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Here it is, the end of June already… my favorite month…deep sigh.

I was meeting my crew at the Huron ramp at 5am, so I got there at 4:30, to do the usual things before they arrived.

I walked over to the boat that was behind me, to say good morning, and he knew who I was, but I didn’t have a clue who he was. He was just a nice older gent, who was also getting things ready before his fishing partner arrived. I wandered back to my boat, and waited for the Vallery family to arrive.

They stayed at a place in Huron, and took a drive over to the launch last night, to make sure they knew where to go. They arrived at 5am, right on time, so we got the boat launched, and the trailer parked in a good spot.

It was still dark out, of course, so we took our time going out of the river. By the time we got on the lake, it would be light enough to see any objects floating in the water.

Speaking of floating objects…I’ll tell you this event from today, right here…because, there’s really no good spot in this day’s report to put this, other than behind a good lead-in. 🙂

Here goes…

Tom (the dad), was reeling in a fish…and, as he’s doing that, a floating log slides quietly down the starboard side of the boat, (scraping the boat kind of “close”), and when it appeared at the back of the boat, it freaked Tom out a little. It was a pretty big log.

But, when I saw it, and saw what was tangled in it….my heart dropped. Nooooo!!!
As the log moved away from us, the FishHawk probe was being moved away, too.

Luckily, though, the log was bark-less and smooth, so the 100# Power Pro had nothing to get stuck on, and I was able to gently pull it up over the log, and free it…whew! The thought of losing it, and having to replace it, made my heart skip a beat..Ugh!

Okay, back to the report….

We headed to the same area as yesterday… the fish were still there. All sizes, from itty-bitties to 26″… but, there are more White Perch in the mix now, too. They were annoying, actually. We were catching fish before all the lines were set, and started the morning off with some weird tangles caused by stupid little White Perch…doing weird little White Perch antics. (Those two tangles were it for the morning, and everything went smoothly the rest of the morning…well, other than that log incident, of course.)

Speed was 2.5 on the FishHawk…

Bandits ran on the port side, behind the Off Shore boards…
Blue Chrome at 120 back (outside board), and Green Lantern (a Slim Shady Custom) ran at 67 back.

Dipsies ran the usual BadMo, Yeck, and Scorpion spoons on the zero and three settings. The zero ran anywhere from 43 to 60 back…depending on how deep of water we were over, and what depth the fish were showing up at, on the Garmin.
The three settings ran at the usual 65 back on the port side, and 71back on the starboard side. (Hey, those numbers keep working, so I don’t change them).

Evan and Eric are Tom’s sons, and had never been on Lake Erie before, so this was new to them. Both of them did a great job, and Evan even helped me set lines, this morning. We were all reelers today, and kept throwing back smaller keepers, so we could stay out longer, but they finally called it at 9:00, and we headed in with our 4-person limit.

We said our goodbyes at the ramp, and I headed home. The river had a nasty slime (the brown bubbly kind) in the furthest launch from the bathrooms, and that’s the one I loaded out in. It was nasty, so I had to hit the car wash on the way home. It would take too many towels to clean it in the parking lot, and then I would have to clean the towels, too. No thanks! Car wash it was….

They said they had a great time, and would like to book another trip next season, and that makes me happy!

I’m off tomorrow and Wednesday right now…but, I’m available for a trip on Wednesday July 2nd, if anyone is interested. The wind forecast for Wednesday is showing 6-9mph out of the NW, which isn’t bad at all, and no precipitation until late afternoon.

My next trip will be Thursday July 3rd. I never book anything for the 4th, because I don’t like being on the lake during the 4th of July, so I’ll be back out on the 5th for another trip after that.

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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I would like to give steelhead fishing a try. I know spoons catch them, but what depth would you try? Is it even worth trying this time of year? If so what part of the lake should I try?

I heard last week somebody caught a Muskie , I have heard of Steelhead being caught.
Today we were trolling west of West Sister with jets and spoons and one of my Offshore Boards buried under the water and the drag started singing .
I had trouble getting the rod out of the holder and tried to horse the board up on the surface.. No use. After 180 ft of line ripped off I finally cut it.
I knew I wasn’t hooked on the bottom.
We reeled in the lines and went back to retrieve the board floating on the surface.
Once we started pulling my 20LB test line in we pulled up a rope covered in zebra mussels and eventually a 20lb anchor covered as well.
First for me 😉

We left the dock at alittle after 6am
We headed east till we got to an area that was marking really good.
We set down and started to put rods out rollers out of the north east and wind out of the south . We was having a little trouble with lines staying hooked on the tow line . We adjusted course alittle so we stoped ripping line off . It was a slow pick at first but then it got pretty steady. We worked about a 2 mile area to the north of most other boats
We ran tru trip 40’s 90 back with spoons
Tru trip 50’s 55 back
And dipsy 2 setting back 65 with J7’s
At 2.2 mph
East of Marblehead

I left the house at 4AM, because I was meeting my crew at the Huron ramp at 5AM, and I wanted some extra time there, so I could shine up the motors and clean the windshield, before they showed up. I hit the speedway in town, to get ice, and headed to Huron.

No one was there at 4:30, so I readied the boat, and started cleaning the motors. I jumped in and did the windshield, and when I turned around and saw the cooler, I realized I never grabbed the ice on my way out of the gas station. I threw my face up to the heavens and said, “F&#@* Me”! I looked at the clock and saw that I had 15 minutes before they would show up, and I HAD to have ice, so I strapped her back down and hit the gas station in Huron. Not the way I wanted to start the morning, but it is what it is, and tomorrow’s ice is already paid for, so I guess that’s the silver lining on that one.


I got back and unhooked the straps, and got things ready again. Marty and his grandson, Zane, had just pulled in, and hopped out of the truck. “Good morning”, said Marty. “Good morning…ready to go fishing?”, I asked. “We are”, he said.


It was dark, but I knew that by the time we hit the mouth of the river, that the sky would have things light enough to see over the water. It was a repeat of yesterday’s conditions…80 degrees, calm SW wind, and a 6″ chop on the lake’s surface, and a hope that the fish were still where I left them. They were. 🙂


I’m getting tired of sounding like a broken record, but the same programs I’ve used for weeks now, is still putting fish in the boat pretty fast.


Bandits behind Off Shore boards:
Port side:
Blue Chrome at 120 back
Green Lantern (Slim Shady Custom) at 70 back


Starboard side:
Remember that one I couldn’t remember the name of? I finally asked Mike (Slim Shady Customs) and he said that one is called, “Whiskey and Water”. It’s the chrome blue/green one with the orange belly. That one ran at 97 back and took several nicer fish.
Purple Mist ran at 57 back


Dipsies produced the most with small spoons, because the fish are puking up tiny little minnows about an inch long. They also produced more shorts and 15-16″ fish, but were constantly busy. We were throwing those all back. The fish that came on the crankbaits were typically larger.


The zero settings did best at 43 and 50-55 back
The three settings were set at 65 and 71 back


If you haven’t noticed…I like odd numbers best. 🙂


Speed was set to the usual 2.4-2.5mph over 38 feet of water, to start. We trolled up to 43 feet of water, then turned back around when the fish marks disappeared on the Garmin. However, even though I wasn’t marking anything…we were still catching fish.


We had our 3-person limit early again, and headed in before the heat arrived. It was a beautiful, fun, morning on Lake Erie, and both Marty and Zane had a good time…. and that makes me happy!


I have one more trip tomorrow, but then I’m off Saturday.


I have Sunday open if anyone is looking for a trip. The weather looks like it will be pretty great on Sunday. Contact me, if you’re interested. Thanks!


Stay tuned….


Capt Juls

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