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One last trip and was planning for perch only with a friend coming up. Saw a few guys cleaning some walleye at the Bass Haven fish house and kindly shared some info that gave me a plan and new confidence for walleye.

Went out to Gull reef for the first time and trolled around the reef in 26ft or so. Caught 4 nice walleye, one was 24″ the others 20″. We also got a nice bonus 19″ smallmouth Fatboy. Also a big catfish.

Lost several bandits on the rocks as I slid into 14ft while trolling. Lost a few walleye hits also.

The one yellow bandit with a red head caught everything. Bandits were out 60 unassisted.

Had a good day thanks to the info shared in the fish house.

Was a little choppy at Gull when trolling back into the wind.

One other boat trolling and one casting.

FYI saw 2 Tibbels head boats west of Kelly’s and a few rec boats but did not try for any perch.

Decided to pull the boat for the year.

I just found out Butch & Denny’s Bait Shop, on Corduroy Road in Curtice (just west of Meinke Marina West), decided to sell to Maumee Tackle. According to their Facebook page the last day it was Butch & Denny’s was September 08. Looks like the operation will continue pretty much as it was, as the page said the employees will “still be around.”

For those who don’t know, Maumee Tackle has been around for years, located on the the main street in Maumee just two blocks up from the river. The current owner took over a number of years ago, can’t remember how long ago, from the previous owner. They have been the hub of the Maumee spring spawn fishing runs for walleye in March/April and White Bass in April/May. Then the rest of the year they report on catfish, smallmouth, panfish, and the rest of the river species (including a small resident population of walleye and a small steelhead run this time of year).

Butch & Denny’s is now called Maumee Tackle Lakeside.

If anyone knows more about this, please PM me or just post here.

PS – took the sailboat to Port Clinton to be pulled on Tuesday, October 24. Not many fishing, but it was late afternoon. Got a perch report from guy docked next to me, he got his limit a little ways off the NW corner of Kelleys Island.

Perch were hungry today, caught my 30 limit in less than an hour and a half. Never had to move, others must have been doing well as I did not see any others moving either. Nice perch chop with waves 1-2′, straight out of Metzger marsh canal toward west sister. Start getting marks around 20-21 ft, good marks at 22′ dp.

It was a beautiful day on the lake today. We fished NW of Vermillion in 45 ft of water. We were marking fish everywhere but they were particular to what they wanted.

We started catching on Bandits 80 to 100 back. Best colors were Fruitdot and red headed wonderbread at 2.0 mph. Water temps were mid 50s.

That bite slowed as the fish moved up. We did extremely well on Spros 50 to 60 back. White was the best color.

We had a steady bite and even a triple. Fish were running 5 to 6 pounds. I think we caught 27 but most were catch and release. We brought 12 in for the freezer.

Marina closed and boats in storage. Time to think about pier fishing for me. Any body heard of anything along those lines? I usually fish Sandusky’s piers and sometimes Lakeside. Usually bow hunt the weekends and fish the piers during the week. Although this week’s warm up won’t help.

Headed home to Madison this weekend to catch the Badgers and Buckeyes… I’m guessing 52-10 and hope we score 10. LOL.

Thanks.

I was thinking of trailering back up tomorrow since the wind is dying down. Don’t know what to go for. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Most likely be 2 of us.

It is that time of year again when the big eyes are due back west, but the Brawl and slam inhibits reporting. We will try to help when we can but some guests are adamant about not wanting posts on their fish.

Capt. Christy and I got out for a few hours this afternoon to try and get back on the eyes consistently. We have been doing allot of Perching and the wind has kept us in lately.

We looked around the South passage and up around Kelleyes, Middle island, Gull and Kelleye shoals. Mainly looking for clean water. It was disappointing. We pushed further east and started getting good marks. We put out a test spread covering the water column over 42 ft. We where running mostly big fish baits but they didn’t produce. We had a nice pick on Bandits and Spros back 80 and 90 naked at 2.2 mph. Best colors were Bandit Taco Salad and Spro Gold Perch.

Water temps were in the mid 50s. Our smallest fish was 19 inches and the largest 24.

Caught 3 nice keepers all males biggest was 25″ thought for sure it was a female big old belly on it but no eggs. First time I’ve ever fished with big boards still have a lot to learn. Speed was 2.5 mph. Trolling East with the wind to my back. I believe I would have caught more than three but for some reason my rubber bands didn’t break size 16 not sure what that was about. Could have been dragging those fish for a couple hours. couldn’t quite figure out why I wasn’t catching anything there were lots of marks a commercial boat out there was tossing some pretty nice size walleye into their live well. Not sure if there was too much slack in my main line that the rubber bands were attached to. shouldn’t that line be firm and tight. Hope to have it figured out by spring. Last day tomorrow hope to get some jumbo perch I’ll let you know how that goes planning on fishing over by Marblehead lighthouse or somewhere around lakeside. If anybody does have any tips about how to make that main line tighter that would be great.

Does anybody know if the fish cleaning places are open this late in the season.

Sorry…forgot to post this here the other day….:)

Jim and Gary drove in from MN to go perch fishing. Their original date was rescheduled a couple times, due to Mother Nature not behaving, and me not wanting them to drive such a long distance, to only sit on shore while they were here. The winds decided to behave a bit for their scheduled date this time, so they made the trip out here.

The perch bite the week before was pretty darn good, so I was hopeful that it would continue, but east and northeast winds prior to their first day of fishing, made it tough for their first of two days with me.


Day one:


We started out at the Marblehead lighthouse, where I had been fishing with my previous customers for a couple of days, and did well there. We caught 6 perch in an hour and a half. We decided to take a ride up to the area around South Bass Island to see if we could find a better bite up there.


The wind was blowing out of the SW, so the area by the monument was a bit rough for them, and I moved us around to the north side of Put-n-Bay, and found some good marks near the red can by the entrance to PIB. We caught one there, which brought our total up to 7.


After moving around and trying several more spots, we moved back down to the protected side of the mainland, near East Harbor Park. Good marks, but no takers…again.


With an hour and half to go, I decided to make the run back over to our first spot at the lighthouse, where we picked up two more in the last hour. We didn’t see anyone around us bringing any in, and heard over the radio that people were struggling to catch them.


It was just one of those days, and we ended the day with only 9 in the cooler. 🙁


I told the guys we would launch out of Catawba the next morning, and try over by the cans. They were in agreement with that plan, and were looking forward to the next morning.


Day two….


I picked my crew up at Hi-Way Bait, since they were staying next door at the Peninsula Motel. I went in and bought the shiners, and ice, and we were off to Catawba to launch.


It was just getting light out when we launched and headed to G Can. We were the first ones there, so I was able to take some time to locate a school of fish, before deploying the Terrova and hitting the Spot-Lock. We ended up about 25 yards NE of the can, with some good marks showing on the Helix.


“Dollar for the first yellow?”, I asked. They both agreed, and it wasn’t long before Jim put the first one in the boat. 🙂 “That’s a good sign”, I said. And, we proceeded to start catching on a pretty steady basis for the next 2 1/2 hours. By 9:15 we had 60 in the box, and had 30 to go. But, by 10AM the bite had slowed way down, and we would only catch another 16 before it was time to head in, for a total of 76 perch.


Jim was attaching live Emeralds to his hook, by their tails, so they wiggled while they were down there, and had good bites. But, he also fed a lot of perch, because they kept stealing his minnows, since they were only hooked once through the tail. However, when he did hook up, they were a nice size fish.


I was letting them use the live shiners, while I used my frozen ones (frozen in Wintergreen Rubbing Alcohol), and was doing well with them, too. I found that the tail halves, on the bottom hook, worked best, but also caught a few with the head portions on the top hook. The piece of meat couldn’t be too big though, or it wouldn’t get touched.


They had a good time, even though the catching was less than stellar on day one, and said they would like to come back again in the spring, to try for walleye…and, that makes me happy. 🙂


My trips for the 13th and 14th have been rescheduled to the 2024 season, and my next scheduled trip is for Wednesday the 18th. But, after this strong NE blow, and rain, this weekend….I may have to cancel that one too.


A father and mother are visiting the area Monday through Wednesday, and want to take their 8 and 10 year olds perch fishing. If I think it’s too muddy inside, we will not be going. Little kids do not have the patience when it comes to a slow bite. And, if it’s muddy…the bite will probably be non-existent inside by the lighthouse or the cans. But, we’ll see what the weather does early this week, to see if it cleans up enough.


Stay tuned….


Capt Juls

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