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Out of Harbor’s Edge about 8:30 with my son and our friend John. Ran straight up the middle to just north of east end of American Eagle Shoal. Better looking water but not such good marks. Putted a little more north and got some good marks. Hooks from 15 to 25 feet. Set up with worm harnesses on port and spoons on starboard at 45 to 55 back with 40 jets. Trolled west toward Monument at 1.9 mph and got a quick taker on a Pooh Bear chartreus. Soon got more on Trout and Monkey Puke. Took a real nice one on a Wonder Bread double willow harness, but spoons were out producing. Changed all over spoons and were done by 11:30. As sun came up higher went to 2.5 mph and to 75 back as fish moved down.

My wife and I headed to Venetian marina bout 9:15 with plans to troll in the bay. We always see several boats doing it on our way out to the lake. Thought I had my pier fishing shallow Bandits on the boat but no-go, so out to the lake we went. Didn’t feel like going too far away so we headed towards the dumping grounds that is SE of Kellys. Got out not too far past the Fog horn and checked the sonar. I’m no expert and my equipment doesn’t work on the fast fly so I slow down to idle and check. We were marking some fish so we thought we’d start trolling out to the dump. Got three nice ones on the way there so we turned around once we got there and headed back on the same path. Another 3 back towards cedar point. Did that routine once more and have our (12) limit in almost three hours. Three were in the nice eater category and the other nine were all 24-30″ class. Couldn’t believe it. No throw backs. One sheephead that was at least 10#. No other junk. We couldn’t believe the size we were getting. Best lures were Bandit Buckfever and Blue chrome, nothing else. 28′ to start to 38′ of water by the dump, generally 2.2-2.4mph. Got to thank Juls for teaching my wife and I how to use the Offshore boards a while back.

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I started early this morning. From the channel marker north of south bass with a heading to east of sugar. Crawler harness all day. First line in at 6:00. First fish on at 6:05. Little 16? eater. Then super busy all the way up. Lots of junk. White bass, big farm, cat. Hit a nice 22? in the mix. Tons of marks east of sugar. A lot of boats in the area. Picked up a couple more keepers in that area. Bite was slow after 10:00. Headed to the can off east point of middle bass. Fished north northeast. Best was 40 foot up off the can. Caught a fish about every 5 minutes. Ended up with 16 eyes. Just fished for fun after my limit. They were down deep. Running 2oz snaps back 60-75? at about 2mph. They wouldn?t leave a green, and purple blade alone. I couldn?t get the board set, and one would be on. Nothing huge, just good eaters 17-22?. One of the most fun fishing days I?ve had!

Thank you dansdad for the info!
Your previous post put me on them again! Thank You!
6 more eyes NW of G can.
4 on the spreader with no bling and just a crawler!
spreader is fished straight down from the boat.
2 on the worm harness.
3 shorts ~ returned, lost one at the boat.
no eyes on the erie dearie , but the sheep head liked it.
5 sheep heads , returned.
6 white perch , returned.
no yellow gold ?

Back soon,
Be safe,

Water Dog

Hey all, looking to fish out of Lorain tomorrow 5/17 and wanted to see if anyone knows whether Hot Waters ramp has reopened? Thanks

Just a update, all the head boats have moved out, do not know know where.
The last 3 days I did not see any head boats working it from shore.
Back at it and let you know any info I can provide.

Be Safe, (life jacket included)

Water Dog

Hello all forgive me for asking a question in this thread but not a lot of online traffic in the general discussion.. I run 12 or 14 pound mono for trolling bandits..is it necessary to run a 8 pound 6 foot leader to the bait or can I connect right to the lure? Thanks ahead of time

I got up at 1:30, and did the usual routine of dogs, coffee, back deck, and checked the weather apps. The air temp was 46 degrees. The sky was clear and full of stars. The wind was pretty much nonexistent.
There was a package on my front porch that the nightly critters visiting the “Critter Buffet” luckily didn’t take an interest in, and I brought it in. It was the new Minn-Kota remote for the Ulterra that they sent me.

At 3am, I went out to the boat and turned the Ulterra and the remote on… paired the new remote to the motor, then paired it to the One Boat Network app, so I could do the software update on the new remote. That all went smoothly, and it did end up working perfectly this morning…so, all is well again.

This morning was a second trip, this week, for Dick Lehto. This past Tuesday, he fished with his friend Brad. This morning, he brought his friend, Jonathan, with him. Jonathan is an avid fisherman, so this was going to be easy.

They were meeting me at Mazurik’s at 6am, so I was there by 5:15. I wanted to get everything ready, so when they showed up, we could hit the water right away. They showed up around 5:50, which was perfect timing, because many more boats were entering the park at a steady rate. We were able to launch and get out of there before it got too busy.

Initially, I was going to head north of Kelly’s, because it was going to be a light south wind, but I decided to head over to Huron, because of that same light south wind. It would be an easy ride over there, and wouldn’t use up too much gas. Normally, the fish are abundant over in that area this time of year, so I thought it was a good idea.

Womp….womp…:( lol

We started in 40′ of water, north of the white condos, east of Cedar Point. We marked some fish when we set up, but they would come and go off the screen…but, mostly “go”….there was a lot of blank screen in the pass we made.
We were set up west of the Huron Dump, and headed towards it, so in my mind, I thought the marks would get better as we got closer, or on the east side of it. It’s usually pretty good right now. However, that wasn’t the case for us.

Like I said, we started in 40′ of water….went in to 37′ of water, and then back out to 44′ of water. So, we covered a lot of water and never found a school of fish. Just a fish here and a fish there…it was a grind to say the least. (I was kicking myself, because I probably should have gone north out of Mazurik’s instead of east. But that’s how it goes sometimes. You make a decision and stick with it.)

My crew was not complaining in the least and kept saying how much they were enjoying themselves. Jonathan said, “This has been a shitty week, but this definitely makes up for it.” I smiled and said, “It’s a beautiful morning to be out here…you guys didn’t want to be done by 8am anyway, right?” Dick was quick to agree.

Bandits let me down today….not one fish was caught on a Bandit, or PWC Lite. Three baits caught their limits. The WalleyeX Brawler, Spro Madeye Minnow 120, and the Yeck spoons.

The WalleyeX Brawler colors that caught were the “Chrome Tiger” at 80 back and “Craw” at 120 back, unassisted. The “Ghost Purple Perch” Spro 120 at 100 back caught several, too.

The dipsies caught a few fish, but not like they did the other day. The biggest fish came on a Yeck spoon on a 3-setting dipsey at 57 back.

Speed was kept between 1.9-2.5mph…again, most bites were during the 2.2-2.3 speeds.

The water temp was 55 degrees on the surface and 56 degrees 18′ down.

We only managed to catch their limits, but none of mine. They were happy campers, and we headed back in. The ride was smooth as the lake was only producing a 6″ chop, but the south passage was its usual self with wakes coming from all directions, so that was the only bumpy part of the ride.

Both said they had a great time, and that makes me happy!

My trip for tomorrow is moving to Sunday, since I had it open and they were driving in from their hometowns here in Ohio, so they could move it to the next day. Tomorrow is fishable, but it’s going to be rougher than Sunday.

Stay tuned….

Capt Juls

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I?ve been out several times this year. I switched over to crawler harness last weekend. Last Saturday I limited east of north bass. Wind, and waves were rough, and getting worse by the time I got out. Started by the green can off of east point of middle bass. Ran to the north east stopping at the Canada line. Could only troll with the wind. As it got worse the bite slowed. 3 on the first run. 2 on the second. Last one on the last run. Mostly in 35?-40? at around 1.8 mph. They were down low, so 2oz snaps at 60?-70? back. They preferred red and chrome Colorado blades. 17?-24?

All,

Launching out of Vermilion this year.

5/12 I decided to take a buddy out for the first trip of the year.

Clearing the breakwater we headed East at a modest speed towards Lorain looking for marks. Wow, tons of marks from 13 feet to 45 feet on the Simrad.

Started trolling with Bandits at about 35 feet water depth. Quickly figured out the pattern that would get us both limits of fat 20 inch fish before noon.

They wanted those Bandits 100 back unassisted with planer boards well out from the boat, like 75 and 50 feet out after the 100. I’m thinking the sunny day and my wide 29 foot cruiser had something to do with that. Speed was 2 mph plus or minus a little with help from a large trolling bag.

Experimented with deeper and with a spoon but no dice, they wanted that specific pattern.

Favorite colors were purple back with white or yellow belly. And chrome. Blue chrome and yellow chrome.

Back at the marina, I had my first experience with a Rapala R12 electric fillet knife. I need to work a little on finesse but I will say the Rapala got thru those 12 walleye in good time.

Going back next week with a different buddy. Hope we have similar good weather. Pretty sure those post spawn males will still be hanging around.

Cheers