Hoping to get out some next week
Category: Uncategorized
5/25 report
Started between middle bass, and rattlesnake. Trolling harnesses 45-55’ back with a 2oz snap in 30-34fow. 1 nice 21”, and 3 18s in about 1/2 hour. Then all shorts, so I moved up north of sugar. 2 over 20 pretty quick. I was done by 9:15. Same Program up there. Color didn’t matter. Everything got hit quickly. I started out with darker colors, and just stayed with them
5/24/24 Report
I don’t even know what happened. This trip was weird. It started fine, hitting no red lights on our 3-hour drive under the light of the full moon. We arrived at Fenwick before sunrise but not so early we would need navigation lights. We got out there near B Can and soon marked fish. The new LiFePO4 batteries were powering the Minn Kota well. We got our bandits with inline planers in place without any tangles. The first hit came at around 6:30 and it was a plump 26″ walleye. Netted it well and it was in the box. We continued to find success.
Then the Minn Kota started getting loopy again. We had to keep restarting it, waiting for it to home in to GPS, waiting for it to figure out it needed more throttle to get to 2.0 mph. By then the 6 lines would be tangled and we had to pull everything in, untangle, cut line, re-tie swivels, re-deploy. And then the Minn Kota would malfunction again. I thought the LiFePO4’s would fix that problem, but no.
We gave up on the Minn Kota after an hour of tangle after tangle. Switched to manual steering the Yamaha 50 – which means tangles – and lines wrapped around the prop. One line broke, losing a bandit and a planer board which disappeared.
Yet it was pretty cool that many times, we were pulling in a tangled line by hand and there would be a fish on it.
Once, my daughter was reeling in a tangled line and it surprised us with a fish – but it also had snagged another line. But it wasn’t one of our six lines. It had snagged the line we previously broke an hour ago. And it still had the bandit on it. And a fish was on that bandit. So she reeled in two fish on two lures at one time with one pole. We netted them together.
Another time, we were all tangled around the prop. We stopped and unwrapped our line only to find another line around the prop too. Pulled it in by hand and sure enough there is another of our lost lines, and it also had a fish on it. Another lure recovered.
I could do without the constant tangles but they did keep us busy. We called it a day with two limits of walleye – half over 20″ – and 9 tasty drum, 1 cat and 1 striped bass. No shorts.
Fishing with Steve, Jeremy, and Luke….5/24/2024
Fishing with Steve, Jeremy, and Luke…5/24/2024
Late start, and didn’t want to play, “Dodge the boats” today, so we found a spot all to ourselves, and proceeded to have some fun!
They would have been happy with 12 fish, but we managed 24….in 2 1/2 hours.
Bandits at 120, 111, and 80 back behind the Off Shore boards.
Colors that worked:
Green Lantern (Slim Shady custom)
Green Clown (stock color)
IB Infected (DJsCutom Eye Lures)
(2)Carrot Top (stock)
Blue Chrome (stock)
Stinger, Scorpion, Yeck spoons…and, a worm burner worked behind the size 1 dipsies, on settings…zero and three…30-40 on the zero setting, and 47 & 53 on the three settings.
Speed was 2.2-2.6mph on the FishHawk
They hit on the fast side and the slow side, so it was constant action for the Chapman family this morning.
Steve and Jeremy have fished with me for 13 years now, but this was Luke’s first walleye trip…his very first fish was the biggest of the morning, and he was pretty proud of that. Jeremy was over the moon happy, to see his boy fall in love with walleye fishing, and having fun! Lots of great memories were made for them, today.
Tomorrow, I have a father and his two adult sons going out with me, so I’m not even hinting where I was today, because it was really nice being alone out there, and not having to have my head on a constant swivel, for a change. Sorry!
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
Late start, and didn’t want to play, “Dodge the boats” today, so we found a spot all to ourselves, and proceeded to have some fun!
They would have been happy with 12 fish, but we managed 24….in 2 1/2 hours.
Bandits at 120, 111, and 80 back behind the Off Shore boards.
Colors that worked:
Green Lantern (Slim Shady custom)
Green Clown (stock color)
IB Infected (DJsCutom Eye Lures)
(2)Carrot Top (stock)
Blue Chrome (stock)
Stinger, Scorpion, Yeck spoons…and, a worm burner worked behind the size 1 dipsies, on settings…zero and three…30-40 on the zero setting, and 47 & 53 on the three settings.
Speed was 2.2-2.6mph on the FishHawk
They hit on the fast side and the slow side, so it was constant action for the Chapman family this morning.
Steve and Jeremy have fished with me for 13 years now, but this was Luke’s first walleye trip…his very first fish was the biggest of the morning, and he was pretty proud of that. Jeremy was over the moon happy, to see his boy fall in love with walleye fishing, and having fun! Lots of great memories were made for them, today.
Tomorrow, I have a father and his two adult sons going out with me, so I’m not even hinting where I was today, because it was really nice being alone out there, and not having to have my head on a constant swivel, for a change. Sorry!
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
Attached Images
West of Pelee?
Anyone got any intel on the casting bite across the line? Thinking of doing some slides on the west side of Pelee Saturday and Sunday.
Episode 2 running jets spoons worms and body baits together.
Training video on running jets spoons body baits and worms all at the same time behind boards and dipsys.
Fishing report 5/22/24
Fishing has been outstanding the past month from Huron to west sisters island and here is how we have caught our fish.
Weekend 5/18 & 19
Sorry a little late but fished west of the islands to Niagara sat/sun. They very much preferred crawler harnesses (on riggers set at 25’ over 28’) on Saturday.. off the lake after 4 or so hours. Quicker limit on Sunday-.but pulled only ONE short on the riggers. Blue/ chartreuse DHJ’s (150’ back) were definitely the preference on Sunday… I thought about running to the weather buoy on Sunday from mazurik, but quality was decent. A couple 23” or so, Mostly 18” only kept a couple 16” that were hooked deep.
Fishing with Cisco, Ted, and Lonny… 5/20/2024
Alfie woke me up at 1:30 this morning. I had already had 6 1/2 hours of sleep, so we got up to spend some quality “alone time” out on the back deck, before I had to get ready to head out.
The wind forecast was calling for little to no wind this morning. It was 68 degrees in the wee hours of the morning, and expected to rise to the upper 70s to low 80s by the afternoon.
I got to Catawba early…as usual, and got everything ready to go, so when my crew of three arrived, we could just launch. The parking lot was empty, when my crew arrived, and we all chuckled at how nice it is on a weekday morning. Then, as we unloaded the Vexus in the water, another rig showed up. I didn’t have to worry too much about other boats on the lake that early, so we just cruised on out to where I fished yesterday.
As the clear sky started to lighten at 5:30, I could see there was a light fog around the island shorelines, but not on the lake. It was still pretty dark when we left the launch at Catawba, and headed northwest, to the cans, so I couldn’t wear the glasses I usually wear in the mornings, because it was too dark with them on. My eyeballs took a beating with the wind hitting them…all the while, I’m just praying that a bug doesn’t get in one. I got lucky….no bugs to the eyeballs. 🙂
It was the same program I used yesterday, since it worked so well.
Bandits:
Barbie (painted…not chrome…I think it was a Domka Outdoors custom) at 110 (unassisted), and 50/18 with 2oz, back behind the Off Shore boards.
Carrot Top (stock color) was 80 and 90 back (unassisted).
Green Lantern (Slim Shady Custom) at 80 back (unassisted).
Flicker Minnow 11:
Pooh Bear (I think it’s a DJs Custom Eye Lures bait) at 120 back (unassisted)
Dipsies:
Zero Setting at 30 and the two setting at 47 and 50. Spoons on three of them, and one Gold/Black Ripplin Red Fin on the starboard side…on the outside rod, that ran the two setting at 47 back. That caught a few.
Speed was anywhere from 2.0 to 3.0 mph. I would speed up, and then slow down, to trigger bites. It worked.
Cicso, Ted, and Lonny fished with me last year, and at the time they said they wanted to make it annual thing, so they could get some early season training in, before they hit the water with their own boats. They said, it helped the rest of their season…by putting to practice, what I taught them, and that makes me happy!
Tomorrow, I have a new crew…some more locals…that want to learn to troll. So, I’d better go tie up some more leaders for my dipsies, because when I checked last…I only had one extra one in the boat. Glad I checked…lol
Tomorrow’s forecast is calling for wind out of the southwest at 12-13 mph, so we’ll be launching at Mazurik in the morning.
Stay tuned…
Capt Juls
The wind forecast was calling for little to no wind this morning. It was 68 degrees in the wee hours of the morning, and expected to rise to the upper 70s to low 80s by the afternoon.
I got to Catawba early…as usual, and got everything ready to go, so when my crew of three arrived, we could just launch. The parking lot was empty, when my crew arrived, and we all chuckled at how nice it is on a weekday morning. Then, as we unloaded the Vexus in the water, another rig showed up. I didn’t have to worry too much about other boats on the lake that early, so we just cruised on out to where I fished yesterday.
As the clear sky started to lighten at 5:30, I could see there was a light fog around the island shorelines, but not on the lake. It was still pretty dark when we left the launch at Catawba, and headed northwest, to the cans, so I couldn’t wear the glasses I usually wear in the mornings, because it was too dark with them on. My eyeballs took a beating with the wind hitting them…all the while, I’m just praying that a bug doesn’t get in one. I got lucky….no bugs to the eyeballs. 🙂
It was the same program I used yesterday, since it worked so well.
Bandits:
Barbie (painted…not chrome…I think it was a Domka Outdoors custom) at 110 (unassisted), and 50/18 with 2oz, back behind the Off Shore boards.
Carrot Top (stock color) was 80 and 90 back (unassisted).
Green Lantern (Slim Shady Custom) at 80 back (unassisted).
Flicker Minnow 11:
Pooh Bear (I think it’s a DJs Custom Eye Lures bait) at 120 back (unassisted)
Dipsies:
Zero Setting at 30 and the two setting at 47 and 50. Spoons on three of them, and one Gold/Black Ripplin Red Fin on the starboard side…on the outside rod, that ran the two setting at 47 back. That caught a few.
Speed was anywhere from 2.0 to 3.0 mph. I would speed up, and then slow down, to trigger bites. It worked.
Cicso, Ted, and Lonny fished with me last year, and at the time they said they wanted to make it annual thing, so they could get some early season training in, before they hit the water with their own boats. They said, it helped the rest of their season…by putting to practice, what I taught them, and that makes me happy!
Tomorrow, I have a new crew…some more locals…that want to learn to troll. So, I’d better go tie up some more leaders for my dipsies, because when I checked last…I only had one extra one in the boat. Glad I checked…lol
Tomorrow’s forecast is calling for wind out of the southwest at 12-13 mph, so we’ll be launching at Mazurik in the morning.
Stay tuned…
Capt Juls
Attached Images
Saturday May 18th D Can to Niagra
After slow trip fighting the fog on the way out we started with worm harnesses and caught a few sheepheads we decided to continue north now trolling. Started catching fish immediately using bandits 66′ to 76′ unassisted in 20 to 23′ of water. Chrome/purple with spots and green bottom seem to be the favorite. Limited in about 4.5 hrs. Marking a lot of fish. Very crowded in the area.
Great day on the lake.