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The 2a.m. back deck forecast was nice this morning. The wind was less than 5mph out of the SSW, and the sky was clear. The only thing I didn’t like was how lit up the backyard was with the full(ish) moon. Since the sky was clear, that meant the walleye would have been feeding easily overnight. Sure, it’s easy pickings way to the east with the abundance of walleye over there, but over here closer to the islands, it’s a lot tougher. That meant we needed to get an early start.

I met Craig and Jack at Mazruik’s at 5:30, and launched at 5:45. The lightening sky to the east was just starting, and I needed enough light to be able to see the little flags on the trap nets set out there east of Kelly’s. By the time we got out to where the nets were last weekend, it was light enough. The lake wasn’t angry, so we were able to spot the flags from far enough away to avoid them. I only saw one set out there this morning, so that was good.

The plan was to head towards the Weather Buoy, and if the Garmin marked anything between Mazurik’s and the buoy…we would stop and start fishing. And that’s what happened. When we were about 5-6 miles from the buoy, over 43 feet of water, the screen lit up with marks.

Down went the Ulterra and Baby Merc, and set on a course to the east. The FishHawk was deployed, and the speed was dialed in at 2.5 mph.

Now, I’m told that these guys are the best fishermen at “Hidden Creek”, and Craig already knew how to run dipsies, since he used to have a boat of his own up here on the lake…but, doesn’t have it anymore…So, I knew it was going to be a fun and easy morning. Jack didn’t have the dipsey experience, but did have the Off Shore board experience, so he got to help with boards, and Craig set the dipsies.

The zero settings started out at 40 and 50 back, and the three settings were at 65 and 85. Both would be changed up throughout the morning, so fish that were caught on the zero settings came at 36 back (26 1/2 inch fish on that one) with an orange Yeck spoon…40, 50, 60, and 65 back. The three settings caught fish at 65, 75, 85, and 95 back. One three-setting ran a Stinger “Confusion” spoon and caught two. (It wasn’t out until the last part of the trip…I should have put it out sooner!)
The orange Yeck spoon was the busiest spoon, and at one point, I had three of the four lines sporting one.

The Bill Lewis PWC Lites behind the Off Shore boards pulled a handful of fish, but weren’t that busy. The usual colors were used…”Green Tiger”, “Purple Tiger”, and “Red Tiger”. The Red Tiger never pulled anything, so it was replaced with another purple one. One of them was the “PCC Light” (Precise Coastal Crank Lite…it’s a saltwater version of the PWC Lites). The color name is “Bloody Emerald”. I tried it for the first time last week, and it took a lot of fish, so I stopped off at Fisherman’s Central and bought 3 more to have on the boat. I did leave one there on the peg, so I didn’t take them all. (shy grin). lol

I ran the PWC’s, two per side, with 2oz snap weights. The port side ran at 50/47 (97 total line out) and 50/24. The starboard side ran at 50/75 and 50/30. The 97 back took most of the fish, but all the other leads took fish, too. The 50/75 was brought up to 50/43 and took more fish.

We did a long pass from that starting point to just past the weather buoy, and marked a lot of fish 85% of the way, but they were mostly tight to the bottom this morning.

We only caught their two-person limit and two of my fish. We lost two nice walleye this morning too, so that would have helped, but ohhhhh welllll.
There were only 3 Sheephead and 3-4 White Perch caught all morning, too, so there wasn’t a lot of junk fish, but there were a ton of itty-bitty walleye that kept biting the spoons, so the dipsey rods had to be checked every 5 minutes, or so, to clear them off.

Craig and Jack were happy with the size of fish caught and called them “Perfect eaters”. We caught a huge Sea Turtle on the way back to Mazurik’s, too…it was a huge mylar balloon floating out there in the middle of nowhere, so we picked it up.

They said they had a great time and learned a lot, and want to come back next spring, so that makes me happy! They were a lot of fun!

Tomorrow, I have a trip with a new customer… Bill Lange and his two sons Brock and Bennett. We will be launching out of Huron around 5:45 or 6a.m. and looking to see what we can find over there. I don’t like messing with the South Passage on a weekend, because it just turns into a big washing machine with all the boat wakes going every which way, and takes forever to get in from just a couple of miles out. (I like to choose my battles). 😉

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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I went out yesterday for perch. I tried several of my regular perch spots. Average marks decent activity. My best results were south of rattlesnake. Caught about 25 perch total. Only kept 6 above 8?. Everything else were dinks! A few white perch, and a couple sheep. I was just running a standard crappie rig. The smaller bait the better. Small frozen shinners at times cut into 3 pieces. I a couple double ups including the best fish of the day a 10?, and an 8?.

they are starting. Hopefully the bigger fish start moving in soon.

Before sunrise, we headed to a mile-wide “reef” 7 miles NW of the harbor. It is about 39 feet of water there while the surrounding depth is 47-ish. Last year I caught a limit from there all the way to the weather buoy, so thought we would try it again. The waves were 3 to 4 feet for most of the morning, actually crashing over the bow sometimes. Glad the bilge pump worked. With those waves I really didn’t want to go to the weather buoy. Fortunately we had great marks right there at that 7 mile plateau.
Only 6 lines on my boat. Two were bandits unassisted, two were spoons with divers, and two were crawler harnesses with snap weights.
My new LiFePO4 batteries were showing 100% capacity but they were putting out no voltage. So no Minn Kota today. That made it challenging in the strong chop. Speed was all over the place and we had a lot of inadvertent S turns. Tried to average about 2.5 mph s.o.g.
We got an 18 incher before sunrise so we were off to a good start, but then nothing. Kept going over those great marks using different colors and different depths and different directions, but the fish just weren’t interested. By the third or fourth pass, they finally got hungry. We had also switched over to Flicker Shads, Flicker Minnows, and smaller reef runners by then so maybe that was the ticket. We landed 4 on that pass and lost another at the net. Also had two small drum when we got too far east of the plateau. The walleyes were particularly beautiful today. Golden, radiant.
But then the bite shut down again and we were out of time.
Back at Hot Waters, one guy said he too got 5 walleyes in 40′ of water, and also with small cranks. Another guy said he was in 40′ and wasn’t doing any good so he moved to 50+ feet and got his 18 in an hour – with spoons and worms.

Short report?
Fun morning out of vermilion today with Joe, Ron, and Dale. Trolled from Vermilion to Lorain at 2.3-2.5mph.
Dipsies on the zero setting did best at 60 & 70 back, and the three settings at 97 back.

PEC Lites with 2oz behind the Off Shore boards at 50/75 (125 back), 50/47, and 50/24.
Purple Tiger, Green Tiger, and a custom color I don?t know the name of?

Bandits ran on the other side with 2oz?same distances.
?IB Infected? (DJ Custom) was best
?Whiskey and Water? (Slim Shady Custom)
And another custom I don?t know the name of but was used a lot in the earlier reports back when I was running Bandits.

Then the bandit side ended up in a huge tangle somehow and took that entire side out of commission. Had to cut lines and will need to re-spool?Uffda! lol

They caught their 3-man limit and I caught 3 of mine before we headed back in. We went through a ton of sheep and white bass, too, so they stayed busy.

I have them again tomorrow, but we decided to try for perch instead of going for walleye again.

Stay tuned?

Capt Juls

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Fished Friday near G can. Two of us caught plenty of perch for a 2 man limit in 3 1/2 hrs. The problem was many of the fish were undersized (6? or so). We probably returned 20-25 back to the water. No sheep and 5-6 white perch. Beautiful day on the lake.

Caught perch yesterday and today at B can. Some nice perch with some throwbacks mixed in. ALOT of boats at B can this morning, many did well.

I?m 16 years old and love to walleye fish. I fish off a boat based out of Sandusky bay but often go out infront of cedar point to troll. Any tips or advice about lures, speed, and anything else helps out a lot as I am not the best.

Thanks!

If I come back to Huron State ramp what is my perch limit? The line dividing central from Western basin is close. 30 vs 10 limit.