any updates on the cleaning house at Mazurik park?
Category: Uncategorized
6/6-6/8
With the weather and water changing so much now, my reports don’t mean much but thought I would share anyway We struggled with 2-4 footers in my 18 foot boat and had chocolate milk water most of our trip. Went out of 3 launches and put in a lot of miles. Best two spots were straight out of Huron(west of where Coho was getting them) on day 3 and around North Bass on day 1. Two days were really only half days due to weather.
Cool part is that we did get about a 5# steelhead out of Huron in 47 FOW.
Thanks Coho for sharing info. Hope we can do it again. I’ll be out there 4-5 more times and hopefully soon.
4/10 report
We took yesterdays idea of letting the water warm to the extreme today. We did not leave the dock until 3:00 this afternoon. We ran out to where we were catching yesterday North West of Kellys. No luck, the water had cleared too much and we were not marking. We made one pass but did not touch a fish. We pulled the spread and went looking for stained water.
We found some good stained water further west just off North Bass in 37 ft of water at about 4:30. We had our limit by 7:00 and headed back to Mazurek’s.
We had to pick up our speed today and were trolling at 1.7. S turns did not work today so we straight lined it.
Best bait today was once again Red Headed Bandit at 75 back naked. Second was an old favorite from the past, Kaki Brown that took 3 fish at 55 back naked. We only took 2 today on the Blue Chrome Super rogue at 17 down, but once again they were big fish.
Today was the first day we picked up some post spawners. The pre spawners were still 3 to 1 over post spawners.
It was a beautiful afternoon/evening on the lake and we had 12 really nice fish.
I will be off the water until next week so good luck to all and I hope to back next week.
Calm Water Fishing Advice, Not The Big Lake
I have a friend, newly retired, who just wants to catch fish. I took her and her husband out on Erie for walleye last year but she gets very sea sick. We later went into East Harbor and got some small bass. She was happy.
Do you have suggestions for calm water spots? Blue Gill, Crappie, Bass. It doesn’t matter. Just want to catch fish.
I can be discreet. If you give me good tips we won’t “ruin” your “secret hole”.
Catch and release is OK with us.
I used to like Rest Haven but the bite there has gotten tough. Or so I have heard. They took out the dam at Fremont so the white bass are not stacked up there anymore.
If you don’t want to post publicly, email me at ToussaintsWorth@gmail.com
Thank you, in advance.
4/10 jigging
Wife and I went out this morning. Started a half mile north of turtle creek. Picked up a couple but too many boats. Moved to a quarter mile southwest of locust reef and finished two limits there. We fished about 3 hours. All fish were caught on purple hair jigs 3/4 ounce. Water is 45 degrees there and clean enough.
Sorry., tried to help
I tried posting 2 very long threads from my phone and computer and it did not allow me to for 4/6-4/8. Tough fishing. If anyone wants details text me at 607-857-4628. Fished out of Catawba then Mazurik’s then Huron. Other folks here are lot better than me anyway, just thought I would share. We boated 10 and dropped maybe 6. very rough and very muddy water.
Water and forecastes look great now and many were doing well jigging the reefs when the troling was not good.
4/9 report
We fished North West of Kellys out near the line.
With the full moon we decided to go out for the afternoon bite. Sometimes with a full moon the morning bite is slow but they turn on later in the day. Besides it doesn’t hurt to let the sun warm the water also. So we went out after lunch and fished until 5:00 for a limit of quality eyes.
Our speed was 1.3 to 1.5. Like others reported we had to be doing S turns to trigger bites. They would hit on inside and outside. They could be following and the turn was needed to trigger them, just guessing. Surface temp was 44.7 20 ft down it was 43.2.
The clear winner for baits was the red headed bandit, this is a white bait and we caught the largest number on it. White was the key. We also caught several on the red head and chartreuse head wonder bread bandits. The only non white bandit we caught on was Taco Salad for one fish.
Our 3 biggest fish came on a Blue Chrome Supper Rogue, fished 20 down.
All our fish were pre spawn females. And big. We had one fish Ohio. We caught one and Captain Christy said you think you should measure that it looks small. I said its an easy 17 inches, it turned out to be 19 inches. It just looked small, lol. We finished with one 18″ and one 19″ the rest were all well into their 20s (25 to 28).
Fishing Day 2 with Jason, Cindy, and John Hendricks…April 9th, 2023
Left the house this morning, with my heart breaking, because Alfie is not used to me leaving without him, yet. He was giving me the sad/confused eyes as I walked out the door. 🙁Dexter just jumped up on the couch with a look of, “Have a great day, Mom! See you when you get back.” lol
Thankfully, my friend, Jen, came yesterday and today to walk them, while I was gone. Thanks Jen, it’s much appreciated! 🙂
It was 5:30 when I left the house, this morning. I was picking my crew up at the Country Inn and Suites, across town, at 6am. I hit the gas station for ice, but forgot my crew had my cooler from the day before, so I threw it up on the back of the boat and headed to the hotel. They had gotten ice too, so we had an overabundance of ice this morning. Oops!
It was chilly this morning, but the weatherman said it would be warming up to around 53 degrees by noon. It was 37 degrees when we launched at Catawba, and the wind barely made a ripple across the surface of the lake. The wind forecast was for 7-8 out of the east, but I think it was probably around 5mph all morning. The sky was clear of clouds all day, so we also got a great satellite picture this afternoon.
We headed north towards Niagara again, but were going to look at the deeper side of it, to the east, this time. I was expecting to find some muddy water, but it was clean, so we kept heading north until we found some good mixing water with some fish marks in it.
Speaking of fish marks….my sonar is working perfectly after installing the latest Helix software update last night. That monkey is off my back now…whew!
We set up with Bandits on both sides, running behind the Off Shore boards.
The port side was set at 80, 60, 50, 40 (long leads on the outside), and the port side ran at 100, 77, 67, and 57.
Colors that caught fisher were:
Taco Salad (stock)
Freak Show (Hammertime Lures/Sandusky Bait Co.)
Blue Chrome (Stock)
Red Headed Wonderbread (not stock, but I can’t remember where I got them from)
Electric Zebra (stock)
At one point, I swapped out the Bandits on the starboard side to all Spro 120s and ran them at 97, 67, 50, and 40.
Colors that caught were the
Blue Chrome (stock)
Chrome Perch (stock)
RC Crush (DJ Custom Eye Lures)
Around 11AM I noticed the water temp on the Fish Hawk was colder down below (43.2) than the surface temp reading from my Helix (44), so I thought since we were in muddy water that the fish might be nose bleed high to soak up some of that warmth from the sunshine without getting blinded, and brought a few baits up really high….like 20 feet behind the board kind of high.
The Red Headed Spro at 20 back got pulled back hard within 5 minutes of setting it, but it was a hit and a miss.
Then, I had Jason set his two inside Bandits at 20 and 30 back, too, and the 20 back took a nice fish, not too long after.
We were doing a lot of S-Turns, and sometimes they hit on the fast side, and sometimes they hit on the slow side. I was trying to keep the speed at the lures around 1.3 to 1.5 mph, which on the Helix was 1.6 to 1.9mph.
Jason, Cindy, and John had a better time today than yesterday, because the weather was so much nicer, and the fish were more cooperative. We will be launching out of Mazurik’s tomorrow, for their last day.
I think all the fish caught today were already spawned out…and, I think all those marks on my sonar this morning were already spawned out fish that just needed to rest up after getting beat up. It won’t be long, and they will put the feed bag on. Oh, what fun that will be, eh? 🙂
Stay tuned…
Capt Juls
Thankfully, my friend, Jen, came yesterday and today to walk them, while I was gone. Thanks Jen, it’s much appreciated! 🙂
It was 5:30 when I left the house, this morning. I was picking my crew up at the Country Inn and Suites, across town, at 6am. I hit the gas station for ice, but forgot my crew had my cooler from the day before, so I threw it up on the back of the boat and headed to the hotel. They had gotten ice too, so we had an overabundance of ice this morning. Oops!
It was chilly this morning, but the weatherman said it would be warming up to around 53 degrees by noon. It was 37 degrees when we launched at Catawba, and the wind barely made a ripple across the surface of the lake. The wind forecast was for 7-8 out of the east, but I think it was probably around 5mph all morning. The sky was clear of clouds all day, so we also got a great satellite picture this afternoon.
We headed north towards Niagara again, but were going to look at the deeper side of it, to the east, this time. I was expecting to find some muddy water, but it was clean, so we kept heading north until we found some good mixing water with some fish marks in it.
Speaking of fish marks….my sonar is working perfectly after installing the latest Helix software update last night. That monkey is off my back now…whew!
We set up with Bandits on both sides, running behind the Off Shore boards.
The port side was set at 80, 60, 50, 40 (long leads on the outside), and the port side ran at 100, 77, 67, and 57.
Colors that caught fisher were:
Taco Salad (stock)
Freak Show (Hammertime Lures/Sandusky Bait Co.)
Blue Chrome (Stock)
Red Headed Wonderbread (not stock, but I can’t remember where I got them from)
Electric Zebra (stock)
At one point, I swapped out the Bandits on the starboard side to all Spro 120s and ran them at 97, 67, 50, and 40.
Colors that caught were the
Blue Chrome (stock)
Chrome Perch (stock)
RC Crush (DJ Custom Eye Lures)
Around 11AM I noticed the water temp on the Fish Hawk was colder down below (43.2) than the surface temp reading from my Helix (44), so I thought since we were in muddy water that the fish might be nose bleed high to soak up some of that warmth from the sunshine without getting blinded, and brought a few baits up really high….like 20 feet behind the board kind of high.
The Red Headed Spro at 20 back got pulled back hard within 5 minutes of setting it, but it was a hit and a miss.
Then, I had Jason set his two inside Bandits at 20 and 30 back, too, and the 20 back took a nice fish, not too long after.
We were doing a lot of S-Turns, and sometimes they hit on the fast side, and sometimes they hit on the slow side. I was trying to keep the speed at the lures around 1.3 to 1.5 mph, which on the Helix was 1.6 to 1.9mph.
Jason, Cindy, and John had a better time today than yesterday, because the weather was so much nicer, and the fish were more cooperative. We will be launching out of Mazurik’s tomorrow, for their last day.
I think all the fish caught today were already spawned out…and, I think all those marks on my sonar this morning were already spawned out fish that just needed to rest up after getting beat up. It won’t be long, and they will put the feed bag on. Oh, what fun that will be, eh? 🙂
Stay tuned…
Capt Juls
Attached Images
Fishing with Jason, Cindy, and John…4/8/2023
After a bunch of reschedules this past week, I was finally able to start the season with my Wisconsin crew of three. Jason Hendricks had fished with me a few years ago, with some friends, but this time he brought his father John and his wife Cindy along with him for a three day trip.
As you all know, the winds here have been wacky for several weeks, to where it would blow hard from one direction, and then be nice for a day, and then blow hard from the opposite direction, the next day. The full moon was last night, so typically, if the conditions are right, a good bunch of fish will spawn during the full moon, and ignore our offerings of plastic crank baits as they swim by. The jiggers will have more success with the frisky males on the reefs right now, than the trollers looking for big females.
Not all fish will spawn at the same time, however, so there will be fish that will still bite, so always go if you have the chance. 🙂
You all know my morning routine of getting gas and ice at the local station, so I’ll skip that fun part today, and get right into the what, where, and how.
We launched out of Catawba just before sunrise, so we could get the sunrise pic from the water. It’s been a long winter, and it’s my first sunrise pic out there this season, so that alone made it a good day for me. lol
We headed north to Niagara, and found some decent water. Unfortunately, my Helix’s sonar is acting up again. I just changed out the Y Cable yesterday, because it wasn’t reading on plane, and again….It wasn’t reading on plane this morning.
It eventually started working, closer to the end of our trip, though. It’s like the unit isn’t processing the info, or something, until the unit has been on for a few hours. I don’t understand it. Another reason I think it’s the unit, and not the Y cable now, is that the sonar screen’s scroll is set at 10, and intermittently it will slow way down and maybe scroll at a level 2?
Anyway….I knew the area, so we set up over 30′ of water, with Bandits behind Off Shore boards, on the south side of the reef. It was an ENE wind (early), and then began to switch to an ESE wind, with some gusts, later on.
Bandits were set at 80, 70, 60, and 50 on the port side, with the longest leads on the outside boards, and 75, 65, 55, 45 on the starboard side. After the port side caught 3 fish, to zero fish on the starboard side, we switched out the starboard side with P-10s (no weight), at 90, 70, 60, 50 (again, longest leads on the outside).
The speed on the surface was different than the speed at the Fish Hawk swimming down below. The SOG, as we trolled towards Crib Reef, said it was 1.6-1.7mph, and the Fish Hawk read 1.0mph at the lure.
Colors that caught the 5 fish this morning were…Bandits: (2) Red Headed Wonder Bread @ 40 back, RC Crush @60 back, Taco Salad @ 80 back, and one Fire Tiger P-10 @60 back.
When the waves started turning into 3’s and 4’s in the shallow reef area, we picked up and headed down inside, to Clinton Reef, and set up with a trolling pass towards the Portage River. Nada…just one pull back there. Didn’t mark much there either, which is unusual for this time of year.
Since we didn’t have time left to go anyplace else and start again, and it was windy and chilly, they opted to head in early to try again tomorrow. We will be launching out of Mazurik’s in the morning.
Stay tuned…
Capt Juls
As you all know, the winds here have been wacky for several weeks, to where it would blow hard from one direction, and then be nice for a day, and then blow hard from the opposite direction, the next day. The full moon was last night, so typically, if the conditions are right, a good bunch of fish will spawn during the full moon, and ignore our offerings of plastic crank baits as they swim by. The jiggers will have more success with the frisky males on the reefs right now, than the trollers looking for big females.
Not all fish will spawn at the same time, however, so there will be fish that will still bite, so always go if you have the chance. 🙂
You all know my morning routine of getting gas and ice at the local station, so I’ll skip that fun part today, and get right into the what, where, and how.
We launched out of Catawba just before sunrise, so we could get the sunrise pic from the water. It’s been a long winter, and it’s my first sunrise pic out there this season, so that alone made it a good day for me. lol
We headed north to Niagara, and found some decent water. Unfortunately, my Helix’s sonar is acting up again. I just changed out the Y Cable yesterday, because it wasn’t reading on plane, and again….It wasn’t reading on plane this morning.
It eventually started working, closer to the end of our trip, though. It’s like the unit isn’t processing the info, or something, until the unit has been on for a few hours. I don’t understand it. Another reason I think it’s the unit, and not the Y cable now, is that the sonar screen’s scroll is set at 10, and intermittently it will slow way down and maybe scroll at a level 2?
Anyway….I knew the area, so we set up over 30′ of water, with Bandits behind Off Shore boards, on the south side of the reef. It was an ENE wind (early), and then began to switch to an ESE wind, with some gusts, later on.
Bandits were set at 80, 70, 60, and 50 on the port side, with the longest leads on the outside boards, and 75, 65, 55, 45 on the starboard side. After the port side caught 3 fish, to zero fish on the starboard side, we switched out the starboard side with P-10s (no weight), at 90, 70, 60, 50 (again, longest leads on the outside).
The speed on the surface was different than the speed at the Fish Hawk swimming down below. The SOG, as we trolled towards Crib Reef, said it was 1.6-1.7mph, and the Fish Hawk read 1.0mph at the lure.
Colors that caught the 5 fish this morning were…Bandits: (2) Red Headed Wonder Bread @ 40 back, RC Crush @60 back, Taco Salad @ 80 back, and one Fire Tiger P-10 @60 back.
When the waves started turning into 3’s and 4’s in the shallow reef area, we picked up and headed down inside, to Clinton Reef, and set up with a trolling pass towards the Portage River. Nada…just one pull back there. Didn’t mark much there either, which is unusual for this time of year.
Since we didn’t have time left to go anyplace else and start again, and it was windy and chilly, they opted to head in early to try again tomorrow. We will be launching out of Mazurik’s in the morning.
Stay tuned…
Capt Juls
Attached Images
Reef jigs
Anything happening on the reefs yet🤷🏻*♂️