Great Day on the Water Today! Finally!! :)

Bob Luellen, Susie, and Sharon met me at my house this morning. We jumped in the truck and headed to a local restaurant for breakfast before heading to Catawba ramp to launch. 

We launched at approximately 9am and headed to F Can. There were a ton of boats out there, due to a local tournament and it being the first really nice Saturday of the spring season.  I taught the ladies how to use the line counter reels, and why we use them. Then, they learned how to attach the off shore boards and set them out. They were fast learners, because although they have never trolled before, they have been fishing all their lives. I thought to myself..."Boy, I'm going to have an easy day today". And, I was right. After they got the hang of it, all I had to do was steer the boat clear of all the other  boats going every which way out there. lol

Bob was their net man as they took turns reeling in the day's catch. It wasn't fast and furious, but it was busy enough that they never got bored of watching the boards.

We ended up with only 8 fish and lost two fish, one of which was a real pig that I would have loved to see one of them holding up.

Both caught their biggest walleye to date, and that made everyone very happy.

The fish were very high in the water column and our best leads were 25 and 35 back with Deep Husky Jerks (12) pulled at 1.0 mph. Our best colors were Pink Lemonade, Halloween, Purplescent, and Fire Tiger.

The water was stained, but not muddy, and not too clean.  The sun was out most of the day and then about 1pm the sky got cloudy and the wind picked up out of the Southeast. It got a little bumpy for a while, but the biggest fish of the day eased their minds about the lake conditions and we trolled on until about 2:45. Then, it was time to head in.

Overall, I can't say enough how happy it made me to finally put some fish in the boat. After the first two trips out this year, and zeroing, I was beginning to wonder if I could still catch them. ;)

All but one fish was spawned out. So, I think we might start to see some better catch rates in the near future, as the fish start to put the feedbag on again after this spawn. I sure hope Mother Nature is kind this year and lets us have conditions needed for a great hatch, but I won't get my hopes too high, because some crappy weather is headed this way tomorrow through Tuesday.

Tomorrow's charter is going to reschedule due to the wind advisory, so I'll be taking an unexpected day off to play with the dogs. I'm sure they will be very happy about that.:)

Pictures from today's catch can be found on page 6 of the photo album on my site...hope you enjoy them!

Capt Juls