Fishing with Craig and Jack...7/31/2026
by Capt Juls on 07/31/26The 2a.m. back deck forecast was nice this morning. The wind was less than 5mph out of the SSW, and the sky was clear. The only thing I didn't like was how lit up the backyard was with the full(ish) moon. Since the sky was clear, that meant the walleye would have been feeding easily overnight. Sure, it's easy pickings way to the east with the abundance of walleye over there, but over here closer to the islands, it's a lot tougher. That meant we needed to get an early start.
I met Craig and Jack at Mazruik's at 5:30, and launched at 5:45. The lightening sky to the east was just starting, and I needed enough light to be able to see the little flags on the trap nets set out there east of Kelly's. By the time we got out to where the nets were last weekend, it was light enough. The lake wasn't angry, so we were able to spot the flags from far enough away to avoid them. I only saw one set out there this morning, so that was good.
The plan was to head towards the Weather Buoy, and if the Garmin marked anything between Mazurik's and the buoy...we would stop and start fishing. And that's what happened. When we were about 5-6 miles from the buoy, over 43 feet of water, the screen lit up with marks.
Down went the Ulterra and Baby Merc, and set on a course to the east. The FishHawk was deployed, and the speed was dialed in at 2.5 mph.
Now, I'm told that these guys are the best fishermen at "Hidden Creek", and Craig already knew how to run dipsies, since he used to have a boat of his own up here on the lake...but, doesn't have it anymore...So, I knew it was going to be a fun and easy morning. Jack didn't have the dipsey experience, but did have the Off Shore board experience, so he got to help with boards, and Craig set the dipsies.
The zero settings started out at 40 and 50 back, and the three settings were at 65 and 85. Both would be changed up throughout the morning, so fish that were caught on the zero settings came at 36 back (26 1/2 inch fish on that one) with an orange Yeck spoon...40, 50, 60, and 65 back. The three settings caught fish at 65, 75, 85, and 95 back. One three-setting ran a Stinger "Confusion" spoon and caught two. (It wasn't out until the last part of the trip...I should have put it out sooner!)
The orange Yeck spoon was the busiest spoon, and at one point, I had three of the four lines sporting one.
The Bill Lewis PWC Lites behind the Off Shore boards pulled a handful of fish, but weren't that busy. The usual colors were used..."Green Tiger", "Purple Tiger", and "Red Tiger". The Red Tiger never pulled anything, so it was replaced with another purple one. One of them was the "PCC Light" (Precise Coastal Crank Lite...it's a saltwater version of the PWC Lites). The color name is "Bloody Emerald". I tried it for the first time last week, and it took a lot of fish, so I stopped off at Fisherman's Central and bought 3 more to have on the boat. I did leave one there on the peg, so I didn't take them all. (shy grin). lol
I ran the PWC's, two per side, with 2oz snap weights. The port side ran at 50/47 (97 total line out) and 50/24. The starboard side ran at 50/75 and 50/30. The 97 back took most of the fish, but all the other leads took fish, too. The 50/75 was brought up to 50/43 and took more fish.
We did a long pass from that starting point to just past the weather buoy, and marked a lot of fish 85% of the way, but they were mostly tight to the bottom this morning.
We only caught their two-person limit and two of my fish. We lost two nice walleye this morning too, so that would have helped, but ohhhhh welllll.
There were only 3 Sheephead and 3-4 White Perch caught all morning, too, so there wasn't a lot of junk fish, but there were a ton of itty-bitty walleye that kept biting the spoons, so the dipsey rods had to be checked every 5 minutes, or so, to clear them off.
Craig and Jack were happy with the size of fish caught and called them "Perfect eaters". We caught a huge Sea Turtle on the way back to Mazurik's, too...it was a huge mylar balloon floating out there in the middle of nowhere, so we picked it up.
They said they had a great time and learned a lot, and want to come back next spring, so that makes me happy! They were a lot of fun!
Tomorrow, I have a trip with a new customer... Bill Lange and his two sons Brock and Bennett. We will be launching out of Huron around 5:45 or 6a.m. and looking to see what we can find over there. I don't like messing with the South Passage on a weekend, because it just turns into a big washing machine with all the boat wakes going every which way, and takes forever to get in from just a couple of miles out. (I like to choose my battles). ;)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
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