Category: Uncategorized

I got a question for you guys. I just bought a different boat that has a Lowrance HDS 12 at my captains chair and apparently, I need to put one of these 2 micro chips in my electronics to be able to see detailed contour lines per customer support from Lowrance. Wish I would of known this BEFORE I left on a 2 day fishing trip!

I fish in the midwest (Iowa, South Dakota) on lakes the majority of the time but do an annual trip to Erie every Spring.

Give me the pros and cons to each…

Thanks in advance.

FF

When I try to view details of new ads I get “You are not allowed to view this content”. Eventually, I will be able to see the details, but wonder why I cannot see them today?

We never casted for walleyes before so thought we would see how that works. Bought 2 dozen crawlers and set up on the east side of Crib Reef before sunrise. We used various colors of crawler harnesses with 1 oz weights.
It was a feeding frenzy! I couldn’t sit down for 90 minutes because we were landing so many fish. None of them were walleyes but my wife had a blast fighting catfish and freshwater drum.
I also tried the Acme hyper rattle and Kalin search baits there. Had one hit on the search bait but nothing at all on the hyper rattle.
We could see a pack of 40 boats over at D can so when our crawlers were gone, we moved over there and started perching with spreaders and shiners. It was hot by then though, so the bite was slow. We caught a few perch there but decided to head back west.
We would motor for a bit to cool off in the breeze and then stop and pick up a couple perch and then motor some more and repeat. After several hours were at A can. My wife did land an 18″ walleye there on a perch rig. Ended the day keeping 21 perch, 1 walleye, 8 tasty drum and 8 catfish.

Brian and Mandy were driving in from near Dayton, this morning, so I told them to meet me at the Huron ramp at 5:30. (Note…It’s not getting light until 5:45 now, so I’ll be changing my meeting time to 5:45 instead of 5:30, so we can be launched by 6am.)


Sunrise this morning was at 6:28.

I left the house at 4am, so I could hit the gas station, before heading to Huron. I wanted to get there early, so I could clean the boat, before they got there. I was going to clean it yesterday, but it just go too darn hot out, and I figured the morning dew would come in handy for wiping it down.


I was in the get ready lanes by 5am, and they showed up at 5:05. It was still very dark out, so I told them we were waiting for it to get light enough, to see the Off Shore boards out there. We were headed out of the mouth of the river at 6am.

As the sky lightened, a partly cloudy sky revealed itself. The air temp was in the 70s, and the wind was light out of the SSW, and below 5mph.


The lake had residual NNW rollers from last night’s wind, so we just took our time going out. We didn’t have to go far, before we were marking good fish out in 36 feet of water. It’s right where I left off 3 days ago, so I was happy to see them still in the area.


Brian had set up this trip as a learning trip, so he and Mandy could get more proficient using both the dipsies and the Off Shore boards, on their own boat.


Their board’s releases were set up differently than mine, so I explained why I run them with the orange OR-19 on the front arm, and the Snapper (OR-18), on the back. I showed them the loop trick, so the line will release from the front arm, and turn the board around, so it comes in backwards, attached to the Snapper. Brian saw the advantages of that, right away.


We ran Bill Lewis Lites on the port side, with 2oz snap-weights, at 50/70 and 50/43 back. Colors were Purple Tiger and Chrome Perch.
(For those that are new to reading my “fish speak” language…this means the snap-weight is attached at the 50 mark, and then another 70 or 43 feet of line is let out, before the board is attached… I run the longer leads on the outside, and the shorter leads on the inside).


The starboard side ran the baby Spros (85s), with 2oz…colors were Blue/Chrome, and Pink Lemonade. The outside bait was set at 50/67 back, and the inside bait was set at 50/27 back.


The early morning bite was the best for us. It slowed way down, from what it was earlier, at around 9am. We had our 18 by 10am(ish), I’m not sure…I didn’t look at the clock.


Mandy managed to catch her personal best, with a “Fish Ohio”, that went a little over 28 1/2 inches. I couldn’t weigh it, because I had stolen my 9V battery out of the scale, to use in the voltage meter the other week, and I never put it back. My bad….but, I’m guessing she was in the high 8 pound range.


Both said they had a good time, and they learned a lot. I feel confident, from watching them work the dipsies and boards, that they will be able to easily do this on their boat, too. Mission accomplished…:)


Tomorrow, I have a perch trip with a father and his two grown sons. The weather is looking good for a perch trip, so I’m really looking forward to it. I hope the bait shops have some Emerald Shiners in the morning, but if they only have Goldies… I have some frozen Emeralds in the freezer, I can take.


Stay tuned….


Capt Juls

Attached Images

Quick limit of 60 this morning west of b can

Haven’t seen perch reports recently, is the bite still on?

John and Janet, had one more day of fishing, and one more night in town, before they head back to Missouri. Janet told me that Missouri is known as the “Show Me” state, so I wanted today to go even better than it did yesterday, and yesterday was pretty darn good.

It was going to be a nice day, either way. There was no rain in the forecast, the sky was clear, and the winds were expected to be light. The air temp this morning, was 74 degrees.

I picked them up at the Whitecaps Motel, at 4:40am. After picking up ice for the coolers, we headed to Huron, again. I had been given some good info last night, using Flicker Minnows, so I took off my “confidence baits” that had been working for the past two months, and put some number 11s on.
I’m not going to give the area, or the depth on that one, because it wasn’t my find, and the info was given to me, so it’s’ not my info to share. I know you understand.


All I’ll say is, is that we caught 5 there, before deciding it was too slow, and headed back to where we caught them early, yesterday. The plan was to get the walleye early, again, and then go try for some perch in the area.


We left the first area, and headed out to where we started yesterday, in 38′ of water NNE of the river. (This will be known as “spot 2”).
Yesterday, we had our limits in one pass, so I was kind of expecting the same, this morning.


After the boat was set up, and headed in a NNEasterly direction, the Flicker Minnows were replaced with my tried and true little hunters…the Spro 85 and the Bill Lewis PWC Lites.


Speed was set to 2.3-2.5mph on the FishHawk.


The wind was out of the SSW at around 10mph, so the waves were much less than they were yesterday, with that 15-20mph SW wind we had.
Today was 1′ or less, and yesterday was 1-3s, 10 miles out.
There was just enough wind to keep the bugs at bay, but not enough to make it rough. It was… kind of… perfect. 🙂


Perfect weather, but not a perfect bite…
The area we fished yesterday has been infiltrated with A LOT of white perch, so we had to continually check the dipsies, and reel in the Off Shore boards, every time a flag laid down. I think we caught close to 90, or more….I wasn’t keeping count, but it was constant work for me, and my “First Mate” Janet, to keep resetting lines. But, she enjoyed every minute of it, while John was enjoying seeing his wife of 30+ years doing what she loves to do, and kept our moral up by being positive.


After picking up a keeper walleye here, and there… in-between the onslaught of white perch…we found a good school of bigger walleye, than we had been catching. (spot number 3).
Most of the fish in the early morning cooler were 16-20 inch fish, and the late morning catches were 20-24 inches.
We were fishing over 36 feet of water in the third spot.


The program that I ran yesterday, in the 38-43 feet of water is in the previous day’s report, so if you need it, you can find it there.


The program for our third spot, over 36 feet of water, was similar, but with little changes in leads.


A Spro 85s ran with a 2oz snap weight, on the starboard side’s outside board, at 50/67 , and a BL PWC Lite ran behind the inside board at 50/27. Colors were Pink Lemonade and Purple Tiger.


The port side ran two Bill Lewis PWC Lites (Blue/Chrome and Barbie) at 50/65, and 50/43 with 2 oz snap weights.


The two inside dipsies ran on the zero settings at 45 and 50 back back.


The three setting dipsey ran at 70 back and the two setting dipsey ran at 65 back.


In the second spot, I was changing out colors of spoons, and lures, trying to catch walleye and not white perch, but those little buggers eat everything. It would be nice, too…if, the white perch could learn to just take ONE hook in their mouths, instead of all three…every time.


The third spot was mostly walleye and not white perch, and they were hitting everything we had out, so it didn’t take long to finish our tickets.

We ended right on time, with 10 minutes to spare, but we caught all our fish, and even beat yesterdays weight, so John and Janet were very happy with their three day adventure, and want to come back again, next season. I can’t wait to do it again! Janet’s last words to me, as we parted, were, “Well, I guess you showed us!”, then, nodded and smiled…. and, that makes me happy! 🙂


My next scheduled trip is Monday, August 6th, for a perch trip.


Weather permitting, I have this weekend available.


Stay tuned….


Capt Juls

Attached Images

The dogs woke me up a 1/2 hour early this morning, so I had to get up to see what they wanted. Turns out, they just wanted me up, so I stayed up, brewed some coffee, grabbed the dog treats, and went outside.
The weather this morning, had a light breeze out of the SW, a partly cloudy sky, and a 77 degree air temperature. I checked the radar first, because scattered showers and thunderstorms, for the area this morning, was the last thing I heard, last night. The radar showed a line of rain coming in from the WSW, but it looked like it was going to move north, before hitting Port Clinton.


The plan this morning was to launch out of Huron. The radar showed no precipitation headed in that vicinity any time soon, so I felt good about that decision. The wind direction was also favorable for Huron, so that made it even better.


I’m glad we went perch fishing yesterday, because I’m sure it was rough at Green Island today. 🙂


I picked John and Janet up at 4:45, and we headed to the gas station for some ice. The boat and truck were already gassed up, and ready to go. We hit the Huron ramp at 5:30 and waited for it to get lighter out, before launching at 5:50am.


I explained to them, how an offshore wind makes small waves inside, and it looks calm, but the further you go out the rougher it is going to get. They understood. The wind forecast for the morning, was 11-14mph, with gusts up to 21, out of the SSW. But, it was more SSE early this morning, and changed to SSW around 8:30-9:00am.


The Vexus was pointed NE, out of the river, and set down over 38 feet of water. The Helix was showing us there were fish down there, so the usual things happened. The Terrova got deployed first, sand a course set to the NNE. The FishHawk went next, to read the current speed down below. Then, the baby Merc was throttled up with the iTroll, to a desired starting speed of 2.3-2.5mph.


Dipsies ruled this morning… with BadMo Arrow spoons (the smaller ones), Yeck spoons (D-11s), and Michigan Scorpion spoons running behind them.


The inside rod, on both sides were set on the zero setting. The port side started at 45 back. The starboard side started at 50 back. Both, were dialed in a little more as the morning went on, and they constantly caught fish anywhere between 50 and 60 back.


The outside rod on the port side, ran a three setting at 75 back. (It was the busiest of the 4 rods.)


The outside rod on the starboard side ran a two setting dipsey, at 65 back. That one stayed busy too.


Two Off Shore boards ran on each side, pulling Spro 85s on the starboard side, and Bill Lewis PWC Lites on the port side. All ran with 2 oz Guppie weights.
The port side ran a Chrome Perch at 50/77, and a Black Headed Wonder Bread color at 50/47 back.
PWC colors were, Pink Lemonade at 50/80 back, and Purple Glass Perch at 50/43 back.


John and Janet had a great time reeling in their limits, as did I, and they did a great job, for never having used dipsies, or planer boards, before. We had our three-person limit by 8:15, but stayed out and played catch and release for another hour, or so, before heading back in.


We will be trying another area out of Huron tomorrow, too.

Stay tuned….


Capt Juls

Attached Images

I was up on the island all last week but weather and waves were not conducive to fishing from a 16 foot boat until Saturday and Sunday. Launched out of the State Park ramp both days between 8 and 9 am and Saturday was light east winds (with rolling waves from the northeast from prior day) and Sunday was light south wind with almost no waves.
As a footnote, earlier in the month, I got a tip that walleyes were holding off Long Point and in the eastern end of the bay and that tip panned out so this location would factor into the both days of fishing. On Saturday, I trolled from the ramp north to the Gull Island Shoal buoy and only caught shorts and junk fish. Using worm harnesses with 2 and 3 ounce in-line weights trolled at 1.3 to 1.5 mph. When I got to the buoy, I turned east and fished the shallow area (27-30ft) for about 15 minutes and caught 2 keepers. I then turned south and trolled to Long Point and caught several monster sheepheads enroute.
Just before I got to Long Point, something really strange happened. A bird came out of nowhere and started flying around the boat. Upon further inspection, I noticed it was a bat. I was still about a quarter mile or less away from shore so assumed the bat was looking for a place to land. After buzzing me for a couple minutes it flew right into my face and then landed on the boat for about ten seconds then disappeared.
Once I got to Long Point, I set up an east to west troll in about 30-40 feet of water. It was about 11am and there was lots of boats going to the beach and some jet ski traffic in the area so was worried all this activity would kill the fishing. Wrong. On the way to the ramp, I caught 7 walleyes and kept 4 of them for a one man limit.
On Sunday, I thought I would change things up and try Long Point first. I trolled from the ramp to Long Point and caught one keeper. Next, I turned northwest and started a troll to the Gull Island Shoal buoy. Again, very quiet run with only very large sheephead hitting and one more keeper. When I got the buoy, I headed northeast around the eastern edge of the shoal. It is a bit tricky in this area because the depth drops from 50 to 40 then to 30 feet very quickly and you have to constantly adjust your depths to avoid getting stuck. After catching another two large sheepheads, I got a very solid hit and the fish was not fighting(like a sheephead). Brought it to the boat and it was a 24.5 inch walleye. For the next 15 minutes, the walleyes kept biting and I got my limit with more 20 plus inch fish. When I decided to stop fishing and brought my lines in I was still getting hits and had to release these fish. Great two days

With the forecast showing chance of storms over the next several days, it brings up the question: what do you do if you’re out on the lake & get caught in a thunderstorm? I know conventional wisdom says check the radar before leaving the dock but let’s be real, Mother Nature can be very unpredictable. I’ve been fishing the lake regularly since 2018 and am lucky I’ve never been caught in one…but I know it’s bound to happen at some point. I’ve been in a pack of boats fishing before & high tailed it to Canadian water to avoid a line of strong storms but it didn’t seem like most of the other boats cared. Is it not that big of a deal to get caught in a storm? I’d be mostly worried about lightening…