Juls WFA Blog
Whew! What a Difference a Day Makes...:)
by Capt Juls on 07/22/14Went fishing for walleye today with Marc Schulte, a fella that I often share information with, and his friend, Dan. We got a late start this morning, due to the fact that I had to get something replaced on my truck. That work didn't take very long, so I called and told them to meet me at my house and we would drive over to Huron together. We were launching and out the channel at 10:47.
I headed over to a spot that I fished this past Friday and it was game on from the time we set lines to the time we pulled lines 3 1/2 hours later! We caught walleye, sheephead, catfish, white perch, and white bass (the junk fish bite wasn't that bad though). It was exhausting trying to set the Off Shore boards out in a timely fashion. There were several times where all the rods were laying around the boat waiting to get re-rigged and sent out again. It wasn't too often where we got to sit down and relax for a few minutes. It was fun being able to be one of the folks who gets to reel a piggy in instead of just netting it for someone else. I forgot how much fun that can be...it was a nice refresher course to understand what my clients are feeling. lol
I had a great time, and feel redeemed after the flop of a guide trip for Smallies yesterday. The fishing was fantastic today, but it's supposed to blow out of the north pretty good tomorrow.... I'm not so sure those fish "inside" are going to hang out there much longer if it muddies up in there. Quite frankly, I was surprised to find them there again today. We just took a shot at the spot before we headed out to deeper water.
Ended our short trip at 2:15 and had 14 nice walleye in the cooler to show for our hard work.
We ran the same program as all my other blog postings...41 back with 1 oz inlines and 20-45 back with #2 Tadpoles. Every color took fish, so it wasn't a magic color...I think there were just a lot of fish in there and if it came by them, they took a swipe at it. They were not engulfing the baits by any means, and we got lucky a couple of times getting the fish in the net before the hooks came out of their mouths. :)
Thanks Marc Schulte and Dan Carper for a fun "short day"! I appreciate it.
The next trip was scheduled for Thursday, but was rescheduled to to unforeseen circumstances. So, the next scheduled trip is not until Saturday, where I will once again be fishing with a previous customer from last week, who wanted to bring his Dad back for some walleye fun. :)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
I Wish I Could Do Today Over!! Fishing 7/21/14
by Capt Juls on 07/21/14Woke up at my usual time this morning...3:30. Had my two cups of coffee, and made some dark chocolate brownies with peanut butter chips for my crew today. I timed everything out, so I would leave the house at 5:45, go gas up, get crawlers and ice, and hit Mazuriks with plenty of time to clean the boat up before my crew arrived, because I was kind of exhausted yesterday afternoon and didn't get around to cleaning the boat.
My regular customer, Steve Chapman, would be fishing with his brother, Chuck, and his nephew, John, today. They were to meet me at the park at 7:30, so I knew I would have enough time to get everything done before they showed up.
At 5:30 I loaded up the boat with my usual things like, towels, coffee can of cralwers, lunch, Capt creditentials, water, and snacks. Check, check, check...I was ready to go. I said my goodbyes to the dogs and went to grab my keys from their usual spot. They weren't there...."Okay, don't panic. They have to be here somewhere" I said out loud. I looked everywhere, and then it dawned on me where they were. They were still in the ignition of the truck, because yesterday when my crew and I got back to the house, I went to get out of the truck, but realized the windows were down. I turned the key and rolled up the windows. But, right then, I was handed a credit card to use for their balance due.
In order for me to use the card reader on my iphone, I have to take the Otterbox covering off of it, and instead of taking the keys out of the ignition, I tore apart my phone covering. I swiped his card, got the signature, and sent the receipt. I forgot about the keys and closed the door and said my goodbyes to the crew. Then, I went in the house to greet the dogs, throw some towels in the laundry, and make something to eat.
The whole night, my ignition was in the "on" position.
Well, you can guess what I found when I went to the truck this morning and tried to start it.............nothing. Nada, zip, zippo! No Juice! Okay, now I have a full on panic attack and call my customers who were driving up from Columbus this morning to tell them, "I have a problem...my truck is dead". Steve was very kind and just said, "let us know what you want to do after you try getting it going" (or, something close to that).
Luckily, I have the GREATEST neighbor in the world! Jerry had just gotten up and was making coffee when he got my panicked text asking him for help. He came right out and helped me get it jumped, so I could get it started. THANKS JERRY!!!
At 6:15 it was running, and I was on my way. "Okay, not too far behind schedule", I thought, and headed down the highway. After gassing up and hitting the bait shop, I got to Mazurik's at 7am. I had a 1/2 hour to get things ready and wipe down the boat before they showed up at 7:30. At 7:15 Steve called to tell me they were going to stop at the Wharf to get their Canadian licenses for the day. I said, "That's fine, see you in a little bit".
At 8:15 they showed up, and we launched at 8:30, which is much later than I like to launch, but it was what it was. It was a nice morning and the lake was calm for a change, so there was nothing to complain about.
I knew that they wanted to fish for smallmouth bass up in Canada, but they also wanted some walleye to take home. Granted I have not bass fished at all yet this year, so I took them to a place that I knew from memories to be pretty good this time of year. Well, a long story short(er)...we ended up with one stinking smallie and about a 1/2 dozen sheephead. We never walleye fished long enough to be able to get into any for any take home fish, so it was a flop of a day fishing wise. Fun wise, and good company wise, it was fantastic! I love these guys, and always have fun with them! They didn't hold it against me...lol We tried and fished hard. It was just one of those days that beats you up inside when you want to get your clients on good fishing....sigh.
I've decided that I don't want to keep smallmouth on the list of available species to target with my charters, and have removed that option. I am going to keep smallie fishing for my off days fun fishing with my friend who likes to bass fish. But, I would much prefer to keep track of where the walleye are roaming by fishing for them instead of bass fishing. At least when you're trolling you can cover a lot of water in 6 hours. You can't Do that bass fishing.
So, if I could do this day over, I would wish to have my truck start in the morning, have my clients show up on time, and go trolling for walleye.
I should know to listen to my gut instinct. I knew where to go for walleye today, but it was a long ride, and not feasible with added bass fishing on the agenda.....it wasn't meant to be....maybe next time. :)
Tomorrow, I'm going fishing with friends to get back into to some walleye action and get over this frustrating day. lol
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Morrison Family 7/20/14
by Capt Juls on 07/20/14
Dan Morrison, his wife Beth, and their two boys Brant and Zane, who are from South Dakota, met me at my house this morning at 5:45. We all jumped in the truck to head to Mazurik's to launch at 6:30. We headed up to Canadian waters to fish.
I had high hopes for the walleye fishing up there today, but it was less than stellar. Fortunately though, the Morrison family had a grand time today reeling in big giant sheephead. :)
We only caught 6 walleye today. We had started out about 4 miles east of Chickenolee on a tip from a friend who got into a mess of big ones there two days ago. We trolled NNE for a couple miles and caught 5. I decided not to turn on them and go the other direction, because I wasn't marking much other than a lot of marks that looked like nice perch. Instead, we opted to go inside, west of Mill Point, with about an hour left in their trip to see if the fish I had going there the day we got run off by a waterspout were still hanging out.
We caught one more nice walleye in there, but it was mostly sheephead....giant sheep.
It was fun having them in the boat today. Dan had fished as a co angler of mine years back during an FLW event, so I knew he was adept at setting boards out. He and I set lines while he and the rest of the family took turns reeling in fish. Their two boys, who I think were ages 8 and 10 were fantastic in the boat, and did a great job reeling in fish. Sometimes the fish won, and got off, but that's all part of fishing. They took it with a grain of salt and brushed it off to wait for the next one they could reel in.
It was a beautiful day to be on the water, even with the little rain sprinkle that happened in the morning when we first got up there. Several waterspouts tried to form, but never made it to the water. We were on the backside of the clouds, so we were never in any danger what-so-ever. The boys liked seeing that as they had never seen waterspouts before. :)
Even though we didn't catch a lot of fish...we did catch a lot of fun! And, I'm sure the memories they made will last a long time too. The boys want to come back again next year, so I'm guessing they had a great time. That's all I can ask for.
The program was the same....again....crawler harnesses. Nothing new there.
Tomorrow's trip is the rescheduled trip from this past Friday and we are headed back up to Canada for walleye and smallies. This time I plan on going further NNE from where we started this morning, and if that doesn't pan out, we will go in on the rocks, or by the helipad and fish for smallies. My crew tomorrow just likes to fish and be on the water, so no matter what the day holds, it will be a good time. I've fished with them a 1/2 dozen or so times already, so I know what to expect with them, and I'm looking forward to it.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
P.S. I forgot to mention that the youngest boy, Zane, had reeled in about a 15 pound catfish today. That was pretty awesome. :)
Perch'n With Kelly and Avery McFall 7/19/14
by Capt Juls on 07/19/14It was a wet day, but we had fun chasing down some perch this morning. Kelly and Avery McFall had walleye fished with me on my birthday back in June, and tomorrow is Kelly's birthday, so she asked to do some perch fishing, to which her husband obliged. :)
After picking up some really nice shiners from Hi Way Bait, I met my crew at Mazurik's at 5:45. We waited for a small bass tournament to launch and head out before we launched. I also wanted to wait till it got a little lighter out, because I didn't feel like making the small effort to put the running lights in. (Okay...I admit it, that was lazy, lazy, lazy!) So, we ended up launching just before 6:30.
Another Captain friend of mine was headed out perch'n too, and said he would head up towards Middle Island to check it out, while we hit Carpenter's Point on Kelly's NW corner. If he found them up there we would join him. I just didn't have the confidence in that spot to make the run up there.
We only had a couple perch at Carpenter's when I decided to pull up anchor (okay, so it's not really pulling up an anchor using the Terrova's "Spot Lock", but you get the gist)..
As I was about to put the Ranger on plane, I looked back to make sure everyone was ready, and saw my friend coming up behind us. I turned the boat around to tell him I was headed to Green, where I had gotten reports of a decent bite. He said, "Let's go".
I stopped short at the deep hole in front of Starve when I marked some fish that looked like they could have been perch, and we tried it for about 15 minutes. We didn't get bit. With the marks that were there, if they were perch we would have gotten bit. I figured they were something else, and left there, headed to Green.
When we got to green we started picking up yellows, whites, and sheephead. My friend stopped by to tell us he was headed in. He hadn't grabbed his rain gear before leaving this morning and was only wearing a short sleeve shirt. It was a constant sprinkle most of the morning, so I couldn't blame him....with the wind it was chilly. (My customers also realized the benefits of buying quality rain gear too, as their gear wasn't up to the task either, but they stuck it out like troopers).
We lost patience with Green, as the perch were far and few between the white perch bites, so we picked up and headed more towards Rattlesnake. I saw some good marks on the Humminbird and hit the "Spot Lock". I was stunned at the amount of fish on the screen and wished they had been yellow perch instead of white perch. It would have been one of those knock your socks off, up and down kind of bites, that we all hope for when perch fishing...It was disappointing to find double and triple white perch and white bass hanging on the crappie rigs....sigh
We picked up "anchor" again, and headed towards the center area between Middle Bass, South Bass, Green, and Rattlesnake. We didn't catch any yellows there, so we moved again. This time the clock was running out, so I decided to take them back in the South Passage to try and find a spot there. We stopped off near Mouse Island, but it was all sheephead. Then, we moved towards Mazurik's, but we were mid channel, so a couple miles out.
When I sat the boat down, we marked some fish. I lowered the "anchor" and then all the marks on the screen were gone. I gave it 10 minutes and said, "We're moving". I disengaged the "Spot Lock" and Avery says, "I got one!" lol
So, we stayed for a little longer, but after realizing he had caught the only yellow perch below us, we moved one last time.
The last spot we hit was less than a mile straight out of Mazurik's, and we finally found a good school of fish willing to entertain us. It figures that it would be so close to the launch after using up so much gas searching for them...ugh.
Anyway, they ended up with their 60 perch with one bonus walleye I had caught in that last spot too. woot! woot!
On a side note...I am very happy with the new "Catch Counter" cooler we used to keep count of our catch. What a nice reprieve from having to keep track, and always wondering if I had hit the counter or not. :)
Tomorrow is a trip back over to Huron for some walleye with the Morrison family from South Dakota. Dan, his wife, and two little boys are going to give it a try. Let's hope the walleye know they are supposed to cooperate tomorrow.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Dave Mattlin 7/18/14
by Capt Juls on 07/17/14Well, since the crew I originally had scheduled for today had to reschedule for Monday, I was able to fill today's slot with a repeat customer. Dave Mattlin saw my note on Facebook about the crew having to reschedule, and wanted to come back over to fish Erie again. This time he came alone though, because the last time he was here, his nephew got seasick, and his daughter took a nap up on the bow. :)
He got up at 1am to make the drive to my house from Indiana, and arrived here at 5:30 this morning. We headed back over to Huron, since my crew and I did very well there yesterday morning, and headed out of the channel at 6:30.
It's nice being one of the first boats on the water and watching the sun come up. There were two other boats in the vicinity of where I was planning on fishing, so we set down off plane, and set lines.
It was a slower start than it was yesterday, but the fish were still there. They just weren't in a mood for breakfast yet. Within the first hour and a half we were able to put 4 fish in the boat, with one of them being a piggy fish.
The white perch and white bass bite was insane and it was a constant effort to retrieve boards and re-bait hooks, but in the end it was worth the effort. Dave manage to catch his limit and then we worked on mine.
Dave lost a huge fish, but we never saw it. He said, "that fish is going to haunt me all the way home this afternoon". lol
We ended up with 10 walleye before we ran out of crawlers, and called it a day. Normally, that amount of crawlers will get me through two trips, but we fed the white species well today...ugh.
It was a beautiful day to be on the water, and we had a lot of fun, so it was a great day in my book.
Same program as yesterday...1oz 39-41 back with "Fried Chicken"/Copper Colorado blade with perch pattern beads, and double willow leaf harnesses behind #2 Tadpoles 35-50 back at 1.5mph. We fished in 25' of water both days.
Tomorrow's trip is a 6 hour perch trip with two repeat customers that went walleye fishing with me earlier this season, so I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. Did I ever tell you, "I LOVE Perch fishing"? :)
I also get to put the new "Catch Counter" to use, and hopefully, we'll be throwing a lot of perch down the hole to test it out. Fingers crossed!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Andy and Tasha Takos 7/17/14
by Capt Juls on 07/17/14It was a perfect morning...the kind that keeps us coming back for more!
I met Andy and Tasha Takos at the Walmart parking lot at 5:30 this morning, and loaded them into the truck. Once again, we headed over to Huron to launch over there. I love that launch, and the ride out the channel in the morning, because it brings back a lot of fun memories for me.
The sunrise was simply gorgeous...and, we didn't have far to go. Since I hadn't fished over there since last Saturday, a friend of mine, Duncan Wooster, had given me his latest program and spot from yesterday. Thanks Duncan!
All I will say is that it was shallower than I had been fishing over there for the past few weeks, so I was surprised by that. I'm still running crawler harnesses with the #2 Tadpoles with both single Colorado crawler harnesses and double willow leaf crawler harnesses at 1.5mph. Leads were 31-45 back and all leads took fish at some point or another this morning. I was mostly running orange/green combos and purple gold combos today.
It was just a short 4 hour charter this morning, but we got it done with about 1/2 hour to spare. Tasha caught her first fish ever, and it just so happened that it was a nice fat 28 1/2 inch walleye! What a way to get introduced to fishing, eh? I hope her expectations are not set too high now though...lol She reeled it in like a pro, because one more flippity-flop on the surface and that fish would have spit the hook! (It was barely hooked when I went to get the hook out...whew!)
Andy was doing a great job helping me set lines, even though he's never used Off Shore boards, or any inline planers for that matter, he learned very quickly. And, while his wife was reeling in the majority of the fish, he was managing to keep the lines going out while I helped her get the fish in. We were working like a well oiled machine this morning. Both of them commented on how much work it is to troll like we do, but as long as we stayed organized it went very smoothly, and we had a lot of fun with the sometimes chaotic events.
We even got to witness another waterspout this morning. This one was much bigger than the one up by Pelee last week, and stayed on the water for a long time, which is kind of unusual, but it stayed well to the north of us and we were never in any danger where we were, so we just kept fishing.
Tomorrow I am headed back up to Pelee with the same customers as last week to try for walleye and smallmouth again. I'm pretty sure there are no more waterspouts in the forecast and the weather is starting to warm up again after this cold front we just had, so it should be a fun and relaxing time.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Boreako Family 7/12/14
by Capt Juls on 07/12/14Met my crew of John and Kathy Boreako, and their son Joe at the Walmart parking lot at 5:30, so we could ride together over to Huron to launch out of there this morning.
A beautiful sunrise greeted us as we left the channel and headed out to the dumping grounds to try our luck today. Using the same program that's been working the last few times over there, they got their morning instruction on how to properly hook the crawlers, attach Off Shore inline planers to the lines, and let the boards out to their proper positions behind, and out to the sides, of the boat.
They got the hang of it pretty quick. The bite was a little slow again at the start of their trip (full moon last night might have had something to do with the slow early morning bite), but by mid morning the bite started to pick up. We ended up with 14 nice walleye for the day, and they couldn't have been happier. They told me they all had a great time, and would like to do it again sometime.
I didn't get any fish pictures of them, because when I took the fish out of the net and asked if they wanted their picture taken, they said, "No". So, we just threw them on the ice in the cooler to keep them cold.
Little Joe said he caught the most fish today, so he's the "winner" (even though he handed off the pole to Dad when we got our one big "fish-o"..I guess we'll count that though, since he brought the board in)...:)
Mom, Kathy, has a contagious laugh and kept the mood in the boat upbeat and fun, even when the bite was slow. It was funny watching her reel in a fish, because she's a lefty using a right handed reel, and she struggled a little bit, but got the fish in the net, and that's all that matters!
The weather couldn't have been nicer, and there was just enough breeze to keep the little tickle bugs off of us (for the most part anyway). We did have one bumble bee come and land on my shirt, so he could rest a bit. But, when he started climbing up my sleeve towards my neck, it was time for him to go. He left, only to return to my white shirt sleeve two more times....only to be shoo'd off a little faster each time. He finally got the hint and flew to someone else's boat. I didn't see a stinger on him, but I wasn't taking that chance. lol
Tomorrow's trip to Point Pelee for perch has been rescheduled for a day with less wind in the forecast, so we can make it there and back safely, so it looks like I have the next four days off right now. Tomorrow and Tuesday are blocked off, but I have Monday and Wednesday open this week if anyone is interested in a charter. wink wink. ;)
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Mattlin's 7/11/14
by Capt Juls on 07/11/14I picked up Dave Mattlin, his daughter, Allie, and his nephew, Conner, at 5:30 this morning at their hotel. We headed to the bait shop for a fresh load of crawlers before hitting the launch at Mazurik's. We had discussed the destination for the day and we decided to go to Huron instead of Mill Point today.
Reason being, I didn't have enough time up there to figure out whether or not there were enough walleye in the area to make the trip successful. I know there were certainly enough sheephead, but I wasn't confident there were a lot of walleye there, and since he was paying for the trip, I told him what I knew and didn't know, and let him decide what he wanted to do. He just said, "I want fish". lol
Well, I knew there were fish at Huron, so that was the plan this morning.
We launched at 6am and headed east instead of north. We were the 2nd or 3rd boat in the area I wanted to fish, so we set up on a path and set lines. It wasn't long after setting lines, that we lost Conner to seasickness, and he went up to the bow to lay down for the rest of the trip.
Within the first hour there had to be 40+ boats in the same area. I kept getting cut off from the path I wanted to take, and the contour I wanted to follow, and to make it worse...the bite was SLOW. We started to pick up a walleye here and there, and had three in the box when the chatter on the radio confirmed it was a slow bite for everyone out there. We then had 5 in the box...
Eventually, I got tired of the "dodge'm game" and got out of the pack. Most of the pack was headed to deeper water, so I moved inside of them to shallower water, and had it all to ourselves. That was nice. Then, we lost Allie to the bow, because the gentle rocking from the east wind rollers were making her sleepy.
The bite picked up for us once we were out of the pack and we ended their shortened day (kids wanted to go in) with 13 walleye with a nice Fish-O for a kicker fish. That was the one Dave was looking for. :)
After we got back, I drove them to Bay's Edge Fishing Cleaning to drop off their catch, and then back to their hotel where we said our good-byes. Dave said he wanted to come back to do it again, so that's cool. I was sure they didn't have a good time, but I was wrong....they did. I'm pretty sure I won't see Conner back here again, but you never know. Maybe next time he will take some Dramamine the night before and the morning of. That would do the trick and he would have a better time catching fish instead of suffering on the bow of the boat. (I felt so bad for him, because I've been there before...ugh!)
I'm pretty sure you can guess the program, because it hasn't changed one bit. Still harnesses behind #2 Tadpoles at 60-70 back, and 1oz inlines 70 back did the trick. I had an assortment of colors out there today, with Bugsy's Baits Blades (colorados), and Larry Lambert's double willow leaf harnesses... and, every one of them caught a fish, so it's more a depth thing than a color thing, in my opinion.
Tomorrow is another trip with the Boreako family...Joe, Lisa, and Joe Jr., so we'll be launching out of Huron and hitting the same area again.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Chapman's 7 10 14
by Capt Juls on 07/10/14Well, you all know how much I have been wanting to get up to Canada to fish.... today, I had that chance. My customers, Steve Chapman and his son, Jeremy, got their Canadian Lic this morning at the Wharf and met me at Mazurik's at 7:30. We launched by 7:40 and headed out. There was a NE roll on the lake, so even though it looked flat, we couldn't go WOT like I was wishing I could. lol
It was a beautiful morning, but I was watching a storm headed right for the area I wanted to fish on the radar. It looked like it was going more north, but when we started fishing, we could see that it was a slow mover that was not going to miss us.
We made a half a pass on Mill Point, and couldn't even get all the boards out. We caught a bunch of sheephead, and two walleye (one was a nice fat 29 incher) before we spotted the first of three waterspouts to appear. The first was on the other side of Pelee, so we kept fishing. The second however, dropped down and hit the water behind us by about a mile or a mile and a half. That one looked like it was on track to hit us if we didn't pick up and move out of the way. That one dissipated as it got further away from the island though, and the second one appeared near the same area. I think the heat over the land mass was what was causing it, and as it moved away from the island they fell apart. There was a wall of rain though that also kept us out of there. My crew didn't have any rain gear with them, so we moved south and talked about what to do next. We decided to make the run back down to the area where I was fishing yesterday. I was so bummed! I waited so long to have customers who had their Canadian Lic, so I could go up there, and then this weather happened....arrrrggh!! Phooey.
Anyhooo....
To make a long story short, because I still have to scrub the boat and cut the grass...ugh...
We ran the same program as yesterday, and picked up 9 more walleye (one short of their two man limit before we ran out of time). Jeremy was cracking me up with his whining about the sheephead and when he thought he had another one on, it turned out to be a big fat 30 inch walleye! Which, by the way, he is now having mounted, as it was the biggest walleye he's caught to date, and it was a great memory for today. :)
I'll be running back to Mill Point tomorrow with new customers (a Father and his two teenage daughters), so we'll try it again. It should be fun keeping the girls busy reeling in all the sheephead up there. But, I'm confident there are some big walleye up there too.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Slaughter Brothers 7/9/14
by Capt Juls on 07/09/14Kenny Slaughter and his younger brother, Stas, met me at my house this morning at 6:15am. Since they were driving in from the west, we would ride together over to Huron to launch.
After this rain and wind we just had I wasn't sure if those fish that were over there last week would still be there. The steam in the smoke stacks was bent over from a SE wind when we left the channel, so I headed to my numbers from last Thursday and set up short of them to set lines.
It wasn't long before two fish were on at the same time, really good fish that took the boards way back, but we lost both of them before we could see if they were walleye or sheephead. (But, we all know sheephead never come off...lol)
A few more minutes passed and we had our first eater walleye in the boat. So, I started feeling pretty confident that the fish were still there. A little while later Stas caught a Fish-Ohio and Kenny caught another eater walleye. We picked up lines to go make another pass, and by this time the winds were going a little more westerly, so I adjusted my pass to stay on a 40' break, where we seemed to be catching the most fish.
By the end of their 6 hours, we had their 12 fish, with the biggest one measuring 30 inches. Woot! Woot!
#2 Tadpoles 65-70 back with both double willow leaf harnesses and single #5 and #6 colorado harnesses were very productive today, and a 1oz inline 70 back with gold and orange beads and a #6 gold blade did a lot of damage today too. Speed was 1.5 today.
By the chatter on the radio, it was a slow bite for a lot of folks, so I guess we got lucky. We had an absolute blast today!
I'll be taking my regular customers (same guys I had in Huron last Thursday) up to Canadian waters tomorrow to fish the east side of Pelee for walleye and bass. I hope we get into them up there too. :)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Perch'n with the Sulchecki Boys 7 6 14
by Capt Juls on 07/06/14It was just a short 4 hour trip this morning, for perch. The forecast was calling for SW winds... building as the day went on. The perch reports were decent between Kelly's and the mainland, so we launched out of Mazurik's at 6:30am to try and locate some.
The first spot was slow, but we did catch one there (and, and catfish...meow!). We picked up and moved over in front of Lakeside, and the bite was decent, and then it slowed way down. We moved again towards the light house, but didn't catch any over there, and moved one last time towards the mid channel on the SE corner of Kelly's.
In that last spot, I noticed a strange current running through there, and it was making it difficult to keep the baits where we wanted them. The Terrova's Spot Lock was doing it's job, but the current was messing with the presentation, so we moved back to in front of Lakeside, where we caught the bulk of our catch today.
After we got back there, a lot of the boats were picking up and moving north to deeper water.... and, that strange current was now over in the area we had previously fished. It wasn't doing that this morning, and I'm wondering if that isn't what suddenly shut them off earlier? Maybe the fish moved deeper to move out of that strange current that was going against the natural flow of the lake, I don't know...it's just a guess.
We ended up with only 38, which isn't gang busters, but they caught enough for their fish fry with other family members tonight, so they were happy. They want to come back next year for a walleye trip. :)
Looks like the forecast for tomorrow is a "blow day", so my next trip is scheduled for Wednesday (walleye)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
.TONIGHT...SOUTHWEST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS LIKELY LATE. WAVES 1 TO 3 FEET BUILDING TO 2 TO 4 FEET. .MONDAY...SOUTHWEST WINDS 15 TO 25 KNOTS. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS LIKELY. WAVES 3 TO 5 FEET. .MONDAY NIGHT...WEST WINDS 10 TO 20 KNOTS BECOMING SOUTHWEST AND DIMINISHING TO 5 TO 10 KNOTS. WAVES 2 TO 4 FEET SUBSIDING TO 1 TO 3 FEET.
Change of plans today...
by Capt Juls on 07/03/14Since my clients for today are local, we are opting for better conditions and rescheduling their walleye trip.
Today:
Cold front, WNW winds, showers, and I'm told a mayfly hatch in Huron last night....not the best conditions.
So, if you're fishing today, you're welcome! Since we rescheduled, I'm sure it will be sunny, warm, and waves 2 foot or less. ;)
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Family Chapman...7/2/14
by Capt Juls on 07/02/14What a fun day on the water today! First, I want to say thanks to Jason Pelz and Matt Sell for their help in giving me a starting point, or an area. Again, since it wasn't my info, I was asked not to blog it. All I can say is that I launched out of Huron today and fished 35-40 foot of water.
The fish to the west of the islands are just too scattered and small for my liking, and there are better fish to the North in Canada and to the east of Kelly's. As much as I like fishing Canada, I just can't seem to get people to pay the 22 bucks to go fish up there with me this season...sigh. I don't get it.
Anyhoo....
We ran 1oz inline 41-60 back and #2 Tadpoles 45-65 back. 65 back was the ticket today. The trusty bottom bouncer produced mostly sheephead, but did catch one big walleye today. Speed was 1.5-1.6 mph.
We caught their two man limit with four of them being Fish-Ohio's..woot! woot! :)
Gold blades were hot today along with orange and gold beads. My Pink Lemonade harness always produces and the blade had the shiny pink underbelly with a black topside with pink dots. We ran both double willow leaf harnesses and single #5 and #6 Colorado blade harnesses. At some point, every harness got hit.
The winds were out of the Southwest at 10-15, and it blew a little harder in the early afternoon after a rain cloud cooled us off a little bit with a shower.
Steve Chapman and his son, Jeremy, were happy happy happy with their catch today, and will be back a few more times this month to hit the water again. Jeremy said, "I think my fish today was the biggest walleye I've ever caught", so that was cool. :)
Steve's brother (who has fished with me before) was on the phone on our way in, and said he wants to book another trip very soon too. I can't ask for more than that!
Tomorrow is another trip out of Huron with the folks I perch fished with this past Sunday, and now they want some walleye, so I'm hoping those fish stick around for another day.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Perch'n 6/29/14 with Jim Gammons and Chris and Kristi Claybaugh
by Capt Juls on 06/29/14I had planned on meeting my crew at Catawba this morning, but with the SSW winds blowing waves into the ramp, I thought it would be better to use Mazurik's, so there was no chance of scratching the boat on the dock or the wall at Catawba. (Yes, I'm that anal about it!)
They agreed to meet me at Mazurik's instead. :)
I got there early, since I wanted to spray wax and wipe the boat down before the customers arrived, because I didn't get to it the night before. As I was working, someone pulled up and I hear a familiar voice say, "I arrived at Mazurik's at 5:45....still waiting on my crew"...lol A friend of mine, John Gremore, was mimicking my articles...with a smile.
Just about the time I finished cleaning the boat, Jim arrived and we waited for Chris and Kristi, who showed up about 10 minutes later. We hit the water at 7am and headed out to do some perch fishing.
I hadn't been in a while, and could only guess on where to go, since no one had a good report for me at the baitshops or on the marine radio...sigh.
I headed to the area between Sugar Island and North Bass, where I had seen some good marks that looked like perch on the sonar a few days before.
We caught a few there, but it was mostly sheephead and white perch.
We moved over the red channel marker on the north side of North Bass and tried it again. This time there were some yellow perch, and bigger ones too, but it was slow. Not a lot of junk fish up there either.
After another move over to the green can at Lucy's Point, we set up in 41 foot of water off the can and proceeded to catch more yellows. But, just when we would think they were going to turn on and get to the "up and down" stage...they stopped biting. Then, they would show up again...then, stop again. Very frustrating...grrrrr
We ended up with 60...a mixed bag of little ones and really nice ones. But, they will have some nice fish fries with those fish. Just wish we could have found a big enough school to hit the 120 count. Oh well, it was still a fabulous day on the water with really fun people, so it was a successful day in my book.
We made it in just before the rain too!
This crew will be back out with me on Thursday for a walleye trip, so I'm really looking forward to that. :)
Tomorrow, it's back to walleye fishing with some repeat customers from last year. They scheduled Monday and Tuesday, but I'm not so sure the forecast for Tuesday will let us fish, or not.
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing 6/28/14 with Raymond Stintson and his Friend Ed...:)
by Capt Juls on 06/28/14I left the house at 5am this morning, even though I wasn't meeting my crew at Mazurik's until 6:45, because I had to gas up the boat, grab some worms and ice from Hi Way Bait, and wanted to re-rig some rods at Mazurik's while I waited for them.
However, I ran into other fishermen at the gas station, and at the baitshop, and of course, we talked fishing, so my time was running out. I did manage to get everything re-rigged and launched by 7am though. Woot! Woot!
I changed things up and didn't want to go back to the west side of North Bass, because it's the weekend, and I figured it would be packed up there. My crew from the other day were still in town and decided to go back up there, rather than search out a new area, so I kept tabs on what was happening up there. They said it started out slow, but when I called them at noon, they had 20 in the box and had 4 more to go. Nice....:)
I, on the other hand, opted to go east between Kelly's and Vermilion.
Mornings like this though, I wished it was cloudy, as the sun was blinding me going that direction. I'm sorry, but since someone else gave me the numbers, and asked that I not publish the area in my blog, I have to respect their wishes.
What I can tell you, is that I was trolling with the double willow leaf harnesses that Larry Lambert made up for me last year behind #2 Tadpoles and Off Shore boards 60-90 back. 60 and 65 were the best, if I remember correctly.
I also had my trusty bottom bouncer off the corner, but switched out the 4oz weight for the 6oz weight, and used a single blade crawler harness. My speed was kept between 1.5-1.7mph. (The BB caught 3 walleye)
I was forced to do a lot of turning, due to the amount of boats in the area, and all the fish told me was that some liked it faster and some liked it slower...they hit on both sides of turn...lol
We had their two man limit with in 2 1/2 hours. I would have said three, but it took a 1/2 hour to get there. There were a few small ones in the mix, but most were really nice chunky eaters...along with one nice piggy.
I had a fun day with Ray Stintsman and his friend Ed this morning. Lots of fun with Ed, but Ray was like that big brother that purposely does stuff to irritate you and get a rise out of you until you want to yell, "Mommmmmmmm! Make him STOP!!" lol But, it was all in fun, and we got the job done. That's all that matters. :)
Tomorrow is going to be another fun day, because I finally get to go Perch fishing again, and this time with a good friend, and his two friends. Looking forward to it.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
"How Many More Minutes?"....:)
by Capt Juls on 06/27/14Today I took Patrick Young and his 7 year old daughter, Ava, and his 5 year old son, Cooper, out fishing today.
We planned on 4 hours and would see how it went from there. I didn't expect the kids to like trolling and thought they would get bored, but Dad made sure they were always part of everything we were doing. Patrick and I set the lines, but the kids would hand us night crawlers to bait the harnesses with. It was slow in the morning up on the west side of North Bass for walleye, but the giant sheephead were plentiful.
When we would get a fish on Patrick would help the kids by holding the rod while they reeled the fish in...and, I net it.
My crew from yesterday were up there too and they said they were having a slow morning too. It picked up for them and they radioed to tell me to get back to where we were yesterday, and that they were picking them up at a faster pace now. They mentioned that they had downsized their blades, and were using #4 colorado blades, so I downsized mine to #5 Bugsy's Bait blades and started picking up walleye.
Ava and Cooper both caught their first ever walleye today...yay!
When four hours were up, I asked Patrick if he thought they wanted to go another hour. He asked the kids and they both said yes...kind of reluctantly, because...well, they are little kids and trolling for them is kind of boring. lol
At the end of the 5th hour, Ava kept asking, "How many more minutes?" She was ready to go in. But, it was shortly after the 10th or 11th time of asking, that the Off Shore board on the port side went back....we all thought it was another monster sheephead and didn't realize it was a monster walleye until it hit the surface.
After the fish was in the live well, she asked, "was that another sheephead?" Her dad explained that it was a walleye bigger than he's ever caught, and you should have seen her smile. With the option of fishing for a 6th hour on the table, Patrick asked the kids if the wanted to keep fishing or go in. Ava was the first to say, "Yes! Let's go another hour". LOL
The kids kept busy by playing with the night crawlers in the wash bucket, and eating and drinking all kinds of things their Mom had packed for them. They did an awesome job for their young ages today, and it was a real pleasure having them in my boat today. They were very well behaved and reeled in all but a few fish. Patrick had his turn every now and then too. :)
We were only running two boards per side and one bottom bouncer off the corner simply to keep it easy and simple for my crew, and it worked out well. We finished the day with 13 Walleye, one catfish (they kept it), and a 12 inch perch that hit a harness up high in the water column.
Patrick is a chef, so I can only imagine how many yummy dinners their family will enjoy from their catch today.
I have a crew of three tomorrow, but will be heading east of the islands this time. It's time to find new area, I think.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing 6/26/14 with Cliff and Jeff Mattson, Mike Sr., & Mike Jr...:)
by Capt Juls on 06/26/14First, let me say, "What an AWESOME day"!
Not because the fishing was on fire, but because my crew was absolutely outstanding!
They arrived in Port Clinton this morning at 3:30, after traveling all night. I get up at 3:30...lol
They were traveling in a 40' RV with their boat towed behind it. Cliff and Mike Sr. would be fishing out of his boat, and I would take their two sons, Jeff and Mike Jr.
I went over the program with the Cliff and Mike, so they knew what to use and told them just to follow me. Launching their boat behind that beast of an RV was a challenge at Catawba State Park, due to the funny angle of the launch and the massive room it needs to maneuver, but they did it! Luckily, the launch wasn't too busy when we got there. Whew!
We started out by Rattle Snake Island and worked the inside area between the islands....not good. We picked up one, and the other boat picked up two there, I think.
We picked up lines and headed up to the west side of North Bass and trolled a pass I made the other day, and picked up a fish right away. The other boat radioed that they had just picked up a hog, and were delighted.
We worked that area east of the pack and ended up with a total of 9 walleye in my boat and 9 or 10 walleye in the other boat. So, like I said, it wasn't a great bite...and, it seemed to die off around 11am when the wind disappeared and the sun was high in the sky.
Same program...#2 Tadpoles 27-35 back and 1oz inlines 41-63 back. Speed was 1.5-1.8 with the current and 1.4-1.6 against the current, so not much of a difference there.
The reason I said my crew was outstanding is, because even though they were working on no sleep at all, I only had to show these guys once how to rig the crawlers and set lines. They had it after that like they had been doing it all their lives. These guys are good fishermen, and fish Lake Michigan for Salmon quite often, but didn't do the walleye thing very often.
They will be fishing out of their boat the rest of the weekend, and I have no doubt what-so-ever that they will be successful.
I marked a map for them, showing them where the walleye and perch spots were that I thought would produce for them, so I hope it pans out for them. I have a feeling though, that I will see them tomorrow in the same spot, since there's no reason to leave fish to find fish, right? :)
It was a really fun day for me, and it was nice spending the day with some folks from my home state of Wisconsin!
Good luck tomorrow guys! See you out there!
Capt Juls
To Answer a Question that was submitted tonight....Perch fishing...
by Capt Juls on 06/25/14
Hey Capt Juls!Since u have a little free time(lol).I have a couple ?s,if u dont
mind.What are ur favorite months to perch fish?Can u catch the same quality
perch on the U.S. side,as I have heard about the jumbos around Pelee Island?
Thanks.Good luck on ur next adventure!!!
My favorite months to perch fish are.........All of them! lol
Quality on this side is a smaller grade than Canada on average. I prefer the 8-10 inchers myself....two to three bite fillets. :)
I heard they are getting some nice jumbo perch up around Sheridan Point right now. However, I can't confirm it from personal experience yet.
I've marked perch around the islands while doing walleye charters in the hopes that they are still there when I do get to go perch'n. This Sunday is a perch trip, so I'll let you know if my waypoints pan out, or not. ;)
Sorry I don't have more info yet. Everyone wants to walleye fish right now. I'm dying to go perch'n!! LOVE IT!!!
Wednesday's Trip has been rescheduled now too...
by Capt Juls on 06/24/14I was supposed to have a short 4 hour trip tomorrow (Wednesday 6/23) with a father and young son, but after today's thunderstorms, and a chance for more storms tomorrow, he contacted me and asked if they could reschedule.
So, It looks like I have another day off to get more stuff done at home. My dogs will be happy about that. :)
I also have to tie up some more crawler harnesses, since this past week was a crawler harnesses destroying mission. lol
The next trip is Thursday...stay tuned!
Capt Juls
Day Two with Denny, Dave, and Blake 6/23/14
by Capt Juls on 06/23/14It was another nice morning to go fishing today. The winds were light and variable at 6am when we launched from Catawba, and the waves were calm. We headed up to the west side of Middle Bass, where I had been having success with other charters this past week, but I didn't want to fish there yesterday, with all the Put-in-Bay pleasure boat traffic happening.
We weren't having the bite I had hoped for, (only caught two there and a mess of big sheephead), so we moved up to the west side of North Bass to troll from the north side of West Reef up to the Red Buoy up on the line.We were fishing 32' of water with crawler harnesses behind 1oz inlines 35-45' back and the #2 Tadpoles 27-35 back. Same colors as yesterday. We managed to get 6 more nice walleye up there, and missed a couple. One was a nice "Fish-O" too.
We ended the 6 hour trip with only 8 today, but the guys expressed how much fun they had the past two days, so that made me happy. :)
When I got home I cleaned up the boat and got the grass cut just in time for some storms to move through the area. I hope everyone was off the lake, because winds of 50-60mph were reported with these storms...ugh.
Tomorrow's trip has been rescheduled by the customer for July 2nd, because of a 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms in the forecast, so it looks like I have a day off tomorrow to catch up on some things around here.
So, long story short...I'll be back at it again on Wednesday...stay tuned!
Capt Juls
