Launched out of Catawba. Met my new friend DW72 who happened to be launching at the same time. It’s nice to have someone to text back and forth with when on the big lake, it makes it more enjoyable and gives you that extra sense of security. Started off just west of green island then trolled west towards D can. A lot of boats anchored up in that area so stayed north of the boats trying to avoid congestion. Caught half a dozen there then headed back east toward green island. Got back over by green island and finished our 18 limit over there about 3:30. DW72 had finished his limit as well so we met back at the Catawba ramp and visited a bit before he had to head home and we headed back to our rental. Caught fish on several different colors trolling cranks 14-19 foot deep over 30 FOW. Had a great day, tomorrow supposed to get windy so hoping to get out early and catch limit before winds get bad.
Category: Uncategorized
Fishing with John Willams… May 29th, 2023
I left the house at 4:30, and drove over to Catawba to meet up with my customer, John Williams, who was going to be there by 5:30. He was driving in from the Cleveland area, so I didn’t expect him to beat me there, but he did.
It was still dark at 5:15, but we launched anyway. I figured by the time the 400 warmed up to temp, we would be able to go.
The sky was clear, and just starting to lighten on the eastern horizon. The reflection of the sky on the water west of the islands made it bright enough to head out.
The air temp was mid 50s, and the flag on the pier at Catawba wasn’t moving at all. The lake had some light residual rollers from the previous night’s light NE winds.
We headed north to the last place I fished last week, which was off the west side of North Bass. The Helix wasn’t showing as many fish marks as last week before the blow, but there were still enough to make me want to set up on them.
The Fish Hawk was showing a depth temp of 61.1 degrees and the surface temp was showing 62.3 on the Helix. Speed was set at 2.2 GPS, which was 1.9mph with a WSW trolling pass.
Since I only had one person today, we could only run 6 lines, so 4 dipsies hit the line-up, and two Off Shore boards. The boards started with two Flicker Minnow 11s behind them…one at 55 back, unassisted, and the other with a 2oz snap weight at 50/69 (total line out 119). Neither took a fish, so they were changed out to Bandits.
“Carrot Top” was set at 75 back on the port side. It caught a nice eater. Then, I had John pick out a color to use on the starboard side, and he chose “Electric Zebra”. I also had him pick a number, and he chose 68, so we ran that one at 68 back. It didn’t catch anything. The sun was getting higher, and it was hard to see the board on the port side, due to the sparkling reflection on the water, so I reeled it in and put it on the starboard side, too.
The Carrot Top stayed at 75 back, and was moved to the outside. The Electric Zebra came in and was changed out to “Buck Fever” (silver chrome with a purple back…a Domka Outdoors Custom color). That one was set to 57 back… it would catch two nice eaters…while the Carrot Top would tally 2 fish also.
The Yeck spoons, however, were the star of the morning. They caught 9 of the 12 fish. 6 came early, and were in the box before 6:30.
The zero setting at 30 and 35 back were the most successful, while the three settings at 47 and 50 back caught a few, too.
It wasn’t fast and furious, but it was a steady enough bite to keep us entertained for a couple of hours until we limited out.
It was a beautiful morning to be on the water, and the company was great, too, and that makes me happy!
Tomorrow, I’ll be fishing with Dave Dunn and his friends.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
It was still dark at 5:15, but we launched anyway. I figured by the time the 400 warmed up to temp, we would be able to go.
The sky was clear, and just starting to lighten on the eastern horizon. The reflection of the sky on the water west of the islands made it bright enough to head out.
The air temp was mid 50s, and the flag on the pier at Catawba wasn’t moving at all. The lake had some light residual rollers from the previous night’s light NE winds.
We headed north to the last place I fished last week, which was off the west side of North Bass. The Helix wasn’t showing as many fish marks as last week before the blow, but there were still enough to make me want to set up on them.
The Fish Hawk was showing a depth temp of 61.1 degrees and the surface temp was showing 62.3 on the Helix. Speed was set at 2.2 GPS, which was 1.9mph with a WSW trolling pass.
Since I only had one person today, we could only run 6 lines, so 4 dipsies hit the line-up, and two Off Shore boards. The boards started with two Flicker Minnow 11s behind them…one at 55 back, unassisted, and the other with a 2oz snap weight at 50/69 (total line out 119). Neither took a fish, so they were changed out to Bandits.
“Carrot Top” was set at 75 back on the port side. It caught a nice eater. Then, I had John pick out a color to use on the starboard side, and he chose “Electric Zebra”. I also had him pick a number, and he chose 68, so we ran that one at 68 back. It didn’t catch anything. The sun was getting higher, and it was hard to see the board on the port side, due to the sparkling reflection on the water, so I reeled it in and put it on the starboard side, too.
The Carrot Top stayed at 75 back, and was moved to the outside. The Electric Zebra came in and was changed out to “Buck Fever” (silver chrome with a purple back…a Domka Outdoors Custom color). That one was set to 57 back… it would catch two nice eaters…while the Carrot Top would tally 2 fish also.
The Yeck spoons, however, were the star of the morning. They caught 9 of the 12 fish. 6 came early, and were in the box before 6:30.
The zero setting at 30 and 35 back were the most successful, while the three settings at 47 and 50 back caught a few, too.
It wasn’t fast and furious, but it was a steady enough bite to keep us entertained for a couple of hours until we limited out.
It was a beautiful morning to be on the water, and the company was great, too, and that makes me happy!
Tomorrow, I’ll be fishing with Dave Dunn and his friends.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
Attached Images
5-27 Report
We left Port Clinton around 8:30 am and headed toward Middle Bass. Started trolling with the wind toward Middle Sister. Not many boats out. We put out 6 rods, 2 outside with planer boards, middle rods with dipseys at the 3 setting (50 ft. out worked best) and two dragging behind the boat. The dipseys and boards caught our fish, using #7 + #11 flickers (70 back) and bandits 80 back and a mix of small/large stinger spoons. We were in 28 to 31 ft. of water. Speed was 2.0 SOG. Best colors were perch, blue chrome crank baits, purple with black dot spoons. They usually bit two at a time. We got 15 of our 18 limit. Best time for us was from 1 to 3 pm. Looking forward to next weekend!
5/28 Report
Fished near Sputnik in about 30
FOW. Boated 12 eyes, 2 throwbacks. Water super clean near Canadian line.
FOW. Boated 12 eyes, 2 throwbacks. Water super clean near Canadian line.
5/28 casting trip
Went out this morning for a little fishing. I started east of toussaint reef and worked my way north and east drifting and casting. 3 1/2 hours later I finished east of niagara reef. Ended with 3 keepers and one short. Caught 2 on bottom bouncers with red and white beads and hammered gold blades on a worm harness and 1 on a harness with chartreuse and white beads and a hammered blade. Water was 59 to 60 degrees. The breeze was pretty good for drifting but not catching. Lots of trollers in the area.
April 23-May 24
The fishing has been up and down the past month but mostly we have been catching. Taking a lot more hours on the water to get the job done. We have moved back to the islands now and have been doing very well. The fish movement seems behind due to the cold water temps but the action has been heating up the past few weeks. We have been doing very well
With spoons and flicker minnows. The smaller baits are working much better right now. Still running some bandits but the smaller baits are catching better and at a surprisingly slow speed. 1.8-2.0 has been best for me. That’s a slow speed for jets and dipsy but it’s working. Here are a few ice as of lately the past 3 days we boated 28 limits of walleye. I have a few dates left in June if anyone wants a trip give me a call.
With spoons and flicker minnows. The smaller baits are working much better right now. Still running some bandits but the smaller baits are catching better and at a surprisingly slow speed. 1.8-2.0 has been best for me. That’s a slow speed for jets and dipsy but it’s working. Here are a few ice as of lately the past 3 days we boated 28 limits of walleye. I have a few dates left in June if anyone wants a trip give me a call.
Attached Images
Fishing day 2 with Pat and Emily… May 24, 2023
It was a repeat of day one, so no new report. Please see day one’s report for details. 🙂
Blow day Thursday and I’m off Friday, so I’ll be back at it on Saturday.
Stay tuned…
Capt Juls
Blow day Thursday and I’m off Friday, so I’ll be back at it on Saturday.
Stay tuned…
Capt Juls
Attached Images
Inaugural Trip
Worked 12 hour shift Sunday night, got off work 4 am went home threw stuff in truck, hooked up boat and picked up my buddy and headed towards the lake. Got to vrbo at 1030, threw luggage in cabin and headed to Catawba launch. got on the water around noon, by the time we got to destination and setup around 100. We only ran out 4 lines so we didn’t have to mess with boards. First time for me with my own boat on Erie. We fished just west of green Island and trolled in north and south direction. We ended up catching 9 walleye by 6:30 and stopped because other buddy made it over and was at the house. We trolled lengths of 65, 80, 90, 100 back. our most productive baits were a smithwick Rouge in dark purple striped at 65 back early in the trip and smithwick rouge in chartruse and orange 100 ft back towards the evening. First time out went ok, but would not have been near that good if it hadn’t been for this forum. Met a now new friend DW72 and he helped us out a lot. Gave us a direction to go and start and it was a great help. Going to be fishing a few more days and so is he, so we are keeping in touch and texting each other our progress. Next couple of days should be good ….Thanks to Don’s help next couple of days should be fun. Thanks to everyones reports and suggestions from this forum, inaugural trip with my boat should be a success. I’ll try to post more when I can.
3rd day on 5/23
Same program as previous report from afternoon if 5/21 and then 5/22 Fished from 30 FOW down to 26. A couple miles west of Green towards the power plant. Center of the action was D Can. Stayed just outside of huge pack of boats and a couple headboats. Most were casting. Green clown and pink/yellow were best at 100 feet back. Other colors were good too including taco salad, Fermi-Gold from Slimshady and an IB Frozen. Speed 1.9-2.2. Hope to be back in 2-3 weeks.
Walleye Slam
How many enter the walleye slam? I received an email about it but as I was looking at the rules I didn’t understand this one, If fishing from a boat, only registered participants may be on board. So if I take my grandkids fishing I would not be allowed to enter any fish I catch if they are in the boat and not registered?