I’ve been reading all the posts the last month since our first/only trip to lake erie on my own boat. We trolled bandits and did really well. From what I’m gathering from my little internet knowledge is the walleye are moving deeper, and allot of people switched to crawler harnesses and spoons. I’m just curious why? I was just wondering if bandits still work by adding a 2 oz snap weight to get them to go deeper this time of year. We are planning a trip for next weekend and heading out of turtle creek. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again to everyone that posts updates on here.
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June 25th
Fished the line east of KI. Monkey puke stinger was the best today, but only on the 3 setting on the dipsy. No luck on a 0 or 1. Speed was 2.6-2.8 SOG. We sorted through 20 or so shorts, no farm animals. Bigest was 24″. No bugs, except their floating remains, lots of those
Casting 6/25
Fished 3 1/2 hours with a buddy this morning a mile off crane creek in 14 – 15 feet of water. Picked up 10 keepers and a short casting harnesses. The grade of fish was very good as we had two around 17 and remainder were 19 to 21 inches. The wind was close to ideal for the first two hours then direction and velocity changes affected our success. We used 1/2 ounce slip sinkers with either red and white beads or fluorescent chartreuse and white beads with a gold fish scale Colorado blade. Our count was 8 so the fish we caught were close to the bottom.
Caught 20 or more sheephead with a few fish Ohio sized ones.
6/24 report
We got out yesterday afternoon just the two of us to do a little hunting and work on a few new setups. We tried several places between Cedar Point and the islands. We caught fish everywhere but mostly shorts. Trash fish were minimal. We worked dirty water to very clear. We found a program that produced more eater sized keepers.
Best program for keepers was 28 to 30 feet deep, didn’t matter how you got down there – riggers were the easiest and helped dial in that depth, Then we used 40 Tru Trips and inline weights to get in the zone. Any deeper and there were too many shorts, higher up it was too slow. Spoons worked best for us, size didn’t matter. Copper spoons in Dark green orange where best followed by purple.
We caught at all speeds but stayed at around 2.5 – 2.8 most of the time. Someone asked about temps the other day and I didn’t remember as I don’t monitor it much this time of year. The temps this time out were around 69 on the surface, it varied a little with dirty water a little warmer. At 30 down the water was a consistent 68.6. Pretty much stratified top to bottom in the 40 ft of water we were targeting.
NOTE:
Still allot of Mayflies.
There were allot of nets North of Kelleys not marked well. They are marked with dirty small floats (hard to see) with only one flag to the south. Be careful if you are trolling in that area.
Draggin’ the Line with John
Fished with John this morning, Saturday June 24th east of Pelee from 6-10am.Handled 18 keepers,7 shorts and one sheephead.Our 12 weighed 28lbs at cleaners.Speed was 2.0-2.3 mph with biggest 22″.We ran all meat today with spoon harness off our 2 dipseys running at 3 setting.Had 2 inline boards with gold double willow harness on a #2 tadpole.Our white spoon harness on dipsey did very well today and caught all day.Changed out other dipsey to a double willow harness in gold after a while.Had dipseys initially at 40 and 45 and the harnesses at 45 also.Seams the #2 tadpole and dipsey at 3 setting run at same depth at the same lead.So whatever lead starts catching it’s easy to switch the dipsey or tadpole to that same lead too .About halfway through our day the bite changed and changed our leads to 50 and 55.Had a nice overcast sky and some drizzle to help the bite too.Sun came out when we got back home to boot
6/23 report
We went North out of Huron this afternoon after the rain stopped. We set up in 40 ft of water trolling South West with the wind behind us. We roughly followed the 40 break until just North of the South dump and then shifted North West toward Cedar Point to stay on the marks. We took 18 keepers but only kept 12 for the table in 3 hours. No trash or bugs but allot of shorts as expected. We were tending rods non stop., downriggers oscillating from 35 to 28. Riggers were the leading producers, but everything caught.
We trolled 2.2 to 2.5 pulling Tru Trip 40s 70 back. Scorpion and Stinger spoons, Orange and dark green, and also purple were the best. Also took 2 nice fish on Flicker Shads.
May 25- June 23 report
It has been a great month of fishing for me. I started the month out of Catawba and mazurik boat ramp fishing west of rattlesnake and moving east to north of Kelley’s shoal until the past week I moved east to
Lorain. We Ran flicker minnows and spoons behind jets and j7’s behind jets and dipsy divers. Fishing was all over the board the whole month. Some days spoons some days body baits fish were biting all over the water column. Nothing consistent the entire month. There are a lot of small 6 and 14” fish in the lake. About as healthy as I have ever seen but what a pain to fish with all the little ones biting vigorously. We have caught limits of fish on most trips. I still have some openings for July and I have some openings for salmon fishing on Lake Ontario in august. Call me to book a trip 419-635-8003
Lorain. We Ran flicker minnows and spoons behind jets and j7’s behind jets and dipsy divers. Fishing was all over the board the whole month. Some days spoons some days body baits fish were biting all over the water column. Nothing consistent the entire month. There are a lot of small 6 and 14” fish in the lake. About as healthy as I have ever seen but what a pain to fish with all the little ones biting vigorously. We have caught limits of fish on most trips. I still have some openings for July and I have some openings for salmon fishing on Lake Ontario in august. Call me to book a trip 419-635-8003
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Fishing with Andy and Susan Tenconchuk… June 22, 2023
My crew was staying way out in Marblehead, so I had them meet me at Catawba this morning at 5:15. I was looking at iWindSurf’s wind forecast, and was a little concerned about the gusts to 20 from the East, and the fact that no one else was at the launch yet. As I waited on my crew, I noticed that the wind was from the SW at Catawba, at about 7-9mph, and thought that maybe iWindSurf had it wrong today.
They showed up a little late, but we still managed to launch by 5:40, and head up to the west side of the Bass Islands. It wasn’t rough at all. There were some rollers from the NE as we rounded the tip of Catawba, but they were smallish, and the ride was easy.
I figured, that if the wind forecast was correct, we would have at least 5 hours, before it started to blow, and get rough out there. I was right. It was downright beautiful in the morning up between the islands, with maybe a 6″ wave from the SSE.
The Terrova was deployed over 31 feet of water, the baby Merc came to life and pushed us along at a whopping speed of 1.9-2.0 SOG, while the Fish Hawk read 1.6-1.7mph on a northerly trolling pass.
I opted to start with the crawler harnesses again, since they seemed to catch larger fish on my last two adventures out. Root beer colored beads with a gold hammered hatchet blade, is one of my creations to mimic the Mayfly, and does really well. And another that I make, is a perch pattern color with a gold #6 Colorado blade.
It was pretty much the same program I used north of Kelly’s this past week. 2oz inlines on one side, and 3oz inlines on the other side.
The 2oz’s were set at (shortest leads on the outside) 20, 35, 42, and 50, and the 3oz leads were set at 25, 30, 40, and 50. All leads caught fish today.
Andy and Sharon have their own boat, but wanted to learn how to run the Off Shore boards more efficiently, so they came to learn. Catching was a bonus for them. However, we went through a lot of fish, with a lot of itty-bitties hooking up, or stealing our crawlers, so we had to keep checking the baits, to make sure we weren’t dragging a 4″ walleye, or dragging a bait without a crawler.
Andy certainly got his wish on how to work the boards. He did a great job of listening to instructions, setting lines, retrieving them without tangling, and then setting them back out to their original spots again without having to move other boards to do so. Susan, who was sitting up on the bow, was quick to notice a change in the action of a board, and let us know when she thought there was a fish on one…she was usually right! She was also very good at reeling in fish, without tangling the lines.
I didn’t have to keep repeating myself, over and over, so I know I can say with confidence, that they now understand what they were doing wrong, before, and now know what to do right. They will be able to have a lot more fun and success in their own boat, now. 🙂
We were one short of a two-person limit, but went through close to 40 fish this morning. One of these years, all those little fish will be so much fun, when they get bigger. I can’t wait.
The wind was forecasted to pick up around 10AM, and it showed up at 10:19….out of the east. The waves started white capping, and we fished until 11:00, then headed in. By then, it was solid 2-3s with some 4s thrown in for good measure.
My crew had a good time, learned some things, and will be taking their own boat over the weekend to practice what they learned today, and that makes me happy. 🙂
I have an older crew tomorrow, that I informed it would be raining in the morning (Yuck), and offered them to reschedule, I’m still waiting to hear what they want to do.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
They showed up a little late, but we still managed to launch by 5:40, and head up to the west side of the Bass Islands. It wasn’t rough at all. There were some rollers from the NE as we rounded the tip of Catawba, but they were smallish, and the ride was easy.
I figured, that if the wind forecast was correct, we would have at least 5 hours, before it started to blow, and get rough out there. I was right. It was downright beautiful in the morning up between the islands, with maybe a 6″ wave from the SSE.
The Terrova was deployed over 31 feet of water, the baby Merc came to life and pushed us along at a whopping speed of 1.9-2.0 SOG, while the Fish Hawk read 1.6-1.7mph on a northerly trolling pass.
I opted to start with the crawler harnesses again, since they seemed to catch larger fish on my last two adventures out. Root beer colored beads with a gold hammered hatchet blade, is one of my creations to mimic the Mayfly, and does really well. And another that I make, is a perch pattern color with a gold #6 Colorado blade.
It was pretty much the same program I used north of Kelly’s this past week. 2oz inlines on one side, and 3oz inlines on the other side.
The 2oz’s were set at (shortest leads on the outside) 20, 35, 42, and 50, and the 3oz leads were set at 25, 30, 40, and 50. All leads caught fish today.
Andy and Sharon have their own boat, but wanted to learn how to run the Off Shore boards more efficiently, so they came to learn. Catching was a bonus for them. However, we went through a lot of fish, with a lot of itty-bitties hooking up, or stealing our crawlers, so we had to keep checking the baits, to make sure we weren’t dragging a 4″ walleye, or dragging a bait without a crawler.
Andy certainly got his wish on how to work the boards. He did a great job of listening to instructions, setting lines, retrieving them without tangling, and then setting them back out to their original spots again without having to move other boards to do so. Susan, who was sitting up on the bow, was quick to notice a change in the action of a board, and let us know when she thought there was a fish on one…she was usually right! She was also very good at reeling in fish, without tangling the lines.
I didn’t have to keep repeating myself, over and over, so I know I can say with confidence, that they now understand what they were doing wrong, before, and now know what to do right. They will be able to have a lot more fun and success in their own boat, now. 🙂
We were one short of a two-person limit, but went through close to 40 fish this morning. One of these years, all those little fish will be so much fun, when they get bigger. I can’t wait.
The wind was forecasted to pick up around 10AM, and it showed up at 10:19….out of the east. The waves started white capping, and we fished until 11:00, then headed in. By then, it was solid 2-3s with some 4s thrown in for good measure.
My crew had a good time, learned some things, and will be taking their own boat over the weekend to practice what they learned today, and that makes me happy. 🙂
I have an older crew tomorrow, that I informed it would be raining in the morning (Yuck), and offered them to reschedule, I’m still waiting to hear what they want to do.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
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Need help
What type of weight do you attach to a
Bandit or any body bait to get a down deeper. Is it a clip on with a round sinker or is it a cylindrical sinker?
I tried to use one one time and ended up with a big ball a line wrapped up, must have done something wrong.
Bandit or any body bait to get a down deeper. Is it a clip on with a round sinker or is it a cylindrical sinker?
I tried to use one one time and ended up with a big ball a line wrapped up, must have done something wrong.
Fishing Day 2 with Bill and Stan… June 19, 2023
Quick report…:)
Fishing Day 2 with Bill and Stan… June 19, 2023
Beautiful morning…and, no bugs! No big fish…just eaters. Ran the crawler harness program again, that we ran yesterday…15 keepers, and lost 4 more that didn’t stay hooked up well….and, one 8-9 pound catfish, 3 sheep, and 3 white perch.
Ran one dipsey on the zero setting, 30-35 back, with a Scirpion spoon, for a little while…it only caught itty-bitties, so I removed it.
Speed was 1.7mph on the Fish Hawk.
My crew enjoyed the morning, and are headed back to Iowa with fun memories and some fish for their fish fries.
I might have made a bad call for my next two days with my MN crew. We will see. Yesterday, and for several days prior, they were calling for more ENE wind, gusting to 23, so I told them to stay home. They are rescheduling. But, I see it’s changed now….of course! (Insert eye-roll here).
Back at it Thursday…
Stay tuned….
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