I was meeting Jim, Rusty, and Adam at the Vermilion ramp at 6:30, so I left my house at 5:00am, so I could hit the gas station and take my time on my way to Vermilion. The gas pump was super slow at the Speedway in Port Clinton, so I only filled up the truck, and decided, since I had all kinds of time, that I would hit the other Speedway in Sandusky, so I could top off the Vexus’s gas tank. Slow pumps could mean a clogged filter, and I don’t want yucky gas in my boat. I might be wrong, but I usually listen to my gut, and it keeps me out of most trouble.
I got to the ramp at 6:10, and parked. No one was there yet. After I put some warmer clothes on, a truck pulled in and parked. I kind of thought it might be my crew, since Jim knows I’m always early. After I paid the launch fee, and hit the bathroom, I walked back towards the truck, and three men were by my boat. I was right, they were my crew.
I have fished with Jim and his wife before, many years ago, when they hired me for a learning walleye trip. He had his own boat, so he did just fine, but has now sold the boat, and hired me again. This time, bringing two friends along…Rusty and Adam. Jim had kept in touch over the years, and when he was on the lake at the same time as me, we would share information with each other.
We launched at 6:30 and headed towards Lorain. It was a beautiful morning. The air temp was 54 degrees on the West side of Port Clinton, when I left the house, this morning, but was much warmer in Vermilion. It was 67 degrees by 7:30 out on the lake. Water temp was 64.8 degrees. The sky was clear, and the wind was less than 5 out of the NNE, so the lake looked flat, but had some of those small rollers coming in.
I was headed to the Lorain dump, when the Garmin lit up with marks in the middle of the east side of the dump….over 49′ of water. I figured it was a good place to start. I set the Ulterra on a northerly course (towards deeper water), and fired up the baby Merc. I dialed in the RPMs with the iTroll, and when the FishHawk showed a speed of 2.5 mph, I started puting the lines out.
Jim already knew how to do everything, so I gave Rusty and Adam instructions on how to set lines with dipsies and Off Shore boards.
The dipsies went out first. The zero settings were set to 54 and 45 back. The three settings were out at 70 and 75….running BadMo, Yeck, and Scorpion spoons. I changed colors out several times, but they hit on everything when they hit. There really wasn’t one that was hotter than the other. The best leads were 54 and 60 on the zero settings, and the three settings did best at 70-77 back.
Flicker Minnow 11s ran behind the Off Shore boards on both sides. I only ran 3 instead of 4 boards per side, because of the newbies on board, and I didn’t know what kind of bite awaited us. Sometimes, it’s best to keep it simple.
The Flickers ran at 110, 77, and 67 back on the Port Side, and 57, 80, and 110 on the starboard side (Yes, I run the longest leads on the outside boards).
Colors were:
“Slick Pearl Silver” (2) at 110 back
“Firetail Chrome Candy” at 80 back
“Slick Blue Alewife” at 57 back
“Slick Purple Bengal” at 67 back
“Slick Green Alewife” at 77 back
Everyone, including me, had a great time this morning. It started out a bit slow on that northerly troll, but when we made a direction change to the WNW, we started picking up fish on a more steady basis. They were a nicer grade than I had gotten my last time to Vermilion, so that was good to see.
The guys did a great job, and they all said they had a great time. Jim said he would be back for a fall trip, and that makes me happy!
I had a perch trip scheduled for tomorrow, but we are rescheduling that to next month, with the hopes that the perch bite continues to improve.
Stay tuned…
Capt Juls