a FishHawk speed of 2.3-2.5 mph. The marks were thick, along with thick schools of forage showing up like big blobs on the screen. The fish were feeding on the schools of minnows or bugs (whatever they were), so the competition would be tough.

The Dipsies went out first. The zero settings were set to 35 and 40 to start, and the two settings were set to 60 and 70 back. BadMo, Yeck, and Scorpion spoons were used. Blue/Silver would be the dominant color for the morning.

Since Walter and Lisa fished with me earlier in the week, they already had been trained and knew the routine. Walter was happy to take over checking and setting lines, and I was confident in his abilities that I didn’t need to interfere by nagging him with instructions. I only explained that we were probably going to have to keep checking the lines for itty-bitties that would be hard to see when they are just hanging there.

After the first 5 itty-bitties, the two setting at 60 back on the port side went back aggressively a few times, and Lisa jumped up to get it. Walter was always there to help his 5-foot-tall wife get the rod out of the rod holder, turn off the clicker, and pop the mechanism on the dipsey before handing her the rod. I thought at first it was probably a big sheephead, due to her struggling to reel it in, but it wasn’t acting like a sheephead.

To all of our surprise, it was a 28 1/4″ 8-pound walleye. Luckily, it had almost swallowed the spoon, so the one little hook wasn’t going to let go, and Walter landed Lisa’s big fish in the net. I didn’t realize I had been holding my breath as they were trying to net it until it was in the boat, and I let out a deep sigh. lol

Lisa was so excited to have caught it, and said, “This just made my entire week!” It was only 7:30, so we had all morning to try and catch more like that. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. We caught a lot of fish, but mostly small eyes, white bass, white perch, and sheephead. We would only catch a total of 5 keepers all morning. The best leads were the zero at 45 and 50 back, and the two setting at 60 and 84 back.

One of those keepers was caught on a fast turn, when we had to get out of a ship’s way. We were only two miles out when it came out of the mouth of the river, so it wouldn’t have taken long for the ship to run us over, had we stayed on the same line without noticing them. Good thing I keep my head on a swivel most of the time. Whew!

They both said they had a great two days fishing with me, even though we didn’t limit, and would like to come back again…and that makes me happy!

I had two older men this morning (9/11) that I picked up from the Whitecaps…did the usual stops and hit Catawba. Launched the boat, and the power steering in the steering wheel was making a liquid, squishy-washy sound that wouldn’t stop, so the trip was canceled. I wasn’t going to risk the power steering going out when I’m miles out. They understood and told me to hold their deposit for another time.
We went and grabbed breakfast and had a good chat before taking them back to the Motel.

I don’t know when my next trip is, because I don’t have anything scheduled until the 25th right now. Next week is out, because I have too many vehicle appts to get both my car and truck fixed…and now, I have to get the boat down to Fisherman’s Central to have the line bled, or whatever they need to do to fix this power steering issue. It’s never ending…deep sigh.

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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