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Been off the water most of this year, but was considering a trip up this Sunday.
Anything happening ?

Our guest wanted to try for a Brawl big fish. Since he was alone we agreed to split any winnings equally to give him more chances than just his 6 fish. We always leave it to the guest, as take all or split.

We fished the same program as yesterday, see 11/4 report.

To make a long story short our 12th fish into the boat was by Capt. Christy and was a 28.75 inch real pig that weighed 9 pounds 14 ounces on the boat scale. I said quick pull the spread and lets get the fish to the scale while still alive in live well to help save a little weight. The guest wanted to keep fishing and was acting a little off. I explained though not a winner the fish could pay something in the Brawl and Slam. He finally sheepishly said he had not entered either but we could keep the winnings. We had to tell him that disqualified the fish.

One lucky big girl got put back to swim again and we called it a day.

I had to reschedule this trip a couple of weeks ago, due to wind, so I had been watching the forecast as the day approached, and it kept getting better day by day, so I told my crew it would be a go.

Originally, the forecast was for the wind to settle down around 8am, but when I went out on the back deck with my coffee at 3am, the wind had already died down to a whopping 3mph. The temp was 46 degrees, so I knew it was going to be a nice day…other than some expected rain showers from time to time throughout the morning.


My boat is in heated storage now, so I had to go across town to get her. I dropped Alfie off at my friend, Jen’s house first, so he could spend the day with his brother Ozzie, and his girlfriends, Buoy and Sunny, while I worked. I didn’t want him spending the day alone, now that is big brother, Dexter has passed over the Rainbow Bridge. So, thank you, Jen and Matt, for taking care of him. 🙂


I got to the building a little early, so I could organize some things, before hitting the water. I hit the gas station to gas her up and get some ice for the cooler, before heading over to Mazurik’s to meet my crew at 8:45. They were already there, when I arrived, so the day was already off to a good start.


We launched at 9am and after the big motor warmed up to temp, we headed off to the east side of Kelly’s. I hadn’t been walleye fishing for quite some time, because all of my last trips the past month and a half were perch trips, so it was just a matter of driving until I marked some fish.


We found “some marks” at the 32/27 line, but they weren’t stacked, like we often see in some people’s photos of their electronics, where it becomes “As fast as you can reel”, but more scattered. We decided to give it a try.


The Terrova was deployed, and the baby Merc engaged, and a NE heading was set at a speed of 1.8-2.0 mph. The Fish Hawk showed that the surface temp of 53.4 was the same as the temp down at 15 feet. The SOG was also the same going in that direction.


The port side was set up with 3 white bodied bandits, running behind Off Shore boards. The outside board ran at 120 back (unassisted), the middle board at 80, and the inside board at 60. All three would catch a fish or two.


The starboard side started out running the new Berkley Deep Hit Sticks with the same leads, but didn’t catch anything, so they were eventually swapped out for the Berkley Flicker Minnow 11s. The outside bait ran at 100 back, the middle board at 70, and the inside board at 60. All three of these would catch a few fish, too.


Two dipsies ran off each corner, with the inside set on the zero setting, and the outside rods running dipsies on the three setting, with spoons, shallow Hit Sticks, and Ripplin Redfin’s. Dialing it in, three rods would end up running the smaller BadMo Arrow spoons in the green and black (silver back), and one white bodied Ripplin Redfin ran on one of the three settings.


The zero settings with spoons caught at 36 to 47 back. The three settings caught at 50 to 80 back. Most of the fish were caught on the dipsies.


When we ran out of marks, I turned the boat around to head back west. The SOG was 2.3 while the Fish Hawk showed 1.9-2.0mph, going that direction. We picked away at them until they caught their limits, and two of mine… then, around noon, the bite slowed for us. We fished for another hour, when they decided they wanted to get back, so they could get the fish cleaned before heading home.


We had a great time out there, and they were very happy with the 20 fish in the cooler, since I didn’t have real high hopes of a good bite, since all the reports I had received from the two days before weren’t that great.


I had fished with James and Chris back in 2020, and that day we had only gone 11 for 15, but they had a great time that day, too, so I knew they were the positive kind of anglers, and no matter what happened, it would be a good day on the water.


Luckily, though, we beat that day, and put more fish in the cooler for their fish fry efforts. James couldn’t have been happier. Chris was a great “first mate”, and Schmitty, who had never caught a walleye before, is now hooked and wants to bring some other friends out here to go fishing with me, too….and, that makes me happy! 🙂


This was the last customer trip of the season, unless a forecast shows nice weather coming in, because I have a few that I can call last minute, if they want to get out.


Otherwise, I’ll be doing a little Fall Walleye Brawling, and Walleye Slamming with Jen and Matt for the rest of the month.


Stay tuned….


Capt Juls

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We fought the mess out of the Huron ramp. Parking was terrible with many parking on the grass. They were ticketing trucks not in parking spots. If you have options, I would recommend some other ramp. Vermillion is good if you can get under the bridge.

We fished north of Cranberry. We marked fish everywhere but did not start consistently catching until 33ft. We ended with a triple limit (18), with most in the low 20s. All were fat and thick, they are good looking fish. We also had a nice chunky bonus steelhead.

The best Bandit color was Taco Salad. Best leads were 70 to 80 unassisted. Speed was 1.3 to 1.7

Any reports from the South Passage or around Kelley’s Island. Really don’t want to launch out of Huron and battle all the boats. Thanks in Advance.

We fished NW of Cedar Point to Huron. Surface temps were 47 but temp 5 feet down was 56. Water was dirty inside but cleaned up over 40ft. Fish were stacked around 45 ft.

Spro Madeye 120s out fished Bandits again today. White was once again the best color. We trolled at 2.0 mph in a NE direction with the wind. Best leads were 70 to 80.

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.