June 4th Trip...Great Time With Two Great Guys!

I stopped off at the gas station to top off the tank in the boat, and headed to Hi Way Bait and Tackle to pick up some ice.  I took in some of the still warm brownies for the guys working and they appreciated that very much. Guess who didn't have to pay for ice! lol

Larry Lambert was at the shop, and gave me some fishing info, but it meant that I had to switch out my regular crawler harness set ups for his custom made double willow leaf crawler harnesses.  These harnesses would allow me to run the boat at a faster speed, which would help in the rougher conditions than the marine forecast was calling for. They sure missed that one. The forecast said "1 foot or less" for wave heights, but it was sure more like 3-5's on our way out to the starting spot on the NE corner of Kelly's!

We set in at the green can between the shoal and the NE tip of the island and set a course for a SW troll in front of North Bay. The fish were stacked in there. 

Shortly after setting lines out, we caught the first walleye of the day. A nice 29 inch fish. In that first pass we would catch and box 6 walleye and miss 3 others. We also caught a few sheephead to keep things interesting.

We were running our baits with 2oz Tadpoles and inline weights behind Off Shore boards at a speed between 1.6 and 1.8 (with surges to 2.0) mph.

Colors were all over the board from Perch pattern, pinks, purples, and oranges, so color wasn't a factor yesterday. They liked them all.

We made another run up to make another pass, but this time, though we were still marking fish, they were not biting as quickly. We missed a couple more light biters and caught 4 more walleye to finish out their trip with 10 in the box that went 40 pounds. They were both very happy customers.

We had talked about the perch fishing on the lake, and I told them that I love to perch fish, so they are bringing their wives up on the 16th of June to do a little perch'n. That will be a great day if we can find a nice school of them around the islands.

They treated me to a couple of drinks and an early dinner at Ciao Bella, a new italian restaurant in town, for my birthday, and they headed home.

It's always a fun day on the water with these two and I always look forward to fishing with them. 

It's my birthday today, so I am on shore writing articles that have deadlines, and hoping to get my grass cut before I have to work tonight (happy birthday to me, right? ha!) 

I have a trip in the morning...if the conditions are right. They are an older couple staying out on Kelly's Island for the week, so if it's going to be too rough I will cancel it.  I won't know until I get to the ramp in the morning. If I don't show up at the ramp on the island by 8am they know I'm not coming and will go have breakfast. :)

The forecast is calling for NE winds again, which makes it rougher than normal for a 15mph wind out there.

Have a great day everyone!

Capt Juls