Juls WFA Blog
The Last Three days....
by Capt Juls on 05/21/14Well, it's been a fun three days of fishing with Tim and Nick Becker from Kaukauna, WI.
Monday, May 19th, was the first day of their trip. Woke up at 4am to make them fresh brownies for the day.
I showed up at their hotel 15 minutes early and waited only a short time for them to come out and meet me. We loaded up their belongings and jumped in the truck.
We hit Hi Way Bait and picked up some ice and crawlers for the day. Launched at Mazurik's by 7am.
On day one, we headed up to an area between Kelly's Island and Gull Island Shoal and set a heading to the north towards the Canadian line. We didn't mark a lot of fish and caught two fish in the first hour, so we picked up and headed towards the west side of the line, near the green can by Lucy's, and set a heading towards Middle Island.
We didn't mark much there either, and didn't waste much time moving back towards Gull when Tim's friend, who was also on vacation and fishing the area, gave him some information about being by the red can at Gull. ( I never did see them...cough cough) We made one pass through where we thought they were talking about and caught one fish.
I decided to move back over to the east side of Kelly's where I had been fishing the previous two days with decent success.
It was a beautiful day for a boat ride, and with the calm water, we were able to go WOT on the way over. Woot! Woot! It's not often I get to open up the Ranger like that, and it was FUN! :)
We set up on my trolling pass from the previous trips and we weren't marking much there either...sigh Grrrrrrrrrrr! "Okay, this isn't working like I thought it would, so let's not waste anymore time here", I said. So, we picked up and moved back to the north side of Kellys. This time we set up on the NW corner of the island and headed NE towards the red can on Gull. We pulled a couple fish going that direction, but when we turned around and headed to the SW it was game on. I had kept them out an extra hour and we ended up one short of their limit.
I drove them over to "Marblehead Fish Cleaning" and we dropped off their fish. I asked the manager there, "Will their fish be okay for three days if they leave them on ice in a cooler?" She said, "Well, if you want, we can keep them here in the refrigerator until you're ready to go home". I said, "Really? You'll do that? That's a great service"! Tim took her up on that offer and they were really happy about that. They had 38 pounds for 11 fish on day one, which isn't great, but not bad either. A lot of good eaters.
I dropped them off at their hotel again and said I would see them in the morning. I told them it would probably rain, so they should bring their rain gear.
Weather was gorgeous! Sunny, warm, light SW wind less than 10mph.
Program: The same as the previous two days. (see blog)
Day Two:
I picked them up at their hotel again, but this time I was a 1/2 hour early due to some errands I had to run before we headed out, and mis-timed how long it would take me. They came out early when he said he saw me from out their window (didn't mean to make them rush...sigh) and we hit the bait shop for the usual.
I had talked to Captain Keith Unkefer of "Pooh Bear Charters" that morning and he said they had a good day the day before between Starve and Scott's Point.
That was the plan. We launched and headed towards Scott's Point and set a troll towards the ferry dock on South Bass. We picked up two small fish right away, but as we got further and further away from Scott's Point the marks on the graph were less and less. So, we picked up and moved to adjust our trolling direction to work with the building SE winds, which were at that time, probably 1-3's.
Stopped in an area between American Eagle Shoal and Starve and set a pass towards Starve. The waves were building and we rode the trough. Picked up two nice fish and decided to use Kelly's as a wind break and headed up that way.
We set in on the west side of North Bay and headed Northwest with the waves on the corner of the transom, trying to keep the speed at 1.4mph.
We picked up a fish or two on that pass and as the seas built to 2-4's we picked up and headed back towards the island where it was less windy.
Setting down on the mid point of the island we headed to the SW this time.
GAME ON! We picked up the last of their limit in the area from the mid point to the red can on the NW corner.
Still the same program of crawler harnesses with blades with pink underbellies, chartreuse underbellies, and the best one of all one of "Bugsy's Baits" #5 blades with the gold hammered back, with the lavender underbelly with three orange dots. That blade took the majority of the fish on day two and today.
1oz inlines 25-40 backand and #2 Tadpoles 27-35 back.
The winds had died down for our ride back in and it was actually a nice day again.
After loading out, I took them over to the fish cleaners to add another 54 pounds to their stash. After some Casa Las Palmas for lunch, I dropped them back off at their hotel.
Today (Day 3):
After a 1/2 hour delay in picking them up due to thunderstorms passing through, we were launched and on the water by 7:30. It was a downpour while I readied the boat, and I said, "Let's get in the truck and wait this out for a few minutes". And, that's about all it was too. The rain let up to just a light drizzle and we were off.
We headed to the same spot where we ended yesterday, but the fish weren't biting. We marked them, but they weren't interested in playing with us.
Again, Tim's friend told him they had a good bite up on the line a mile west of Middle, so we headed up there again. We didn't get anything for the first probably the first hour, and then we picked up 5 nice fish. No Fish-O's, but nice fish none the least.
I texted my "Big Brother", Keith, and asked him how he was doing today and he said he was fishing between Scott's Point and American Eagle Shoal. Which isn't far from where we started this morning, so we picked up and headed down, since we were running out of time and I figured we could spend more time there if I didn't have as far to run to get back to the launch.
We picked up three more fish and dropped three or four there and then it was time to go in.
Again, I took them to the fish cleaners and they added another 34 pounds to the tally, and drove them back to their hotel. They would go back to pick up all the fish once the last batch was cleaned and they got some ice in their cooler.
After I got home, I got a text from Tim informing me that Marblehead Fish Cleaning had a major @%#$ up with their fish. Apparently, they had the first day's catch and today's catch, but the big 54 pound bag from yesterday was missing!!!
The explanation was that the owner's son had come in and was helping out and gave our fish to another customer that had only brought in 24 pounds.
I drove over to make sure they were going to be taken care of to their satisfaction, and to find out why this happened, since they use a ticket system to keep orders separate. "Oh, he misread the ticket and gave the wrong one out". Really? You've got to be kidding me? How hard is that job? LOL
She points to her spiral bound notebook where the other person's weight was recorded and the price he paid. 24 pounds/$12.00.
"Okay", I said, keeping my cool...."What about the sheet that everyone that brings fish into you is supposed to sign? Let's just look at that and see who got his fish and we can call them and get them back from him".
Guess what....they don't seem to make sure everyone signs that sheet. There wasn't a 24 pound weight for walleye recorded.
I said, "We signed it, just like that big sign on your wall behind you, with big red letters says to".
ATTENTION
FISH PROCESSORS ARE REQUIRED BY STATE LAW TO KEEP ACCURATE DAILY RECORDS OF FISH PROCESSED.
THESE RECORDS REQUIRE THE NAME AND ADDRESS OF THE OWNER OR PERSON FROM WHOM THE PROCESSOR RECEIVES THE FISH, THE SPECIES, WEIGHT, AND DATE.
I got the deer in the headlights look from her....and, silence.
Then, she went on to say how they were trying to fix it by finding them some frozen fish to take home.
Well, after calling all the commercial sellers and coming up empty, they found some. Her brother had a 50 pound bag of fillets frozen in water. I couldn't tell if they were walleye or sheephead to tell you the truth. I was pissed! As I'm sure my customer was too.
But, they added some frozen perch and a 10# bag of walleye cheeks, and my customer seemed to be satisfied with that deal. However, he was still very disappointed not to be taking home the fish he knows were fresh caught yesterday and not frozen in an ice block of ice since who knows when.
So, if you get your fish cleaned at Marblehead fish cleaning, I suggest you pick them up asap, so this never happens to you. I will never spend any money there again.
Capt Juls
5/19-5/21
by Capt Juls on 05/20/14I've added pictures, but I'll be writing the blog after the end of Tim and Ben's 3 day charter. :)
Capt Juls
Another Fun Day on the Water
by Capt Juls on 05/18/14This is going to be short and sweet as far as program and area....same exact thing as yesterday! Please see the previous blog for that information.
Greg Companion set up this trip, so his two friends, Todd and Ben, could learn how to troll with planer boards. Being avid anglers themselves, it was an easy lesson. By mid morning they were doing all the line setting and I didn't have to nag them with instructions anymore. lol
They did great and learned what they came to learn. We even caught a few walleye in the process (see pics on pg 7 of the photo album.
It was a little slower than yesterday for us, and the north/south pull didn't pull a fish today, even though it was the best direction yesterday. Everything came on a south to north pull.
We moved from the east side of Kelly's to the north side and picked up two more fish for a total of 11 for 18. So, not a limit, but still a successful trip. They will be back again before the season ends.
Greg was pouting a little bit, because he really wanted to perch fish, but the two voted that down this morning. Dang it...I really wanted to perch fish too. But, Greg has a deposit down to come back to do a perch only trip with me, and I can't wait! Did I ever tell you, "I LOVE TO PERCH FISH"? ;)
Well, like I said, short and sweet today...I have to go walk the dogs and get ready for tomorrow's charter after I get something to eat.
Thanks for reading my blog!
Capt Juls
Felt Good to be Back on the Water!
by Capt Juls on 05/17/14After an unexpected three days off due to rescheduling two customers, the sparkly red Ranger was ready to hit the water again today, and so was I!
This morning was chilly with spitting rain, and I showed up early at Mazurik's as usual. As I sat there waiting on my crew of two brothers, Ben and Josh Shremshock of Columbus, OH, I passed the time by chatting with fellow anglers about the usual fishing chit-chat while they readied their boats to launch.
My crew showed up about 10 minutes to 7, and we hit the water right on schedule. We headed out towards the SE corner of Kelly's and I set up short of my destination to see what skill levels I was working with, while setting lines. I wanted them to be comfortable and at ease with everything before we got into some fish and near the pack of boats that were north of us.
It didn't take long to see I had two very fast learners on the boat, and they were able to repeat everything I showed them right away. "Great!", I thought. "This is going to be an easy and fun day". And, I was right. After I had the first Off Shore board on it's way out to the side, they were putting crawlers on their hooks just like I showed them, or at least trying to. lol
As they were showing the worms who's boss, the one lone board out there went back. "Fish on!" Josh reeled in a nice little eater. I was happy to see it was a walleye and not a pesky little white bass stealing our crawlers. So, we were off to a good start. We had another couple on right away, but they got off as they were pulling the boards in. Still biting light....sigh.
After a few more white bass and another walleye in the boat, we turned and headed back south over the same stretch of water, because I wanted to stay south of the big pack of boats to the North. This time we caught three times as many as pulling the other direction. We would make that circle one more time before the end of their trip, and again it proved that the North to South pull was better than South to North.
1oz inlines 25-30 back, and #2 Tadpoles 25-40 back, at 1.2-1.5mph was what they seemed to want. Blades they liked were the usual...pink antifreeze underbelly, or chartreuse underbelly.
We went 10 for 16 on the walleye, but didn't get any Fish O's today. And, all the fish these two gentlemen caught are still swimming tonight. They released everything and just had a good time catching them.
Unfortunately, they didn't quite dress properly for today's raining/chilly weather and they decided to end the day a hour and half early, to go back in.
They said they were going to come back in a month when the weather was warmer, or what I refer to as "Shorts and Flip Flop" weather. :)
Headed out again in the morning with a repeat customer that I always have a lot of fun with...and, the best part...he brings me really good cigars. Woot! Woot!
Good luck to everyone fishing tomorrow...see you out there!
Capt Juls
When Weather Forecast are WRONG!
by Capt Juls on 05/14/14I'm not sure what other Captains do when they have bad weather forecasts, and people driving in from far away? Do they just let their customers arrive in town and wait until that morning to make the call? Or, do they contact them and let them know what the forecast is, and let the customer make the decision to come, or reschedule for a better weather day?
My charter for today was a husband and wife, and I called them yesterday to let them know that the forecast was calling for NW winds, cooler temps, and most likely a lot of rain (80% today). They decided to reschedule for a date next week instead. He said his wife would be happier with nicer weather. I can't blame them for that decision.
I woke up this morning to find the forecast changed a little bit, but not by much, it is definitely fishable, but we would have been rained on while we were out there. (The thunderstorm part of it was removed until later in the afternoon now though).
Now, I'm kicking myself, and wondering if I should just let people show up and make the call the morning of the charter.
But, on the other hand, if they would have driven all the way here, paid for a stay in a hotel, and then had weather they were not comfortable with, and called it off, they would be out time and money.
I have to believe I made the right decision to let them make the call on what they wanted to do with the information we had at the time I called them yesterday, and a reschedule is better than losing a customer....right?
What would you want me to do if you were the customer that had a charter and the weather was less than desirable and you were bringing your wife? Would you want me to call you and let you know the forecast? Or, would you rather just show up and take a chance and decide that morning?
I'm thinking I did the right thing, but I'm curious what others think.
Maybe I should stop second guessing myself and just have another cup of coffee.....deep sigh...
Have a great day everyone!
Capt Juls
5/11/14 AND 5/12/14 Fishing Adventure Report...:)
by Capt Juls on 05/12/14So, sorry I'm late with yesterday's fishing report, but my Niece's husband, Jamie and his best friend, Luke, came down yesterday afternoon. So, instead of being a bad hostess and ignoring them while I wrote this, I chose to put this off for one day. :)
5/11/14:
I fished with Dave Updegraff and his two children, Jack, who's in 7th grade, and Catie, who is in 11th grade. It was a fun morning teaching them how to use the Off shore boards and line counter reels to set the line/baits out. By mid morning they were trolling with more confidence and did a terrific job.
They were able to get 9 lite biting walleye to the boat, and had just as many get off on the way to the boat, just because the fish didn't hook up well.
We were pulling crawler harnesses behind 1oz inline weights and #2 Tadpoles. The 1oz was best at 31-35 back and the #2 Tadpoles were best anywhere between 25-50 back. Blades that had the pink antifreeze or chartreuse under bellies worked best. Speed was 1.3-1.5 mph.
They all had a good time and expressed the fact that they wanted to come back and fish with me again, so that made me feel really good. :)
5/12/14:
Today, Jamie and Luke learned how to troll for walleye for the first time. We stopped for ice at Hi Way Bait, and hit the launch at 7am. We headed for Kelly's Island again, like I had the day before, and taught them how to bait the harnesses and set the lines.
After we caught a few walleye, missed a few, and what seemed like 30 plus white bass and white perch, I noticed that the bag of crawlers I brought wasn't the "full one". (Ugh!) Back to the launch we went, and Jamie and Luke stayed with the boat, while I took the truck and trailer over to the bait shop to pick up 10 dozen more crawlers....sigh. I'm glad they are family and not real customers...lol
We launched again, and headed back to the same spot out by Kelly's and set the lines again. We fished for about an hour, while keeping an eye on the sky, and watching a dark sky roll towards us. I told the guys, "as soon as you see any lightning we are out of here". We could hear thunder way off in the distance, but never saw any lightning. I was concerned, and kept watching my radar app on my phone to keep track of it. The worst of it was staying to the west and heading NE, so we kept fishing.
Then, we spotted the first bolt of lightning, and Mike Justus (Boatnut) radioed me and asked how we were doing. I said, "We have four in the box, but we're heading in. I saw a bolt of lightning and I have two young father's in the boat, and I don't want to chance it". He was in agreement and said that his dog, Roxy, didn't like the thunder either, so he was heading in too.
We were the first to the launch and tied the boat to the courtesy dock, and got off the boat with all our rain gear on. We watched as boat after boat came back in in the pouring rain, thunder and lightning.
It's nice to know we made the right call with great timing!
The radar showed that the storms would pass and it was going to be clearing. So, when it stopped raining and started to clear we headed back out again to the same spot. For some reason that storm turned the walleye on and we boated three more walleye in the first 20 minutes. Then, the whites started in again.
The fish we were catching were all in the 3-4 pound range, and I wanted to get these guys a Lake Erie Pig, so we headed to another spot near Kelly's that had reports of bigger fish. We caught 5 more fish out there, but they were all the same size as we caught earlier. Looking at the sky again, it was determined that we had better head in again.
We got nailed with heavy rain and some hail when we got within a mile and half of shore. Ouch! That stung like the dickens on the face, but we made it in safe and sound. Again, the sky let up as we approached the dock, and we loaded the boat in nicer weather, and headed to the fish cleaners.
The guys caught their limit and the weight went 50 pounds on the fish cleaner's scale. :)
The program today was the exact same program I had going with the Updegraff family yesterday.
So, it was definitely an "Adventure" today, to say the least.
I'm so whooped right now, so I must apologize for the lousy writing. lol
Please forgive me.
Capt Juls
Not a Stellar Catching Day but We Had Fun!
by Capt Juls on 05/10/14As the saying goes, "That's the reason it's called fishing and not catching".
I was to meet my crew at the launch at 7:30, so I showed up at 6:45 (I know, that's very early), but I like to get things ready before the crew shows up, so nothing is forgotten. Anyway, they pulled in at 8am, and we got on the water by 10 after.
I watched a lot of boats launch before me and they were all heading towards Kelly's Island, and I thought to myself, "It's going to be very busy over there today", so I decided to head towards my spot over between the ferry dock and the SW corner of Green. Once we got there though I could barely make out my cavitation plate and we made a 1/2 a pass in there, picked up, and headed up to North Bass.
We set lines, and caught 1 out of 5 fish that had bitten our offerings of big juicy crawlers on both single harnesses and the double willow leaf harnesses behind #2 Tadpoles 27-33 back.
The marks on the HBird were very deep today, and staying on the bottom. I pulled out a Bottom Bouncer and put one of the board rods away. The bottom bouncer was a pain, because the white bass were relentless and stealing the crawlers every 5 minutes.
We left the North Bass area and headed over to Kelly's, where we should have probably just started at in the first place. We had a couple hours to spend there before heading in, so we set it up the same...running 5 Off Shore Boards and one Bottom Bouncer. After missing some bites on the BB, we put another board away and set up another BB, so there was on on both sides of the boat. That new one went off about 10 minutes later and Jeremy landed a nice fat walleye. We got one more on a harness on one of the boards and had to call it a day.
So, out of 12 fish on, we landed only 3. They had a great time, and the weather couldn't have been better. There was a nice 2' or less chop on the water this morning and then by the afternoon it had become pretty calm.
Sorry there isn't more to tell, but other than good company, good food, and some "almost fish in the boat", we had a great time. They left a nice tip and prepaid for another trip in June...:)
Capt Juls
Back on the Water Today...
by Capt Juls on 05/10/14After a little break, and getting things organized and fixed up at home, today is the first of 12 straight scheduled trips. So, the blog will be updated everyday the weather lets us out. So far the weather forecast is looking good to get the whole week in...if it doesn't change, and we all know how the weather is around here. :)
Check back tonight and I'll let you know how we did today!
Capt Juls
It Felt Good to be Back On The Water!!
by Capt Juls on 05/05/14After many days of blowing winds, cooler temps, and big waves, we were able to get back on the water today. Yay!
The forecast was for winds from the east, that were supposed to be less than 10mph. But, after getting up to the north side of North Bass Island, it picked up over 10mph....waves were 1-3' with an occasional 4 thrown in.
We made one pass up there and boated 4 out of 8 fish. All of them were just nice "eaters" around 3-4 pounds.
Since my crew were not seasoned anglers and their sea legs were not working very well yet, I decided to move down between Rattlesnake and Green where Middle Bass Island would block the wind and give us calmer waters. I was hoping one of my favorite trolling spots would be full of fish about now, but that wasn't the case. We hardly marked any fish inside the "triangle", but we did pick up one nice eater.
As we trolled out to the west of Rattle and Green we started marking more, but I had already told them that we would be moving, so we did.
We moved over to the SW corner of South Bass Island, near the ferry dock, and turned the boat to head NW towards the SW corner of Green. We started marking a lot more fish in there, and the marks were a lot bigger too.
We picked up 5 more fish there, and the biggest was a nice 8 1/2 pound walleye.
All in all we boated 10 of the 18 fish we had on today, so everyone was happy happy happy. :)
Two fish were caught on the Purple Glass Husky 47 back, and the biggest fish was caught on the Black/Gold Husky 60 back.
All the other fish hit on crawlers with 1oz inline weights set 40 back and #2 Tadpoles 25 & 27 back (more fish on Tadpoles than inlines)... Blades with chartreuse undersides were best today.
Speed was between 1.1 and 1.3 mph
My next charter isn't until the end of the week, so it looks like a little gardening is in order for the next couple of days. :)
Capt Juls
This Past Weekend was Rescheduled...Fishing Tomorrow...
by Capt Juls on 05/04/14Not much to say about the weekend, other than they blew today's forecast...sigh.
I'll be out tomorrow, so I can post a report tomorrow afternoon.
Went morel mushroom hunting yesterday for about a half hour and found 13. Just enough to go with last night's dinner. :)
They were the grays, and pretty small yet, so the best is yet to come!
Capt Juls
Rough Conditions and a Tough Bite Today...
by Capt Juls on 05/01/14Launched from Mazurik's at 6:30am this morning with a single customer. We were the first boat out from that ramp today. I wondered if everyone else knew something I didn't about the weather, but it turned out they were just sleeping in.
Sam and I headed to the NW corner of Kelly's to start trolling. We put out two crawler harnesses and two DHJ12's to let the fish tell us what they wanted, and after two fish came on the Purple Glass at 47 back, we switched out one of the crawler harnesses for a second PG on that side of the boat. After a third fish came on the PG, we took the other crawler harness off the other side and tried another color DHJ. No other colors caught a fish.
It was strange. All the fish came on the starboard side of the boat today. We moved back up to make another pass through the area, but the winds were picking up and I decided it would be a better idea to move in towards the mainland and try to get into better water conditions.
We moved over to an area between Mazurik's and the Lighthouse and found water that was more dirty than out by Kelly's. We could see the cavitation plate, but the prop was just barely visible. I remembered the Deep Rattle'n Rogues in the storage compartment and thought that it would be better to have a lure out there that made some noise. After looking up the dive curve chart for it, we saw that it would need too much line out to get to the desired depth.
Then, I remembered seeing a video by Mark Romanack on using the OST Tadpoles as snap weights, so I pulled a number 2 Tadpole out and we set it 25 feet in front of the Rogue and then let it out to 60 and put the board on. Sam had picked the color and chose Firetiger. (I usually hate Firetiger, and didn't have a lot of confidence in it, but didn't say anything..lol)
Just as I was thinking that it was just not going to be our day, that Off Shore board went back with a good tug. "Fish On"! Woot! Woot! It was a nice fish too! Sam set that bait back out and I pulled in a DHJ from the other side and duplicated our set up, but instead of putting it 25' ahead of the bait, we put it 15' ahead of the bait. At one point we saw a pull back, but thought it got off....to make a long story short, we were pulling a little white bass around for a good hour. D'Oh! I got lazy and didn't check it, because I wasn't using crawlers. (Lesson learned!).
We finished out the day with 7 nice walleye. (Pics are on page 7 of the photo gallery).
Thanks Sam for a great time on the water! You were fun to fish with and I even learned a thing or two from our conversation today. :)
The weather conditions today were all over the place. Lots of wind out of the SW, Sun..then clouds..then Sun...then clouds..then drizzle...then Sun...then clouds...all day long! lol
Water temp was at 48 degrees and the air temp was maybe 50 degrees...waves were anywhere from 1- 2's...then 1-3's...2-4's...back to 1-3's...up and down all day...sigh.
Next charters are Saturday and Sunday if the weather allows. I'll keep ya posted.
Capt Juls
Heading out Tomorrow...5/1
by Capt Juls on 04/30/14Just finished getting the boat ready for tomorrow's trip. We'll be launching out of Mazurik's at 7am and heading towards Kelly's for the first pass.
My plan of attack is to run both DHJ12's and Crawler Harnesses at the same time to see if they want the crawlers more yet.
There will only be two of us, so we can only run 4 lines.
Tomorrow the limit goes up to 6 walleye per person from the previous 4 fish limit we've had in April.
I'm hoping some perch trips start getting scheduled, because I'm jones'n to do some jerk'n!! lol
The weather forecast looks favorable for tomorrow and should be a fun day. Sam, my customer, is a well seasoned angler, so it will be an easy day for me, and I'm guessing a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to it. :)
Capt Juls
Sorry, not much to report over the weekend....
by Capt Juls on 04/28/14My trips this past Friday through Sunday were rescheduled for better conditions, and today's trip was cancelled.
Sometimes we call them right and sometimes we call them wrong, but all we have to go on is the forecast in front of us. With customers traveling in from out of state, the call needs to be made before they travel, so it doesn't cause any inconvenience or wasted costs on their part.
While the conditions were less than favorable for a good walleye bite, it was fishable. But, when my customers and I talked about the forecast and what they wanted to do, it was decided that better weather conditions would be more fun, so we rescheduled those three trips.
So, with that said, my next charter is this coming Thursday. We are expecting rain and warmer temps the next couple of days, but should be drying up towards the weekend.
This sure is a goofy spring, but not one that is unexpected. It's acting just like normal spring weather. We get spoiled when it's above average and think it should be like that all the time, when in all actuality normal is what we are experiencing right now, I think.
So, I'll be updating this blog Thursday afternoon with any information that may help you. Please check back again (this is going to be a very busy month if I can get all the booked trips in!)....Thanks!
Capt Juls
Cold Front Conditions....Brrrr!
by Capt Juls on 04/24/14The same crew I had Monday and Tuesday were with me again today. We didn't go yesterday, because of a strong NW wind. This morning was very chilly and was only in the mid 40's when we hit Catawba launch at 6:15.
We were headed over towards Green Island by 6:30. We started our troll a couple miles west from the South Bass Island Ferry dock and headed towards the SW corner of Green.
Deep Husky Jerks were the lure of choice once again and Pink Lemonade and Purple Glass took most of our fish today. Clown and Pink Panties each took one too. We pulled them anywhere from 35 to 85 back and the ones at 55 and 73 back took the most fish today.
The bite was much better very early this morning, and seemed to slow way down after 10am. We ended up 10 for 13 today, and the boys went home very happy with their days catch.
Brian was bummed since he lost a big fish right at the end of their trip, because we had gone so long without a bite, and this would have made his day. Oh well, it happens to the best of them from time to time. I'm sure everyone knows how he felt. It just came unbuttoned behind the boat, and we never even saw it. We only knew it was a big one from the way the board was coming in and the bend in the rod after the board was off.
The East wind picked up in the afternoon just about the time we headed in, so I don't know how bad the conditions got later in the day. They were 1 foot or less when we left the dock and probably 1-3's when we got back in.
Tomorrow's trip has been rescheduled for a nicer day.
Saturday and Sunday's trips are waiting to see what the forecast does. Right now they are still scheduled to go.
Same Crew as Yesterday...Same Amount of Fun!
by Capt Juls on 04/22/14Originally, I thought it was going to be too windy to go out today, but when I woke up this morning and didn't hear the wind chimes singing out of my bedroom window, I knew I should check the wind forecast again. When I saw that it was going to be fishable I immediately called my crew from yesterday to tell them the good news. We could fish. They were happy to hear that and met me at my house in record time. Only this time, they were missing Aaron. He had to go to a sales meeting in southern Ohio for the day....poor guy. :(
We hit the ramp at 7:30 this morning and headed to Kelly's Island again. We picked up two fish in one pass, and decided it was probably better someplace else.
After a quick phone call to my friend, Captain Keith Unkefer of "Pooh Bear Charters", he let me know that he was on a good bite, and told me to get over there. (Again, because it wasn't a spot I found on my own, I do not feel comfortable giving that information out without his permission).
When I arrived he was already done and gone from the area. The waves were 2 foot or less when I arrived, but the wind was building. As I got the boat going in the direction with the waves that was most beneficial for the speed I wanted, Brian and Jason set the lines. They didn't have all the lines out before we got the first fish on. Then, immediately we got a second fish on the other side of the boat. It's a good thing there were two nets on board, because we needed both of them! They were the smallest two fish of the day, but still very respectable fish in any other part of the country. Here we call them "good eaters".
After all the lines were back in the water we went about 5 minutes when another Off Shore board went back, letting us know that a big fish was on this time. Jason reeled in a beautiful 31 inch walleye. And, then another 5 mintues and another board goes back. This time it's Brian's turn, and his fish was a nice 29 incher.
The wind was picking up and the lake was now building to 2-4 foot waves. We picked up the lines and ran up for another pass, thinking we could pick up the last 6 fish in one pass, but it wasn't mean to be. The sun had come out and the bite slowed down. We picked up a fish here and there until we had a total of 10 fish in the box, but we couldn't get the last two fish for the day before our time ran out on the trip.
At one point the wind had died down and the lake went back to being 2 foot or less, so we ran up to make on last pass, but we had no luck.
We could see white caps forming on the lake to the west of us, which was heading towards us, so we decided to head back in before it got nasty again. We loaded the boat out and talked about how much fun it was today on the ride back to my house.
We are planning on going back out on Thursday, if the forecast remains the same or better for that day.
I'll keep you posted...:)
Capt Juls
Pictures are posted on page 6 of my photo album here on my site. Please check them out!
Working it out...:)
by Capt Juls on 04/22/14One of my regular customers had to cancel his trip yesterday, due to personal uncontrollable circumstances on his end, so I was going to tag along and fun fish with my friend Scott Bogen who was in town prefishing for the NWT out of the Detroit River this coming weekend. Another friend, John, would also be fishing with us.
We hit the water at 7:30, and trolled a couple areas in the morning, and had 13 walleye by 10:30 when I received a phone call from a MN area code.
Two brothers and their friend (all originally from Wisconsin with one still living there), were in Ohio for the week for some fishing fun and their boat broke down after the first night here. They were looking for a charter to get them out on the water. Being a Wisco gal myself, I felt obligated to help them out.
But, what could I do? My boat was attached to my truck and sitting in the driveway at home, and I was sitting out in the middle of Lake Erie.
I didn't tell them, "No" though, and asked them if they would be willing to stop and pick up my truck and boat and drive it over to the launch that was closest to where we were fishing at the time, and they said, "Yes". After some instruction, about a 1/2 hour later they said they had picked up the boat and were on their way to the launch. Scotty drove me in and dropped me off, and about 2 minutes later they pulled in. It was perfect timing, and I thought everything was going to go smoothly and we would be on the water fishing in just a few minutes.. I was wrong.
As I readied the boat at the launch, I plugged the trolling motor in and remembered that I had taken the remote for the trolling motor out of the glove box and put it on my desk for safe keeping since the next trip wasn't for a few more days. Ugh!! I explained that we couldn't go anywhere without that remote, and I would have to drive back home and get it. They were very understanding and the brothers, Brian and Aaron, said they would hang out at the launch and eat their Subway sandwiches they bought on the way to the ramp, and Jason would go for a ride with me.
We picked up the remote and headed back to the ramp. We launched at 11:45am and headed out to the last spot I was with with Scotty. Since he's fishing a tournament, I am not giving out his spot information, but I can say, for anyone that knows this lake, it's pretty common for this time of year, and no secret.
After picking up a few fish there, we headed towards the west side of Green Island where I had taken the previous day's crew, and set out trolling DHJ12's 35-60 back. The previous day they jumped all over the Pink Lemonad and Blue Glass colors, but yesterday they wanted the Glass Clown. That color took most of the fish over there.
I had switched out a Blue Glass for a Halloween, and told the guys, "Okay, I always like to make it a little interesting and have you each pick a bait/board that you think is going to catch a fish next". Jason picked the middle board on the Port Side, and Brian picked the middle board on the starboard side. We waited for Aaron to pick one, and he finally pointed to the board that had the new Halloween color on it and it wasn't two seconds later that that board went shooting back with a the biggest fish of the day on it! We all laughed and hooped and hollered while he reeled it in. It was 30 inches long, but I don't have a scaled in the boat to get any weights, so we guess it to be close to 10 pounds. She had a big head and some big shoulders on her, but her belly is still pretty skinny after the spawn.
They are just starting to put the feed bag on and it will be a good week before we see those bellies getting full and tight again.
We ended up with 9 fish between 25 and 30 inches for the day. The bite seemed better in the morning than it was in the afternoon yesterday.
We met Scotty and John at the mexican restaurant for dinner and headed home to drop the crew off with their fish, and put the boat to bed. I was whooped and didn't get this blog done until this morning.
The same crew wants to go this morning, so I have to make this short!
We'll be launching out of Mazurik's at 8am. I'll report back later!
Capt. Juls
Another Awesome Day on Lake Erie!
by Capt Juls on 04/20/14Hit the launch at 7:15 this morning and was setting lines by 7:30. Today I was fishing with Alan Thompson from Indiana and his friend, Jim, who lives a few hours south of Port Clinton in Ohio.
We boated our first two walleye around E can. The water looked good, and I'm sure the bite would have picked up if we would have stayed, but I got a tip to another location and moved over there. It wasn't "my" spot, so I am not at liberty to give that information out. What I can say is that the presentation was deeper than my first spot. The E can area where we caught our first two walleye was 35-37 back on the Pink Lemonade deep diving husky jerk again, and the second spot was 85-110 back with Pinks and blues.
We had one fish to go to fill out their two limits when I decided the action had slowed down too much. We took a little boat ride up to the west side of Green Island to look at the water there. There were a lot of boats in the area, trolling, so we picked a path of least resistance and set our baits in the water. We didn't have all six lines in the water before we got the first fish there. It was a nice 8 pound eye. That filled their limit, and since we had 45 minutes to go, we set out after my limit.
It wasn't long before we had another fish on. This time it was a 7 pound fish. Another 10 mintues goes by and we have another fish on. This time it's the biggest fish of the day with a nice 30 incher! That one made me twenty bucks, because Alan said earlier in the day, "If you get me a 30 incher I'll give you twenty bucks". lol
Time had run out for their charter, so I told them, "The next fish or 15 minutes, whichever comes first, then we have to leave...time is up".
Luckily, it was the fish that came first and again, it was another cookie cutter 7 pound walleye to finish off the day with.
Pink Lemonade, Pink Glass, and Blue Glass took all the fish today. We ran them 37 to 110 back, so that tells you they are all over the water column right now, and they are hungry!
Good luck to everyone fishing tomorrow. I'll be back out with a couple of my regular customers for another go at it. Being a Monday though, I'm hoping I get the spot all to myself. hehehe
Capt Juls
What an Absolutely Fantastically Fun Day!!
by Capt Juls on 04/18/14I woke up at 3:30am and cursed my luck. I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep in time to take advantage of the last half hour before my alarm clock went off, so I got up and put the coffee on.
After checking the weather, wind, and marine forecast for the day, I settled into my routine of checking my favorite websites for an hour while I sipped my morning brew.
Took a shower, dressed, and loaded up the Ranger's cooler with goodies for lunch.
I met my crew at the bait shop across from their hotel, because I needed ice and they needed fishing licenses. We hit the launch at 7am and headed towards Niagra Reef first.
When we got there the water was really too clean for my liking and I wasn't marking any fish on the H'Bird, so we reeled in the lines and headed back south towards F can, where the water looked a little more stained.
We stopped short between F can and E can and set lines. After a quick instruction on how to put the Off Shore boards out my crew became pretty efficient, so I let them have all the fun, while I just gave instructions and netted the fish. They did an awesome job. :)
Deep Husky Jerks in Pink Lemonade, Halloween, and Black/Gold up high in the water column did the job. 35-55 back took all the fish. Others were getting them deeper in other areas, as I was told they were running 90-110 back. But, since we were catching, I didn't change a thing!
It was a perfect day on the water. Barely a breeze on the water again today, and the sun was out most of the time, which was a nice surprise since the forecast was calling for mostly cloudy all day. The clouds did show up around 12:30, along with a light 5 mph breeze from the ENE (when our bite turned off). We headed in at 1pm with 14 walleye that ended up weighing 89+ pounds at the cleaners. The boys were very happy, and kept telling me how much fun they had when we got in. That is what keeps me going, and makes it all worth it. :)
I'm waiting on a call about tomorrow's charter. We might be rescheduling due to temperatures and wind direction for a little better day for them. If not, we'll be out there again tomorrow doing the same thing with minor adjustments if needed.
I'll let you know...:)
Capt Juls
With a Heavy Heart....
by Capt Juls on 04/17/14
As I ready the Ranger for her charters tomorrow through Monday, I am heartbroken for the family and friends of fellow Lake Erie anglers who tragically did not make it home yesterday.
Bryan Huff and the love of his life, and tournament partner, Amy Santus, along with Amy's Niece and Bryan's friend had an unknown accident that left their boat capsized on Toussaint Reef. The boat was found this morning by the USCG, and so far the two women have been recovered. Both had life jackets on.
Bryan and his friend are still missing at this point in time, and I am hoping they are found soon, so their families can bring some closure to this unfortunate accident.
Bryan was an experienced Lake Erie angler, and a cautious boater, so whatever happened should be a reminder to all of us that bad things can happen very fast out there, and we should never take this lake for granted.
My deepest sympathies and condolences go out to their family and friends, and I pray they find some peace to help them through this.
Life must go on....
I promise to give my clients the best of me tomorrow, and show them a good time on the water. The forecast looks good and the bite is on, and the plan of attack is already made. :)
Great Day on the Water Today! Finally!! :)
by Capt Juls on 04/12/14It was a great day on the water today. The weather couldn't have been better. Light South winds putting a 1' chop on the lake made the bite a lot better than it had been my last two trips out.
Bob Luellen, Susie, and Sharon met me at my house this morning. We jumped in the truck and headed to a local restaurant for breakfast before heading to Catawba ramp to launch.
We launched at approximately 9am and headed to F Can. There were a ton of boats out there, due to a local tournament and it being the first really nice Saturday of the spring season. I taught the ladies how to use the line counter reels, and why we use them. Then, they learned how to attach the off shore boards and set them out. They were fast learners, because although they have never trolled before, they have been fishing all their lives. I thought to myself..."Boy, I'm going to have an easy day today". And, I was right. After they got the hang of it, all I had to do was steer the boat clear of all the other boats going every which way out there. lol
Bob was their net man as they took turns reeling in the day's catch. It wasn't fast and furious, but it was busy enough that they never got bored of watching the boards.
We ended up with only 8 fish and lost two fish, one of which was a real pig that I would have loved to see one of them holding up.
Both caught their biggest walleye to date, and that made everyone very happy.
The fish were very high in the water column and our best leads were 25 and 35 back with Deep Husky Jerks (12) pulled at 1.0 mph. Our best colors were Pink Lemonade, Halloween, Purplescent, and Fire Tiger.
The water was stained, but not muddy, and not too clean. The sun was out most of the day and then about 1pm the sky got cloudy and the wind picked up out of the Southeast. It got a little bumpy for a while, but the biggest fish of the day eased their minds about the lake conditions and we trolled on until about 2:45. Then, it was time to head in.
Overall, I can't say enough how happy it made me to finally put some fish in the boat. After the first two trips out this year, and zeroing, I was beginning to wonder if I could still catch them. ;)
All but one fish was spawned out. So, I think we might start to see some better catch rates in the near future, as the fish start to put the feedbag on again after this spawn. I sure hope Mother Nature is kind this year and lets us have conditions needed for a great hatch, but I won't get my hopes too high, because some crappy weather is headed this way tomorrow through Tuesday.
Tomorrow's charter is going to reschedule due to the wind advisory, so I'll be taking an unexpected day off to play with the dogs. I'm sure they will be very happy about that.:)
Pictures from today's catch can be found on page 6 of the photo album on my site...hope you enjoy them!
Capt Juls
