Water temperature in Western Basin has dropped from 77 / 78 two weeks or so ago to 73 / 74 today. Not the 10 degree drop into the upper 60’s needed to really bring on the fall fishing, but I wonder what the fishing will be like next week after this weekend’s unseasonally cool temps with moderately high winds. Should bring the water temp down a little more.
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Fishing with Allen and Marilyn 9/3/2024
Allen and Marilyn drove over from Indiana, on Sunday. We were supposed to fish yesterday, but Mother Nature had other plans, and sent us a gusty NNE wind instead. It was a “no-go”.
Initially, we were going to do one day of perch fishing, and one day of walleye fishing. I asked them which species they wanted to target, since we only had one day, and Allen chose walleye, so their day 2 trip was set….walleye it is.
A friend had texted me with some info, from the day before the blow, so that was going to be my starting point, this morning. Crawlers made the most sense, since we had a change in conditions, and what walleye can resist a big fat crawler?
I had told my crew, that I would pick them up at 6AM, but as usual, I got to their motel 15 minutes early…and, to my surprise, they were sitting outside, waiting on me!
I said, “You two are early, it’s still very dark out…we’re in no hurry”. Allen smiled, and replied, “I get up early, too”.
We headed to the gas station, bought ice, and some powdered donuts, and headed to Mazurik’s, to launch. Yesterday afternoon, I got in the boat, and re-rigged all the trolling rods with crawler harnesses. My friend, who had texted me, told me that blue/silver harnesses worked best for them, so when I looked in my stash, I found I didn’t have any blue/silver harnesses made up. So, I made some.
We headed to the east side of Kelly’s, and found the residual waves from last night were coming from the NNE. The flag on the pier at Lakeside, showed the wind was still out of the north. My wind app was showing light south winds. Obviously, the flag was correct. That changed my plan a bit…I was planning on starting SE of Kelly’s and trolling north. So, instead, we went north, to Kelly Island Shoal, to start there, and troll south.
The water temp was 74.2 degrees.
The FishHawk was dropped down to depth, and turned on. The Terrova and baby Merc, worked in unison to keep us at a speed of 1.5-1.7mph. The harnesses ran with 2oz inline weights behind Off Shore boards anywhere from 60-80 back… over 41 feet of water.
The first board out, was running at 77 back…it got hit before the second board was set in place. It was a big fish, too. Allen reeled it in…it turned out to be a big kitty cat. The rest of the 8 board spread was set out. I had marked fish on the ride up, albeit spotty marks, so we just kept going hoping to hit some of those pockets of fish. We did that for too long, though. 3 hours had passed already.
It was time to go elsewhere and try spoons behind dipsies, and some little cranks behind the boards.
We headed east, off the point of Airport Reef, and kept going until we were north of the white condos, east of Cedar Point, and the Helix showed some marks, that looked fishable. The fish weren’t tight to the bottom, like they were in other places, so they should bite.
The dipsies were running on the zero setting at 50 and 55 back, and the other two rods were running on the two settings at 75 back. All four settings caught fish with Yeck (D-11) spoons, and BadMo Arrow spoons. It wasn’t a fast bite, and we only had 2 1/2 hours left to fish, so we were only able to manage one limit, of our three-person limit. But, they were decent fish, so Allen was happy with the catch. He said it made him happy that we made a move, and tried something else, when the first program didn’t work, too.
The weather was beautiful, and the lake only had a handful of boats within viewing distance. Allen and Marilyn said they both had a good time, and would like to do it again, and that makes me happy.
I don’t have anything scheduled until Saturday, which is a perch trip, but the forecast is calling for gusty NNW winds again, so we’ll see. I’ll have to keep an eye on that, and communicate with my crew.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
Initially, we were going to do one day of perch fishing, and one day of walleye fishing. I asked them which species they wanted to target, since we only had one day, and Allen chose walleye, so their day 2 trip was set….walleye it is.
A friend had texted me with some info, from the day before the blow, so that was going to be my starting point, this morning. Crawlers made the most sense, since we had a change in conditions, and what walleye can resist a big fat crawler?
I had told my crew, that I would pick them up at 6AM, but as usual, I got to their motel 15 minutes early…and, to my surprise, they were sitting outside, waiting on me!
I said, “You two are early, it’s still very dark out…we’re in no hurry”. Allen smiled, and replied, “I get up early, too”.
We headed to the gas station, bought ice, and some powdered donuts, and headed to Mazurik’s, to launch. Yesterday afternoon, I got in the boat, and re-rigged all the trolling rods with crawler harnesses. My friend, who had texted me, told me that blue/silver harnesses worked best for them, so when I looked in my stash, I found I didn’t have any blue/silver harnesses made up. So, I made some.
We headed to the east side of Kelly’s, and found the residual waves from last night were coming from the NNE. The flag on the pier at Lakeside, showed the wind was still out of the north. My wind app was showing light south winds. Obviously, the flag was correct. That changed my plan a bit…I was planning on starting SE of Kelly’s and trolling north. So, instead, we went north, to Kelly Island Shoal, to start there, and troll south.
The water temp was 74.2 degrees.
The FishHawk was dropped down to depth, and turned on. The Terrova and baby Merc, worked in unison to keep us at a speed of 1.5-1.7mph. The harnesses ran with 2oz inline weights behind Off Shore boards anywhere from 60-80 back… over 41 feet of water.
The first board out, was running at 77 back…it got hit before the second board was set in place. It was a big fish, too. Allen reeled it in…it turned out to be a big kitty cat. The rest of the 8 board spread was set out. I had marked fish on the ride up, albeit spotty marks, so we just kept going hoping to hit some of those pockets of fish. We did that for too long, though. 3 hours had passed already.
It was time to go elsewhere and try spoons behind dipsies, and some little cranks behind the boards.
We headed east, off the point of Airport Reef, and kept going until we were north of the white condos, east of Cedar Point, and the Helix showed some marks, that looked fishable. The fish weren’t tight to the bottom, like they were in other places, so they should bite.
The dipsies were running on the zero setting at 50 and 55 back, and the other two rods were running on the two settings at 75 back. All four settings caught fish with Yeck (D-11) spoons, and BadMo Arrow spoons. It wasn’t a fast bite, and we only had 2 1/2 hours left to fish, so we were only able to manage one limit, of our three-person limit. But, they were decent fish, so Allen was happy with the catch. He said it made him happy that we made a move, and tried something else, when the first program didn’t work, too.
The weather was beautiful, and the lake only had a handful of boats within viewing distance. Allen and Marilyn said they both had a good time, and would like to do it again, and that makes me happy.
I don’t have anything scheduled until Saturday, which is a perch trip, but the forecast is calling for gusty NNW winds again, so we’ll see. I’ll have to keep an eye on that, and communicate with my crew.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
Attached Images
Perch 9/1 Toledo Light
Wife and I got our 60 a mile past the lighthouse between 9-2pm. Spreaders with any minnow seemed to be the ticket. Marks were everywhere around the edge of the channel in 20-22 FOW. Started out really bumpy with white caps, then sun came out and wind completely died, lake was flat, It got uncomfortably hot, As I was about to give up the wind and clouds came back and it was on. Got back to the dock at Cullen in time to see the bass tournament boys exercise their patience with Toledo’s finest citizens display their lack of consideration of other humans.
Why aren’t there ramp etiquette posters or tik tocks or however people learn stuff. I don’t know, man.
Why aren’t there ramp etiquette posters or tik tocks or however people learn stuff. I don’t know, man.
Walleye all East?
Coming up next week to East harbor State Park. I usually trailer over to Huron and head east. Or should I stay in Western basin to perch fish.
LakeMaster Premium Great Lakes Card Question
I just bought the LakeMaster Premium Great Lakes card for my Helix 9 Gen4. The card loads, but I can not find any of the Camp Perry Range Buoys (ACan, BCan, ect.) or any of the international boundary buoys. Any help greatly appreciated before I go and load them manually by setting waypoints. Thanks
Draggin the Line with John and Terry
We made the long run to Lorain this past Friday and Saturday. The lake was flat both days and the only reason we did it twice, was John’s friend Terry could only fish Saturday. We did some scouting Friday out at the weather buoy and east of it.Tried a few spots but the midges were not to Johns liking, so we headed south closer to land where there was a pack of boats. We only caught half our limit both days. Friday, our 6 weighed 14lbs. What caught was all dipseys with Colorado harnesses with speed around 2.0mph. Dipseys both days caught 3 setting 90 and 95 and 1 setting at 75 and 80. Got nothing on our boards. On Saturday we had to speed up to 2.5mph and after changing out a bunch of lures and colors. Finally found they wanted green or perch colors. We caught 9 that weighed 17lbs. Caught on green J7, perch color Flicker shad and green willow harness. Even caught a couple on boards with green Yozuri and a J9.
Sat Sun 24 / 25 Perch
Finally got out helping buddy learn his new old boat.
Saturday 24th. Late afternoon / evening. SE corner of Kelleys Island and half way between Lakeside and Kelleys. Fair fishfinder marks. Zero yellow perch, nothing else either.
Sunday 25th. Late afternoon / evening again. NW corner of Kelleys first, fair marks, zero fish. Moved to just east of Ballast Island. Better marks, but still not great. Managed 12 in about two hours. We’d get 2-3 in a few minutes. Then nothing for 25 minutes. Then 2-3 again in a few minutes. Repeat. Three doubles – half the fish caught. By the marks and the fishing, I’d guess the perch were spread out in small groups. Frozen salted minnows out caught live shiners as did crappie rig vs. traditional spreader.
No wind, so we didn’t anchor. Lines were nearly vertical or slightly angled, very slow drift. Water had a lot of algae dispersed in it, but the visibility wasn’t real bad, about 3+ feet at the surface.
Hope to get out several times over the coming long Labor Day Weekend.
WB
8/22-8/23
Late with the report, just randomly busy weekend.
Perched Thursday afternoon around G can with my cousin and his little 4 year old boy. Humminbird was lit up like Christmas so was excited thinking we could get the little guy into some hot action BUT noooooooo, we completely struck out! fished for 3 hours, moved a couple times and only managed 1 stinkin white perch for all the effort lol! He was getting pretty restless (I couldnt blame him!) so we ended up just swimming for the last hour off the back of the boat.
Stayed at Kelleys that night and next morning decided to try the East side for walleye since we struck out so hard the day before on perch. Tried slow drifts (no wind at all!) on the south side in a real small pack and had on perch gear, a deadstick jig, and casting harnesses. Nothing at the south side, then moved East into another small pack. Marked some here and there and ended up trolling harnesses to try to cover water. Managed 1 mid sized sheep and 1 short walleye before the little guy was bored out of his mind and wanted to go to the beach (again, couldnt blame him!).
I fished hard AF trying to get him into some action but just couldnt get anything going. And of course the last couple days all i see are reports of quick limits around the Cans lol 😡 :D.
Might be back up next weekend or following to see if I can finally break through on the perch! Had the boat for 4 years and I think the grand total of perch on board is around 40 haha!
8/22 perch report
Went out with my wife today. We fished about a mile and a half southeast of B can. Lots of marks there. Fished for about three hours. Got 40 keepers. Several sheepshead and a couple dozen small white perch. Threw back a couple dozen small yellow perch also.
Got minnows at Bite me baits. Mostly emerald shiners but very small. Lots of pin minnows that are tough to get and keep on the hook.
Kicker dial
I’ve been on a few boats where you can fine tune the speed of your kicker motor. Now that I’ve purchased a boat, mine doesn’t have this feature and would like to install one of these.
Who makes the best one??
Thanks,
FF