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Fishing has been outstanding the past month from Huron to west sisters island and here is how we have caught our fish.

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.

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

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Made the mistake of leaving fish to go find fish. Initial stop was just east of Marblehead lighthouse and had great marks but nothing in an hour so we went in search of better spot. Trolled for another hour in 30FOW on the eastern fringes of that big pack of boats between SBI & KI (despite the fish finder showing nothing but a few stragglers hanging out at the bottom). Targeted all levels of water column. Nothing. So did an entire lap around KI, stopping at various points wherever there was a small pack of boats, but the fish finder never showed anything promising. So went back to our original spot east of Marblehead light house and put a quick 6 in the box before we had to call it a day. We were running all our cranks (bandits & FMs) at about 12-15 feet down in 23-27FOW. South to North troll is the only direction that produced, weirdly. Color didnÂ’t matter. Speed 2.2-2.4mph.

My question for the veterans in this community: why was there such a large pack of boats fishing over an area not showing good marks on the fish Finder? We were even right by a head boat. Like I said, we stopped & checked several areas. Is it possible that the fish were super high up in the water column and therefore donÂ’t show up on fish Finder bc they scatter away from the boat shadow? Maybe if we would have went towards the center of the pack we would have started marking fish? Just trying to understand so I can improve my ability to find fishÂ…thanks in advance for any feedback in terms of relying on a pack of boats to locate fish.

Took the women and children out for a boat ride and ended up sliding 3 times just SE of Middle Island….state side in 35′. Fished from 10-3 with gold blade worm harnesses and got 14. Biggest was 24 and threw back 2 shorties. Casting bite was fun and a great first Erie experience for the boys (6,9,12 and 15) and my sister. 7 of the 14 we picked up on bottom bouncers, 3 cranks up. Foggy return trip….

Sunday, wind was null, midges were thick. Fished for 2 hours and got 2 walleyes and 3 perch before everyone had had enough of the swarm. Same spot……just no drift 😡

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.

Spent early last week fishing fishing north of Kelleys. Pulling crawler harnesses behind #1 tadpoles. Leads were 35-45 back. Blades were 5 and 6 Colorado’s. Copper and antifreeze back Blades. We ran speeds 1.2-1.7. The last two days we fished we went east of Kelleys 3-4 miles to get away from the crowd. Same program. No monsters, just good quality fish. Can’t wait to come back in a couple weeks.

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Wife and I went out around 2 this afternoon. Not the best time to be out but get it when you can. We headed to the east side of crib reef where we picked up a dozen yesterday with another couple. Looked around some and it was looking pretty bleak. Tried a drift and didn’t get any eyes. I rode around for a half hour looking for fish in the general area but no luck.

Moved to west of Niagara and headed slowly west looking for fish. Started marking some as we got closer to little pickerel so we set up to make a drift. My wife picked up a keeper soon after that. We both started with red and white beaded harness fishing the bottom. After the first drift, I changed to white and chartreuse beaded harness with a copper fish scale blade. I noticed quite a few fish up in the water so on the next drift I fished higher and started picking them up right away. I caught 6 in the next hour. The fish were at about 20 feet down in 27 to 30 feet of water. At that point we decided it was time to go clean them and us. All in all, a good day.

After the fog the last couple days it was great to be able to see…anything. Yesterday was so bad I couldn’t get out of the marina until about 10:00. Picked up a couple here, and there. Started casting then trolled spoons. Saw the wall of fog coming in at about 4:00. That was it for the day. This morning I was up, and pulling out of the marina before sunrise. Went up NW of Kelly’s for a little early casting. I was the first boat there. By 6:30 there were 10 or so boats moving in, so I put my spoon troll together, and headed west. Somewhere about 8:30 I hadn’t got 1 bite. Broke down everything, and set up for crawler harnesses right north of sugar island. Running 2oz weights 45-55’ behind the boards. 1.75 mph. Blade color didn’t matter as long as there was meat. Most fun I’ve had in a long time. It didn’t matter what direction I went, or where I was. As long as I kept at leas 30’ of water under me I caught fish. Circled between sugar, and north bass a couple times then headed south. Ended up between middle and rattlesnake. Started at 9:00 ended at 10:30. In 1 1/2 hours I caught mylimit of mostly nice fish 1 just over, but he swallowed everything, so had to keep him, and 1 getting close to my cutoff on size. I usually toss anything over 24. 2 shorts. 3 farm (1hog that was fun) 3 decent catfish, a decent smallie, and a white bass. To say I was busy by myself is an understatement! I’m glad I didn’t fall overboard while I was running around. I thank God for the blessing, and opportunity to get to do this! Sorry I ran on, but it was so much fun I had to share.