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Another beautiful and bountiful day was initiated with a 7 am stop in a West Harbor Marina for a backup pair of sunglasses to replace originals left at dock. A smooth 25-minute cruse to the border between the Islands and two large Dipseys set on two armed with “MadMo Roy G Biv” down 45-65, two boarded jet 40s loaded with Stingers 35-65 and two in line Bandits 75-90 were deployed at 2.2-2.8 mph. A five-hour troll produced 9 keepers, two nice eyes dropped, some junk and one new inline board. A quick call reunited the grateful owner with his tool. Captains’ intuition prompted a lunch on the move to find muddy waters off Kelly Island state park which pushed us to Kelly Island shoal yielding cleaner water and fisherman. Systems duplicated found feeding fish and several tight circles rounded up the remainder of a 4 man limit at the N W point of the shoal in 20-25 fow. Blessed, we all felt returning the errant board brought good Karma. Best producer was the MadMo Roy spoons, gifted to the captain that morning because they share the same name, fallowed by blue chrome Bandits and distant last Stingers.

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Went out on Fathers Day always a blessing to get out for a bit. Fished close to west sister to avoid some of the wind. Decided to chance it in the wind we caught 8 keeper walleyes all on pink and gold harnesses 24 in leader . Just drifting tritoon handled great again.Anyone else have problems with big boats coming within 50 feet of them?

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Heading back to the lake this week will be posting reports for walleye and perch. Still breaking in the new Duckworth. Thanks to all who share info here.

Walleye limit yesterday north of West Sister about a mile off the Canadian line . Program jet 40’s leads 60 back Contender Spoons on one side and Crawler harnesses on the other. Dipsy divers leads 50 back on a #3 setting with Michigan spoons . 36 walleyes done in 3 1/2 hours back at the dock by 12:00 . No junk fish only one white bass . Hot orange color on spoons and harnesses did most of the damage. 68 pounds at the cleaners.

Did a late afternoon fish between tip of Kelly’s and Middle Island near the green buoy. Most of the water we worked was 43-47” with a lot of bigger fish hanging near bottom but also some nice fish suspended that were scattered in area. We fished copper backed stinger spoons off dipsies .. seemed like black red and copper seemed to be best. It was a slow but steady pick and we ended up with 7 keepers (3 nice fish over 20 and 4 17”ers) and probably 15 shorts. Oddly the mid afternoon bite was best as we were getting into higher quality fish.. as the day went on we had less of them and more shorts. My guess is they moved into shallower waters to feed.
Tons of muddy water around PIB. We ran until we found clean water and then immediately found birds, including a few white pelicans. There were also some very annoying and seemingly dangerous gill/fishing nets set up in the area… always thought that was illegal in US waters but apparently I was wrong. If anyone has any insight, I’d love to hear it.

Beautiful day on water with some nice bags of fish to show for it.

Also found an Off Shore planar board that someone outfitted with a metal arm on our way home.. if anyone claims it, I’ll get it to you.

Tight lines to all.

Well we made it back from the mountains. Beautiful but snow in the middle of June is a bit much.

We got off to a slow start. One of the two guests had to last minute cancel due to a family emergency. I offered to reschedule but Tom wanted to fish. We met up at Mazurek’s at noon. What a mess. The weekend warriors out did them selves. All four ramps were blocked by boats because only one person could back trailer and the others did not know how to run the boat. Meanwhile a go fast boat wanted to launch but he blocked the lane so the other boat trailers could not pick up their boats. Nothing was moving. I suggested to the go fast if he would pull up so the others could get there boats he would be able to launch. Go figure, he got shitty about how he knew how to use a ramp. But he did pull up and we finally got into the water, with about a 20 minute delay.

This was our first day back on the water and the Mayfly reports had me concerned. We had a few at the house but not bad, but I know what the hatch can do to the bite. So I headed East and set up on the line North of Cedar Point and worked South East.

We were marking fish deep. We set up 3 Bandits on both sides from 60 to 120 back and put down two scorpion spoons on the riggers at 35 down. The riggers started producing right away and nothing on the Bandits. We swapped 3 Bandits on the Stbd. side for TruTrip 40s. We ran the 100 back with a mix of scorpios and Stinger spoons.

We only caught one eye on a Bandit 120 back unassisted. The spoons caught non stop. But we were getting 5 shorts to every keeper. It was non stop checking for small fish. We had 8 nice eaters in the cooler (low 20 inchers) when the Black Flys came in with a vengeance. Tom would not use our spray because he is opposed to Deet. Me, I love Deet, lol. He shortly decided he wanted to go in.

It wasn’t a great day and allot of work for a 8 keepers.

I’m off tomorrow for Fathers Day.

Son and I trolled the south end of the bar along with a few boats drifting. Filled two limits of 18-20″ eyes. Not fast and furious, but got the job done. Both harnesses and spoons took fish. 40 true trips 55-75 back, 2.3-2.5 on the Lowrance. 45-49 f.o.w. Monkey Puke and mixed veggies, along with a purple orange yeck spoon were the favorites.

I was a little nervous about my customers today, since Paul is 87 years old, and the oldest I have taken out, to date. His daughter, Janie, bought him this trip for Father’s Day, so they could spend some fun time together. They flew in from Nashville, yesterday, so they were both pretty tired, but were right on time this morning when I picked them up from the White Caps Motel. The forecast was looking really good, and other than the thick haze that hung over all the land masses, so we couldn’t see anything but water out there, it was a very nice day.

Waves were 1 foot or less much of the morning, and then, the wind laid down even more as the morning went on.


We launched at Mazurik’s, (Thanks, Mark Greisbach, for dumping us in this morning! I appreciated it very much!), and headed east/northeast to look for fish. I didn’t want to go west, because of the muddy water, and I didn’t want to go straight north, due to the Mayfly hatch happening.


We started out in front of Cedar Point, over 37 feet of water with Bandits behind Off Shore boards and spoons on dipsies, but I realized it was going to be too much work for me, when every time I checked the dipsies, there was an itty-bitty hanging on it.


I wasn’t getting any help with setting rods this morning, so I figured it might be a good idea to head out to the Weather Buoy, with hopes that there would be larger fish out there that were hungry, so I wouldn’t have to keep reeling little fish in, and throw them back.


My crew was up for the 12 mile ride, so I brought everything in, and secured it, and off we went. I didn’t drive fast, because of my elderly passenger. Even though he was spry, and in very good shape, for an 87-year-old, I felt it necessary to be extra cautious. So, we took our time, and eventually made it out to the line.


Again, we set up with Bandits behind the Off Shores at 70 to 90 back, with one at 50/40 w/2oz.
Dipsies were set on the zero and three settings, with the zero settings set at 35 and 50, and the three settings at 65 and 80 back.


I was disappointed in the lack of fish marks shown on the Helix, when we started just west of the buoy, and were trolling towards it….right on the line. My screen was void of fish (Ugh!). Two LEWT tournament boats were going by us in the opposite direction, about 25 yards south of me, and we watched them each pluck a fish from the Lake, and put it in their live wells.


“I think what we have here is a directional issue,” I said. “What do you mean?”, asked Janie. I explained, “Sometimes, the fish like to bite when their food is coming from a particular direction, and we don’t seem to be going the direction they like, right now”. I started to make a turn, and halfway through it, the outer Bandit, which was a “Nitro Shad” color at 90 back, got bit. It was on the slow side of the turn.


Another Nitro Shad, set on the same side with the 2oz snap weight also went back, so Janie was reeling that in while I took Paul’s picture with the fish he just caught.
When I put my phone down to take the board off for Janie, I could tell the fish wasn’t there anymore. “Hit and a miss,” I said. “At least we know they like that color today,” I added.


We spent an hour over there, and I decided it was time to head back towards the west to try over there.

I stopped where I had fished two days ago, and there were a bunch of boats there, so we set up and headed to the west on our trolling pass. We would only catch one more keeper, on the three setting dipsey with a black/gold Ripplin Redfin at 65 back, and a couple shorts. We ran out of time.


It was not a stellar day for us, but they still had fun being together, and enjoying the lake. They both said they would like to come back and try it again another time, so that makes me happy. 🙂


I’m going to go out of Huron tomorrow, with my two day crew of a Father and Son team from Iowa. The weather is looking good for both of their days, and hopefully, we find some fish willing to bite. I may have to pull out the crawler harnesses, if the Mayflies are over there, too, but I’m hoping I don’t have to. Fingers crossed!


Stay tuned…


Capt Juls

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Anyone trying for perch yet in the Port Clinton Area?