Was the 1st mate for charters Friday and Saturday. Friday, fishing on/around the dump 35-40 FOW in the crowd, Friday we took 31 out of a possible 36. Nothing special size wise. On Saturday, we stopped west of the pack, took 30/30,34-36 FOW. Never had an encounter with another boat. Size was much better, one @ 26”, several over 20”. Used small stinger and Yeck teardrop spoons; along with J-7 plugs; both behind Dipseys and Tru-Trip 40 divers. Caught them with leads of anywhere from 45 to 95 feet. Saturday was 76 lbs at the cleaners.
Category: Uncategorized
Perch 7/13
Fished North of C can, 34 FOW. Slow but fish were all 9 inches or better. Ended up with 20. We used whole
Golden on spreaders with no spinners or beads.
Golden on spreaders with no spinners or beads.
Draggin’ the Line with John and Terry
John was supposed to fish with a buddy earlier in the week but the remnant of the hurricane busted up that deal.Only possibly of fishing was Friday if weather and his Buddy Terry could join us.The stars aligned and Terry flew John up from Zanesville.Headed to same place yesterday that we fished last week.Just north of line in Canada and the nets off the NE side of Kelly’s.Got lines in water around 6:45am after a smooth ride out and the fish were still there.Took us just under 4 hrs but sorted through 35 fish to get out 18 keepers that weighed 42 lbs at cleaners.The dipseys caught almost all the fish today again.Had on two double willow worm harness in purple/pink blades, one green spoon harness and a J7.Had them 3 setting at 80 and 85 and one setting 60 and 65.Got A few on the two boards with a blue chrome bandits at 150 with 2oz at 50.Best speed around 2.7 mph Had 16 keepers and were getting more selective when John and Terry were messing around bringing a board in they thought had a fish.I was on other side of boat waiting for them to have nothing when the drag sang out on a rod next to me.Was a heavy fish and John slowed the boat down to help reel in what was probably a huge sheepshead.When fish rolled at surface and didn’t look like a sheep.Then I thought it was a big cat and John got net ready to lift it out of water.Was horsing in when got close enough to get a good look and it was a big eye.Was 25″ but a thick fish thst weighed 6 lbs.Took a little while to get last keeper when wind died and sun was bright.But no midges or flies.Great day on the water.
Perch fishing
My wife and I went out perch fishing for the first time today. Stopped about 1 1/2 miles southwest of B can. Caught one keeper in 20 minutes so pulled anchor and ran north. Got to the line due west of B can and dropped anchor. Fished there for about 3 hours. It was very slow for two hours then they turned on. We had 10 or so in the cooler and in the next hour we put another 35 in the cooler. We kept three or four that were under 9 inches that were gut hooked and the rest were 9 to 10 inches. Nice class of fish but nothing larger than 10 inches. All were on shiners. Split between spreaders and crappie rig.
We got shiners at Bite Me Bait behind the wild wings gas station. They were probably 50/50 nice shiners/small gold shiners. I cut all the bigger shiners in half and used the smaller ones whole
Western Basin
Heading out of Meinke West tomorrow morning. Haven’t been on the water size early March because of daughters travel softball. Looking for a starting point not asking for any exact locations. Want to get my guys on fish. Thanks!
Fishing with Joe and Tara…7/12/2024
Left the house at 4:30, and headed over to the Super 8, to pick up Joe and Tara, and on my way there, three Raccoons were crossing the road in a very dark area, so by the time I saw them, it was too late to make a maneuver and avoid them. There was a car coming from the other direction, so I couldn’t go around them in the other lane. It was two adults and a little one. I was hoping that I didn’t get any of them, but on my way home today, I saw that the tiny one was on the side of the road. That made me sad, and broke my heart. 🙁
When I got to the hotel, early as usual, I thought I would sit and browse Facebook for 15 minutes, while I waited for their pick up time to arrive, but they were already outside, and ready to go. They hopped in the truck, and we hit the gas station for some ice, and headed over to Mazurik’s, afterwards.
It was a nice morning, with little to no wind out of the SE, partly cloudy skies, and an air temp of 70 degrees. I told them that we are early, so we would have to wait until it got light enough to be able to see any commercial nets, that get set up east of Kelly’s.
Oh, and for those of you following my Humminbird drama….everything is working like normal again. I have a new unit at the dash, (which probably wasn’t a necessary expense), and I purposely didn’t upload any waypoints, because I just wanted to go out, find fish, and start fishing.
We did just that, and the funny thing was, when I turned the back Helix on, that still has the waypoints on it, we had set down about 100 yards east of where I have been fishing the last several times out. lol
I just went with the same program I had been using for the past month, and it did the job. Joe and Tara are MN anglers, who are used to fishing with a rod in hand, with Lindy Rigs, or jigging, so I did the set up with the Off Shore boards, and explained how dipsies work, and how to set them. Joe caught on to the dipsies pretty quick, and did a great job resetting them, without getting tangles.
Baby Spros (85s) were running behind the boards with 2oz Guppie weights at 50/80, and 50/27 on the starboard side, and 50/61, and 50/30 on the port side.
There were three chrome perch baits, and one purple glass perch. All caught fish.
The dipsies were the usual with the shorter inside rods running on the zero setting, and the longer outside rods running on the two and three settings. The zero settings were 40 back on the port side, and 50 back on the starboard side.
The two setting ran on the starboard side at 65 back. The three setting was on the port side, and started at 85 back, but also caught fish at 75 and 55 back…it was running a black/gold Ripplin Redfin.
The two setting started with a Yeck spoon in the “Confusion” color, but was eventually switched out to another black/gold Ripplin Redfin.
The zero setting on the port side was a Red Headed Wonder Bread Scorpion spoon, and the port side was another Yeck spoon with a blue belly and copper-goldish color with bits of red and black on it.
All of those caught multiple fish. Speed was 2.3-2.5mph on the FishHawk.
We didn’t have any big fish today, but we managed our three person limit of good eaters. We went through a bunch of itty-bitties this morning, too.
Joe and Tara were very happy with their catch, and since Tara is the only one that eats fish in their family, she was especially happy. 🙂
I have a trip on Monday, but I’ll be watching the weather for that one. Right now, it’s not looking very good. Hopefully, that will change.
I have a lot of dates still available for July, and the perch bite is looking pretty good right now, so hopefully, I can get out after some of those this week. I’m dying to go perch’n!
If anyone is looking to get out this month, shoot me a message, email, or text.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
When I got to the hotel, early as usual, I thought I would sit and browse Facebook for 15 minutes, while I waited for their pick up time to arrive, but they were already outside, and ready to go. They hopped in the truck, and we hit the gas station for some ice, and headed over to Mazurik’s, afterwards.
It was a nice morning, with little to no wind out of the SE, partly cloudy skies, and an air temp of 70 degrees. I told them that we are early, so we would have to wait until it got light enough to be able to see any commercial nets, that get set up east of Kelly’s.
Oh, and for those of you following my Humminbird drama….everything is working like normal again. I have a new unit at the dash, (which probably wasn’t a necessary expense), and I purposely didn’t upload any waypoints, because I just wanted to go out, find fish, and start fishing.
We did just that, and the funny thing was, when I turned the back Helix on, that still has the waypoints on it, we had set down about 100 yards east of where I have been fishing the last several times out. lol
I just went with the same program I had been using for the past month, and it did the job. Joe and Tara are MN anglers, who are used to fishing with a rod in hand, with Lindy Rigs, or jigging, so I did the set up with the Off Shore boards, and explained how dipsies work, and how to set them. Joe caught on to the dipsies pretty quick, and did a great job resetting them, without getting tangles.
Baby Spros (85s) were running behind the boards with 2oz Guppie weights at 50/80, and 50/27 on the starboard side, and 50/61, and 50/30 on the port side.
There were three chrome perch baits, and one purple glass perch. All caught fish.
The dipsies were the usual with the shorter inside rods running on the zero setting, and the longer outside rods running on the two and three settings. The zero settings were 40 back on the port side, and 50 back on the starboard side.
The two setting ran on the starboard side at 65 back. The three setting was on the port side, and started at 85 back, but also caught fish at 75 and 55 back…it was running a black/gold Ripplin Redfin.
The two setting started with a Yeck spoon in the “Confusion” color, but was eventually switched out to another black/gold Ripplin Redfin.
The zero setting on the port side was a Red Headed Wonder Bread Scorpion spoon, and the port side was another Yeck spoon with a blue belly and copper-goldish color with bits of red and black on it.
All of those caught multiple fish. Speed was 2.3-2.5mph on the FishHawk.
We didn’t have any big fish today, but we managed our three person limit of good eaters. We went through a bunch of itty-bitties this morning, too.
Joe and Tara were very happy with their catch, and since Tara is the only one that eats fish in their family, she was especially happy. 🙂
I have a trip on Monday, but I’ll be watching the weather for that one. Right now, it’s not looking very good. Hopefully, that will change.
I have a lot of dates still available for July, and the perch bite is looking pretty good right now, so hopefully, I can get out after some of those this week. I’m dying to go perch’n!
If anyone is looking to get out this month, shoot me a message, email, or text.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
Attached Images
Mon July 8 and Tues July 9th East of Kellys
Went with a HS friend and one of his relatives trolling nightcrawlers on harnesses in 45 FOW about 3.5 miles East of Kellys.Waves at 7:30 when we started about 2 ft from the south. Be the time we ended at 11:30, about 1 ft waves. NO FLIES! I could not figure out on his electronics exactly how far east we were of the island, but this was our best estimate. Ran harnesses with a 6 ft leader and then a 3 oz weight. Let out anywhere from 80 to 100 ft of mono and then attached the boards. Then let out another 80 to 90 feet. He ran 1.4-1.5 mph. We ended up with 14 decent fish which were 17-19″ on Monday.
Tuesday was the same program with two people and only crawlers and from 5:30-9:30 got the 12 fish limit.
I asked him to try some spoons or small crank baits, but he said he understands using worms, so it was worms we used.
I was shocked about was the price of crawlers when I stopped into Tibbles on East Harbor. $5.00 a dozen.
Tuesday was the same program with two people and only crawlers and from 5:30-9:30 got the 12 fish limit.
I asked him to try some spoons or small crank baits, but he said he understands using worms, so it was worms we used.
I was shocked about was the price of crawlers when I stopped into Tibbles on East Harbor. $5.00 a dozen.
Will Beryl Affect the Bite?
Fixin’ on heading up Saturday to Marblehead and was wondering……. From your experience, how do big blows like this affect the walleye bite? How long til they get back to normal?
Toddler time 3.0
Hey friends!!
Heading back up for a long weekend with the fam this weekend and PIB is back on the docket. We are coming up Th-Sun and the tentative plan is to do another “on the way” stop to fish with the little toddler gal. Been seeing really good perch reports and think if we got her into a big, hot and heavy action perch bite, she would LOVE it!
Seems like around Green is the way to go now based on what I am reading and that would jive with being en route to PIB for us as well. Is that a good spot to start? Any specific “side” or depth to look for? Got a fish finder but it isnt the greatest so its tough to drive around and look for marks. If Green isnt working, any other decent spots in that area to give a shot?
As always, appreciate the help a TON!! I found this forum a couple years ago and it is such a great resource with everyone helping out. Its a huge lake and people like Jules and Waterdog are super helpful to us average weekend warrior dopes!!!
Tight lines all!
-Tom
Perch toledo lighthouse
Anybody do any good today by the toledo light. Took boat for a nice cruise and seen bunch of boats out there perching,