As many of you know, I got a new puppy a month ago…his name is Alfie. My friend Jen, and her hubby Matt, adopted Alfie’s brother, and named him…
Category: Uncategorized
5 minute video recap of my 2022 season….:)
Good morning,
I just wanted to post this here to say, “Thank You!” to all my customers who fished with me this past season.
I just wanted to post this here to say, “Thank You!” to all my customers who fished with me this past season.
If you have 5 minutes to waste, and want to watch a video recap, (ignore the silly music just turn it down, because I wasn’t going to pay for copywrited “good music”…lol)..give it a look. It’s definitely not professionally done, but it reminds me of all the fun I was lucky enough to experience with some great folks over the 2022 season.
2022 Juls Walleye Fishing Adventures SD 480p – YouTube
Thanks for reading my reports, and leaving reports of your own, on this site. It’s a great community of good people willing to share their knowledge, and it is appreciated.
Keep up the great work! 🙂
Juls
Fishing with Karl, John, and Bill…10/29/2022
After several perch trips, I was really looking forward to getting back out and chasing some walleye, and today was the day. I woke up at 2:45, even though my alarm was set for 3:50, and figured I’d just get up and take care of the new puppy, before I had to get ready.
Dexter slept in, so Alfie and I went out on the back deck to check the weather. I was disappointed to see thick fog hanging in the air, and questioned whether I still wanted to drive over to Huron to launch, imagining car wrecks, hit deer, or some other unnatural disaster awaiting us this morning. lol
Alfie took my attention away from all that, with his growling, and hopping around playfully, at the dead leaves on the ground. I sipped my coffee, and checked the wind forecast for the rest of the day. It was going to be really nice with a SE wind at less than 6mph most of the day. Yay!
By 4am, the fog was lifted, and I could see the stars shining up above. The air was crisp, and chilly. The air temp was 39 degrees. My friend, Jen, came and picked up my dogs for the day, so I could fish without worrying about the little one. Thanks, Jen!
I picked my Vexus up from her heated storage, and stopped off to gas her up and get ice for the cooler, before heading to the Holiday Inn Express to pick up my crew.
Karl has fished with me for around 6 or 7 years now, and likes to bring different friends or family members with him each time he comes. This time, he brought his friends, John and Bill along.
We headed to Huron to launch and showed up there at around 7am. The sky was still dark, but the ramp was full of lights. Truck and boat lights. I’m used to being the only one there when I show up early, but I felt like I was really late, this time.
It didn’t take very long to get launched, since most of the folks that fish this time of year are pretty seasoned anglers and know how to work with each other at the boat launch.
We were headed out of the river by 7:19. The destination was straight north of the river, until we hit 45 feet of water. So, that’s what we did. There were still residual NE rollers coming in from yesterday’s NE wind, so we couldn’t go very fast. John is older, and I didn’t want to beat him up on the ride out, so we took our time, and got there within a half hour.
The Helix had marked fish on the ride out, but nothing that I would shut down early for…I was determined to get to 45 feet first. When I did get to 45 feet, and came off plane, I wasn’t too impressed, and was hardly marking anything.
I figured it was as good a place as any to start, so the Ulterra was deployed, along with the baby Merc, and set on a westerly course at a speed of 1.6-1.9mph.
Bandits were my choice of bait this morning, because they’ve been my go-to bait for several years now. Knowing that white colors produce best in the fall, I opted to start with a few in the mix.
The stock color called, “Daydream”, was set behind the Off Shore board on the starboard side, on the outside, at 120 back, unassisted.
Next to the outside board, was a “Slim Shady Custom” called, “Glacier Shad”… at 97 back, unassisted.
The second board pulled a “DJ Custom” called, “RC Crush”, at 75 back, and the inside Bandit was another “Daydream” at 45 back initially, but later set to 75 back when the spread was changed to 120, 107, 97, and 75 back unassisted.
On the port side, Karl set up using 2 oz Guppie weights at the 35 mark, instead of the usual 50 back, and set up his spread at 35/35, 35/50, 35/60, and 35/80. His colors were the following…
Fruit Salad
Green Lantern (w/red chin) Another Slim Shady Custom
One color I can’t remember the name of…but, it had a lot of white in it…lol
And, another Daydream.
Everything listed above caught fish, with the Daydream running at 120 unassisted catching the most.
We caught our 4-person limit of walleye by 10:30am, and headed back in, before the rush at the ramp happened, again. Loading out was easy enough, since it wasn’t as busy as it was early this morning. There wasn’t a spot left in the parking lot, and all the grassy areas that could hold a trailer were loaded up with parked vehicles and trailers, too. I’ve never seen it so busy there before. But, it was a beautiful morning, and the fish are biting, so I guess it’s to be expected. 🙂
Everyone had a good time, and John and Bill were very impressed with our fishery. They are from Chicago, and I don’t recall if they said they have ever fished here before. If they haven’t, I know they will be again…the walleye did not disappoint, and kept them very busy.
We had many doubles and a couple triples this morning, which is always a good time.
Karl will be back again next season, and that makes me happy! 🙂
Tomorrow, I have a crew of three. A father and his two sons will be going to try for walleye again. The morning should be very similar to this morning, so I hope the bite will be just as good, if not better.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
Attached Images
Fall Walleye Wannabe
Having retired recently, I’m interested in learning about fall walleye fishing. I’ve read posts that talk about November walleye. I have recently seen what I’m guessing are suspended walleye on my Garmin while looking for perch south of Kelly’s. For the next month are both trolling and casting productive? You all have helped me with May-Aug walleye and I’m not going to store the boat yet in hopes of getting out in the coming weeks for more perch fishing and trying walleye. Appreciate any pointers.
When do they pull the Huron docks? Is there a regular fixed date?
Thank you!
Walleye shore status – Erie County
I’m planning on making a trip up next week for some night shore walleye fishing. I went last week and caught nothing. Then it was to warm. Lots of bait fish. I can’t seem to find anyone posting anything about the fishing. Can anyone give me a status report? Much appreciated
Combo Trip: Jigging and Trolling
Had an epic combo trip yesterday in the cold. We started out jigging in the D-River and had our limit in 65 mins. We caught 17 that way and then it slowed down. We decided to venture just into the lake and pull some of my custom baits. We caught 33 in about 3 hours, plus another 6 or 7 monster smallies. We must have lost another 5 or 6 fish during the chaos.
35-40 back at 1.6 – 1.9 mph, into the current (12-15 FOW) was the ticket. Best patterns were Smokeshow Shad, Pimp Daddy Perch, Glow Wonderbread and Blueberry Cheesecake.
Several times we had 3 or more on at once. One time, we had 5 on at once and then the 6th one had a drive-by. We only landed 3 of the 5. One got off as I was horsing it in. The other got off as I was trying to swing it into the boat. Towards the end I was only putting out 2 lines on my side, because 3 was too many to deal with as fast as they were going back. They were all nice eaters, but nothing bigger than 25″.
It’s been a while since I had a trip with that kind of action. Early in the day I set a goal that we would get to 50 fish landed. My partner said, “I have heard about people getting 50 fish in a day, but I would have to see it to believe it”…..he saw it, and now he believes it…:D. BTW, we kept 12 eaters and the rest were immediately released.
Huron, November 2-3
We fished Wednesday and Thursday out of Huron with good success. Beautiful weather obviously helps. We motored straight out to 38 fow both days and set up when we began to mark fish on the Helix. Thanks to information in Captain Juls reports, we fished bandits unassisted at 120 and 110 with the inside bandit down 40/40. All depths caught fish. We had the most success using bandits that were predominantly white. Black headed wonder bread, sea sick frog, ivory with red eyes were the best. We had two man limits by about 1130am. We launched about 7am and avoided most of the traffic at the ramp. Fish were not that concentrated and we caught a nice grade of fish both days, averaging 20-22″ and about 3-5 lbs. Great way to finish the season. Have reservations at Little Ted’s in the spring to start again. Great resource to have access too.
Fishing with Jeff Baker, Jeff, and Will….11/3/2022
Jeff called me last night, and said, “I’ve been reading your reports, and it looks like it’s going to be nice this week…can we get out? We were a reschedule from October”. I said, “Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, but then it gets windy again for a couple of days, can you go tomorrow?” He said, “I’ll have to check with my crew, but I think we can make that happen”. And, they did. 🙂
Huron was a zoo again yesterday, so I didn’t want to deal with that mess, and pray that someone didn’t damage my trailer while it sat in an overcrowded parking lot. We launched out of Marblehead, and had the launch pretty much to ourselves, except for another captain friend of mine, who was there waiting on his crew, and a family of three launching a pontoon boat to go perch’n. It was very relaxing. 🙂
We headed out, and started out at Airport Reef in 34′ of water and trolled the outside edge of the reef up towards the tip of the island. We landed 4 walleye in that one long pass. There was one set of perch nets, set up off the tip of the reef, and surprised me….we were kind of close, but with quick assessment, quickly figured out there was no danger of getting in it. We were on the single flag end, and on the outside of it, so all was well.
Captain Bobby Greene, who was the other captain at the launch, sent me a text to tell me he had moved from the area I was in, and found some good marks to the east. He sent me the numbers, and it turned out they were right on top of the marks I laid on my Helix last Saturday and Sunday, so I told my guys we were moving over there.
We picked up and made took a ride to the east, and set up again. We were running Bandits and Reapers unassisted by the reef, and only caught one of the 4 walleye on the Reaper, so we took all those off and put 4 more Bandits out again.
Since we were in the area I was last weekend, I decided to try the program I ran last weekend, too.
Bandits unassisted, behind the Off Shore boards, on the starboard side at 120, 110, 100, and 85 back, and with the 2oz Guppie weights running at 35/85, 35/65, 35/50, and 35/35 on the port side.
Bandit colors that worked well today were….
Daydream
RC Crush
Red Headed Wonderbread
Red Head
IB Frozen
There wasn’t a lot of traffic out there, and at one point, there was a red StarCraft next to us that looked like they were trolling pretty fast. I was doing 1.6-1.7mph, and because of the angle he was running, I couldn’t tell how fast he was actually going, but it looked fast. I got on the radio…..”Red StarCraft are you on channel 79?” At first there was silence, so I figured he wasn’t, so I put the mic down, and turned around to check the boards. At that time, a voice came over the radio, and I think he said his name, but I didn’t make it out, and he said my name, and asked how we were doing. I told him, “We have 10 in the box…what speed are you doing? You look like you’re hauling ass, and hauling in fish at that speed, too.” He told me, “2.0mph going south, and 1.6-1.7 (I think that’s what he said on his slow speed) going north. Red and white Bandits at 120 back”. He was finishing up, and just fun fishing by that time, so I thanked him for his info, and dug out some red/white Bandits to put out on the starboard side.
He didn’t lie. They worked. Thank you for the info, Mr. I can’t remember your name in the red StarCraft! We were able to put 8 more fish in the cooler in time to finish out their 3-man limit. I appreciated the help. 🙂
Jeff Baker (I’m using his last name, because there were two Jeff’s on the boat, and JB booked the trip with me)….he and his friends fish together all the time, and he wanted to learn how to use the inline boards. They have done other charters, but he said they didn’t let them do anything, but reel in the fish. The Captain set all the lines. I told him when we got in the boat, that if they really wanted to learn that I would teach them, and they could set their own boards, and they would be proficient by the end of the 6 hours.
They started out a bit shaky, but a couple of hours in, and they were setting lines just fine. They were even able to set the Off Shore boards back out in their original positions without having to move other boards out of the way. I was so proud of them. They did a great job! We only had one small tangle, and never lost a fish, so I call that a successful trip…and, that makes me happy!
Jeff asked me a lot of questions, and wrote my answers down on his little notepad, so he could remember the information, later, when they set up their boats with Off Shore boards and dipsies.
It was a fun morning, and a beautiful day on the lake. The wind was light out of the south in the morning, and then went down to practically nothing by 1:00. Some bugs showed up when the wind died, too, but they weren’t too annoying.
The guys had fun, and I have no doubt that they will be able to duplicate what they learned today, on their own. And, with a little more practice, they will have the confidence to keep on troll’n on. 🙂
I’m off until the 11th, and hopefully that weekend will be nice, so I can get out a few more times, before I stop for the season. This little pup of mine needs some attention and some training, so that’s my job in the off season, this year.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
Huron was a zoo again yesterday, so I didn’t want to deal with that mess, and pray that someone didn’t damage my trailer while it sat in an overcrowded parking lot. We launched out of Marblehead, and had the launch pretty much to ourselves, except for another captain friend of mine, who was there waiting on his crew, and a family of three launching a pontoon boat to go perch’n. It was very relaxing. 🙂
We headed out, and started out at Airport Reef in 34′ of water and trolled the outside edge of the reef up towards the tip of the island. We landed 4 walleye in that one long pass. There was one set of perch nets, set up off the tip of the reef, and surprised me….we were kind of close, but with quick assessment, quickly figured out there was no danger of getting in it. We were on the single flag end, and on the outside of it, so all was well.
Captain Bobby Greene, who was the other captain at the launch, sent me a text to tell me he had moved from the area I was in, and found some good marks to the east. He sent me the numbers, and it turned out they were right on top of the marks I laid on my Helix last Saturday and Sunday, so I told my guys we were moving over there.
We picked up and made took a ride to the east, and set up again. We were running Bandits and Reapers unassisted by the reef, and only caught one of the 4 walleye on the Reaper, so we took all those off and put 4 more Bandits out again.
Since we were in the area I was last weekend, I decided to try the program I ran last weekend, too.
Bandits unassisted, behind the Off Shore boards, on the starboard side at 120, 110, 100, and 85 back, and with the 2oz Guppie weights running at 35/85, 35/65, 35/50, and 35/35 on the port side.
Bandit colors that worked well today were….
Daydream
RC Crush
Red Headed Wonderbread
Red Head
IB Frozen
There wasn’t a lot of traffic out there, and at one point, there was a red StarCraft next to us that looked like they were trolling pretty fast. I was doing 1.6-1.7mph, and because of the angle he was running, I couldn’t tell how fast he was actually going, but it looked fast. I got on the radio…..”Red StarCraft are you on channel 79?” At first there was silence, so I figured he wasn’t, so I put the mic down, and turned around to check the boards. At that time, a voice came over the radio, and I think he said his name, but I didn’t make it out, and he said my name, and asked how we were doing. I told him, “We have 10 in the box…what speed are you doing? You look like you’re hauling ass, and hauling in fish at that speed, too.” He told me, “2.0mph going south, and 1.6-1.7 (I think that’s what he said on his slow speed) going north. Red and white Bandits at 120 back”. He was finishing up, and just fun fishing by that time, so I thanked him for his info, and dug out some red/white Bandits to put out on the starboard side.
He didn’t lie. They worked. Thank you for the info, Mr. I can’t remember your name in the red StarCraft! We were able to put 8 more fish in the cooler in time to finish out their 3-man limit. I appreciated the help. 🙂
Jeff Baker (I’m using his last name, because there were two Jeff’s on the boat, and JB booked the trip with me)….he and his friends fish together all the time, and he wanted to learn how to use the inline boards. They have done other charters, but he said they didn’t let them do anything, but reel in the fish. The Captain set all the lines. I told him when we got in the boat, that if they really wanted to learn that I would teach them, and they could set their own boards, and they would be proficient by the end of the 6 hours.
They started out a bit shaky, but a couple of hours in, and they were setting lines just fine. They were even able to set the Off Shore boards back out in their original positions without having to move other boards out of the way. I was so proud of them. They did a great job! We only had one small tangle, and never lost a fish, so I call that a successful trip…and, that makes me happy!
Jeff asked me a lot of questions, and wrote my answers down on his little notepad, so he could remember the information, later, when they set up their boats with Off Shore boards and dipsies.
It was a fun morning, and a beautiful day on the lake. The wind was light out of the south in the morning, and then went down to practically nothing by 1:00. Some bugs showed up when the wind died, too, but they weren’t too annoying.
The guys had fun, and I have no doubt that they will be able to duplicate what they learned today, on their own. And, with a little more practice, they will have the confidence to keep on troll’n on. 🙂
I’m off until the 11th, and hopefully that weekend will be nice, so I can get out a few more times, before I stop for the season. This little pup of mine needs some attention and some training, so that’s my job in the off season, this year.
Stay tuned….
Capt Juls
Attached Images
Dry Dock Service around Huron
Does anyone know of any dry dock service around the Huron area? Would like to move my boat over that way once the fish move east of the islands next year.