Juls WFA Blog
Perch'n with the Chapman's 8/25/14
by Capt Juls on 08/25/14Today I fished with Steve Chapman, who is one of my regular customers, and his wife Cathy. Normally, he fishes with his son, Jeremy, so this was the first time I got to meet Cathy. What a great gal she is too. We had a lot of laughs at Steve's expense today. Sorry Steve! :)
We launched out of Mazurik's at 8:15(ish) and headed out to the NE corner of Gull Island Shoal. Two days ago, my other customers and I got into a good mess of bigger perch out there, so we thought we would start there first.
Well, although there were a few large perch caught there, it wasn't fast by any means, and we went through a lot of giant sheephead to get a handful of perch. I didn't want to waste that many minnows on Sheep.
I decided it was time to move a little to try and locate a bigger school of perch rather than sheep. Our second spot wasn't much better, so we moved to the west side of the shoal this time. The first spot on the west side was the same results...lots of sheep, so we picked up and started to head to Lucy's. About 1/2 way to the can at Lucy's I saw that the water was getting dirtier as we went west, so I set the Ranger down off plane to figure out where I wanted to go next.
I looked at my waypoints from last season, and chose one. I set the "go to" on the Humminbird and got back on plane. For some lucky reason, I happened to look down at the sonar at the right time and saw some good marks, so I slowed down and checked it out. The marks were unreal, and just what I had been looking for! Setting the "Spot Lock" on the Terrova (anchor), we got busy and again caught sheephead....sigh....#%@$%!!!
But, just when I was about to say, "Let's move again", Steve caught a nice fatty perch, so I kept my mouth shut and gave it some time. It's a good thing we did, because it just got better and better the longer we stayed (which is usually how it works, when you have enough patience).
Since I will not be perch fishing for a while, and those fish will probably not be there when I can get back over to them, I'm going to share my numbers with you all, because there were bunches of them, and I want everyone to have as much fun as we did today...:)
N41.40.557 W082.43.572
After 6 hours we ended with their two person limit of 60 perch that weighed in at 24 pounds. (.4# per fish average).
Cathy caught a huge legitimate 14 inch perch today. I measured it on "The Judge" ruler, so it's as accurate as can be.
She was just getting over some seasickness and Steve convinced her to start fishing again...her second fish was this monster! When she pulled it in she asked, "Is this a perch?" And, I said, "That's not a perch, that's a freak'n Peacock Bass!" lol I explained to her what she had just caught, and how it's not that common to get them that big. She had caught a "Fish-Ohio" perch. Nice!
Anyhooo....it was a great day on the water. It was a gorgeous day out there and the heat and humidity was not a factor out there. It was just beautiful...I didn't want to come in, but it was time.
I don't have anything scheduled until Thursday, unless I get a trip before then, and that one is a walleye trip, so I won't be out perch'n again for a while.
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Perch'n with the Wailands 8/23/14
by Capt Juls on 08/23/14Joe and Lisa Wailand might be familiar names to those who follow my blog. They fished with me back in May for walleye. They are a really fun, and down to earth couple who anyone would be lucky to share a boat with on any day.
After getting some really nice sized shiners from Hi Way Bait this morning, we launched at Mazurik's a little before 7am. I decided we would be headed to the NE corner of Gull Island Shoal to try for some bigger perch than what I have been getting west of the islands this past week, and it didn't disappoint.
We started in one spot, but it was mostly sheep, so I moved about a 1/4 mile west towards the tip of the shoal. I marked some good fish, and set the "Spot Lock" on the Terrova (anchor).
It took a little while before they showed up in good numbers, and it was never an "up and down" situation, but they were steady enough, and the size was big enough to keep us up there. Every time I thought about moving, someone would catch a nice perch, so we just stayed.
It took 5 1/2 hours but we managed to get 90 perch that would weigh in at 32 pounds for an average of .35 pounds per fish. I was happy, and the crew was happy. The weather was perfect, and we had a lot of fun (Joe is a really funny guy, as in "Ha ha!" funny). It doesn't get any better than that....does it?
Since they met me at my house this morning, and we drove together, I dropped the fish off at Bay's Edge to be cleaned, and we went to Casa Las Palmas for lunch while we waited for the perch. After lunch, we picked up the fish and headed back to my house where we said our good byes. They said they planned on coming back in the spring for more walleye action...:)
Tomorrow's trip was rescheduled unexpectedly by the customer, so it looks like I have another day off. The next trip is Monday...for walleye.
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Perch'n 8/21/14
by Capt Juls on 08/21/14My crew met me at my house at 8am this morning. We drove out to Hi Way Bait for shiners and ice, and hit Mazurik's at 8:30. We launched at 8:45 and headed up to the spot near "Taco Bell", where I had fished with another crew on Tuesday. The bite was a bit slower than it was Tuesday and the grade of perch was just a tad smaller.
We had 80 in the "Catch Counter", when I said, "We need to go...the sky is not looking good. We can fish an area near Mazurik's for the last ten, so if we need to get off the water quick, we can". They agreed and we went for a boat ride.
The lake was pretty flat when we left, so we were able to go faster than the norm around here, and it cooled everyone off. It was getting pretty hot out there. The humidity was bad too. Still I'm sure it was a lot cooler out there than it was for the folks who had to spend the day on land.
As we cleared the islands and headed south towards Mazurik's, the gray skies were opening up and dumping rain. I didn't see any lightning anywhere, so I wasn't worried about getting a little wet...which never happened. Had we left just 5 minutes later, we would have had to drive through the rain, but the timing was perfect. In fact, when we got in the south passage, the wind kicked up too, and was putting white caps on the lake (off shore SW wind). Had we stayed way out there, it would have taken longer to get in due to rougher wave conditions. Whew! I like it when I 'm right. :)
Anyhoo....we set up on some numbers I fished back on the 17th, and they caught 6 of the 10 they needed. Then, we ran out of time, and we headed back in.
They had a good time and went home with some nice perch for many dinners. We kept fish from 7-11 inches, but most of the ones we kept were 8-9's. We had a lot of throw backs, but there really was very little junk to deal with today. The green algae moved in around 1pm and the bite seemed to slow at around 1:30 (when I decided it was a good time to leave.)
The radio chit-chat revealed that there was a similar bite on the SW side of Green today and also at G can. I didn't hear how anyone did at the Catawba Green Can...sorry.
Tomorrow's charter has been rescheduled by the customer, due to the weather forecast calling for "likely" storms between 10 & 2.
The next charter will be another perch trip on Saturday.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Super Fun Perch Trip This Morning...8/19/14
by Capt Juls on 08/19/14I have fished with the Boreako family once before. I took them walleye fishing out of Huron back in July. This time though, Big John wasn't able to go (work), so he sent Cathy, Joe, and his oldest son Matt with me to go perch'n this morning.
This was Matt's first time in the Ranger, and he liked it. Today was one of those days where the lake conditions allowed us to go faster than usual, so it was a fun ride.
We met at Catawba ramp this morning at 6:45 and hit the water. We went up to "Taco Bell" and started fishing at around 7:15 in 33 foot of water. The shiners from Hi Way Bait this morning were a good mix of larger and smaller ones, so the large ones we split in half. We were using two hook crappie rigs instead of spreaders.
My crew had a lot of fun catching perch this morning, and the banter between Mother and Sons was pretty humorous.
We caught 120 perch in the 8-12 inch range with probably twice that many in throw backs and white perch. There was probably close to 30 seagulls taking advantage of the poor fate of the white perch, and were fed well. As always they were entertaining in their silly antics towards each other when a fish was thrown their way.
We finished up with our limit in 3 1/2 hours and headed back in. The timing was perfect since they had only set up a 4 hour trip this morning. :)
The weather was perfect with a 5-8 mph SE wind, partly cloudy skies, and temps in the 70's. It really doesn't get any better than that!
Thunderstorms should be here this afternoon around 3pm, so I'm glad it was a short trip and the boat is clean and back under her carport for the night.
I'm off tomorrow, but will be fishing Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
Looks like Thursday is a 6 hour Perch trip and the rest of them are walleye trips. I'm thinking of hitting Huron again this weekend, since I haven't been there since before my vacation a couple weeks ago. If Huron is a bust, it's not that far to the weather buoy from there if the conditions allow the ride out there in a timely fashion.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Short Perch Trip Today...
by Capt Juls on 08/17/14
My crew of John Schmittroth and his gal, Betty, had scheduled a later start time this morning when he booked the trip, which was a good thing since we had rain showers this morning.
I was up at my usual time of 3:30, because sleeping in just doesn't seem to work for me. at 5am I loaded the dogs in the car and drove through a downpour over to Hi Way Bait to get some shiners, because I wasn't sure if they would run out later this morning and I wanted to make sure that I had some for today's trip.
I picked my customers up at their hotel at 9am and they followed me out to Mazurik's, where we launched at 9:30. They wanted a 4 hour trip. So, to give them more fishing time, I decided with an east wind that it would be best to fish the south passage. We set up just a mile or so NE of the launch and started fishing.
Betty has never perch fished before, and needed help learning how to use a spinning reel, feeling the bottom, setting the hook, etc. She had a bite as soon as it hit bottom, but she didn't feel it. The entire tip of the rod was vibrating with the tell tale sign, so I knew this would be challenging for her.
I cut her shiners in half and showed her how to bait the hooks, which she did on her own after that. When I thought she was getting the hang of it, then I started fishing too.
John caught the first perch and threw it down the "Catch Counter" chute to start it off...and, we started adding them at a slow pick in between the white perch bites. We had many seagulls entertaining us while waiting for me to bonk a white perch on the head and feed them. I even had the seagulls taking the white perch out of my hand. (I'm waiting on the pictures John took of that and will post in my photo album as soon as I have them). John was teasing a seagull with a perch he caught that was still on his line outside the boat and the seagull snatched it! Ha! That was funny!
Betty put her rod down, because she was getting nauseous from not looking up enough, and told us to keep fishing. As the day went on she started feeling a little better, but John decided to cut the trip short to only two hours, so she could go back in. They had a fun weekend, and were ready to go back home to Michigan anyway, so we packed it up with 22 perch in the cooler and headed in.
I drove over to Bay's Edge to drop off their fish for them, so they could hit RT2 easily after they picked up their fish.
Despite the shortened trip, it was a very fun morning.
Tomorrow's trip has been rescheduled to next Monday. It's one of my favorite regulars and I know he likes better conditions, so hopefully, next Monday will be a better wind direction, and no rain for his trip. :)
Tuesday is another 4 hour perch trip, but I think we'll be launching out of Catawba and heading north to the west of the islands this time.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Novacek's 8/16/14
by Capt Juls on 08/16/14
Day two of fishing with the Novacek's was "one of those days". We caught a walleye while setting the first lines out (north side of kelly's) and then......nothing. It was only a four hour trip, because they had to head back to MN today, so that's all they caught. :(
From what I heard on the radio, the charters were struggling this morning too.
It felt just a like a tournament when you get a fish right away and you think, "This is going to be a good day", and then the bubble bursts. lol
Anyway, they had a good time the past two days, and Adam is the fella buying my boat, so he was happy to get to drive the boat and learn the operation of everything today. He'll be back the first weekend in October to pick her up and take her home. :)
So, no good report today guys and gals...sorry!! It happens...sigh
Tomorrow is a 4 hour perch trip, and my crew wants to go out at 9:30am, so we'll be fishing in the south passage around Mazurik's, Kelly's, and the lighthouse to give them more time fishing, and to get off the water quick if a thunderstorm happens to show up before we are done.
Stay tuned........
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Novacek's 8/15/14
by Capt Juls on 08/15/14
Yesterday was a blow day....told my crew to hold off driving in by one day.
Since they couldn't get into their hotel yet, and nothing was open, I told them I would have breakfast waiting for them. We had scrambled eggs, fried taters, bacon, and toast.
After everyone was fed and the dishes were done, we waited for it to start getting lighter out. We stopped for gas, ice, and minnows at Hi Way Bait before heading to Mazurik's to launch.
We launched at 6:30 and headed to the area up on the line between Middle and Gull to look for some walleye. I felt out of sorts since I had not been on the water since the last week of July where I had been fishing over in Huron, and just hoped I could mark something on the H'Birds.
Well, the walleye marks weren't there, so we headed to a perch spot out that way, and managed to pick at them until we had 65 perch (went 22 pounds), and that bite died. Then, we decided to try our hand at walleye fishing.
While Adam is an angler who fishes the co angler side of the FLW, his brother and Dad had never fished with Off Shore planer boards before. So, after a quick lesson we were fishing. We had a double on and both came off...we had another double on and got those two in the boat. One was an eater and the other was a Fish-O (28 1/2"). We caught one more, and then I was called on the radio to go over by Mike Johnson who runs Reel Sport Fishing Charters (his spot, so I can reveal it without his permission, but if you were on the water today you would have heard it on the radio). We caught one more over there, and that was it before their trip ended.
We caught one real nice smallmouth bass on Gull, and a bunch of huge sheephead too.
Sorry this is so short, but it's been a long day and the dogs are busting my chops to go for their walk!
I'll be out again tomorrow with the same crew, so stay tuned!
Capt Juls
I'll Be Back to Work Fishing Again 8/14...
by Capt Juls on 08/12/14Vacation time is over and it's back to fishing the big pond chasing walleye and perch.
I have a three day charter starting this coming Thursday (8/14-16). A four hour perch trip on Thursday, an 8 hour walleye trip on Friday, and another 4 hour trip on Saturday...probably perch again.
Then, I have a 4 hour walleye trip on Sunday and a 6 hour walleye charter on Monday.
It's going to be a busy weekend around here, but I'll keep you posted as best I can.
Stay tuned....:)
Capt Juls
My Canadian Fly In Vacation Blog...See Photo Album for Pics!
by Capt Juls on 08/12/14
What an incredible vacation. The fishing was awesome and better than I expected. It went by way to fast though. For those of you who have time on your hands, I kept a journal of the experience there.
Read it or don't...in a nutshell, it was a fantastic trip!
The night we left:
We left Thursday night, July 31st, at 10pm and drove straight through to Nakina, ON, which is about a 16 hour drive. I drove up with Frank, Bill, and Steve in Frank's brand new super cab F150...(Nice truck!) We arrived in Nakina at around 2pm.
We saw a black bear and one young cow moose on the way up, but that was it for furry creatures.
We stayed at the 584 B & B, where our hosts Rayleen and Larry graciously entertained us at their home. We had cocktails on the deck, and then Larry fried up the most amazing walleye dinner, along with Rayleen's pasta, potato, and coleslaw salads. It was delicious!
By 6pm we were all whooped and went to bed early. Of course, I was the first one up, since my normal sleep schedule is to bed at 8pm and up at 3:30 to run charters. After a much needed shower, I went outside to get some "dog love" from their German Shepard "Chloe". (I was missing my dogs already). She's a very friendly girl who really liked getting her ears scratched.
By 5am everyone else was up and moving around. We went upstairs for breakfast where we enjoyed some morning coffee with Bailey's, toast with homemade blueberry preserves, and other breakfast treats...continental style.
At 5:50 we said our Thank yous and goodbyes, and headed to the tiny airport located on the water's edge of a pristine lake. When we arrived, there were other groups loading to fly on one of the two Otter planes taking them to Meta Lake Lodge. Bill took a seat on that plane, while Frank, Steve, and I waited for the next one to come back for us.
It was an exciting wait for me, as I have never done a fly in before and couldn't wait to get in the air to see the Canadian landscape dotted with a gazillion lakes surrounded by pine forests. As we waited the sun was rising above the pines on the other side of the lake. It was beautiful. The air is so clean up there that everything seems magnetized.
After an hour wait, our plane came back to get us. After unloading the folks who were done with their trip, we loaded our gear on the plane. I was given the co-pilot's seat for the best views, and took advantage of it by taking a lot of pictures and videos of the awesome scenery. 25 minutes later we landed on Meta Lake, and got the first view of our camp for the next week. I LIKED it!!
The camp is made up of rustic cabins, a fish house, and a main lodge. The boats we would be fishing out of are beautiful wooden boats powered with little 15hp motors that shimmered like gold along the docks.
After getting a breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage (served buffet style) in the lodge, we got busy putting our things in our cabin and the boat. Bill and Frank would be fishing together all week, as would Steve and I.
Saturday August 2nd…our first official day of fishing on Meta and Ara Lakes.
We motored from Meta Lake over to Ara Lake via a channel where we were going to troll and cast for Pike. Steve, having been there many times before, took us to all his favorite honey holes from the past trips there. He set me up with a Dare Devil spoon to try first. It didn't take long for Steve to hook up with the first Northern of the trip. The second one was a nice fat 32 inch pike.
I wouldn’t get one until we stopped by one of the islands to cast for them. My first cast with a #5 Gold bladed Mepp’s Bucktail spinner produced a nice 30 incher. My second cast caught one about 28 inches. All in all the first day we caught about 2 dozen pike and 5 walleye trolling spoons and casting Mepp’s and Silver Minnows. At some point on day one, I spied a copper colored spoon hanging on Steve’s end of the boat. He said he’s never used it. I asked, “Can I use it please? Copper colors work great in copper stained waters”. It started catching fish right away, and I was happy.
The day was beautiful weather-wise…70 degrees, partly sunny, and mostly calm. The wind picked up out of the south at around 4pm and made the ride in a little bumpy. After we were back at the cabin it began to rain. We enjoyed cocktails and shared stories before heading up to the main lodge for a scrumptious dinner of garlic-herbed chicken, mashed potatoes, and buttered carrots w/sautéed onions…YUM!
We were all still very tired from the ride up there, and then fishing all day, we retired to our respective beds at 8pm.
Sunday August 3rd…Day 2:
Well, it’s 3:30 in the morning, and there are mice making all kinds of racket in the walls. It’s my usual time to get up, so I get out of bed to put the coffee on….and, do nothing. There is no TV, internet, reading material, or any other technological devices to occupy my brain, so I listen to the quiet for a while and spy a notepad on the shelf. I decided to start keeping a blog about this trip to help occupy the time. I get an hour and a half each morning to myself before the other two even think about getting out of bed. Ahhhhh…..I LOVE it!
At 4am it is calm outside…no wind at all. It sounds like every Loon on the lake has something to say. From one end of the lake to the other, it’s a “song dance”…how fantastic! I feel privileged to have been awake to hear them.
Steve and Frank finally climb out of bed around 5am and have coffee. I shower and we head up to the lodge for breakfast at 7am. This morning we are having French toast with sausage. By 7:30 we are headed out on the water to spend the day fishing for pike again.
We drive the boat over to Ara Lake again, but instead of heading north when we got there, we headed south this time. Steve said there was a mid lake hump that he liked to check out when he was here, so we started there. After locating the hump we dropped a marker on the top of it in 7’ of water. The sides dropped off of it into 20’ of water. The stone hump runs east and west and is about 50’ long. We caught several Northerns there along with a few walleye. We trolled it and cast it and both presentations caught fish.
Next, we went further south into a bay at the end of the lake. The bay has three small islands in the entrance to it. We trolled around the islands first, and picked up both walleye and pike. Moving further south into the bay, we spied some pelicans setting on some rocks and trolled towards them. Frank and Bill were trolling back there too, and we would wave every time they passed us.
After leaving the bay with numerous fish caught we went back to the hump out in the middle of the lake, marked it again, and made a few more passes. This time the wind was blowing though and it seemed they only wanted the baits presented from a N/S-S/N direction. We wouldn’t get anything on an E/W or W/E trolling pass.
Next we went to a trolling spot where Steve caught a big 41” northern last year. It was near a camp that looks to be closed down for the season. (I guess they didn’t get enough business to stay operating…shame too, because it looked like a nice facility and the location was excellent). We made two passes there and didn’t even get a bump, so we moved into the channel connecting the two lakes and started trolling in there in a zig-zag pattern, back and forth, concentrating on spots that had cabbage weeds in the 8-12’ depth range.
We caught many walleye in the channel, and a couple of “hammer handles”, but I think it mostly holds walleye in there.
We finished off the day’s fishing with a troll along the island out around the corner from the camp. We picked up 2 little pike there and headed in for cocktails before dinner.
Dinner was at 6pm again and tonight we had meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, and Ohio sweet corn on the cob that another group had brought up with them, and kindly shared it with the rest of us. It was delicious.
Monday August 4th…Day 3:
After a breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns, and toast of homemade bread and blackberry preserves, Steve and I set off to explore and fish Meta Lake today instead of Ara Lake. Frank and Bill were headed back down south to the bay in Ara where we fished yesterday.
We started out in the 1st bay to the north of camp, on the east shore, casting. I was using my usual Mepp’s lure, and Steve was throwing a #6 copper Colorado bladed spinner bait.
I immediately hooked into a little northern, and shortly after a little walleye. I had Steve down 4-1 by the time he caught his first fish. Then, we were at 5-1 before he switched lures. By that time my competitive chiding would need to end, or I wouldn’t get to fish anymore. He threatened to take back all his equipment he was letting me us on this trip, because he wasn’t catching any fish!
Anyhooo….I shut up, (verbally anyway) and we started trolling around the west shore and by a couple of the islands out in the middle of Meta Lake. While I didn’t say it out loud, I know that by the time we finished fishing in Meta that I had him down 10-1. (But, whose keeping count, eh? lol)
I suggested we head back to Ara for the rest of the day instead of exploring more of Meta, because I felt Steve had more confidence in Ara producing than Meta. And, a lot of fishing is having confidence, right?
Well, a long story….shortened….I caught about 3 dozen fish that day… one was a nice 34 incher and the other was a hefty 38 inch brute. Steve ended the day with only a dozen or so fish. Tomorrow would be a new day and he will most likely kick my butt next time.
Tuesday, August 5th…Day 4:
After putting the coffee on, I stepped out on the front porch. It was a nice morning. Clear skies full of stars, no fog, a slight breeze out of the SW. Temperatures were warmer than the day before too.
At 6am we all went up for breakfast. This morning it was pancakes and sausage. We gobbled it down, because Steve and I wanted to be the first ones to the south end of Ara this morning. We made a trolling pass by the islands, where we caught that 38 incher the afternoon before, but apparently the beasts were still sleeping.
I caught a walleye and a northern in the first 5 minutes we were there. I had re-tied my copper/diamond spoon, so I wouldn’t lose it. It’s been very lucky and productive for the past three days.
After several more fish I reeled a northern up to the side of the boat by Steve, so he could reach over and take it off quick, and when he grabbed the 30# test leader, the fish shook and snapped the leader at a weak spot. My lucky lure was gone!! Oh NO!! It was too early in the morning for such a bad blow to my confidence. Lol I had re-tied the braided line, but I didn’t check the leader…ugh. My bad!! It was the only one like it he had too. Ouch!
I knew it could happen eventually, but I didn’t think it would be so early in the week…sigh. It totally blew my confidence of catching that 43” girl I have been wishing for every day. Oh well….
So, after getting my “cool” back, I tied on a different lure….a “gold something warbler thingy”. I cast it out and started trolling and immediately caught a northern. My confidence was back! I was still morning the lost lure, but I knew my week wasn’t doomed.
We ended the 4th day with several dozen fish as a storm was rolling in. At the first sign of lightning I said, “We should go”. Steve agreed. We started heading back in when we passed Bob and Ned Boytim (who are also from the Marblehead area and fishing with our group). They were waving us down. I thought maybe their motor didn’t start or something, but when we got closer Ned said, while pointing down below his boat, “They’re here; Big fish and lots of them!” Well, we couldn’t resist an invite like that, and decided we could throw a few casts before heading in. I kept and eye on the sky and kept mentioning how we should probably be heading back, because it was getting worse.
While the pike fishing was fantastic right before the storm, it also meant we would be riding back 45 minutes by water through a thunderstorm. We left Bill, Frank, Bob, and Ned and headed back. Bill and Frank were a 1/4 to a 1/2 mile behind us.
As we headed towards the 2 islands by the channel that connecting the two lakes we saw more and more lightning coming down. Bolt lightning. It was getting scary. When we cleared the channel on the Meta Lake side, the rain was coming down in buckets, lightning was striking all around us, and the wind was now blowing about 40 out of the SW…putting 2-3 foot waves on Meta and blowing right into the docks at camp too.
But, we’re not there yet. We still have to get across Meta in a sturdy little wooden boat first. I knew when Steve said; “Hold on!” it wasn’t good. I was sitting facing him, so I couldn’t see what was out in front…I didn’t want to see at that point.
I watched his face as he read the waves, while steering a course to safety for us.
It was incredible…it was just like the movies where a stage hand is standing outside the boat and throwing buckets of water at Steve. I couldn’t help but start singing in my head the theme song to Gilligan’s Isalnd…”The weather started getting rough, and the tiny ship was tossed” (I know those of you old enough just sang that line in your head). Ha!
Steve rode the trough across Meta as best he could and as we cleared the last point near camp, we realized the docks were being slammed by waves, which meant docking the boat would be difficult. Fortunately, two of John’s dock boys ran down to help us. We were really glad to see them too! Bill and Frank made it back shortly after us and we were glad to see them. Bob and Ned pulled over to ride it out and came in a little later.
We hit the cabin and shed our water soaked gear, and hung it up to dry. We all needed some whiskey after that experience, and had a couple of cocktails. Then, we lit a fire in the stove to heat up the cabin enough to dry the suits out.
We headed up to the lodge for dinner where we enjoyed a nice warm spinach salad, cheese bread and spaghetti.
We were all asleep by 8pm.
August 6th….Day 5:
We enjoyed a breakfast of a western omelets, potatoes, and toast with preserves before heading back down to the south end of Ara Lake for another try at those big northerns the Boytim’s found the day before.
Steve and I were the first ones there. There was no wind and there wasn’t a ripple on the water, so we could see every weed as we cast our lures. First cast with my trusty Mepps spinner and I had a fish on! Steve was throwing a Silver Minnow with a white twister tail trailer. Many fish entertained us on the line, while other giant beasts simply followed the lure back to the boat and showed us their massive sizes before returning to the safety of the weeds.
I said to Steve, “The sun is high already; those big girls aren’t aggressive enough right now. Let’s skip breakfast tomorrow and come down here early before the sun rises” He agreed, so that’s what we’re doing on Thursday. We left a marker on that weed bed, so we could find it easily in the morning.
We trolled and cast for northern and walleye all day in the south bay of Ara Lake. We would fish on and off where the marker was, trolled by the old “trapper camp” towards the SE island in the bay, and cast on the south side of that island. Many walleye, pike, and perch hang out together there.
We trolled from the island over to “pelican rock”, and then cast through the weed bed out in front of it. We picked up several fish everywhere we tried in that bay. The fishing was great! To make a long story shorter, we easily caught 50+ fish. No monsters yet, but a 33 and a 34 are darn good fighters.
Oh, and I saw my big girl beast that I predicted I would catch by the end of the week in that weed bed where our marker is, so I know she is in there. I know I will catch her eventually. She is easily over 40 inches, and I want to catch her. She is so big that when I saw her follow my lure up to the boat it made my knees shake.
We had our nightly ritual of cocktails at 5, and dinner at 6. We had fresh caught walleye for dinner with a salad, beans, and coleslaw. It was yummy!
We went to bed early, because we were going to be skipping breakfast and getting an early start in the morning.
August 7th…Day 6:
I’m up at 3:15 thanks to the mouse that ran across my bed near my pillow. My alarm was set for 3:30, so I decided to get up and start the coffee. I enjoy these couple of hours listening to my roommates snoring while I write down the previous day’s events as I remember them. I’m sure I leave out so much, because the days are filled with exciting fishing, stories at cocktail hour, and at dinner.
The scenery here is in a word, “Majestic”. It’s so quiet. If it weren’t for the snores, all I could hear is the buss from the electric light above the table, the hum from the refrigerator, and the intermittent crackle from the hot coffee pot.
There is not a breath of wind outside and in about an hour I will be able to make out the silhouette of the shoreline as it gets light out. I would like to go out on the porch to enjoy a small cigar with my coffee this morning, but the story of a bear that broke into this very cabin the year before has me hesitant to go outside in the dark! I’m sure that there are no bears near by as that bruin was deemed aggressive and put down. Still, I think I’ll just enjoy my coffee in the safety of the cabin.
I’m looking forward to skipping breakfast and getting down to the south end of Ara before sun up to see if my big girl wants to come out to play. I sure would like to get a picture of her.
Note to self…re-tie and put a fresh leader on before fishing this morning. Ha!
After prying my fishing partner out of bed with a crowbar, and plying him with coffee, he finally got in the boat at 5:45 and we were on our way. We got down to the marker buoy at 6:31…right before the sun came up. Both of us landed fish on our first casts that morning and it was gang busters for us all day. We would catch 103 fish with the biggest fish going 33, 34, 35 ½, 37 ½, 38, 38, and 40. Steve caught the 40 incher.
All of these big girls bit before the rest of the gang even showed up down there. By the time they came down after breakfast the big bite was over; just like I thought the day before. It was worth it to skip breakfast and come down early.
It was a beautiful sunrise…simply gorgeous. There was absolutely no wind what-so-ever, so we could see all the weed beds in the bay. That made it easy for us, and the reason we were able to catch so many fish. Heck, we had 59 fish by noon, and we still had 4 more hours to fish. Woot! Woot!
There was almost a full moon the night before, but it was cloudy, so it was dark. There will be an almost full moon tonight, but it’s going to be clear. Will those fish feed at night with the full moon? I’m guessing they will.
Over cocktails, Steve has talked the others into coming down early tomorrow too, hoping to get them on some of the big fish like we had. ( I hope they are biting again)
Tonight we had some really good grilled steaks for dinner, along with some mashed potatoes, and roasted asparagus and broccoli.
August 8th…Day 7:
It’s the last day of fishing. Everyone has skipped breakfast and come down early to fish with us. Steve and I were the first ones there again; we had a light SE wind today, so we set a drift over the weed bed. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch anything in the first dozen casts or so. I had a hit on the second cast, but lost it right away. That told me they weren’t very aggressive and probably filled up on minnows last night. The guys in the rest of the group will not be happy they missed breakfast for this. Lol
The entire day was slower, and we only caught a couple dozen fish. But, there were some big ones again. In fact, I caught a 36 incher and cast my trolling spoon out again. Immediately it was hit and now I had my 40+ (42-43?) to the side of the boat. I finally caught her!!!
I was trying to hand Steve the net while holding the rod in my left hand, and keeping tension on the line. I was watching her, and not looking at what Steve was doing, and I didn’t drop the net when he didn’t grab it from me. I should have, because my left arm ran out of length and she got frisky and moved forward…giving herself some slack. We were using barbless hooks, so she was able to get free. I watched her swim away. I was livid. I had fished for her all week, and there she was. I had her!!! Then, she was gone. It took me a good ½ hour to shake it off and tell myself it was for the best. She is healthy and unhurt and swimming happily tonight, and I can come back and get her next year.
Yeah, I’ll just keep telling myself that…heheh
I whined a little at cocktail hour, and we had a nice chicken dinner at the main lodge.
We would be flying out and heading back home in the morning.
If you made it all the way through my journal, thanks for reading it!
Thank you Meta Lake Lodge for the wonderful experience and memories!
Simply awesome, and I can’t wait to go back!
Sorry for No Blog Yesterday...
by Capt Juls on 07/30/14The website host was down yesterday afternoon, so I couldn't blog my results of yesterdays fishing with Tom and Sam.
Long story short...only three fish. Two small walleye and one 28 1/2 incher.
Unfortunately, due to my trip/vacation to Canada this Thursday night, I will not have time to update my blog with today and tomorrow's trips either.
Sorry about that, but there is only so much time in a day and I have a lot to get done before I leave.
I hope you understand. My blogging will continue in August (14th) when I resume my charters.
Thanks for understanding and have a great day!
Capt Juls
Fishing with Leah and Mark 7/27/14
by Capt Juls on 07/27/14I had emailed Leah last night letting her know what the forecast was calling for today, but said that we should make the call in the morning, so I could check the radar and see exactly where the storms were, and when they would be here. It's a good thing we didn't reschedule going off of last night's forecast, because we had a beautiful morning to fish today. It was very hot and muggy with zero wind, and the bugs did not find us (which I thought was a miracle!).
We got a late start, because they couldn't meet me at my house until 8am, so we launched out of Huron at 8:45.
I had already gone to Hi Way Bait at 5am this morning, to get a fresh batch of
night crawlers and ice. The dogs and I hit up Mickey D's for a breakfast sandwich, and then the DNR road by my house for an early morning walk.
When I got home, I still had two hours to waste, so I cleaned the house. It was nice coming home to a clean house after a day of fishing, so I could just relax. That doesn't happen very often.
Anyhooo....On the drive over to Huron, I told them, "It was kind of slow yesterday, but we did catch their limit. They fished for 7 hours though, so since you're only doing 4 hours today, we might not limit out, but we should catch some". They asked if the option to extend the trip was on the table, if they needed it, but I explained that the forecast was calling for thunderstorms in the afternoon, so that was probably not a possibility. We would just have to do the best we could in the time frame we had to work with.
Leah had bought this trip for Mark's birthday, and wanted to catch some fish....the Fish Gods must have been in a good mood, because we started catching fish as soon as we got the baits in the water. They had their limit in 3 1/2 hours with one "Fish-Ohio", 3 fish that went 26" or better, and the rest of them were really nice sized eaters (two were on the small side, but chunky 16 inchers). They couldn't have been happier with the catch today. :)
I was actually quite surprised that the bite was as good as it was, because I was really expecting to just get lucky and get 6-8 fish in that time frame.
Same program Peeps! Crawler harnesses with #5 & #6 Colorado blades 41-51 back with 1 oz inlines, and 35 back with the #2 Tadpoles at 1.6 mph.
I also had one bottom bouncer with a 5oz weight on it working the bottom, that managed to catch two walleye on it. (Those were the smallest of the bunch). The bigger fish were all suspended higher up in the water column.
We loaded out, drove back to my house, and they transferred their fish to their cooler to take to the fish cleaners. It was 15-20 minutes later that the skies opened up and a thunderstorm passed through dumping heavy rains.
I feel fortunate to have had such luck on my side today.
1. To get a limit for two people in only 4 hours...
2. To get the boat back under the canopy in the driveway before it rained. WoooHoooo!!! There was a lot of lightning and thunder with that quick little storm, so even if I had extended their trip, it would have forced us off the water anyway.
Leah and Mark were great. They were tired from their adventure at the Ohio State Fair yesterday, getting home late, only to get up early to go fishing with me. They were troopers and managed to get most of the fish that hooked up this morning. :)
Tomorrow is a day off for me, I thought I had a trip, but I goofed and put a name down on the calendar before getting the deposit....my bad. But, it's supposed to blow tomorrow anyway, so I would have ended up rescheduling...so there's no harm/no foul.
I will use that time to finish two articles due, and get packed for my fly in trip to Canada next week.
The next trips are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday...then, I'm leaving Thursday night for a vacation I have been waiting for since I was a little girl dreaming of the far north woods.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with the Takos Men...7/26/14
by Capt Juls on 07/26/14Back on the 17th of this month, I took Andy Takos and his wife Tasha out for a little walleye action out of Huron, and that was the day Tasha caught her first fish of her life...and, it was a "Fish-Ohio". Today I took Andy and his Father Steve out for some walleye fishing and had another good day. No "Fish-O's" today, but we did catch their limit of nice eaters all in the 3-5 pound range.
It was a tougher bite today than it was the last time Andy fished with me, but we still managed to pick one up here and there between all the whities that were stealing our crawlers. We lost a couple big piggy fish, that just didn't hook up very well, and came off before we could even see them.
We started out in front of Sawmill, and got 8 before we ran out of time on their 6 hour trip, so I offered the option of adding an hour to move over to the Cranberry area, and they took the option. We set up over there and fished 38-39 foot of water, running the harnesses with the same program high up in the water column. 1oz 41-51 back and #2 Tadpoles 35-60 back. We also had a bottom bouncer out for a while, but removed that when all it did was feed the white perch our expensive crawlers over and over again.
A friend of mine on Facebook, Scott Keeley, had sent me some custom colored cranks that he wanted me to try out for him, so after I took the bottom bouncer out of the line up I sent the shad styled bait out 70 feet (12' down) to see what it would do. Scott asked me what color I would like them painted, and I told him, "Pink Lemonade". He did a nice looking paint job on them and I was happy to try them out for him. It wasn't out 5 minutes and took a nice plump 5 pound fish. I set another one out on the other side, but we only fished for another 20 minutes, before we finished up with their limit, and headed back in.
If you're headed out that way, be wary of huge floating logs, and keep a look out for them. That can be very dangerous for "go fast" boats. ;)
I only got the one picture of Andy and the sunrise, because the junkfish were keeping us busy throughout the day, and then when we got back to the launch, and transferred the fish to their cooler, I was busy wiping the Huron River grime off my hull, and completely forgot to get a picture of him with his Dad...my bad.
Tomorrow's trip is up in the air right now. The couple fishing with me was supposed to be at my house at 8am, but the forecast is calling for showers and thunderstorms "likely" after 11am....right in the middle of our 4 hour trip. I don't mind fishing in the rain, but when there's lightning, it's a "no go". And, I can only go by forecasts...so, I'll see if they want to make that call tonight, or wait until the morning to see what the radar looks like.
Anyhooo....I'll keep ya posted...
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
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
