Juls WFA Blog
Fishing with Karl, Dee, and Mark 6/24/15
by Capt Juls on 06/24/15I was supposed to fish with Karl, Dee, and Mark yesterday, but since I had a last minute cancellation for today, and the wind was blowing out of the NW yesterday, my crew opted to fish today instead.
I knew it was going to be a good day when my crew pulled into Big Bopper's for breakfast right ahead of me. We were to meet there at 5am, and we were both 5 minutes early! That never happens...:)
We enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast, since there was no hurry to get out before dawn, and then headed over to Mazurik's. (I like to get a picture of the sunrise as we leave the docks).
Captain Kevin, a friend of mine, was launching alone this morning, so he could pick up his crew over on Kelly's Island. We waited for him to finish breakfast and helped launch him when he showed up... and, then, he tied off to the dock and backed us in the water, so we could just take off while he went and parked my truck.
We headed up to the east side of Canada. I was hoping the nets that were set two days ago, by the Canadian commercial fishing boats, were picked up and out of the area, and they were. Whew!
We ran crawler harnesses with #2 Tadpoles at 31, 35, 37, 40, 45, and 47 back at 1.5mph. Blades color didn't seem to matter. I had blades with undersides that were copper, gold, pink, and anitfreeze out, and they all took fish. We were running an area that went from 37' of water to 24' of water. It was calm enough to just turn around and go back over the same area a few times.
We had a four man limit in 4 hours this morning, with a bonus 6 catfish that took a ride in the cooler too. Dee loves catfish, and was very happy to keep them. :)
The guys did a great job, and by mid morning were helping to set all the lines and were even netting each other's fish! This was Mark's first time catching walleye, so it made me happy that he did it on my boat.
We dealt with a deluge of mufflehead flies that swarmed the boat, thanks to a non-existent wind early today. They made a serious mess in my Ranger, which kind of pissed me off, because I had it all sparkly clean yesterday! What can you do though? It's a bug. It doesn't care...stupid bug. (deep sigh).
I don't have a trip tomorrow, but will be back out Friday. Hopefully, my crew will have their Canadian licenses, but it's not a requirement to go fishing with me...it's totally up to them, if they want to spend the little extra and go that far. So, until I find out of they have them, I don't know where I'm headed yet...so...
Stay tuned!
Capt Juls
Fishing with Bob and Jared Luellen, and Anna 6/21/15
by Capt Juls on 06/22/15
Saturday night, I was invited out to dinner. I met Bob, Jared, and Anna at Ciao Bella for some great food. Bob is not only a friend, but also my marine insurance man. He owns World Wide Marine Insurance. If you own a boat, he's the only guy you want to talk to!
Anyway....We decided that since I had Monday off, we could go later than my normal start time of 6am. Jared and Anna liked that idea very much, since neither wanted to get up early. :)
I got up, made their brownies, and cleaned the house a little. I sent Bob a text at 7:30 asking if I had time to walk the dogs. He called back and said he had just woke up, so to go ahead and walk them. We were going to meet at "Ala Carte" for breakfast, and he would call me when they were on their way. By 9am I was telling them to hurry up...I was hungry, and wanted to get on the water! lol
We stopped at the "Fisherman's Wharf" after breakfast to pick up fishing licenses for Jared and Anna. But, that took another 45 minutes, because Tim was having problems with his laptop there. Luckily, Jared is a computer wiz and had him up and running again in no time. However, the process was very slow, so it took a lot of time.
We finally hit the water at 11:30 and headed up to Canadian water. Starting out on the west side of Mill Point, we set up in 21 foot of water and were headed towards the 25-27 foot of water on the south side of the point. We were trolling crawler harnesses behind the #2 Tadpoles at 23,35, and 40 back, but we were hitting bottom on the way out, so we switched them out for the 1 oz inlines at 29-41 back.
I wasn't marking a lot inside there, but as we started to get to the side of the point we picked up two nice walleye and a big fat catfish.
I had a friend fishing up there, but I wasn't sure where he was. I thought he was over on "The Wheel", and the last text I had from him was that he had just set up and had 3 fish already. Well, my phone doesn't work up there on Mill Point, so we made the decision to go over to the west side of Pelee Island and see if there were better marks and faster fishing over there.
Once we got over there, my phone worked and a whole bunch of texts came through at the same time. It was then, I found out that my friend was over on the east side of Pelee, and fishing just east of where we started! Arrrrgh....lol
We had set up a trolling pass on the west side, but we were surrounded by Mayfly husks, and they were gunking up our lines. We caught a couple sheephead and one walleye, and then made the decision to move back over to the east side.
Bob is buying my boat in the fall, and this gave him a chance to drive his new Ranger, and get a feel for the 300 ETEC on back. The Onix was a little confusing for him, but that was because his sunglasses were so dark (rx kind that turn dark on their own), and he had trouble seeing the screen. A problem that would be solved with his other sunglasses, he said.
We made it back to the other side, and set up on my friend's numbers that were texted to me. Then, the wind kicked up... White caps were forming, and I thought it was a wind that would be sustained and make the waves build, so I said, "We should go back down to the line, where I have been fishing this past week. There's fish there, and if this lake builds, it won't be as far to go to get home". Bob agreed, so we picked up and moved to the east side of Middle and NNE of Kelly Island Shoal...right on the line.
It wasn't long after we started that the bottom bouncer got hit. That one was a sheephead. I looked up to see one of the starboard side boards go back. Anna reeled in a walleye. I looked up again and the port side board was going back. Jared grabbed that one and reeled in another nice walleye. The other starboard side board was hanging back, so Anna was busy reeling in another walleye when the other port side board was hanging back, and I told Jared to get that other fish. We got all four walleye in, and got the lines out again as fast as we could. We only caught one more walleye and a couple sheephead in the time they had left. They wanted to stop fishing at 4pm, because they needed to get back to Michigan, and we still had to get their fish cleaned before they headed home.
It was a beautiful day on the water, and a lot of fun! It's always nice spending time with friends...:)
I'm off on Monday and fishing with Capt Kevin Swartz just for fun. I haven't reeled in a walleye since April, so it's my turn. lol
Looks like tomorrow will be a blow day, but we'll make that call in the morning, so....
Stay tuned!
Capt Juls
Fishing with David, Cindy, and Dash 6/17/15
by Capt Juls on 06/17/15Launched out of Mazurik's with two of my favorite Facebook friends, David and Cindy Michael, and their son, Dash. Winds were out of the east at about 15 at 6am and would be laying down as the morning progressed. Waves were 1-3 feet.
Poor Dash and Cindy...they were feeling ill by the time we got out to the north side of Gull Island Shoal, but hung in there while David and I set up to make our first pass along the line on the west side of Middle. We made one pass up there and caught three small walleye (no junk).
I decided to move down to Kelly's north side to help their seasickness, figuring if they were closer to land that they might overcome it, but it didn't work. We were marking a lot of fish, and another batch of mayflies coming up out of the mud. We caught 4 more walleye and one catfish in that NE to SW troll in 37-31 foot of water pass. Our speed was 1.4mph again. Same numbers on the Tadpoles worked again. 27, 35, 40, and 43 back.
We cut their trip down to 4 hours instead of the scheduled 6 hours, because it was obvious both Cindy and Dash were not having fun. David wanted to fish though, but being the good husband and father, agreed to go in. :)
So, that's it in a nutshell for today...it was fun (for those of us who were not seasick), and it was great to finally meet them in person.
Tomorrow's adventure is a 6 hour trip with three fellas from Illinois. The weather should be pretty decent, and I haven't quite decided where I want to start yet....so....
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Tougher Fishing today...lots of Junk fish and Remnants of a Huge Hatch...
by Capt Juls on 06/16/15We went to the same area, and it showed lots of marks, but it was tougher for us today. Only got 10 walleye. One walleye for every 10 junk fish it seemed.
So, my boat is messy and I must clean it. No need for a blog today. :)
Back out again tomorrow....
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing with Mark and Jim 6/15/15
by Capt Juls on 06/15/15Let me first start out by saying, "Thank you Mother Nature" for the nice weather today. After seeing all of thunderstorms last night on on my radar app, I was doubtful we would be fishing this morning. One of my crew was a little miffed that I told them to come down from Wisconsin when he called the day before. But, at that time, it looked okay, so I told them what I would do with the info I had in front of me.
I told him to plan on my picking them up at their hotel at 5:15, unless we saw something in the morning that would keep us off the water.
Well, as it turned out, it was a gorgeous morning. Gray skies, with the sun peeking through from time to time, a light SW wind, and warm 80 degree temperatures. Perfect. But, I'm getting a little ahead of myself here.
After picking up my crew, we stopped to do the usual morning routine of getting gas, bait, and ice, and then stopped to fuel up my guys at Big Bopper's with some hot breakfast first before heading over to Mazurik's to launch. We hit the water at 6am and headed up to the Canadian line, east of Middle Island and NNE of Kelly Island Shoal. It was a very nice easy ride up there, which I was grateful for. :)
Punching the buttons on the remote for the Ulterra, we were on cruise control at 1.4mph, and setting lines in no time. We ran the #2 Tadpoles on 4 rods and had the bottom bouncer off one corner again. While we are allowed 6 lines in the water, I find that it is way more productive, and easier, to only have 5 in the water with novice trollers on board. No offense to my novices, but it's more important for them to learn how to do it, while not making it too difficult for them, so that they never want to do it again. lol
The Tadpoles were set originally at 25, 27, 35, and 43 back. But, eventually, the two outside boards would be at 35 and the inside boards were at 43. Those numbers took the majority of the fish. "Purple Crusher" from "Warrior" custom colors, did the most damage...again. (I don't think I'll ever stop running that color! lol)
Mark and Jim did a fine job of setting the lines and reeling in fish at a fast pace. We had our 18 fish by 9:30 this morning and took a nice easy ride back in. They were happy that we were able to get out and that the weather was so nice.
I'm hoping tomorrow morning will be nice too. They are calling for up to 3" of rain from early this evening, and finally subsiding by 5am tomorrow morning. Then, it looks like it will be a nice day.
We will be headed to the same are tomorrow, so....
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing with Rich, Andy, and Jeff 6/14/15
by Capt Juls on 06/14/15I thought we would be dodging thunderstorms all day, but we made out pretty well, I think.
I picked my guys up at their hotel at 5:15, and after stopping to gas up the Ranger, and getting ice for the coolers, we stopped to get some breakfast. There was a storm coming across the radar that showed lightning, so I wanted to wait a bit before heading out.
Jeff bought us all breakfast at Big Bopper's. I had their cinnamon french toast for the first time, and it was heavenly. Yum! Anyway....I digress, when food takes over my brain...sorry!
We launched at Mazurik's at 6:30 and again headed over to Gull Island to troll spinners. We started with the same program as yesterday, and it wasn't long before we started pulling fish again. We made a few passes there, then over on Kelly's Shoal, and then back to Gull.
At 12:30 we had 9 fish (1/2 their limit). I wondered what might be over on the SE corner of Kelly's, because I hadn't been over there yet. This time of year is typically good, so they indulged me, and let me take them over there.
When we arrived, the Onix was marking a lot of fish that looked like walleye. There were a lot of "perchy" marks on the screen too. (I marked those for future references...wink wink!)
We made one pass and caught 4 eyes and a couple of big sheephead.
The program was a little deeper today. #2 Tadpoles 35-60 back and the bottom bouncer took a few nice fish too.
We finished a 1/2 hour early today, because my kicker motor wouldn't go into gear for some reason unbeknownst to me, and my Ulterra beeped at me, so I'm guessing it was telling me it was getting low on battery power, so I didn't want to have it in the deployed position when they finally gave out. If that happens, then you have to stow it manually, and it's more involved that just pulling it up out of the water.
There were also some small thunderstorms passing through, and the winds were picking up, so we just called it a day.
They said they had a great time, and learned a lot. It was the first time walleye fishing for Andy and Richard, and they did most of the work. Jeff, who is a seasoned walleye angler, from MI, brought them down here to fish today. He netted fish for them, and basically kept us entertained for the day.
They have already reserved a date in April, and will be back for some early spring walleye fishing.....and, that makes me happy. :)
Tomorrow and Tuesday's trip are return customers who had booked a three day trip in April, but only got one day in due to weather, so they rescheduled the other two days for this week. More scattered thunderstorms are predicted, but I'm hoping they are afternoon happenings. We'll see....I'm thinking either we'll hit the SE corner of Kelly's again, or we might drive on over to Huron to see what's happening over there. I haven't heard anything from over there in quite a while. So....
Stay tuned!
Capt Juls
Fishing with Jim and Dan 6/12/15
by Capt Juls on 06/14/15I didn't have time to get my blog done for Jim Marshall and Dan Pluckett the other day, so here it is. Short and sweet, because I just spilled a banana smoothie on my external keyboard, and I don't know how long I have before one of my vowels stops working. lD'Oh!
We launched out of Mazurik's just a little before 6am and headed up to the Gull Island Shoal area to pull crawler harnesses. It was calm when we first got out there and we pulled three walleye in the first half hour. I thought it was going to be an easy day by the looks of it. But, then the wind picked up and they seemed to shut off on us. We made some minor adjustments in our lure depths and started picking at them again. It was not fast by any means, and we didn't get their full two man limit by the time their trip was to end, but some of the fish they did catch were very nice fish.
Crawler harnesses with #5 & #6 colorado blades with copper undersides was best. Anitfreeze and pink worked too. The bottom bouncer didn't catch squat yesterday, like it had the day before....hmmmm. Still scratching my head on that one. I ran all #2 Tadpoles to make it slightly easier for them to read the boards at the following depths...21, 23, 25, 27, 31, 41, 43, 45, & 55. (Not all at the same time, of course. We only ran two boards per side with one bottom bouncer off one corner).
When the wind kicked up we made a run in towards Kelly's and set up on the west side of North Bay and made a pass through there. We picked up one or two walleye along with some whites and some sheep. So, there are still some eyes in that area too. Still good marks, that don't all look like white bass. :)
I had the 13th off....so, I cut the grass, and forgot about having to do their blog. But, I didn't want to just blow it off, so here it is. Short and sweet.
They were fun to fish with, and Jim got a gold star for learning so quickly and elevated himself to "first mate" for the day. ;)
I'd say, "Stay tuned"....but, today's trip results are coming right up...lol
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Gahan's 6/11/15
by Capt Juls on 06/11/15
Today I fished with the father and son team from Pewaukee, WI. I picked them up at their hotel this morning at 5:15...oh, wait, that's what time I was supposed to pick them up. Unfortunately for them, their desk clerk neglected to actually set their wake up call, so when I texted them at 5:14 to say "wake up", I didn't know my "joke" would be actually be waking them up!
They came out a short time later, and we left, headed to the gas station and bait shop, before launching. "Did I lock the car?" John asked his son, Matt. "I don't know", said a sleepy young 17 year old from the back seat. I asked, "Do you want to go back?" He hesitated, and I offered, "We're not that far yet. I'll turn around". So, we headed back to the hotel, because I know that creepy feeling, and he didn't need to have that nagging at him all morning.
To his relief, it was locked, so we headed out again. We got to the next corner when I mentioned, "I'm so glad you guys have your Canadian licenses, because I haven't been over there yet, and I've been wanting to cross the line". John looked at me and smiled shyly, then said, "It's in the car". So, another trip back to the hotel and we were off again....45 minutes behind schedule, but it's only a start time...not an exact time. Sometimes, stuff just happens.
Anyway, we got the gas for the boat, and crawlers and ice in the coolers. We hit Mazurik's and launched by 6:15. By the looks of the boats headed out before us, and their bouncy ride, it was looking a little rough out...but, it was definitely fishable.
We headed up to the Canadian side and called in to report with the C-Authorities. I drove around for about 20 minutes looking for fish on the Onix around "Mosquito Bay", and near the "Wheel", but marked very little to interest us enough to set up there.
We decided to head down to the bottom of "Mosquito Bay" where there were a lot of drift cast charters fishing, but we didn't set up to troll there either.
Next we hit the SE corner of Middle Island and marked some fish, so we set lines. Unfortunately, by then, we had lost young Matt who needed to lay down to battle the urge to Puke. I told him to go ahead and throw up, because it would make him feel much better, but being a male, he toughed it out for an hour or two before succumbing to the ill effects. He admitted he felt better afterwards though. I laughed and said, "You should always listen to your Captain".
Meanwhile, John had reeled in some walleye, catfish, and sheephead. I think we had two white perch today and one white bass, so as far as "junk fish" goes, it was a really good day.
We followed the top of Gull Island Shoal down and around the west side of it. I hugged the 28-31' contours until we got near the bottom of it, and had to turn off of it to stay off the shallow top of it. We only picked up three small eaters in that pass and just kept moving off the shoal towards the NW corner area of Kelly's. There's a whole lot of productive water in between Gull and Kelly's, so one long pass is what we did today.
We were probably 1/2 to 3/4's of a mile off the shoal when a big fish hit and a board wobbled back out of its marching line. John grabbed it and landed a beautiful 32 inch fish. It's the biggest of this season for me so far, so I was really happy for him. That one came on a "Purple Crusher" painted #6 Colorado blade behind a #2 Tadpole set 43' back.
We kept the speed at 1.5 again today too.
The other fish 5 came on:
1oz inlines 41, 51, and 59 back and #2 Tadpoles 35, and 45 back.
We didn't limit out, but we had a good time. Both ended up losing their tummies to Lake Erie, but both had smiles on when we hit shore. John worked hard, and did an excellent job. He learned how to set and retrieve the Off Shore boards almost immediately, so it made my job much easier too. :)
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Jim's Taxidermy in Port Clinton first, to drop off John's 32" 10.6 pound walleye, so he could get it mounted. John just built a "man cave" back home, and said it would look nice in there.
I have a trip tomorrow, and the winds should be out of the SSW tomorrow, so I'll attack that shoal again from another angle.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Chapman's 6/9/15
by Capt Juls on 06/10/15It was a fiasco of a morning yesterday, and our 9am start ended up starting at 12:30pm instead....I screwed up...again (deep sigh). Let me explain.
My normal routine when I get home from a fishing trip is, to back the boat in under the carport, get out of the truck and immediately plug in the boat's charger. Well, last Sunday, I got out of the truck and went to inspect a stream of water bubbling up from the end of my driveway. There was a water main break...again. This is the third one in about 5 years. So, with my arms full of smelly fish/boat towels, and the dogs barking inside the house, because they were glad I was home, I went directly in the house first, and forgot to plug my charger in. And, I never thought of it again until I went to check it yesterday morning before my trip, and realized my mistake. Arrrrrggghhh!
I had an hour and a half before I had to meet them at Mazurik's, so I plugged it in and waited to see what level the batteries were at. I guess I was hoping it would show a better charge than it did, because Sunday's trip was only a short 4 hour excursion. Nope! They stayed at 25% for a long time...ugh. So, I called my crew, who were driving up from Columbus, and told them what happened. I asked them to meet me at my house, and we would go have breakfast, go pick up Jeremy's fish he had at "Mike's Taxidermy", and then go get their licenses. I had hoped the batteries would be charged enough by then to have the Ulterra to use for the day.
I still had a lot of time before they showed up, so I left with the dogs to take them for a morning walk, and to pick up some ice for the fish cooler. When I got back my driveway was full of men, equipment, and trucks ready to fix that water main break. They had my boat blocked in! I told them I needed to get it out from under the carport before they started work. They moved all their stuff and I pulled it out and re-positioned it, so I could get it plugged in again. They were very accommodating. This was a big job, because they had the road crew out there doing the stop and go traffic around my driveway.
Fast forward....Steve and Jeremy showed up and picked me up from my neighbor's driveway. We went and did everything I stated above, and came back to my house. While we were at breakfast, a friend who was out in the morning called me to say, "You should reschedule it's solid 4's out here with some 5's". I said, "I can't! I have already rescheduled these two twice now, due to weather, and it's supposed to lay down this afternoon". He said, "Well, it just took us 45 minutes to go from the SW corner of Kellys to Mazurik's". I thanked him for his report and told my guys what he said. I told them that we should hold off on our start time until Noon, because iwindsurf was showing it laying down around that time. And, because it was a WSW wind, it would lay down much faster than if it were out of the opposite direction. They agreed, because they were determined to go fishing.
I checked the batteries again, and found they were fully charged! Woot! Woot! Hooray!
We hit Mazurik's at Noon and were headed up to the west side of Gull to fish. We started up closer to the line, and headed southeast along the edge of the shoal, and picked up 4 small walleye right away. Whew! There would be no "skunk" in the boat today!
We hit Mazurik's at Noon and were headed up to the west side of Gull to fish. We started up closer to the line, and headed southeast along the edge of the shoal, and picked up 4 small walleye right away. Whew! There would be no "skunk" in the boat today!
We made that pass and then turned around to go back up that line again. We didn't pick up any walleye going that direction, but we did get some sheep, cats, and whites. At that point, I decided to pick up and go over to Lucy's Point to see if there were fish over there.
The lake had laid down nicely by now and it was a very enjoyable afternoon on the lake. We set down just south of Lucy's and I went to deploy the Ulterra...."No Motor Found"...huh? What? But, I had a full charge! Or, so I thought. I told them I had to do it "Old School" and run the kicker from the back. So, since Steve was pretty much restricted to his seat, due to a hip surgery that put 6 very large screws in his bones, it was going to be up to Jeremy to man the boards. I didn't have my "Captain" to steer the boat anymore and had to do it manually....ugh...who ever said, "I miss the good old days" doesn't remember how restricting sitting on a tiller can be! Ha!
Well, we did manage to pick up 8 more walleye in a pass from Lucy's back over to the southern end of Gull Island Shoal, so we did manage to fish the old school way. Jeremy did a heck of a job following my instructions when it came to reeling in fish and setting lines on his own. I would just get off the motor long enough to net the fish for him.
Our program was crawler harnesses, of course. But, unlike the program last month, the distance back was a little further out. We ran the 1oz inlines back 41-59 and the #2 Tadpoles 43-50 back (and, any number in between). We had a 4oz bottom bouncer out too, and that caught 3 nice walleye for us. Our speed was 1.5mph.
It was a long day, but it was a fun day. Steve and Jeremy are two of my regulars and do 4-5 trips per season, so we are all very comfortable with each other in the boat. It's more like fishing with my best buds than with customers....meaning I get to swear like a sailor if I feel like it, and so do they. ;)
Oh! Before I forget....when I went to unplug the Ulterra for the day, I noticed that the plug had partially come out, and THAT is why it read "Motor Not Found"! It wasn't because the batteries were dead. OMG! I did it "old school" when I didn't have to, because I didn't check the obvious first. Lesson learned.
I have today off, but I'm back to a full schedule starting tomorrow and barring any bad weather, so....
Stay tuned!
Capt Juls
After a Whole Week Off....
by Capt Juls on 06/07/15It's been an entire week since I wrote my blog last, and I have been getting emails and PM's asking me if I'm okay, because I haven't written anything for a while...(thanks for checking in on me, by the way!)
Everything is okay. The three day that I had scheduled last week was cancelled, because the two fellas from Colorado got unlucky and showed up the day the weather went wild here, and the lake rose about 5-6 feet on this end. Then, the NE winds would have kept me off the lake until Wednesday at the earliest, so they went home instead. Then, I was scheduled to have Friday the 5th off anyway, because it was my birthday. Then, a show I was going to do yesterday was rescheduled to July, because of the NE winds again.
I had a quick 4 hour trip this morning, but even though we were marking more fish on the North side of Kelly's than I have ever marked there before, we didn't get anything to bite except one sheephead. Although, we kept losing our nightcrawlers.
The guys I had were a lot of fun even though we didn't catch any walleye, and want to come back in the fall to try for a wall hanger.
Most of the reports on the radio while we were out there were telling of a tough bite too. I got one report from a facebook friend that managed 30 on shrimp colored stinger spoons with 20 Jets 140 back. But, that was the best I had heard.
Tomorrow's trip has been rescheduled to more enjoyable weather, since they are residents here, and they don't have to travel in. I will be back out again on Tuesday with two of my regular customers. I think we will be going out of Huron, but that may change if I hear of something better.
So...stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Wicked NE Blow and Torrential Rain....ugh!
by Capt Juls on 06/01/15Yesterday, we had a big NE blow with sustained winds over 30mph and several inches of rain in the immediate area. This will cause flooding of the streams and rivers emptying into Lake Erie, so expect a lot of muddy water and floating debris for the rest of the week.
My three day charter that was supposed to start today has been postponed to tomorrow through Thursday instead. I'm hoping that the wind that the TV weatherman says we will have tomorrow trumps what iwindsurf says is forecast. If the TV weatherman is correct, then we will go. If the windsurf site is correct, then we will not go. I'll just have to see what it's doing in the morning, I guess.
So...stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing with Dave and Joey Buttram 5/30/15
by Capt Juls on 05/30/15
A couple days ago, I wasn't sure if today's trip was going to happen, because the forecast was calling for storms. When I got up at 3am this morning, the forecast was looking good for getting our day in. The storms weren't going to happen until later this evening. Whew!
As I right this, the skies are darkening, and the temperatures are falling. I can finally turn the air conditioners off and open the windows again. It's always nice to get fresh air in the house, isn't it?
At 5am I headed over to the Quality Inn to pick up my crew. As usual, I was a little early, but had texted them when I was on my way to let them know I was going to be a little early. They came down and we loaded up. I had to hit Hi Way Bait first for some ice, and some big fat crawlers, before heading over to Huron to launch.
We got to Huron just before 6am and were headed out of the channel. We headed west out of the channel and set lines in 25' of water. As Joey was setting the second board out the first one went back with a hard pull. He handed the rod to his Dad, and we had a nice 6 pound fish in the box. I thought it was going to be one of those gang buster mornings again, but it would be a while before we would hook up with another walleye. We went through several sheephead and whites, before getting another walleye. There were 6 in the box when I decided to move further west on the good word that there were more fish that way right now. We just had to find some good marks and start fishing.
Hey, guess what program we were using... Yes! You guessed it! Same thing as usual.
We only ran two rods per side, even though we could run three, because sometimes it's just more productive to run fewer lines when there are folks on board who have never used inline planer boards before. The good news is, they learned quickly and now that they know how they work, and have some confidence in running them, they will be buying some Off Shore boards to use back home on their own waters. ;)
Crawlers behind 1oz inline or Guppy weights, 31 and 41 back, with hammered copper or antifreeze, on the undersides of the #6 Colorado blades was the ticket for us today. We also took two nice fish on a 4oz bottom bouncer off the back corner. I only ran one, so we could change it from side to side as fish hit boards on either side of the boat.
It was a fun morning. The winds weren't bad and there was just a nice chop on the lake. We headed in after they got their 12th fish, because the radar was showing a pop up storm to the SW, and it looked like it was moving towards us, so they had no issues with coming in a little bit early. (We only had 20 more minutes to fish anyway).
I dropped them and their fish off and wished them safe travels. They said they would like to rebook either for a trip this fall or in the spring, because Joey is looking for one of Lake Erie's wall hangers to get mounted. That made me happy. :)
I have a day off tomorrow due to weather. I saw that one coming and had rescheduled them to this past Thursday, after cancelling an appointment, so I could get them in. Otherwise, they would have had to wait until July, and I had already rescheduled them once due to weather.
The next trip is a three day adventure, but they scheduled an extra day in case there was a weather day, and it looks like Monday might be that "weather day". So, instead of a Monday thru Wednesday trip...it looks like it will be a Tuesday through Thursday trip.
I have Friday scheduled off, because it's my Birthday, and a day off was a present to myself and to my dogs. :)
So....Stay tuned!
Capt Juls
Fishing with Mike, Logan, and Joe 5/29/15
by Capt Juls on 05/29/15After yesterday's successful walleye fishing near the Marblehead lighthouse, I thought it would be best to try there again this morning. We had a 6 hour window to get their 18 fish, but only managed to get 9 today. I did notice that last night there was a big Midge Fly hatch. Their carcasses were all over the surface of the lake where we were fishing. It might have helped cause the slower bite today, but I can't say for sure.
We started out with crawler harnesses, but switched over to Stinger Spoons behind #2 Tadpoles when a friend of mine told me he had switched over and they were working.
The bite had slowed a bit, so I was anxious to keep the excitement going.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of tightening up the planer board springs, and the flag tension was too tight, so the flags didn't go down when a small fish hit it. Those small white bass were hanging on for about a mile, I'm guessing! We found them when we were picking up lines to head in. I don't know how long they were just swimming with us, and being unproductive baits. Ugh....oh well...it happens.
My crew today was a lot of fun. I like it when they make me laugh, and I laughed a lot. :)
Okay, the crawler program was.... the usual...and, the spoons were 27 to 40 back on the Tadpoles. Speed with the spoons was 1.8-1.9mph. I used the kicker for propulsion and steered with my Ulterra. That way I could save juice on my trolling motor batteries, and it wouldn't have to work so hard.
I think I will start with the spoons in the morning and change them back to crawlers if need be. I'm not sure yet. So....
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing with Joe, Rick, and John 5/28/15
by Capt Juls on 05/29/15I picked my crew up from the Quality Inn at 5am and headed for breakfast at Big Boppers, before heading to Mazurik's to launch by 6am. It was a 10 hour perch and walleye day combo trip, so I thought I would head down to the lighthouse to do some perch'n first. But, that lasted about 20 minutes, with all the white perch, white bass, and sheephead hitting the minnows. I said, "Let's go walleye fishing first", and we pulled the perch rods in and started setting out the crawler harnesses.
This crew needed some instruction, because they were not real familiar with the Off Shore inline planer boards and how to run them. So, after the initial intro on how to put the crawlers on the harnesses correctly, and how to use the line counter reels, and attach the planer boards, I let them do it with me looking over their shoulders giving instruction as needed.
They were a fun crew...thank goodness, because 10 hours in the boat can be a very long day even when you like someone, and twice as long if you don't!
Anyway....It's all good. After catching their three man limit in short order, right there at the Marblehead lighthouse area...(done by 9:15) we went looking for perch elsewhere. We still had my limit of walleye to chase later, if we couldn't find any perch, and they wanted to walleye fish again.
We ran up to Lucy's Point first, to a spot I had perch on last week, but they were not there. Just junk fish. Then, we went into the area between Middle Bass and North Bass, but they were not there. Then, we stopped by Sugar Island, where I marked some small "bottom fish" on the Onix, but they were not yellow perch....sigh. One last spot....over by the red can by Gibraltar Island, where there was another little boat perch'n, but we must not have been close enough to that hole, because we got zero yellows...(deeper sigh).
"Okay, let's go to Kelly's and get those last 6 walleye", I said. Everyone was in agreement, and we headed to the west side of North Bay, and set in for a westerly troll along the island, in 31' of water.
Again, it's the same program I have been running for a month. It is still working, so why change it if it's still catching fish, right? :)
I'm still running at 1.3mph too.
Trying to shove a 10 hour day in a short blog is not really fair, because so many fun things happened. Let's just keep it at "It was a fun day! And, I look forward to fishing with these guys again next season". I have so much to do yet, and so little time to do it.
Friday's trip is with a Father and Son, and their friend for a 6 hour walleye trip. I'll be hitting the lighthouse area again in the morning.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Guy, CJ, and Sam 5/26/15
by Capt Juls on 05/26/15I left the house at 5am and headed to Huron with the Ranger in tow. I was meeting my crew there at 5:45, so we could launch at 6am. I had to stop at the gas station first, to get some ice for the big cooler. I like to bleed the fish and get them on ice right away, now that the temps are getting warmer.
They showed up right on time, and we were headed out of the channel at sunrise. There was no wind, and the lake was like glass for the first couple hours. The wind picked up to around 12mph out of the south around 8am and lasted about an hour, and then it died down again. We had our 24 fish this morning by 10:15, so needless to say, it was a pretty good bite again in Huron. :)
They kept talking about it being Guy's birthday today, but as I recall, when they fished with me last September, it was his birthday then too! So, when questioned he admitted it wasn't really his birthday. I told him, "You get brownies even if it's not your birthday", and laughed.
Guy caught a nice 31 inch fish today, that he plans on getting a replica mount made from, and his nephew Sam caught the fattest catfish I've ever seen come out of the western basin. Are they spawning right now? Or, was she just a fatty, who's eating well?
Today was all 1 oz inline weights anywhere from 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 35, 39, and 41....and, all took fish. The best blade color is that 'Purple Crusher' from Warrior Custom Colors...it has the copper hammered underbelly. The walleye find it very attractive.
We were targeting 25-29 foot of water today.
Tomorrow was going to be the same crew, but the winds are going to be SSW 20-30mph, so we will not be fishing again tomorrow.
The next trip is Thursday with a new crew for a 10 our walleye and perch trip.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with the McGlothlin Brothers 5/23-5/25/15
by Capt Juls on 05/25/15This is going to be a three day blog all in one, because once again I am short on time....deep sigh.
Saturday, I fished with a couple of return clients from southern Indiana. Tim and Matt McGlothlin. I received a text Friday night telling me that Matt's boy, Wyatt, would be going with us. I asked how old he was, and Matt told me, "4 years old". I called him and said, "Have you ever had a 4 year old out in a boat for 10 hours before?" And, he said, "Is that a polite way of asking, are you insane?" I laughed, and said, "Yes!"
Well, as it turned out, Wyatt was the most well behaved little boy for the ENTIRE DAY! He did take two short naps, but when he was awake, he was just asking questions, and his Dad was making sure he stayed focused on something. He was quite entertaining, really. I thought it would be tough to have one so young on board for so long, without any whining, but somehow he managed to prove me wrong. Way to go Wyatt! You're welcome on my boat any time kiddo. :)
Anyway, to make a very long story shorter....
They scheduled two 10 hour trips and a 4 hour trip for today.
Saturday....we fished by Kelly's first...same program. Picked up 3 walleye, and then decided to move up by Lucy's to make a pass from south to north, starting by Ballast Island, and headed towards the green can on the point. We picked up two more walleye there.
Once we got close to the green can there, we decided to go perch fishing, to keep Wyatt engaged, because the big trolling rods were a little too much for his little hands and body. The perch rigs were just right....with Dad's help of course.
We set up using the Ulterra's Spot Lock to hold us in position on the north side of the point in 29-30' of water. We caught 22 really nice yellow perch, and a mess of big white perch and white bass. That kept Wyatt entertained for a while. But, then we decided to go back down to kelly's where we had marked a bunch of fish on the west side of north bay, but in the morning.....weren't biting. In the afternoon....they were! Woot! Woot!
We headed back in with a very tired little boy, and by the time I dropped them off at their cottage and got home with the boat, it was almost time for bed again. I did the minimum possible to get the boat ready again for the next day and went to bed an hour later. My animals were none too pleased with me that night.
5/24/15
We wouldn't be taking Wyatt again today, so I decided to take the brothers over to Huron for some bigger fish. I was hoping they were still there, and they were. Running the same program as I run over by Kelly's, we had a two man limit in the boat in a little over an hour and a half. Many of the fish were "fish-O's" too! It was a really fun morning! But, since they booked a 10 hour trip, we fished for my 6 fish limit, and then pulled out to go back over to Mazurik's to launch, so we could go perch fishing again, after we dropped the walleye off at Bay's Edge on the way.
When we got to the park though, all the spaces were taken, and people were parking trailers on the grass already, so Tim said, "I'm tired, we don't have to do this". I replied, "Well, if it's okay with Matt, then I'm good with it too...I'm exhausted". lol
Matt agreed, and I took them over to Marblehead to get some perch tacos from "Somthin' Fishy" food truck for lunch before taking them back to their cottage. They loved them, and thanked me for taking them there. We agreed to meet at 5am the next morning. We wanted to launch early, because we thought it was an early bite, since it seemed to slow down after 8:30(ish).
5/25/15
Today's trip was just a quick 4 hour walleye trip. I picked up my crew at 5am and we headed straight to Huron to launch. We arrived at 5:25 and hit the water right at 5:30. It was still dark enough that we needed to use our navigation lights on the boat, but light enough to see where we were going. It was a nice early morning. The wind hadn't started blowing yet, and the fish were biting before we could even set all the lines out.
Unfortunately, the first one, which sunk a board, came off, and the second one was a smaller sheephead. We ended up catching their 12 walleye by 8:15, so it was definitely a slower bite, with a smaller grade of fish today, but it was still a lot of fun.
The winds started picking up and we were happy to be done.
They have already rescheduled for another trip in June, and I look forward to fishing with these guys again. They are a lot of fun!
Well, folks, that's the best I can do while running on empty. After fishing today.... the boat got cleaned, laundry was done, house got somewhat cleaned, yard work was done, shopping was done, and I colored and straightened my hair...( I look human again!)....oh, and I made brownies for tomorrow's trip too.
So, I'm off to bed, and promise that I will try to keep up with these blogs better in the future. It's just easier to do when I'm running 6 hour trips, and still have half a day to get stuff done.
Thanks for being patient...:)
Tomorrow's trip is also with returning clients who perch fished with me last summer, and wanted to go after some walleye this year. So...
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Memorial Day Weekend...Friday through Monday...in a nut shell....
by Capt Juls on 05/25/15Sorry I didn't blog all weekend, but it was extremely busy, and the days were very long. I just didn't have time to get it done. I apologize.
5/22/15:
Friday, I fished with Arnot Albee and his wife Lynne, and their daughter, Jill. I picked them up at their hotel at 5:30, so we could launch by 6am, but after looking at the radar of a heavy rain headed our way, I decided we would stop at Big Bopper's for breakfast first, to let it pass. After breakfast we hit Mazurik's, but it was still blowing the system through. It was supposed to lay down after it went through, so we ended up launching at 8am instead of 6am. We were now going to fish until 4pm, because they had scheduled an 8 hour walleye trip for Arnot's birthday.
We started over by the east side of South Bass (in front of the monument) in 26 foot of water. There was a WNW wind, so we trolled south. We picked up 5 eaters in that first pass, and then decided to try a little deeper water to the east, in 31-32 foot, to see if we could find some bigger fish. I think we picked up one in that pass, but heck, I'm not sure.... that was almost four days ago now, and I can't remember all the details. lol
We made several passes between South Bass and Kelly's. The wind changed direction several times on Friday. First it was WNW, then north, west, and lastly SW. It was aggravating to say the least. Anyway, we finished on the north side of Kelly's where I had been fishing the past couple of weeks.
They learned a lot that day, and were really quick learners...especially Jill. They went home with a limit of nice walleye for their family fish fry.
The weather the rest of the day, after the crappy morning, was beautiful. Sunny with light winds...waves were 2 foot or less.
We ran crawler harnesses. The "Purple Crusher" custom painted blade from "Warrior" has been.....ahhhh...."crushing" them. It's got a copper hammered underside and is a #6 size blade.
Again, since it's been so long since you've probably read any of my posts...we ran 1oz inlines 31-41 back and the number 2 Tadpole 21, 23, 25, & 27 back. Speed was 1.3mph.
After dropping their fish off at Bay's Edge Fish Cleaning for them, I dropped them back off at their hotel and bid them "safe travels". It was a fun day with the Albee family...:)
I got home, and plugged the boat batteries in, changed the towels out, and threw the dirty ones in the wash, and had a whole hour and a half to say hello to my furry friends, get something to eat, and then get to bed. Thus, the reason I did not blog Friday's trip. There just wasn't any time, thanks to the delay and it being an 8 hour trip rather than my usual 6 hours.
Next up was the McGlothlin Brothers who fished with me Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (today). To be cont'd.....
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Larry, Tom, and Jax Ohda 5/20/15
by Capt Juls on 05/20/15It was blowing this morning when I woke up, but I knew it would be. It was supposed to lay down later in the day, so I had told my crew I would pick them up at their cottage at 8:30am. We would be driving over to Huron to launch by 9am.
As we headed out of the channel, I could see it was really rough, because the horizon was looking more like little mountains than a flat line. Sure enough, as we hit the mouth of the channel, we were greeted with waves ranging from 3-6ft.
It was a slow ride out, but we made it, and set lines. It was hard to stand in the boat, and my crew preferred sitting or crawling around the boat. I knew this wasn't going to go very well...lol
Shortly after catching a small eater, Jax wasn't feeling very well, so I told him to go up front and try to throw up. That would make him feel better....it did.
I fed him some Ginger Chews to help settle his stomach, and gave him some skydiver motion sickness spray to relieve his symptoms....it did.
I told them that the lake would take longer to lay down over here, than by the islands, and that I thought it was a good idea to finish this pass, head in, and then drive back over to Mazurik's to launch by the islands again....so, we did.
We ate some lunch on the way over to Mazurik's, and Jax was feeling better after taking some Dramamine with his lunch. We were back on the water by 11:45 and headed to my last spot between the stone dock and the west side of North Bay. We trolled the same program as previous reports, and kept the speed at 1.3mph...going with the waves.
The lake finally laid down and it was definitely a pleasant afternoon to be on the water. We ended up catching 2 fish in Huron and 20 fish at Kelly's. All of them were just "good eaters', with nothing really big in the bunch. My crew was thankful for them...and, that made me happy. :)
I have the same crew again tomorrow, and will probably be launching at Mazurik's again. I don't know where I'll be fishing yet, but a couple of friends have given me good reports to check out, so I will do that.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing Day 2 with the Becker's 5/18/15
by Capt Juls on 05/18/15After waking up 45 minutes late, because I had forgot to set my alarm (D'Oh), I was out of sync this morning. But, luckily, I get everything ready the night before, so the only thing I missed was my second cup of coffee and my internet "fix". I stayed on time thanks to that routine.
I picked up Tim and Nick Becker at their hotel at 5:45 and we headed to Huron, where we were headed out of the channel by 6:25.
I had received some private messages and texts last night from a few friends talking about one of my favorite areas being "on fire", so I was excited to take my crew there for some big fish fun. I really can't give you this one, and I apologize for that, but I will tell you that I was fishing in 25 to 29 foot of water. I was told by my friends that they were "stacked up in there", but when I went over the area, I didn't mark a dang thing. So, you know what I did? I turned off the sonar, and put the Nav map at full screen and fished on faith. I knew they were there, I just couldn't see them. So, instead of having my customers ask if I'm marking fish, or say, "I haven't seen any fish on your screen", I thought it best to not give them that opportunity. I just wanted to make a couple passes before moving on to another spot.
We ran the same program we ran over at Kelly's the day before, and it worked.
1oz inlines 27 and 35 back, and #2 Tadpoles 25 & 27 back worked. Blades were the same too...antifreeze, gold hammered, and copper hammered.
Speed was 1.3mph.
The first board went back...hard. It looked like a big walleye pull, so we let the fish load up, and Tim reeled it in. The skunk was out of the boat! Woot! Woot! It was a big walleye, that was a much nicer grade than what we caught over at Kelly's, so the guys were really smiling and getting pumped.
We would go through a lot of crawlers with light biting walleye, that wouldn't hook up, giant board sinking sheephead, a few white bass, and even a catfish that wanted to get in on the action.
We managed to land our 18 walleye by 11am, so we packed it up and headed back in at a nice leisurely pace.
We stopped to get some lunch at Casa Las Palmas, the local Mexican restaurant across from their hotel, before I dropped them off with their fish, and said our goodbyes.
They had wanted to book three days, but I was already booked for their third day, so they planned on fishing with Capt Kevin Swartz tomorrow, on my recommendation, while I fished the first of three days with my new crew.
Plans have changed though...I just got off the phone with Kevin, and after discussing the weather forecast for strong NW winds tomorrow, we are cancelling our trips. He mentioned also that he was advised not to be on the lake tomorrow too, so that's good enough for me. I'm not that mad at those fish...;)
So to sum it up...today was an AWESOME day of fishing with two fun guys from Wisconsin! I'll be back on the water Wednesday with another father and son team of Larry and Tom Ohda...I think they are from Indiana, but I'll have to confirm that on Wednesday. :)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Becker's 5/17/15
by Capt Juls on 05/17/15I met Tim and Nick Becker at Mazurik's, and we launched at 6am. We headed to Kelly's northwest side where I fished the day before. It was a perfect morning. Cloudy skies, calm seas, and one of the first boats on the lake....ahhhh paradise! We didn't see any other boats when we arrived, so we set lines and started fishing.
Our program today was 1oz inlines 27 & 31 back and number 2 Tadpoles 25 & 27 back. All of them took fish. Blades were the same as usual...antifreeze, copper, and gold hammered. When I talk about blade color, it's always describing the underside of the blade. It's what I think the fish sees most, instead of the pretty color schemes on the back sides that I think mostly "catches fishermen". ;)
Speed was 1.3 today.
It wasn't a fast bite like it was yesterday, and we battled some white perch and white bass before picking up our first eater walleye. We made a couple passes and picked up a handful more, and had 7 fish before I decided to head north to see if there were fish out to the west side of Gull, and up towards the line.
The water was cleaner out there, and I wasn't marking much on the Onix, so we set the lines high in the water column and had one good "big fish" pull back within the first 10 minutes. We missed it, because they just weren't very aggressive today. Not like yesterday. After a 1/4 mile of nothing, we decided to head back down to where we started and try for their last 5 fish.
There were a lot more boats there by 10am, so we got in line and went with the flow. We picked up their last 5 fish by 10:30 and Nick started to bring the lines in. I said, "What are you doing?" He looked at me as if to say, "Aren't we done?" And I said, "We still get 6 more, and you have a lot more time left". That made him happy and he baited his hooks and got the lines back in the water.
We ended up one short of our three man limit today, but counting the number of missed fish, along with the white perch and white bass bite, these guys had a good time today. The weather was perfect after a morning rain that lasted only a short while, and it was a fun time on the water.
I have the same crew tomorrow, and we are headed to Huron to see if there are some bigger fish to be had. I love fishing on Monday's when the lake isn't so crowded. :)
I had time today to get the grass cut before more rain comes, and some flowers planted, so those monkeys are off my back, and I can enjoy our trip even more tomorrow....
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
