Juls WFA Blog
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
Fishing with Ben, Chris, and Dennis 5/14/15
by Capt Juls on 05/14/15Ben and his friends met me at the house this morning at 5am and we did the morning routine of getting gas, ice, and a bite to eat before hitting Catawba for a 6:45 launch.
I didn't have much going as far as a plan, because I hadn't been on the water the previous two days, and we just had a cold front and two day blow go through. I thought I would give my last spot a try first, since it was close, and a friend had been on it the day before with good results. That spot was Starve Island area.
We set in to make an east to west pass. the guys got the lines in the water, running the same program I had running the last time I was there, (back on Monday), which was the 1oz inlines 31 & 41' back, and the number 2 Tadpoles 23-27 back with crawler harnesses....blades were copper, antifreeze, and pink underbellies, and one was a gold hammered.
The water temps had dropped two degrees since Monday, so I kept the speed slower, running at 1.0-1.2mph.
We made two passes and had three walleye, but by that time there were about 24 boats in the area, so I said to them, "Let's move further up on this next pass". As we headed east towards Kelly's, I liked the looks of the water clarity, and figured I would just keep going until the water clarity wasn't to my liking. As it turned out, I kept going until we were on the NW corner of Kelly's, and saw that the water there was still inviting. So, we set lines there and immediately began to pick up fish on the same program. Wooo Hoooo! It was game on!
We didn't get any big ones, but they were all very nice eaters in the 20-24" range. We ended the day with a 4 person limit, and were off the water by 1pm.
We did best with the 1oz inlines at 29-31' back, and after switching out two Tads for two more inlines we hit a quintuplet of fish! We only got four of them in the boat though, because while Chris was netting Dennis's fish, it did one of those flippity flop moves out of the net....D'Oh! Oh well.... :)
It was a fun day on the water and the guys all had smiles. After a nice lunch at the Moose Club we went back to my house. Ben had brought his own cleaning table with him, so he cleaned all the fish in my yard. We had a nice visit, and then they went home.
Tomorrow's 10 hour trip has been rescheduled, because they didn't want to fish in the rain, and will be fishing on May 31st instead.
Saturday's trip was also rescheduled, due to the rain forecast, because she's not a die hard angler, and preferred a nicer weekend to go. So, I'll be back out on Monday.
Then again, I might sneak out during the break in the rain tomorrow afternoon to find some perch. :)
Stay tuned....
Juls
Fishing with the Rupp Brothers 5/10 & 5/11/15
by Capt Juls on 05/11/15I fished the past two days with Don and Bob Rupp. Don flew in from California, and met his brother in Illinois, where they drove down together. I was initially concerned with the weather forecast, and had let them know before coming over here, that there might be a chance that we wouldn't get out due to storms. But, Don informed me that they were coming anyway, because he couldn't get a refund on his plane tickets. So, we planned for the worst, and hoped for the best, and as it turned out, the weather was perfect both days on the water.
Yesterday, the plan was to start out at G Can, because if there was going to be any pop up thunderstorms, we would be able to get off the water quickly. Most of the big charter boats were in there too, and it was getting too crowded for my liking. I checked the radar and found that it was going to be clear of any inclement weather for the time that we were on the water, so I asked them if they wanted to stay and fish for more small eaters, or go look for some big fish. Don replied, "Let's go for big fish", and Bob concurred. So, we pulled lines and headed up to the islands.
We set in at my one of my favorite spots up there on the west side of middle bass, and north of Put In Bay. We didn't go far before pulling another nice eater, which made me happy to see they were biting there. Then, it wasn't long before Don would catch his biggest walleye to date, which was a nice 28 1/2 inch eye. I thought the bite was going to be really good up there yesterday, but those two fish would be the last of them in that area. We trolled the area from Rattle Snake to Middle Bass, and South Bass hard, but only caught a sheephead and a couple white bass making our tally for the entire day only 4 fish....deep sigh. Grrrrr.
They enjoyed the weather and each other's company and were happy even though the fishing was tough. Both of them were very tired from their night out on the town the night before, so they were ready to go take a nap.
I dropped them off at their hotel and bid them goodnight. I would see them in the morning at 5:30.
Day Two:
I picked them up at the designated time and we hit Rickard's for some ice on the way to Catawba. We talked about how lucky they have been with the weather, and that it had rained over night, but the day looked like it was going to be a nice day again. It was.
I picked them up at the designated time and we hit Rickard's for some ice on the way to Catawba. We talked about how lucky they have been with the weather, and that it had rained over night, but the day looked like it was going to be a nice day again. It was.
We started out at G Can again, to try and get some eaters in the boat, before going looking for big fish again. We put two fish in the livewell there, and then headed to Niagra when the G Can area started getting crowded with big charter boats again.
We made one pass in the area just east of Niagra and put two more fish in the boat. I wasn't marking fish like I wanted, so we moved over to North Bass. We set lines, but I didn't like the clarity of the water up there....it was too clean. We also weren't marking any fish, so I said, "It's Monday, let's go back to Middle Bass, because we should have the place to ourselves today". But, that wasn't the case. As we got closer, we could see there were at least a dozen boats making the pass that I like to make, so I said, "We're not staying here...let's go. I have one more spot to look at".
I wanted to check the water at Starve Island, and it was indeed to my liking. Not too clean, and not very dirty...just right. Now, all I had to do was watch the Onyx to mark some fish. Low and behold...we marked some fish, so we set lines using the same exact program we've been running for the past week.
It wasn't long before one of them saw the first board tick back, but we weren't sure if there was a fish on it or not, because it didn't seem to be doing anything. As it turns out, that fish was swimming with the bait, so the board didn't go back.
Once he started to reel it in though, we could tell it was a big walleye. Then, another board went back and we now had two nice big walleye in the boat. Woot! Woot!
Uh Oh...another board just went back! Three big fish now. We trolled a little further and got another one. They were having a great time! As we made a turn to go back over them, we caught the 5th big fish in that spot bringing today's tally up to 9, and they couldn't have been happier. The fish at Starve were all 26-28 inches. Much nicer than the 20-24 inch fish at G Can.
We didn't get any going against the current, so I kept them out a little longer to make one more pass with the current, to try and get them their last three fish. It didn't happen, but it was a good effort on their part.
The water temp there was 59.7 degrees and we were fishing the contours from 35-41 foot of water, with the baits in the top 20 feet of the water column.
1oz inlines were 31 & 41 back and the number 2 Tadpoles were set at 25 & 27 back. Copper and Antifreeze undersides were the blades that were working best for us.
I was so proud of them. By mid morning, they were setting lines quickly, like they have been doing it for a long time. I rewarded them with some Off Shore Tackle hats I had in my truck, and said, "Congratulations, you have now officially graduated from "Board School"...here's your hat". :)
After loading out, I dropped them off at their hotel, and said our goodbyes. They talked about booking their trip again next spring, so that made me very happy.
Tomorrow's trip has been rescheduled, due to the wind forecast of 25-35 out of the southwest. Wednesday's trip has also been rescheduled, due to an unforeseen circumstance of my customer's. So, I won't be back on the water until Thursday.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Ben, Jason, and Nate 5/9/15
by Capt Juls on 05/09/15This is going to be short tonight. I'm whooped and can hardly keep my eyes open right now.
We got an early start and headed over to Huron to fish today. Hit the launch at 6am, and fished out in front of Sawmill first. We picked up 3 fish over there in 30' of water, running the same program that I have been running for days now.
Headed over to the Cranberry area, after receiving a phone call from my friend, Darrell Woods, who said he had been doing better over there. When we got there, there were about 20 boats in the area, so we set up and stayed out of the pack.
The first pass we picked up nothing but white perch...so annoying...sigh So, I headed to deeper water...35 foot, and we picked up a nice walleye. A little further in the troll we picked up an nice fat 30" walleye, and that made the "boyz" happy. We made a circle to go back over those fish and picked up a couple more.
To make a long story short, we ended up with 9 nice fish today.
Got home and cleaned the boat for tomorrow's trip with a couple of guys I took perch fishing last year. They wanted to try for walleye this time, so hopefully this weather won't hinder that plan. We shall see in the morning what it's going to do tomorrow....so...
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Day Four of Four with Garren, Roger, and Mark 5/8/15
by Capt Juls on 05/08/15We wanted to start out a little earlier this morning, so I picked my crew up at 5am and headed to the gas station for gas, and Hi Way Bait for my crawlers and ice. We hit Micky D's, for some "to go" food like substance and headed to Catawba ramp to launch.
We hit the water at 6am and headed up to the west side of Middle Bass between Rattle Snake Island and Green Island.
We focused on the 31' contour lines in the area, and trolled at a slow speed of 1.0-1.1mph.
At 11am, with only 9 in the box, we ran down to G Can, because I had gotten a tip that there were fish there. We set up right on the can and had 5 eaters in the boat within a 10 minute span. At one point, only one rod was left out, and the rest were laying all over the boat. Total chaos....I love those moments. lol
The crawler programs was the same as yesterday...1oz inline at 31 & 41 back, and the #2 Tadpole at 21, 23, 25, & 27' back. Blade colors were the same too. I don't particularly pay attention to the top side of a blade, but rather, I pay more attention to the underside of the blade. I think that's what the fish sees more so than the top side. But, that's just my opinion, and I could be really really wrong. ;)
Anyway, my blades today were copper and antifreeze colored undersides.
We ended the trip with 14 for 18 today with three big fish....2 were just over 30 inches and one was a 29" fish. Both fish were not back to their fat weight yet after the spawn, but they are looking better lately. The rest of the fish were "just eaters".
My crew expressed how much fun they had this week, and hoped to be back again next season, so that made me happy. :)
I'm keeping this short, because this gal needs some pampering.....in other words...I need to color my gray hair, paint my toe nails that were held hostage by heavy boots and shoes all winter, and shave this weird neglected hair growth on my body.
Tomorrow's trip is with a return customer, who has become a friend of mine, so I already know how much fun this trip will be....so...
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Day Three of Four with Garren, Roger, and Mark 5/7/15
by Capt Juls on 05/07/15We did go out yesterday, but it was thick fog, and only caught two in the 4 hours we did stay out. The wind was blowing out of the NE and our spot at the lighthouse was limited with a ferry blowing it's ghostly horn from the west of us, and a big tanker ship blowing it's fog horn to the east of us. We couldn't see more than 15 yards in any direction, so we just worked a very small area that I knew wasn't in any traffic lanes for vessels that could crush us. lol
So, while yesterday was cut short by two hours, today's trip and tomorrow's trip were each extended by one hour.
I picked up my crew at their hotel at 5:30am and we went to Ala Carte for breakfast this time. After forgetting to stop and get ice for the fish cooler...(D'Oh!) we launched at Catawba at 6:30. (the fish would just have to stay in the livewell today).
We headed to the west side of Green Island, in 31' of water, where we set up using crawler harnesses behind #2 Tadpoles and 1oz inline sinkers. The program was the same.. #2 Tads at 21, 23, 25, and 27 back...1oz inlines 31 & 41 back... speed was 1.0-1.1mph.
The morning bite was better on the copper backed #6 Colorado blades, and the late morning/early afternoon bite was better on the blades with an antifreeze back.
We caught 14 out of the 18 bites that pulled the Off Shore boards back, with 5 fish that were "Fish-O's". Woot! Woot!
There were only a few white bass, and one sheephead today, so the "junk fish" bite still isn't that bad.
The weather today was beautiful and it warmed up nicely around 10:30-11am. It was sunny, with light east winds, and NO FOG! whew!
We will be out again tomorrow, and the weather should be even a little bit nicer, with a new wind direction, so I'm hoping the bite is a little bit faster tomorrow. :)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Day One of Four with Garren, Roger, and Mark 5/5/15
by Capt Juls on 05/05/15Today was the first of four fishing days with my crew from southern Illinois. Garren and Roger King (son and father) fished with me for two days last season, and booked four more days this year. This time, they brought their long time family friend, Mark, along with them. This would be Mark's first time using Off Shore boards, so he was looking forward to trolling and learning something new.
We started out with a nice breakfast from "Big Boppers" before heading over to Mazurik's to launch at 7am. After making sure everyone had enough rain gear on to keep dry, we loaded up and we headed out.
Our first stop was in the south passage between Mazurik's and Kelly's Island. We were trolling crawler harnesses with 1oz inlines and number 2 Tadpoles. The 1oz was run at 31 back on one side of the boat and 41' back on the other side of the boat. Those were also run on the outside boards, because they were higher in the water column, and I think it's best to run the high baits as far away from the boat as possible, whenever possible.
The #2 Tadpoles were run anywhere from 20-27' with varying depths, but the 25' back took the most hits. We caught 4 big fish there, and then headed to Kelly's when the bite slowed down in the first spot, where we caught 4 more smaller fish.
We only ended up with 8 fish in the allotted fishing time, but there were some real nice fish in the box...one at 30 inches, a 29.6", 29", 28", 27", 24", 24", and 22". My customers were very pleased with their day's catch, and that made me happy. :)
The weather wasn't too bad. We didn't get any storms, but it did rain on us for a few hours. The winds were out of the NE at 10-13 mph or less, so the waves were two foot or less today.
Hopefully, now that the moon is now a "waning moon" (backside of a full moon), and the skies are cloudy, the bite might improve as the week goes on.
We will be back out in the morning, and looking forward to less rain. Thursday and Friday look like it will be fantastic fishing weather, so we're all looking forward to that. :)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Jim, Brad, and Trent 5/4/15
by Capt Juls on 05/05/15Blog is a day late again....sorry! But, I had to clean the boat, clean my pig sty of a house, entertain the dogs, buy some garden plants and plant them, and start my seedlings in the house yesterday.
There wasn't much to talk about fishing wise other than I had a great time in the boat with these Minnesota men yesterday.
They had brought their boat down and will be fishing all week. The fishing was tough for us again, and we only caught two nice fish. I wasn't marking much in any of the spots we hit, so that kept me moving around to find other spots. When you don't have all day to find them and fish for them, it makes it a little harder....sigh.
We hit the west side of North Bass first...fish were belly to the bottom on the Onix screen. We had crawlers out from the top of the water column to about 20 feet in the water column...nada. Then, we moved to the west side of Gull Island Shoal and made a pass to the Canadian line and picked up the first fish on a Perfect 10 at 30/30, so we took off the crawlers on the other side of the boat and had 4 P-10s out, one Bandit, and one Reef Runner.
When we hit the line, we moved it back down a little further south of Gull and closer to Gull....we caught one more fish on the side of Gull, but that was it for that pass. After talking with another Captain that was fishing the same line behind me, we thought it was a good move to move over to the Mouse Island / Starve Island area and give it a try....so, we moved.
The wind was picking up and was much stronger than the winds that were forecast, so we made one pass there with one pull back, and one white bass.
I didn't like the line I was taking, and we decided to move to the lighthouse area where it was a little more protected, and finished out the last hour there.
We had three white bass there, and two pull backs that sunk the boards, but they came off before they got to the boat.
So, you can see why I wasn't in a hurry to report this one. lol
The guys were fun...especially Trent...who is a very funny guy. "Funny" in the sense that he's got the quickest one liners of anyone I have ever met. Thanks to him, it made what would have been a torturous 6 hours for me very entertaining. Thanks Trent!!
They took me to lunch, and then we said our goodbyes. I told them to keep in touch this week and if I got anything going, I would let them know. I hope the bite picks up now that this full moon phase is on the backside. I think the fish were feeding at night, because of the clear skies and bright moon, and causing the morning bite to be pretty poor, and why we were seeing the fish sucked belly to the bottom.
Anyway, my next crew will be with me for the next four days. I fished with them last year, and I know it's going to be a fun week with them in the boat....so....
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Day two with Rod, Rob, and Patrick 5/3/15
by Capt Juls on 05/03/15I picked up my Wisco Crew at 5:45 this morning, from their hotel, and headed to Mazurik's after picking up some ice from Hi Way Bait on the way there.
Launched while it was just turning light and headed to the west side of Middle Bass island to start the day. We were there yesterday morning and trolled with crawler harnesses, and picked away at fish until we had 11 in the livewell and the bite shut down on us. We didn't get any there this morning, and the marks that were there yesterday were fewer this morning. And, the ones that were there were belly tight to the bottom.
We discussed our options and they opted for fishing by Kelly's since we picked up a couple there on the way back in yesterday. We landed 6 fish there, and when too many boats were around us, and the bite slowed down again, we decided to move to another location where we caught our biggest fish yesterday. I'm not divulging that location yet, as I am headed there in the morning, and prefer to have it less crowded. lol
The program was the same as yesterday. Crawler harnesses with a 1oz inline on the outside boards at 35 & 41 back, and the number 2 Tadpoles on the middle and inside Off Shore boards 25 & 27 back. Speed was 1.0- 1.3. We were targeting 31-32 foot of water.
My crew and I said our goodbyes at the launch when we got back, and they were excited about coming back again, and that made me happy. :)
Oh, I almost forgot! While on the water today, we witnessed a beautiful wooden boat, like a Lyman or something, crash into the side of an anchored perch fishing boat. Heard the perchers yelling and screaming at the guy, and then BAM! Unbelievable! I mean, what the heck? lol Some people....sigh.
Anyway, tomorrow's trip is planned for 6am, as there are thunderstorms forecast for the early afternoon. I'm hoping we can get their fish early and get our butts off the water before the nasty stuff comes in....so....
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
p.s. Most recent pictures are on the last pages of the photo album on my site. I wish I could put the most recent at the beginning, but the site I use, that hosts my site, doesn't give me that option. grrrr....
Playing Catch up!
by Capt Juls on 05/02/15Sorry for my lack of blogging, but I was beat and in bed by 6:30 the past few nights.
Today I switched over to crawler harnesses and had much better success than I had lately on the crank baits.
My crew, from Wisconsin, learned how to run Off Shore boards in quick fashion and were setting lines by 7:15 this morning.
We were running spinners with blades that were copper, gold, anti freeze, and pink backs. While all took fish at some point or another throughout the day, the copper and the antifreeze worked best.
1oz inlines 35 and 41 back and the number two Tadpoles were run 25 and 27 back. The Tadpoles definitely out fished the inlines for us today.
Speed was kept at 1.0 to 1.2 mph.
We were targeting a depth of 31-32 feet of water. We tried three different areas and that depth seemed to be the magic number when the Onix would start marking fish for us. So, I'm sure if you find that depth with some marks on your screen, you will be able to catch some too.
Sorry this is so short, but I have to get to bed. I have the same crew in the morning, and originally they wanted a short 4 hour trip after today's 8 hour trip, but they asked me at the end of today's trip if they could extend tomorrow's trip an extra two hours longer. That made me happy, because I knew then that they really had a good time. :)
So, we will start a 1/2 hour earlier tomorrow...I want to beat the AIM Tournament competitors on the water in the morning. lol
Now, it's way past my bed time already, so there you have it...in a nut shell.
See you on the water tomorrow!
Good luck and be safe!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Bill Kellerman and Tom...:)
by Capt Juls on 04/30/15Woke up to the sound of heavy rain....ugh. I knew it was going to rain all day...double ugh.
I put a smile on my face, and picked my crew up at the Quality Inn at 6:30. We hit the water out of Catawba a little before 7am and headed towards D can.
The plan was to run crawler harnesses on one side of the boat and my Perfect 10's on the other side. After the P-10's that were run 20/20 and 30/30 picked up a couple of fish, and the crawlers did nothing, I decided to pull the crawlers and run more P-10's.
To make a long story short, because I am wiped out from the weather today, we fished north of D Can, North of Niagra, North of North Bass, and west of Sugar, before ending one last pass near Mouse with only 7 fish to show for our hard work. My crew worked their butts off today, and we had great conversation, and some laughs. We were all pretty cold by the end of the trip, and our hands had a hard time pinching the releases on the snap weights and Off Shore boards....well, at least I did! lol
Because it was always raining, I didn't pull the phone out to take any pictures, so the guys sent me some before they cleaned their fish behind the hotel after I dropped them off. :)
Tomorrow's trip is with a crew that I have fished with several times before, and the weather looks to be improving for the weekend, so I'm really looking forward to it.
I'm whipped tonight though, so I'm headed to bed early....the dogs seemed depressed, because it's raining and I won't take them for a walk tonight. Poor dogs...:( I think they'll live though...:)
I did talk to a friend tonight, that did get the crawler harnesses to go for them, and they did very well, so I may give them another go tomorrow.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
