Little Expectations Result in a Great Day!
by Capt Juls on 04/14/13Very early this morning, when I let the dogs out, I was pleasantly surprised to find the wind was calm to non existent. I knew I was up before my guests, who were staying in a very nice RV in my driveway, so I made sure not to wake them as I uncovered the boat and started my morning ritual of getting the boat ready for fishing.
Once they were up and about, we decided that launching a little earlier than we had decided would probably be the best bet, since an East wind was supposed to pick up in the early afternoon. We launched at 7:30 am out of Catawba State Park. It wasn't busy yet, so that was a relief. Easy launching and no wait for a change.
Without a satellite picture for over a week, and big winds from just about every direction, along with a lot of rain, my hopes of finding clean water were nil. I had explained to them that it might be a very tough bite today if we can't find any good water to fish. I really thought it would be a mud hole everywhere today.
I set a course for Green Island. I figured the water around the islands usually cleans up first, but as I got closer I saw two boats pick up and shoot out of there, so I figured there were either no marks, or the water was too dirty. "Hmmmm...well, I guess I don't have to keep going straight", I thought to myself....the question was, "Which way do I go?".
Knowing there were a lot of marks the last time I was out to the west of the islands, something in me kept turning my attention to the right, so I turned East. It's a good thing I did, because the water was the perfect color of "mixing" that I'm always looking for, and there were many good marks on the Humminbird too. It was loaded!
I asked my guests, Jim and Renee McEwen, if they had ever used in line planer boards before, and they said, "No, we usually just long line crawler harnesses out of the back of the boat". So, this was an opportunity to show them how to use the line counter reels and attach Off Shore boards to the lines, and set them out in "marching soldier" fashion.
They were very fast learners and I only had to show them once how to do it. Yay!
Now that they were all set up and ready to sit back and wait, I said, "Okay, we have pull them all back in now, so we can move up again and get where I want to be, and then we'll set them all back out again. Are you up for that?" (Of course they were)
After getting in line with a pass I wanted to make, they got their lines set pretty fast, and we were trolling again. It was about an hour and 15 minutes before we got the first fish on. It would turn out to be a nice fat 6 pounder caught on a Deep Husky Jerk 65 back. Best colors were the Pink/White glass, the Iridescent one (not sure of the name), and the Purple Perch.
Speed was dependent on whether we were going with the current, or against the current, and I was constantly changing it. So, I can't really give any set speed. I had just tested a lure at the side of the boat, going in both directions, and figured out what it needed to be to make the baits move in the "action" they were designed to make.
To make a long story short....this was a 4 hour trip, and we ended up with 6 nice walleye with the largest two going 30 inches and right in that high 10 pound to low 11 pound range.
Photos have been added to the photo album here on page 3, if you care to see them. :)
Conditions today were:
light South winds and cloud cover until about 10:45am. Then, an East wind at about 10mph started blowing and the bite slowed down. As we headed in at 11:15 it started to drizzle.
Waves were 1-2 feet
I'm hoping this warm weather this week helps get things going even more. I just hope the winds have decided to stop blowing for awhile. That would be nice.
I would like to thank Jim and Renee McEwen for a fantastically fun day on the water. I had an absolute blast fishing with you two today. :)
Capt. Juls
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