Juls WFA Blog
Fishing with Chris Rivi 7/13/17
by Capt Juls on 07/13/17Chris was on his way home from a fishing trip in Quebec, and stopped to go fishing with me on his way back to Dallas, TX. He was supposed to fish with me back in June, but we had to reschedule, due to the weather, so he rescheduled to go with me on his way back home. This morning's weather was pretty rough to start out with, so we waited for the thunderstorms and heavy rain to clear out before heading to Mazurik's to launch.
We hit the water at 8am and headed north to the area around Lucy's for some walleye fishing. We kept busy with my regular harness program, but we were only running two per side instead of three, since it was just the two of us today. There were a lot of short walleye, but we did manage to catch two keepers there.
We only made one pass through that area, and then headed over to West Reef, so he could do some drift casting for walleye. Yeah, yeah...I know..."But, Juls, you never drift cast"! Ha! I KNOW, right? lol But, he wanted to, so since it was just one person, I obliged. :)
He caught a nice walleye, about 24 inches, on top of one of the humps on the south side of the reef. We made one pass through there, and during our conversation, I found out he loves to perch fish. Something he didn't tell me in all our conversations prior to the trip! I called Captain Kevin, who was on shore today, and asked if he would run over to Mazurik's with some minnows and a couple rods for us to use, so we could do some perch'n out in front of Mazurik's.
The water temp up at Lucy's and West Reef was 73 degrees and only 69.9 a half mile out of Mazurik's....figure that one out. It was a SW wind with gusts to about 20, so the ride was a bit bumpy on the way back in, but Kevin was there when we got back.....thanks Kevin!
After we both took the opportunity to use the bathrooms there, we headed back out in front of the launch and looked for some marks on the bottom with the Helix....found some, and anchored up over them. It wasn't a fast bite, but they were good perch...not monsters, but eaters none the less. We only got 28 before we had to head in.
Chris was such an easy going guy and a lot of fun. He's planning on coming back in September for some more perch action. I told him that it would only get better and better as the fall approached, so he's looking forward to that.
Tomorrow, I have a perch trip with Michael Pullman and his buddies, and they sound like they are a lot of fun, so I'm looking forward to getting out with them tomorrow.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Dave Fuhrmann and his Son, Chris, and his Son, Ryan 7/11/17
by Capt Juls on 07/10/17
I picked my crew up at their hotel this morning at 4:45, and they were right on time. We then headed to Big Bopper's for breakfast before driving over to Huron to launch.
We headed out towards the dump and looked around until we found some good marks and set up on them with my crawler harness program. For those that haven't been keeping up, it's (3) 2oz inlines on one side of the boat, and (3) 3oz inlines on the other side. The 2oz were run at 47, 57, and 67 back....and, the 3oz were run at 41, 51, and 61 back at 1.6-1.8mph.
We couldn't keep 6 lines in the water when we started, and several other times we had every rod out of the water after bringing fish in. We went through a lot of shorts and put one keeper in for every 1/2 dozen, or so.
Chris, whose inner time clock was all askew, since he was up when he would normally be going to bed, was very quiet, but was all smiles when he landed a 30 1/2 inch 9.38 pound walleye this morning. :)
With about 2 hours to go we switched the harnesses out to Bandits, because the sheepshead were all over the worms, and it was getting tiring. We caught a few more on the Bandits, but it wasn't fast like it was with the harnesses.
They ended their day with 15 walleye to take home for some tasty fish fries.
I'm off tomorrow, due to a reschedule, so I might be doing some perch fishing with Captain Kevin to see what we can find.
My next trip is Thursday, if the thunderstorms stay away. I know there are other captains around here that take their customers out there knowing a storm is approaching, but you will never see this Captain do that (not on purpose anyway). I don't care how much money I lose. I would lose so much more if a customer of mine ever got hit by lightning. That's a risk I'm not willing to take. So, I'll know more tomorrow, if Thursday will be a go, or not.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Tyler and Jeff 7/8/17
by Capt Juls on 07/09/17Good morning...yesterday was a very long day, so I'm a day late on blogging this trip. :)
Yesterday, I met Tyler and Jeff at Big Bopper's for breakfast before heading over to Hi Way Bait to ice up. I then met the crew over at Mazurik's for a 6am launch.
We headed out....and, now, for the GOOD NEWS...when I called in to report entry into Canada, I was asked by the officer on the other end of the line, "Are you just going to be fishing over here today?" I said, "Yes." She said, "You don't need to call in anymore, if you're just going to be fishing, or passing through". I said, "I'm a charter captain, don't I still need to call my trips in?" She said, "No. Here's my badge number if you want it", and proceeded to give me her badge number. She told me to have a great day, and good luck!
So, I guess it's official now....we no longer have to call in to cross into Canada to fish. :)
We headed up to the west side of Pelee. The wind was gusting out of the NNW, so it was a slow ride up. It took us just over an hour. Waves at that time were 1-3's, so it wasn't too bad. I just don't like to beat up the boat or my passengers on a rough ride.
We set up to make the first pass with Bandits, because that's what I still had on the rods from the last walleye trip out. We ran them anywhere from 55 to 100 back, sat 1.9-2.2mph, and picked up nice eater walleye on the 55 and 85 leads with the Crown Juls color being a hot one yesterday. That's the one that Mike Chafin over at Cranberry Creek Marina makes.
At around 8am the wind kicked up, and the lake was now rolling with a bunch of 4 to 6 footers up there. At one point, when we ran back up to make another pass, I took a big one over the front of the Ranger. It was the second of a "three sisters" wave, and it was bigger than the first one that I was going over. I saw it and thought to myself, "Uh Oh...OH SHIT!!!" There was nothing I could do at that point, but keep her nose up...turn her sideways in the trough, and hit the bilge button. Thankfully, my guys were not shaken in the least, and laughed about getting water down their rain pants.
It didn't take very long to pump the water out, and since we were almost back to our starting point, we just started right there.
That's only the second time I've taken a full wave over the bow. The first time was back in 2003 at the Devils Lake RCL tournament, when I made the top twenty cut on day three, and they sent us out with 45mph winds in the morning.
Anyhooooo....back to fishing...
We ended up taking the Bandits off around 11am when the bite seemed to shut off, but we were still marking them. Putting crawlers on, we would narrow the program down to running three 2oz inlines on one side of the boat and three 3oz inlines on the other side of the boat. The 3 oz were running 30-40 back and the 2oz were running from 47 to 65 back at 1.6mph. Everything caught fish at some point or another.
We had a good time with smallmouth, sheepshead, and walleye yesterday. They caught their limit of nice eater sized walleye, and said they learned a ton, and thanked me for all the info I shared. That made me happy. :)
I was supposed to be out on the lake again this morning, but my customer texted me last night and told me he had to cancel, due to a funeral he had just found out about. So, I'll be spending the day entertaining my dogs.
Tomorrow, I'm back out with a couple of my regulars...Steve and Jeremy for some walleye and perch.
So....Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Dan, Matt, and Ryan 7/5/17
by Capt Juls on 07/06/17Dan Bishop and his two sons, Ryan and Matt, are staying at the campground right down the street from me, so they met me in my driveway this morning at 4:30. We headed to Big Bopper's for some breakfast, before hitting Hi Way Bait and Tackle for some ice. I also loaded up on some of the good colors of Skipper 9 perch rigs, since the fella that used to make them has passed away, and I'm too lazy to figure out how he tied them. ;)
We launched out of Mazurik's at 6am and headed east of Kelly's for the morning. I had the rods all rigged up with 2oz inline weights with crawler harnesses that I tied up with (1) #4 Octopus Hook, (1) #6 treble hook, (8) 8mm beads, a quick change clevis from DutchFork.com, and some #5 and #6 Colorado blades with copper hammered backs, anti freeze backs, and pink antifreeze backs.
We pulled those in 38 foot of water at 40, 45, 47, 51, 57, 65, 75, and 85 back at 1.6mph. The 47, 57, 65, and 75 were the best producers of the bunch.
The water temp was up to 73 degrees today. The winds were calm, and the bugs were plentiful. You know...the kind that get in your eyes, ears, and nose if you're not covered up. Every now and then the wind would kick up a little and they would blow away for a while, but then the wind would die again, and they would return....ugh.
We went through many short walleye...but, gave each one a kiss for their boo boo before letting them go back home to get bigger. We lost a handful of keeper size walleye, because we didn't use a net on them, and just tried lifting them in the boat....that proved to be harder than it would have seemed, so we got the net out on everything we thought might be a keeper. lol
We ended the day with 14 nice eaters...with the largest going around 6-7 pounds. Most of them were in the 18-22 inch range though.
After we ran out of my 10 dozen crawlers, we put some Bandits on. I went to my "go to" colors immediately, which are the blue/chrome (stock), crown juls (Mike Chafin out of Cranberry Creek makes that one), huff daddy chrome (Domka Outdoors), and one by DJ Customs, but I can't remember what he called it...it's chrome pink with yellow dots on it.
We ran those anywhere from 85 to 100 back at 1.9-2.2mph.
As soon as we put them out, they started firing right away, and seem to be catching a larger grade of walleye. We didn't have much time left of their 6 hour trip, so we only ran them for about an hour before heading back in.
This was Ryan and Matt's first time fishing for walleye on Lake Erie, and their first time trolling for them. They were quick learners, and did a fantastic job of listening and getting the program down in quick fashion. A couple of fire drills produced some tangles, but that's to be expected even from the best of trollers. So, over all, I give them a B+ for their efforts today. ;)
They had fun and that's all that matters....and, that makes me happy.
Tomorrow's trip is with Mike Shepperson and his 14 year old grandson again.
"Pops" isn't going this time, but Mike's friend is going to go instead.
I can't quite figure out what the wind is going to do tomorrow, because different sites are saying different things, so I'll be meeting my guys at Huron in the morning, and we'll figure it out from there.
Stay tuned.....
Capt Juls
Bass'n with Jeremy and Elijah 6/29/17
by Capt Juls on 07/05/17I was asked in a comment to my previous blog how the bass trip went, so I'm going to blog it instead of responding to that comment (which are really really hard to read, by the way...lol Sorry, but I can't change the type color it's built in on this site builder thingy I'm using).
Anyhoooo....
I had a walleye trip planned for Thursday and Friday of last week, but the weather was calling for strong winds out of the SW and a threat of thunderstorms. My crew from Wisconsin that had the two day trip planned decided to reschedule, so that freed up both Thursday and Friday.
I got a call Wednesday afternoon from Jeremy asking about doing a bass trip. Right off he said that he can't go on the big lake though, because he gets seasick easily...even with Dramamine. So, with that info, I told him that I could take him and his boy out on East Harbor Marina for some largemouth. I told him up front that I haven't been in there to bass fish before, but have seen plenty of spots that the bass fishermen are fishing when I go up that channel. I also explained that fishing with soft craws was an extra charge for the bait, but that everything would eat them. He wanted his boy to have fun, so he was game for that. I provided the gear and the drop shots to use the craws with.
I met them at the Walmart in town, because they were staying at the Great Wolf Lodge over in Sandusky. His wife and two daughters would stay behind and play int he water for the morning.
He and Elijah were right on time, and we headed over to Rickard's Bait for the soft craws and then over to the marina just to the east of Anchors Away (I forget the name of that one).
I never put the boat on plane and headed down the channel, towards the lake, and fished the lee side of the channel.
The wind was blowing about 25mph already and was predicted to get up to 40mph by mid morning, so staying out of the wind as much as possible was going to help with the boat control.
Hahaha...I have to laugh when I say, "boat control", because I don't have to do anything except hit a button on my Ulterra's remote for the "Spot Lock" function. It anchors us on an exact spot until I turn it off to move us to another spot.
We worked the tree line first. Elijah, who I think would have rather have been back at the lodge playing in the water park with his sisters, had his dad down 7 to 0. But, Jeremy, in his thick Boston accent said, "It's not how ya staht...it's how ya finish", and was more than happy to see his boy catching fish. Eventually, Jeremy started catching too, and was catching up.
We moved to the rocks at the mouth of the channel, and went to the west side of the rocks on the outside to spend the last hour. A lot of fish were caught there, and some big sheepshead too. :)
So, it's pretty simple bass'n in the harbor channel...especially when you're using soft craws. I was just setting them up with a drop shot hook that I buy from Rickard's with a 10-15" dropper with a 1/2 to 3/4 oz tear drop weight. They just cast them out and reel them back in slowly....crawling them across the bottom.
We broke off plenty of weights in the rocks, so have a good supply of weights with you. I find, that if I tie the hook on to a braided line, and make the dropper a lighter mono line, then I only lose the weight and not the hook. And, since the hooks are 4.39 for 5 hooks...I don't want to lose them. :)
So, I hope this helps anyone looking to go bass fishing in the marina. Jeremy had ended up beating Elijah by one fish for a total of 15 to 14 (not counting sheepshead and white perch).
I will be back to walleye fishing again tomorrow....
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Rusty and Jessie 6/28/17
by Capt Juls on 06/28/17This morning I met Rusty and his wife Jessie at the Walmart here in town, so we could ride together over to Huron to launch. Jessie brought homemade blueberry muffins and apple cinnamon muffins for us to munch on on the way over there. They were very good! Thanks Jess!
We hit the water at 5:30 and were at the end of the Huron River channel at 5:45am. The sun hadn't hit the horizon yet, and there was a chill in the air. In fact, it was quite chilly. The wind coming from shore would be warm and then chilly...then, warm, and then chilly again. It didn't warm up until the sun got higher in the sky and then it was a perfect morning.
We ran Bandits first, and caught 4 eaters in 27 foot of water at 55 back...speed was 1.9-2.2mph. Then, the bite died, and I decided to move eastward, and change the Bandits to crawler harnesses. We ran my Canadian water program with the 1oz and 2oz inline weights. The 1oz were at 41 and 51 back and the 2oz inlines were running 35-47 back at 1.6mph. We would end their 6 hour trip with 9 keeper walleye with the largest going 4 1/4...maybe 5 pounds. :)
We had several throw backs and some sheep and whites too. No catfish today though, so that was nice. lol
My Thursday and Friday walleye trips have been rescheduled due to wind and chance of thunderstorms again, but after I got home this afternoon, I received a call from a fella with a strong Boston accent, that wanted to go bass fishing tomorrow. I told him that I had cancelled my trip tomorrow due to weather, but he said he didn't want to go on the big lake, because he gets seasick (even with Dramamine), so we are going to go bass fishing in East and West Harbors tomorrow morning. He'll be bringing his son along....if he can get him away from the water slides at the Great Wolf Lodge. :)
This should be interesting....the boat is cleaned up and the bass stuff put in, so it's ready to go.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Harry and Scott 6/24/17
by Capt Juls on 06/24/17Yesterday, was a Capt's cancellation, due to scattered thunderstorms throughout the day. I was scheduled to fish with Harry Ashbaugh and his friend, Scott, yesterday, and today. They took the day to go sight seeing a little bit and then invited me to lunch. I accepted his invitation, and met them over at Ciao Bella, where we would talk fishing, and go over the plan for the morning.
I left the house this morning at 4:30am, and headed over to Big Bopper's for some breakfast. When I left there, I had to go to Hi Way Bait and Tackle for some ice, before heading over to Mazurik's to meet up with Harry and Scott. I told them to meet me at 5:45, and we would be in the water by 6am. They were right on time. :)
We headed out, and around the break wall, to be met by the glow of a sunrise on the eastern horizon. The sun hadn't peeked over the "edge of the earth" yet, so there was still that cool chill in the dark, that lay to the west.
The winds were from the west, according to the iWindSurf app, but a contradiction was discovered by those of us on the water this morning. In the "Slop Chute" it was from the west, but as you ventured further north, up the east side of South Bass Island, the winds seemed to whip around the SE corner of the island and head NE....so, that wind was from the SW. Then, as you got closer to Ballast Island and the NE corner of Middle Bass...over by Lucy's point...the winds were more WNW than W or SW. So, basically, the winds were strong enough to be from all over the place today. Our saving grace was that they weren't from the E or NE! :)
Waves were 1-3 feet, and more like 2-3's when the gusts of wind showed up. It was a pleasant day though. The sun was shining, and it was cool enough to be comfortable in a light jacket.
We started out up by Ballast running my crawler harness program that I was running up in Canadian water this past week. (See previous blog for details if you haven't been keeping up) :)
We caught a couple of keeper walleye, and a few throw backs, along with some little Sheepshead before picking up to run back up to make another pass. This time I started out deep inside, between Middle Bass and Ballast Island. I switched things up to one side of the boat running Bandits, and the other side running 3 Bay Rats. Since the Rats and the Bandits run basically at the same depth per the line out, we ran the Bandits at 55, 65, and 85 back...and, the Rats were at 50, 70, and one was set up with a 2oz snap weight 25/100...(let 25 foot of line out, attach the snap weight...then let out another 75 feet until the line counter reaches 100').
A couple of little fish hit the Bandits, and one little walleye hit the outside Bay Rat a short time later. I changed out a Bay Rat for a Tadpole diving weight with a 6 foot fluorocarbon leader with a Stinger Spoon. We set it out at 45 back, to hit the 20' depth. By the end of that pass, I had removed all the Bay Rats and replaced them all with Tadpoles and Stinger Spoons. The Bandits and the spoons were keeping the guys busy with trophy sized sheepshead.
When we finished that pass, I thought it best to find another location. At lunch yesterday, Harry confessed he had never been on big water before, and that he was glad there were so many islands close by....I got the sense he did not want me taking him out into the wild blue yonder, where I sometimes go, and preferred I stick closer to land, so that was the plan. :)
I decided to move down closer to Kelly's and fish the NW corner of it. When we got there, I figured since there was a little cold front today, maybe sizing down my spoon would help, so I took the Stinger Spoons off and put the Scorpion Spoons on.
We started picking up fish steadily until we got east of the Stone Dock...then it was a slow slow bite. We didn't have much time left in our 6 hour trip, so instead of picking everything up, and running back up....when given the choice, they opted to keep the baits in the water until the end. We picked up a few more fish before the end, that gave us a little over a 1 man limit of keepers out of I lost count of how many throw backs.
It didn't matter anyway, because my guys threw back every walleye they caught today. They had no plans to take any home with them. They both said they had a good time and learned a lot....and, that made me happy :)
Tomorrow's trip has been rescheduled. My next scheduled trip is a 2 day trip with Matt Felder and his friend. They want to go to Ontario to fish walleye and smallmouth. However, if the forecast doesn't change, it looks like Monday would be a "no go" and we would only get Tuesday in. We shall see if it changes....fingers crossed!
Stay tuned.....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Mike, Trayton, and "Pops" 6/21/17
by Capt Juls on 06/21/17
I left the house at 4:30 this morning, so I could stop and get ice, and gas up, before hitting Mazurik's by 5am. Well, when I was half way through town I realized that I had forgotten my 10 dozen crawlers, sitting on my kitchen table...ugh. I made a quick stop at Hi Way Bait, who open at 5am now...thankfully, and bought 10 more dozen, so I didn't have to drive all the way home to get them. The air conditioning was on, so I figured they would last until I got home to put them back in the fridge.
Mike sent me another text asking me if they could bring me some breakfast, so I took him up on that offer and asked for a sausage and cheddar cheese bagel. Thanks Mike! That hit the spot. :)
So, by now most of you know that the Canadians passed a new law that says that we Americans no longer will have to call in to fish the border waters when we cross over, as long as we don't touch land, or anchor.
I did call this morning, because I figured like everything else, the workers would be the last to know, and would ticket me if I tried to do that the day after the law initially passed. We called in and got out authorization number. She also stated, when asked, that the law was not in effect yet, and we would still need to call until it was. She didn't know when that would be. (Sorry, I have no other info, as she didn't have any answers to my other questions).
It was a beautiful morning with partly cloudy skies, an air temp of 60 degrees, and a light wind, less than 10mph, out of the WNW.
We headed up to the east side of Pelee for the morning, and set up in 32-35' of water. Mike was there to learn how to run the Off Shore inline planer boards, so we set three out per side.
The Humminbird wasn't showing the red marks (fat fish) like it had in that spot the last time I was up there, so I listened to the bigger charters talking about their marks where they were, and decided to head another direction. I didn't want to go in and bother them, because they were running faster speeds than I was, and I didn't want to get in their way.
Originally, I was going to run to the west side of Pelee to see if there were better marks on that side. However, when I got the Ranger up on plane and headed north towards the Helipad, I turned the Helix's sonar graph speed up to 10 while I was running, so I could see if we went over any fish on the way.......we did. We were only a mile or so north of where we had started the morning, and found some good marks. I turned the boat around and set the Ulterra down in the water...I had my three boards set on my side of the boat before Mike had his first one in. Just as he was setting his board in the water, I looked over and the middle board on my side was going back. I called Trayton up to bat....handed him the rod, talked him through the "drill" of where to be standing while I take the board off, and where to move to after the board was off. He did a great job and we netted his first walleye of the day. He as all smiles, and all three were getting a more positive energy about them.
The water temps were at 67.8 degrees, which means that the water temps had dropped 2 degrees since I was up there last Friday. I showed them how I like to hook my crawlers (I'm extremely picky with that), how to use the line counter reels, and how to attach the boards to the lines and set them out to run like "marching soldiers" in line. They were fast learners and only had to be shown a few times before they were doing it without my nagging supervision. heheh
We ran the same thing I ran up there last Friday. 1oz inlines 41 and 51 back and 2oz at 41, 45, 47, and 55 back. A 4oz bottom bouncer was out on one corner of the boat too. At one point one of the 1oz inlines was swapped out for a 3oz and the other 1 oz inline was swapped out for another 2oz. My root beer bead combo, which I call my "Mayfly Rig" out produced the rest of the colored beads that were out. Copper backed blades did well too. Speed was 1.5-1.6mph
We ended the day with only 10 fish, but had lost two or three before we even got the boards off, missed one at the net, and had one throw back. Pops was doing very well catching sheepshead and a catfish too. :)
All three said they had a great time, and that makes me happy. They have two more trips scheduled for July, so they are looking forward to that.
Tomorrow, I have a husband and wife team, who are looking forward to a trip up to the Ontario waters of Lake Erie. The wind forecast is for 13-17mph winds out of the south, so I'm not so sure we'll be heading all the way up there. It will be rougher on that side of the lake than on this side. I might stay on this side....I don't know....I never know until I head out of the harbor. lol
So...Stay tuned....
Juls
Blog Question from Patrick....6/19/17
by Capt Juls on 06/20/17Patrick commented on my blog asking, "Any special strategy fishing during a Mayfly hatch?"
And, the simple answer is, try to find areas where the larvae sheds are not floating in the millions. A bait that has a 2 to 3 inch blob of insect goobers bunched up on the nose of it, will not catch fish!
Just because they are where you WANT to fish, doesn't mean you should fish there. Just keep moving until you find cleaner, (less floating bugs) water.
With that said, it's impossible sometimes to find water clear of the bug carcasses, so with that said, what I like to use during a hatch is a night crawler harness. I make up my own harnesses with root beer and butterscotch colored beads...with a #5 gold hammered colorado or hatchet blade. That harness gets hit 80 percent of the time over the brighter colored beads during a hatch.
My harnesses are built like this: bead combo is 4 root beer beads..1 butterscotch...1 root beer...1 butterscotch...and 1 root beer....a Dutchfork quick change clevis....and, a high quality barrel swivel. (The clevises and barrel swivels can be used over and over again, because they are high quality components).
The clevises can be found at the Fisherman's Wharf here in Port Clinton, or online here....http://www.dutchforkcustomlures.com/qcclevis.html
I don't have a magic cure for catching fish during a bug hatch, but this has worked well for me in the past, and it gives me confidence to go out during a hatch and thinking I can catch some fish. :)
Give it a try and see if it works for you too!
Capt Juls
Fishing with David and Don Goodrich 6/16/17
by Capt Juls on 06/16/17David wanted to take his father Don fishing for a Father's Day present, so he booked his trip early, and got lucky with some terrific weather today. We met at Mazurik's at 5:45, so we could launch by 6am. Don is 79, so we didn't rush him this morning. ;)
The air temp was warm, the sky was clear, and the wind was light out of the south. We headed north this morning and crossed the line to fish on the other side. After calling into the Canadian authorities for permission to enter their country, we were given our number and continued on to the east side of Pelee island.
We ran crawler harnesses with the same program I was running on the US side, which was 1 oz 41 and 51 back and 2 oz's at 41, 45, 47, and 50 back. At one point a 3oz was put out at 41 back also, and that one did well too.
The fish are much nicer up there and you don't have to deal with the hatch there yet...and the numbers of small throw backs is minimal.
David and Don enjoyed their trip very much, and let me know it, so I was grateful and very happy to have been given the opportunity to make it a memorable day. I enjoyed their company very much too. It was a perfect day....sans the biting black flies...ugh!
Tomorrow is another opportunity to head to our northerly neighbor's waters to catch some more big fish. I'll have another Father and Son team to work with. :)
The winds will be up a little more than they were today, but it shouldn't be bad. I'll have to watch the weather before I go to bed to see when the "chance of showers and thunderstorms" will be arriving. That can be a long ride back when it's pelting rain drops on your eyeballs. lol
Sorry this is so short...but, I have tons to do yet tonight before bedtime....
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with John and Buzz 6/13/17
by Capt Juls on 06/14/17I left the house at 4:30, and headed to Walmart to get ice. They are open 24 hours for the summer months now, and the ice is cheaper there than at the Speedway gas station on the next corner. Then, I headed for Big Bopper's, to meet my crew for breakfast. This was John and Buzz's second day, of a 3 day charter, with me.
Trapper, who pulls his Baha Cruiser on a trailer, and launches at the same time I do, usually....was a little slow this morning, so I got the best parking space for someone hauling a boat. We don't fight over the spot, but I know we both like to have it. Today was my turn...:)
But, Trapper did beat me onto the lake this morning, because I was delayed. I decided that we were going to run crawlers, and had to switch everything over before hitting the water. I hate getting to a spot, and then taking the time to switch things out, because I like to be setting lines as soon as I get to where I'm going.
It was a beautiful morning, and the lake was calm. The Air temp was around 70 degrees, or close to it, and the sun was just coming over the horizon when we left the dock at Mazurik's.
I set a course for ENE of Kelly's, and got the Ranger up on plane, at about 45mph. The water got a little rougher on the east side of Kelly's, because it wasn't protected like the south side of the island's waters, and I had to back off on the throttle. The ENE wind was around 5-7mph, and was enough to make decent "rollers" on the lake. Unlike waves, rollers are spaced a little further apart, and wider in mass, so it makes the ride rougher on the boat (and, its passengers). So, we slowed down, and made our way out to the area I wanted to fish....patiently.
Finally, stopping in 40' of water, I turned the boat around and deployed the Ulterra. I set a course to the WSW, and trolled with the waves. The water temp was 69.8 degrees, and the Helix was marking a fish here and there. There weren't a lot of marks, but enough to keep me there.
There were 3 of us in the boat, so we could only run 6 lines today.
We started out with one 1oz inline weight on each "outside board"...(one at 51 back and the other at 60 back), and two 2oz inlines on the two "inside boards" (one at 45 back and one at 50 back).
We caught a few fish that way, and I decided to change one 2 oz weight for a 3oz weight, and set it out 41' back. It took a fish in quick order, so I said, "Let's change out that inside board with another 3oz", pointing to the opposite side of the boat. But, as we were doing that, another fish hit on that 3oz weight again, so I said, "Let's change them all out!"
We ended up catching 14 nice fish in total, and three of those fish were big fish....the rest were all 18-21 inches. All the big fish came on the 3oz inline set ups. They reeled in a 27 inch (7.44 pounds), 28 inch (8.52 pounds), and a 29 1/4 incher (7.42 pounds).
We only had 2 throw backs today, as compared to the 60+ throw backs we had yesterday over by D and E cans (only 6 keepers yesterday too).
Tomorrow is their last day, and the weather looks like it's going to be fishable for another day. The marine forecast says waves 2 foot or less, and the TV weatherman says that the storms will not be around here between the hours of 5am and Noon, so we're going to hit the same spot again tomorrow.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Parker Brothers Randy, Jim, and Dick 6/9/17
by Capt Juls on 06/09/17I arrived at Mazurik's at 5am. The remnants of a full moon lit up the parking lot, pushing away the darkness. My crew was supposed to meet me there at 5:15, but they were early too. Yay! :)
The sky starts getting light enough to see by 5:15 now...and, by 5:30AM it's almost light enough to not need the running lights lit up on the boat.
With a 5-10mph SSW wind, we headed north out of Mazurik's to the area between the Bass Islands, Middle Island, and Kelly's Island...to look for a starting point.
I set the Ranger down off plane, to take a picture of the sunrise...and, look for good fish marks on the Humminbird. After finding some decent marks, we started to set up. Randy has fished for Bass all his life, and had contacted me a little while ago to set this trip up as a "learning" trip. He wanted to learn how to troll successfully for walleye. He went out and bought a used Ranger 621, and all the trolling equipment he thought he needed, from reading material from the internet message boards, and blogs like this one.
After showing them how to put the Off Shore boards on the line, and set them out, they finished the task of getting the other 5 lines out...showing me, that they were quick learners. (Whew!) We started catching small fish (throw backs) right away, and a couple of "keepers". We were not on monster fish, but the action was such that they were going to be able to stay busy learning how to shuffle inline boards around without tangling them all up.
Randy said, "I only run two lines/boards per side right now, because I don't want to deal with the tangles". I smiled knowingly, and said, "Well, by the end of the trip you'll be able to run 4 per side. We'll start with three, until I see you can handle that... then, we'll add a fourth one to each side."
Around 6:30AM, the other charter boats started to arrive in droves, so we picked up lines and headed further north towards the Canadian line, where it was less congested. By mid morning my crew was running that fourth board on each side of the boat. At that time, we were running Bandits anywhere from 50 to 100 back at 2.1-2.3mph. We had a 2oz snap weight on each of the inside lines at 20/110 (20' back, put the snap weight on , and let it out another 90')... and, those caught fish also.
After we moved north, we reset the presentation from Bandits to crawler harnesses. We set up with a 1oz inline weight on the outside, on each side, and two 2oz inlines on each side. We took the 4th board out of the lineup to make it easier, because I thought it would get pretty busy using meat. We caught a lot of little buggers, with a larger one here and there, that could go in the cooler, but it wasn't until we switched the weights over to all 3oz and put them out from 25-45' back that the ratio of little fish to keeper sized fish flip flopped. I think the heavier weights were getting the crawlers down through the little fish faster, or something. I'm not sure, but whatever it was...it was working.
We were only out for 6 hours so, we were all done at 11:30 one short of a 3 man limit.....close, but no cigar. lol Oh well....they had fun, learned a lot, and can now take what they have learned and apply it in their own fishing outings on Randy's boat.
Tomorrow's trip has been rescheduled, due to the fact that they are older gents who have fished with me a couple of times before, and the lake was going to be pretty bouncy....fishable, but bouncy. They don't have strong sea legs, so I knew it wouldn't be that much fun for them, and decided to offer them another date on the calendar. He said he would like to schedule a perch trip before the end of the season instead. :)
Sunday is still on weather watch. The last time I looked the wind forecast for Sunday went from ugly to fishable, so we're keeping an eye on it to see if it changes again tomorrow.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Another day off....
by Capt Juls on 06/07/17Sorry,
I've been off since Sunday, and today is another blow day, with a small craft advisory until later this afternoon. I'll be back on the water tomorrow (Thursday 6/8).
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing with Jerry, Chris, and Matt 6/3/17
by Capt Juls on 06/03/17I left the house at 4:30am and hit Walmart for some ice and bottled water. Then, I hit the gas station to top off the boat's gas tank, before heading over to Mazurik's to meet my crew by 5:15.
They showed up right on time, and we were launching by 5:30. I had no intentions of playing with those little baby fish out front, or playing bumper boats with a ton of weekender's again today, so we headed off into the wild blue yonder....away from where everyone would be.
We were one of the first on the lake this morning, and it was gorgeous. The winds were calm and the sky was clear. The temperature was 65 degrees and the water temperature was 68 degrees. The sun hadn't even begun to hit the horizon yet, but the eastern sky was getting lighter, so it wasn't difficult to see that early while on the water.
Jerry, and his son, Chris, and his son-in-law Matt fished with me today. They were very good fishermen, but were more attuned to fishing bass rather than walleye. But, it didn't take them long to learn how to use the line counter reels, attaching Off Shore in line planer boards, and setting them out to the desired distance from the boat. They did a fantastic job all morning, and were a real pleasure to fish with. I had a lot of fun today. :)
We ran crawlers behind 1oz and 2oz inline chain weights. The 1oz weights were put back 50, 55, 60, and 65 back. The 2oz inlines were run at 45 and 50 back. The speed was 1.6mph. Because of the current, while trolling from south to north, I used the 15 ETEC for propulsion, and the Minn Kota Ulterra for steering.
I only had to use the 2 motor combo going the one direction. I only used the bow mount TM for the north to south pass. We were fishing from 39' of water to 42 foot of water. Several of my friends were running the 3oz inlines anywhere from 30 to 55 back in other areas of the lake and doing well on that program too.
Having typed that last paragraph...I'm going to head off any emails or private messages asking me why I run the two motors....because, I know I will get one, or two....or, three. ;)
The kicker motor on the back of the boat pushes the boat, while the bow mount steers it, because I don't want to run my Ulterra on a power setting over 5 or 6 for any length of time, so I don't run the batteries down at all. I can run all day if I keep the power at 5 or 6.
If I need to speed up a little, while doing it this way, I can simply tap the RPM button the tiller handle of the baby ETEC.
If you haven't tried it, and have the equipment on your boat to try it....do it! It works pretty slick.
Tomorrow's trip is being rescheduled to a better day. Return customer, Brandon Westerman, wanted to bring his 4 year old son along...but, with tomorrow's wind forecast, and the chance of rain and thunderstorms...I told him it wasn't a good idea with the "little one" along. And, he agreed.
Monday's trip is a "no go" too, due to forecasted winds, it's my birthday, and I have to get some stuff done.
Still watching Tuesday's wind forecast to see what that does or doesn't do.
So, Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Not Enough Hours in a Day!! Fishing Report....sigh
by Capt Juls on 06/01/17
(This is rushed, and I have no time to proof read, so please excuse any typos! I'll fix them another time!)
Anyway, I didn't report anything one the holiday weekend, because I never do on Memorial day weekend. But, a long story short...it was a two boat deal with Capt Kevin Swartz. He took three people and I took 3 people. 4 of the 6 were older gents, and two were younger. They were happy to get out. We fished 3 out of the 4 days scheduled, because the last day was a blow day. My boat only caught little fish, but Kevin got into the larger ones on a spot I had fished the day before....(deep sigh). They had fun though...and, were happy that we didn't take them the last day, because it was rough.
Fast forward to today...I fished with Brothers, Steve and Brian, and their Dad Jake, who was celebrating his 80th birthday. I picked them up at their hotel at 4:45 and we went over to Big Bopper's for breakfast, before launching over at Mazurik's at 5:45.
We headed to the north side of Kelly's and ran Bandits on one side of the boat, and spoons behind #2 Tadpoles on the other side of the boat. The action was steady, but the size was smaller. We would catch 1 keeper for every 3-4 throw backs.
We moved over to the east side of Kelly's, and made one pass from the top, down to "Airport Reef", and didn't touch a fish, so we picked up to move again. We ran back around to the north side again and made another pass. This time though, there were a lot more boats in there, and I couldn't get on the line I wanted, and decided to move again.
But, before we did....I changed everything over to crawler harnesses with 1 and 2 oz inline weights. We ran two 1oz inlines and 4 2oz inlines and one 4oz bottom bouncer. All of them took fish, or had their crawlers stolen. Again, we only caught smaller fish. I think our largest fish today was only 20 inches. Not something I'm used to, or am liking very much. lol
Anyway....Jake had a great birthday present, he said. And, the sons both enjoyed the day, expressing how nice the Ranger 621 is, and how comfortable it is to fish out of. They were also impressed with the Ulterra being used in conjunction with the baby ETEC kicker for steering and propulsion....something I guess I take for granted, that other people never thought of doing before. :)
Im sorry to rush, but it's already past my bedtime here.
I got a lot done this afternoon when I got home. I cut the grass, washed and re-oiled the picnic table, walked the dogs, did the dishes, did the laundry, helped neighbor Jerry pick the rest of his strawberries from his garden, re-rigged the rods for tomorrow, because I'll be running spoons instead of crawlers, and watered my gardens. I'm done...put a fork in me. :)
So, sorry I haven't blogged in a few days, but sometimes LIFE gets in the way...
Time for bed....have a great night!
Tomorrow we fish....stay tuned!
Capt Juls
Fishing with Evan and Gabe Parr 5/26/17
by Capt Juls on 05/25/17Evan had fished with me back on the 10th of this month, with his buddy, Tim. Today he brought his fiancé Gabe. I had explained that the really early bite had been pretty darn good the past two days, and asked if they could make it to Mazurik's from Toledo, OH by 5:20am, so we could be on the water by 5:30am. Evan didn't hesitate and said, "We'll be there!"
I stopped off at Big Boppers on the way, and had a nice breakfast with a couple of the other Captains who stopped in. I left there, and was at Mazurik's by 5:15, so I could ready the boat before they arrived.
This morning, there was another boat heading out at the same time. They left the harbor ahead of me, but then they slowed down, so I would pass them....they followed me out to where I have been fishing. They were kind enough to make sure there was enough space between us, when they set up behind us, so no harm no foul. I can't get mad at that, since they did make the effort to get out of bed that early and be out there. ;)
We ran Bandits at 40 to 60 back (no weight) at 1.8-2.1mph. (The usual colors I've been running the past few days too.) We caught 4 nice walleye in the first pass, and let Gabe reel them all in. Three of the four were over 8 pounds, and the largest was 9.5 pounds. That was Evan's biggest walleye to date, so he was very happy it was in the boat, and discussed mounting it. I told him it was a nice fish, and that wall fish are more about the memories than the actual size. He forgot about it though, because he bled all the fish, and cut it's throat....oops! heheh
The lake was rocking with 1-3 foot waves from the ENE, and Gabe started to feel the bad effects of that. I offered an oral spray that skydiver's use, and she sprayed a couple pumps under her tongue. Gabe said it was working pretty quickly, so Evan was relieved to hear she was feeling better. :)
We didn't get their limit today...only 8 or 9, I think. And, we only fished for 5 hours, because Evan had a fishing trip, "Up North", he had to drive to for a bachelor's party this weekend.
Tomorrow's trip might be delayed until mid to late morning if this wind forecast on iWindSurf doesn't change. I told my customer that I would check the wind forecast when I get up at 3, and text him what time I would be picking them up at the Holiday Inn Express in town. They want to go to Big Boppers for breakfast first.
So, Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Day 2 with Dee, Steve, and Brian 5/24/17
by Capt Juls on 05/24/17Left the house at 4:45 and headed straight down to Catawba to meet my Crew for a 5:30 launch. I got there with plenty of time to get the rods set up with the Bandits I wanted to run, and made sure the line attached to the snaps was still in good working condition, or if they needed to be re-tied.
Dee, Steve, and Brian showed up nice and early, and we were on our way out of the harbor at 5:23. The wind that I was expecting this morning wasn't there, so my plan to stay out front changed, and we headed back around the corner to fish the Shoals.
We went to the far side, and made a east to west pass across the north side of the hump, with Bandits set at 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, and 70 back. I figured it was best to keep it to 3 lines per side, rather than 4, because I knew it would probably get pretty chaotic very shortly. It was still dark out and we could just make out the boards in the water, without any lights on them.
We had just put the last bait in the water when the inside Off Shore board on the port side when flying back. Brian yelled, "Fish!!" And, pointed to the lively board, while Dee grabbed the rod. He had just started reeling that one in when the two outside boards went back....and, then, the middle board on the starboard side when shooting back. "Fish on the other side too", I said. Then, it was just a matter of getting them in the boat one at a time. Of those 5 fish, 3 were over 8 pounds...the biggest was just under 9 pounds. Woot! Woot!
What a way to start the morning! The sun wasn't even up yet, and we had a pile of fish in the live well already. My guys were smiling, and I was happy to have a pile of rods and baits all over the boat that needed to be cleaned up and set back out asap.
To make a long story short....it was an early bite again and slowed way down when the other charter boats showed up out there. We had 12 in the box by then, so we were pretty stoked by our good fortune on the early bite, and didn't sweat it.
We trolled around the shoal until we picked up 5 more fish and decided to get out of there, because it was getting too crowded and some Captains don't follow the rules of the road, the way they should....anyway, I digress....
We left there, and went back around the corner to fish the 16-17' contours west of Catawba and out in front of Port Clinton. We picked up two keepers and some throw backs on a bottom bouncer with a crawler harness and a Deep Husky Jerk. The Bandits were catching little fish...some not much bigger than the bait itself! lol
My guys wanted to go get their fish cleaned and get on the road back to Indiana, so we pulled the lines and headed in. Brian said, "This was the best trip to Erie I've ever had, and it restored my enthusiasm for fishing here. The only other charter I did here was with SeaBreeze Charters"...( But, I think it best if I don't publish what he said about their business.) ;)
They plan on coming back again next year, so that made me happy.
Tomorrow, I fish with Evan Parr and his fiancé. I fished with Evan a couple of weeks ago, and had a ton of fun, so I'm looking forward to fishing again tomorrow.
Oh, and by the way, the colors were the same as yesterday. :)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Dee, Steve, and Brian 5/23/17
by Capt Juls on 05/23/17This morning, I left the house at 4:30, thinking I had enough time to get to Mazurik's launch by 5:30, after gassing up, getting ice, and grabbing some breakfast at Big Boppers. I was wrong. I was close...but, I was wrong.
I managed to get the gas and ice with a 1/2 hour left, but there was a snafu with my ordering at Big Boppers. I walked in, and there was only one other person there....so, I ordered pancakes and bacon, because I figured that would be really quick, and I could make it to the launch with time to spare.
However, my order didn't get started right away, because lots of people poured in after I went in the bathroom. lol
Anyway, after a quick text to let my crew know they didn't have to get there until 5:45 instead of 5:30...I got a response back stating that they were already there. Ugh! That figures...not often my crew beats me to the launch, but it would have to happen this morning. :)
I wolfed down my breakfast, and got out of there as fast as I could, and managed to get to the launch by 5:33, where they were waiting patiently.
We readied the boat and hit the water by 5:45....we were headed out with Nav lights lit. Whew!
The sun was still just a whisper on the horizon, and would be another 24 minutes until an official sunrise.
We didn't go very far and set up on the east side of a shoal, since the wind was from the southeast this morning. We trolled around the edges from 14 foot of water out to 24 foot.
Bandits were run 50-80 back at 2.1-2.3mph
Stock colors: Blue Chrome, Khaki, Taco Salad,....Domka Outdoors' Huff Daddy, and Captain Awesome, Attention Deficit, and Blue Sexy......DJ's Customs Angry Clipper, Pooh Bear Purple, and Pooh Bear Chartreuse
We were able to make two passes over the shoal, and managed to boat quite a few walleye during a "Chinese fire drill" type of action,before the other charter boats got out there. It seemed like, that after all the boats hit the shoal, the bite slowed down and then eventually became non existent.
We left the shoal and headed east towards Kelly's...keeping the baits in the water the whole time. We picked up a couple on the way, and the Helix 12 marked a ton of fish on the north side of American Eagle Shoal, but they were all very deep, and not wanting to come out to play with us.
In the end, it was a beautiful day, and we ended their 6 hour trip with 18 nice walleye. We also caught some sheepshead, and a few white bass too. The crew did an excellent job with the Off Shore Boards today, and had fun! They are looking forward to fishing again tomorrow too.
However, I explained to them, that it would not be as fun as it was today, since we have a strong east wind forecast for tomorrow. Grrrr....stupid wind!
I'm thinking I'll hide out on the protected side of the islands or down in front of PC. Not sure yet....but, we will get out. I'm sick of sitting on shore. Someone give Mother Nature a special brownie or something...she needs to calm down....seriously. (rolling my eyes). :)
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Stupid Weather....
by Capt Juls on 05/21/17I haven't blogged since the 16th, because there really wasn't much to report.
I was the second boat to Capt Kevin's charter of 6 men from Wisconsin. We fished less than favorable conditions on Wednesday, where we were restricted to staying tight to the south shore, due to strong SW winds. We managed 5 keepers out of about 20 hook ups. The rest were too small to put in the box.
Thursday was a day off due to weather and lake conditions.
Friday we got out, but it was a rough morning too, with gusty NE winds and waves at a steady 2-3 foot with many 4's thrown in....and, some 5's. We picked the crews up at South Bass at 6:45am.
My guys wanted to run crawlers, so I obliged. We caught one walleye in the slop chute by the ferry, and dropped two others before the rod was even out of the rod holders.
Then, we moved up to Middle Bass and made a pass along the west side of the island. We caught a few big sheepshead, but no walleye.
We moved up to the north side of North Bass, because the leader of my crew said he had "heard" of a big fish being caught up there, so I obliged.
The ride up to that side was rough with the NE wind. We set up, and started a pull from the buoys on the north side, and headed SW along the break.
More than once, it was mentioned how rough it was, so I figured they were uncomfortable, and said, "Pick them up, and we'll move back over to the protected side of the island".
We set up on the the south side of West Reef and headed south. The waves were much smaller, and we changed over from crawlers to Bandits. We hooked up with 4 big smallmouth on top of the reef, and two eyes after we were off the reef.
We ended the day, and I took them back to the island, to drop them off.
On my way back in to Catawba, I spotted an orange board floating in the waves, and made several attempts to retrieve it in the rough water. Finally, I managed to net it, and headed in. There was a name and phone number on the board, and I recognized the area code as a Wisconsin phone number.
I called the number when I got in, and left a message for the owner. It turns out they were staying out on South Bass too, and would be leaving the next morning on the first Ferry out. I told him that I would meet him after he was off the ferry and return his board to him.
He was thankful for the kind gesture, and that made me happy.
Saturday, we cancelled our trip, due to a strong east wind, with waves forecast at 3-6 foot, (but, a report told me they were closer to 4-8 feet).
Fast forward to this morning (Sunday 5/21)....my crew cancelled, due to wanting to stay fishing on a lake to the south of Lake Erie, where they were whacking the walleye pretty fast, and then limiting on crappies. They also didn't want to fish in the 80% chance of rain and thunderstorms forecast for the day, so I couldn't blame them, and told them to have fun.
I'm taking the day off, and getting the house clean. Maybe I'll go see a movie. I don't know yet.
Tomorrow's weather doesn't look very good either, so I'm waiting to see what the forecast does, and whether my regular customer wants to go try it.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Joe and Skip 5/16/17
by Capt Juls on 05/16/17The crew showed up last night, while I was cleaning the Ranger, because they wanted to know in advance where I lived.
I had asked them to meet me early in the morning....meaning it would be dark out when they were looking for my house. I told them that I would leave the porch light on, and light up the trailer lights, so they could find the house easily.
I said to meet at my house at 5am, and Joe said, "That's fine. We might even be a little bit early" (I secretly smiled inside). So, I was mildly surprised when they actually did show up a little early.....a half hour early, in fact.
We headed over to Turtle Creek to launch, but we were earlier than I wanted to be there. So, I readied the boat and told them that we were going to wait for it to get a little bit lighter out. We launched at 5:20, rode out the channel, and were setting lines by 5:40am.
There was a light SE wind, and the waves were 1 foot or less. The sky was cloudy with just some streaks of a sunrise that was visible, coming up in the east, and a thunderstorm way over to the west, that was headed north, and away from us. The water temperature was up to 57.4 degrees, and the air temp was around 60 degrees.
We ran the same program as the previous two days....All Bandits....Taco Salad at 40 back, Blue Chrome at 45 back, and Crown Juls at 50 back. All baits took fish....and, again, it was a faster bite before the sun came up, and slowed down as soon as it was light out. However, the bite was a little better each day after the sunrise, so I think that the "Full Moon Effect" is diminishing, and we'll get back to that regular daytime bite again. :)
Two days ago, it took 1 hour to catch our limit of 18 fish....yesterday, it took 2 hours....and, today it took 3 hours and 15 minutes. So, I think I'll get that extra sleep in the morning and start launching at my normal time of 6am again....woot! woot!
Tomorrow's charter is an add on to one of Capt Kevin's trips....it's a 4 day "company deal" where he's taking three of the 6 people, and I'm taking 3 of them, over the next 4 days. They are staying out on South Bass Island for the rest of the week, and we'll be picking them up on the island, on the days that it's possible.
I think tomorrow they may have to take the ferry across and let us pick them up, so we can launch from the mainland. The winds are forecast for 15-25 (gusts to 30) out of the south west. That will be too rough to pick them up out there.
So, stay tuned.....
Capt Juls
