Juls WFA Blog
Perch'n with the Ruth Family 7/8/13
by Capt Juls on 07/08/13We got lucky this morning and found ourselves between rain/storms when we launched at Mazurik's at 8am. An 8 hour trip was scheduled with the Ruth family. Kids, Lilly and Zander, were excited to go fishing, so we loaded up and hit the water.
It was only a 10 mile run, or so, to the area between Kelly's Island and Gull Island Shoal, where we found some perch yesterday. We hit pay dirt again; the perch were still in the area.
After some quick instruction on how to fish for them, we started picking at them pretty quick.
Long story short, they caught 120 perch in three hours (without my line being in the water). I thought it was just Dad and the kids going today, so I had only loaded 4 rods in the boat. But, Mom was going too, so I gave her my rod to use. Then, one of the reels on one of the rods completely fell apart. In all my years, I have never seen this one. The bail just seemed to explode on the little girl, so Dad and I spent our time just taking fish off and baiting hooks.
So, if you think about it, we could have really whooped on them had we had 5 lines in the water instead of 3!
The kids said they had a lot of fun, and their smiles proved it, and that's all that matters to me. :)
We beat the rain this morning and I've still got some time before before it rains again...whew! I think I might be able to get the smooshed minnows scrubbed off the floor of the boat before I have to cover it. lol
Thanks for the fun day Ruth family! Enjoy your week vacation here.
A successful day indeed...woot! woot!
Capt Juls
Sunday July 7th Fishing Report
by Capt Juls on 07/07/13I took Jamie and Jeremy Balboa fishing with me today as a "thank you" for installing my new kitchen floor last weekend. One good deed done for another. :)
We headed towards Northwest Reef (the "Kidney") to see if the eater sized walleye were still hanging out up there. There were fish, but mostly bait thieves (white perch, white bass, and sheephead). We caught one walleye.
After we finished that first pass I asked, "Can we go Perch'n now?" I've been wanting to go perch'n for a while now, but everyone wants to go for walleye for some reason. lol
Perch'n is so much fun! And, when you get into them like we did today, it's a blast! We caught 90 perch in two hours with very few throw backs.
After dropping them off at the fish cleaners we headed back to the house to get the dogs out and cover my boat before the afternoon showers showed up. They went home and I went back to Bomba's to get the perch. 9 bags of perch in the freezer for the winter is a good start, I'd say. :)
Can you believe in the past 17 days, we have had some sort of precipitation for 15 of those days? Uffda! My yard is so wet I can't even cut my grass. Guess I'll just have to go fishing again. hehehe
Headed out tomorrow morning for a four hour trip with Phil Ruth and his two children ages 7 & 9. We're going Perch'n again. Yay!
Woot! Woot! Perch RULE! hehe
Capt Juls
Friday July 5th Fishing Report
by Capt Juls on 07/07/13After working late Thursday night at the club, I still managed to get my butt out of bed at 4:30am to get ready for today's trip. I was meeting another previous customer, Marc Miller, and his friend Dave, and Dave's son, Matt.
It was supposed to be a light wind out of the SE, but she was blowing pretty good. The marine forecast was for 2' or less, but she was humping out towards the weather buoy with 2-4's and 3-5's.
We stopped short by about 7 miles and marked some fish, so we put the lines in the water and started a troll with the double willow leaf crawler harnesses behind #2 Tadpoles and 2oz inline weights anywhere from 35-60 back.
We caught one walleye out there and decided to go try a few passes on the east side of kellys. Only one big catfish to show for that effort though.
However, on the bright side, Dave and Matt wanted to learn how to run Off Shore inline planer boards, so I put them to work after showing them how to do it, and they did great. So, it was a successful day in their minds, and had only good things to say about the day.
I'm looking forward to the perch trip Marc wants to set up, because I LOVE perch fishing!
Capt Juls
It's been a Long Holiday Week!
by Capt Juls on 07/07/13I had a trip with one of my previous customers, Jerry Cohen, on Wednesday July 3rd. He brought his parents with him for this trip.
The weather was really nice, but there were still NE rollers coming in, resulting from the blow we had for two days before.
We launched out of Mazurik's and headed east since I had received a report from a friend telling of a good bite with big fish on the north side of the Huron dumping grounds. We headed that way, but with the rollers, and having elderly folks on board, I took it slow. We were watching the H'Bird on the way out and it was showing good marks about 1/2 way to our destination, so we decided to put the lines in the water and see if we could get one to eat. They didn't. It was too muddy inside where we were. So, we turned the boat and trolled out to cleaner water to the north.
We were still marking fish, so I didn't want to leave fish to go find fish. We just had to try and make them bite. We couldn't. They had lockjaw that morning. The chatter on the radio confirmed it.
So, after three hours, Jerry's Mom needed to use the ladies' room and was getting uncomfortable in the hot sunshine, so it was decided that we would just call it a day and they would go do something else the rest of the day.
It was still an enjoyable time listening to them talk about family and jobs and what they planned to do for the rest of the holiday week.
Thanks Jerry! Hopefully, next time it will be more productive. :)
Capt Juls
June 29th Fishing Report
by Capt Juls on 06/30/13Met my regular fishing partner at Mazurik's at about 9am and we headed to Canadian waters to fish.
He is a die hard catch and release angler, so we were only fishing for fun and for pictures.
We landed 16 and lost 5 or 6 nice fish.
Again...same program. I know, I'm so boring....but, it's working great! Hard to change it out when it's working....sorry.
My next adventure is slated for this coming Tuesday (July 2nd). I'll keep you posted.
Capt Juls
June 28th Fishing Report
by Capt Juls on 06/30/13A friend of mine texted me Thursday afternoon asking if I had a charter on Friday morning. I told him that I didn't. He asked if I wanted one, and I said, "yes".
He sent me the fella's number and said his name was, "Nick". I called, but there was no answer. I left a message telling Nick that I was driving to work and that he had 15 minutes to call me, or else I would have to call when I got out of work that night...which wouldn't be until 10 ish or so. Long story short....he called me back right away and while I walked into work, I set up the charter for the morning.
The weather report had me a bit concerned, but it ended up being one of the those very lucky days where from the moment we set off from the dock the weather was perfect. The fishing was great, and the storms stayed away until my boat was back in the driveway in the afternoon and covered back up. I couldn't have staged it any better if I had written the script myself.
We met at Mazurik's at 6:50 and were on our way up to the west side of North Bass, on the line, by 7am. By 7:20 we were setting our lines out with a mini seminar on how to use the equipment and fishing.
Today we had Nick, his Dad (never remembered his name, because it was more fun to call him, "Daddy"! lol) and Nick's friend Chris. Chris is from Texas and had never caught a walleye before.
Same program again....sorry, boring, I know...lol But, hey, if it's not broke, don't fix it! ;)
By the end of the day they had their 18 fish, plus a few in the box for me. Unfortunately, they were all just small eaters and no big ones that Lake Erie is known for. However, they wanted good eating fish and that's what they got....perfect eaters. Those 16-24 inch fish. They were very happy to have gotten out with such a short notice, and had a great time.
They were a great group to fish with. They learned quickly and retained the information, so when we ran up to make another pass, I jumped up in the seat on the bow of the boat and said to them, "Okay boys, get us set up again. It's all you now. You're officially trollers, and I'm just going to steer the boat." They did an awesome job, and only needed me interjecting when I saw something about to happen that shouldn't, or they needed reminding of something that should be done. You know, typical girl job...nag, nag, nag! lol
I would call it a very successful morning. The afternoon had the skies open up with lightning, thunder, hail and flood type monsoon rains.
We couldn't have timed it any better. Just a perfect day.
Capt Juls
June 25th Fishing Report
by Capt Juls on 06/30/13The last report was with John and Billy up in Canada on Mill Point. Well, on Tuesday the 25th, I took their co worker (all salesmen) Greg and one of his clients, Mike, up to the same spot to fish.
The weather was a little bumpier than the day before, but as soon as I cleared Chickenolee Reef the waves got smaller due to the land mass of Pelee Island blocking the wind a little bit. So, by the time we set up on Mill Point it was as nice as the day before with 1 foot or less waves.
We proceeded to catch walleye at a steady pace and made three passes there. When we were down to only needing two more fish to fill their limit, we moved out to the east of Chickenolee where I felt they had a better chance of catching big fish.
The day before we had 57 pounds for 12 fish, but we only ended up with 44 pounds for their 12 fish. We never did get any giants, but they went home happy.
I texted their boss, Jerry Cohen, who had set up these two trips and he mentioned that everyone had a good time and that they would be happy to do it again. I can't ask for more than that. I feel pretty good about that. :)
The weather was sunny with a chance of showers and thunderstorms (of course...what's new?) a westerly breeze at 10-15mph and waves 1-3 feet.
Program is the same as it has been for the past month...double willow leaf harnesses pulled at 1.6mph with 2oz inline weights and #2 Tadpoles anywhere from 25-40 back over 24-29 foot of water. When I fished in deeper water (30-34') we let them out as far as 60 back and caught fish.
Capt Juls
Sorry for the Delay in Blogging!
by Capt Juls on 06/30/13Two of my laptops were out of commission thanks to the cat that lives in this house.
I got one of them back yesterday, so I am back up. It's too hard to do a blog from an iPhone, so I chose to wait until one of the two laptops was repaired.
Who knew cats would choose a keyboard to puke on when they have an entire house to do it in? Deep sigh....stupid cat.
Anyway, I apologize for leaving you hanging for information this past week.
Capt Juls
Monday June 24th Fishing Report
by Capt Juls on 06/24/13Headed out early this morning to meet up with Jim McEwen and his wife Renee at Mazurik's boat access. They had fished with me back in April and Jim, being a taxidermist on the side, said he had done one of the fish they caught, and wanted me to have it. It is beautiful! It is now permanently in its new home right here next to my desk where I can look up and remember the fun day we had that day. Thanks Jim and Renee!
My two salesmen from Cleveland showed up right on time, and we headed out at 8am. I was informed that their boss took them to Put-In-Bay the night before and Billy wasn't feeling too well. John felt fine, he said.
Being that neither of them really fished before, or trolled for that matter, we stopped over on the SE corner of Kelly's Island for a quick seminar on using Off Shore Tackle in line Planer boards, line counter reels, and how to put a crawler on a harness correctly. We set 6 lines out and trolled for maybe a 1/2 hour when I said, "Let's get up to Canada now". When we pulled all the lines in all the crawlers had been stolen.....#%$^@ dang little white perch! :)
We called the Canadian Customs when we crossed and took care of business...got my number for the day, and proceeded to head to Mill Point. The nice thing about fishing on a weekday is there is no one out there with you, or to get in your way. We had the point all to ourselves for the next 4 hours.
Billy caught the first fish that was on and got it in the boat. Then, he announced that he wasn't feeling very good, so I gave him some of my seasickness spray that sky divers use, but it wasn't soon enough. He was pretty gray already. He didn't want to go in though. I said he should go lie down on the bow and that should help make him feel better. I said, "We'll wake you up in about an hour" (which is how long that pass usually takes).
John and I were having a ball catching their two man limit. John was a quick learner and eager to do things the way I liked them done, so I didn't have to watch him too closely. However, he had trouble getting the crawlers on the hooks "just so", so I did that job for him. Hey, you have to do what you have to do, right? lol
They were both really cool guys and real gentlemen. Their boss would have been very proud of them today. I know Billy will take some ribbing, but he had a good sense of humor about it all.
I know you're getting tired of hearing the same old same old, but when a program is working there is no reason to change it. Same thing today, and again tomorrow....
Double willow leaf harnesses made by Larry Lambert of Marblehead (sold at Hi-Way Bait and Tackle on 163 in Marblehead). 1.6-1.7mph with #2 Tadpoles and 2oz inline weights 25-33 on the shallow side of the boat and 30-45 on the deep side. We were fishing the 29-30 foot contour and the outside boards were over 32-34 foot of water.
Tomorrow I will take another one of Jerry's salesmen with one of his clients up there too, but I may move off the point a little more. It will depend on the weather conditions in the morning.
Today was beautiful. The winds were out of the SW at 5-10mph with sunny skies. There was just enough wind to keep the biting black flies off of us for most of the day. They found my boat at about 11:45, but we were already packing it in. They had their limit and I wanted to get Billy back on shore. I know that feeling and it's the worst thing in the world to try and survive. He said, "Well, I'm not going to argue"...when I suggested we head back. lol
Hitting the hay early tonight. 4:30 comes pretty fast once I close my eyes. :)
Thanks for checking out my blog. I'll be posting again tomorrow night.
Good luck fishing everyone!
Capt Juls
Sunday June 23rd Fishing Report
by Capt Juls on 06/24/13(Due to heat exhaustion, I am writing this the day after the fishing trip)
Tracy and Robin Patterson gave me a call on Friday night to set up a fishing trip for yesterday (Sunday). I was looking forward to this trip, since I have been friends with Tracy for right around 14 years and his new bride for 1 year. They fished with me last year on a foggy, east wind, dreary day where we only caught a couple fish.
Yesterday, however, was a different story. The weather was very warm, No, actually hot, with very little wind to speak of, and the sun was shining.
We started out on the SE corner of Kelly's in about 30-32 foot of water and proceeded to start catching fish right away. Some were walleye and some were junk fish, but there was action. We designated Robin as the person to do most of the reeling, while Tracy and I did all the work, so she could have some fun. She's doesn't have much experience when it comes to fishing, so we wanted her to get some time in behind the reel...:)
We made one pass there and caught two and lost 4. We decided not to make another pass through there as the weekend perch flotilla was out in force over there and would make navigating a trolling pass a pain in the butt.
We moved up to the "old C Can" area about 6 miles east of Middle Island up on the Canadian line and set up another pass. Two fish caught out there, but I wasn't seeing the marks on the Humminbird like I wanted, so when I asked if they wanted to go back down to the first area or find another area, I got the usual answer of, "You're the Captain, it's your boat, whatever you want to do". Okay, fine. Let's go.
I took them over to the area on the west side of North Bass Island and north of West Reef, and proceeded to set up a trolling pass. We were seeing nice marks on the 1198 this time and they turned out to be some nice eater sized walleye in the 16-24 inch class. Yummy! :)
We finished out their limit and started to get into mine when we ran out of time. I really need to put a doggy door in once my dog yard fence is up, so they can get out to go potty on their own. We would have stayed out a little longer to fill my ticket if it weren't for the dogs needing out and the black flies that were starting to devour our legs. They loved Tracy's legs and actually drew blood on him several times! Ouch!
Same program as the past few weeks....double willow leaf harnesses pulled at 1.6-1.7, but this time the hot color was the black and gold combo. The pinks did well also, but they really liked the natural colors yesterday a little more.
Headed back out again today and tomorrow. I think we're heading to Canada with this bunch though...they're looking for a little bigger fish to brag about. :)
Capt Juls
June 18th Charter with Denny and Angelo
by Capt Juls on 06/18/13Woke up at 4:30 and took care of the dogs before hitting the shower and getting ready for another day of fishing.
After a quick check of the weather on the computer, I went outside to remove the cover on the Ranger, and put the crawlers in the cooler. Headed to the hotel where my guys were staying and picked them up a 1/2 hour early. Wind report was for building winds by mid morning, and 15-20 out of the North/ Northeast. Unfortunately, it was every bit of that and the lake was pretty rough.
We left Mazurik's at 7am and headed toward Middle Island, but stopped short when I had second thoughts of being a small boat on a rough Lake Erie on a Tuesday when very few boats were around. Instead we set up a troll on American Eagle Shoal, where several other boats had the same idea. We only caught a sheephead on that spot, so I decided we would give the old college try and headed to the East side of Kelly's.
Yesterday morning, in that spot, we only caught giant catfish. Today we managed to get 5 walleye to bite, with one of them being another "Fish Ohio" for these two. We also caught a nice chunky smallmouth bass on a Reef Runner, but didn't catch any catfish today. Again, not much to tell as far as presentation. Same double willow leaf harnesses I've been running for weeks at 1.6 mph. The RR's caught the smallie and one of the walleye and were trolled at the same speed as the harnesses. 45-55 back was the count on the RR's.
When the trip was over I took the guys over to the fish cleaners to get their fish cleaned before taking them back to their hotel.
We said our goodbyes and we thanked each other for a fun two days. I would call it a success. :)
This coming Saturday and Sunday is going to be beautiful. Both charters have rescheduled for July, due to personal or work obligations, so this weekend is open for anyone that wants to book a charter. I'm available now.
Capt Juls
June 17th Trip with Denny and Angelo...
by Capt Juls on 06/17/13Well, I had to reschedule two trips this past week, due to weather, and the Youth Tournament I was supposed to fish was cancelled, due to a small craft advisory this past Thursday. So, after a weekend of attending the Cabelas National Walleye Tour that was in town this past weekend, I was too busy to keep up with my blog. My apologies to anyone who is actually reading/following my random thoughts. :)
Anyhooo....
Today was an exceptional day on the water. The weather was absolutely beautiful.
I picked my crew of two up at their hotel at 6:45 and we launched out of Mazurik's at 7am.
We headed straight to the SW corner of Kelly's and made one pass in the 28-30' edge and caught 6 huge catfish. I said, "Enough of this! I don't even like handling the little cats, let alone the big ones with bigger stingers!" So, we got on plane and headed to the East side of Pelee Island.
There, we got into some real beauties. We made two passes using the same double willow leaf harnesses I have been using the past month, and trolled at a speed of 1.6 to catch our fish. 2oz 25-35 back was the ticket there. We only caught 8 of their 12 fish there, but 4 of them were "Fish Ohio's" (28 inches or better). Pictures have been uploaded to page 4 on the photos page of my website if you want to see them.
We made a move with one hour to go, over to the area between Middle and North Bass, where I had been fishing a lot the past few weeks. The fish are still there and there are still some big fish there too. We caught three more "good eaters" and finished the day off with the biggest fish of them all. (Sorry, I didn't measure it).
As we were reeling in the lines to head home, we had one little walleye hanging on the outside board, so I said, "Well, it looks like I get to eat dinner tonight after all", to which they both laughed. It was a fun day with these two gentlemen.
Denny is a a farmer in Wisconsin. His friend Angelo is a retired banker. They both had a great time reeling in these big fish and are looking forward to going out and doing it again tomorrow. The weather will be cooler tomorrow, due to a NNE wind that's expected. Conditions will determine where we will start tomorrow, so at this point I'm not sure yet.
I only know that they are still biting, and I'm grateful that we had such a great day of fishing today.
The Mayfly hatch was huge yesterday. This morning the Kroger parking lot was covered in them, as were many businesses and houses off of 163. What a mess! The husks that were left floating in the water were all over Ohio waters in the Western Basin and made a mess of the lines, planer boards, and my boat...yuck! I thought for sure the fishing would be tougher today, but luckily for us, it was still good. :)
I'll be back tomorrow to write another blog, and hopefully, it will be another good report.
Thanks for reading it.
Capt Juls
June 11th Trip with Jerry, Mike, and Mark
by Capt Juls on 06/11/13I got up early and made another batch of homemade brownies, but this time I added glazed walnuts and dark chocolate chips for a little sumpin-sumpin to make them outstanding...and, they were, if I do say so myself.
Jerry Cohen, last year's Commodore at the CIC on Catawba Island, and two friends of his were to meet me at Mazurik's launch at 8am. I was about a 1/2 hour early, and so were they! However, they had forgot to pick up fishing licenses, so I sent them over to Hi-Way Bait to get them before heading out.
We launched at 8am just like we planned and headed to the area I was fishing on Sunday...between North Bass and Middle Island in 34 feet of water just South of the Canadian line. We were using the same program with the double willow leaf harnesses as Sunday, which was #2 Tadpoles and 2oz inlines at 40-55 back.
We made two passes and picked up three fish in the first pass. One of them was a nice fatty 29 1/2 inch walleye. That one got high fives all around. We caught one more walleye in the second pass and decided to pick up and head over the East side of Kelly's Island where Duncan Wooster, another Captain friend of mine, was fishing and catching some nice 'eaters', along with one or two "Fish Ohios" if I'm not mistaken.
Anyhooo...we started out deep, but Duncan called and said to come inside to the 18-20 foot contour...so, we did. It wasn't long before we had a planer board go back and another walleye in the livewell. We continued on that contour and ran into some thick algae weed like substance that stuck to the planer boards, inline weights, and harnesses...Yuck! But, we also had another board go back telling us another fish was on. This one would escape Jerry as he tried to reel it in closer to the boat, due to a hook that was barely holding the fish on.
Even though their time was up, we stayed out a little longer and managed to get one more fish on the line. This time it was another big fish. A nice 28 incher! High fives all around again and we called it a day.
My guys did very well learning how to troll with Off Shore boards and crawler harnesses. By lunch time I had them setting all the lines while I made them some sandwiches. They did a fantastic job and I hope to fish with them again soon.
Thanks Jerry, Mike, and Mark for a very fun day! :)
Capt Juls
A Much Better Trip for Dion, Sabrina, and Mike This Time! (June 9th)
by Capt Juls on 06/10/13The last time I fished with these three it was a rainy and cold day in April. Dion and Sabrina had forgotten their rain gear at home in Michigan, but insisted on continuing with the trip. Mike Mink offered Sabrina his rain jacket, which she put on, and Dion wore a wind breaker jacket over his sweat suit. They were soaked and shivering by the end of the trip.
Yesterday was a much better trip for them. I immediately set a course from Mazurik's to the Canadian line where I was the day before. The program would be the same too. (See the June 8th blog for info).
We weren't even done setting all the lines out when the first fish hit and ended up in the livewell. All three were very excited now. And, it continued....we would have two of the three limits in the box within the first two hours of the day, and in the first pass.
As we neared Lucy's Point, we decided to bring all the lines in and head back East to make another pass and fill the last person's limit. This time, the fish decided to take a break and didn't bite. We caught two fish in that entire second pass and lost a couple of light biters. Of course, the sheephead never come off and Dion managed to catch a big fatty that got his adrenaline pumping, thinking he had a huge walleye on. That made for some great laughter and teasing for the rest of the day. :)
The winds were picking up by noon, so when we finished the second pass out by the line, I decided to head back over to North Bay to make a NE to SW trolling pass for the last hour of their trip. We caught one more walleye and two more sheephead to finish out the day. .
We ended up with 14 walleye and three happy customers, so I would consider that a successful day on the water.
We talked about the perch fishing and Sabrina said she had never done it, so we are planning a perch trip in the near future. I love perch fishing,....probably more than walleye fishing, so I'm definitely looking forward to that trip!
Good luck to everyone that is in town to fish the National Walleye Tour this week. The weather looks great for a fun tournament. :)
Capt Juls
June 8th Trip...Learning Trip
by Capt Juls on 06/09/13Saturday, June 8th, was scheduled as a "learning charter" for Capt. Jim Mazanec and his son Jim. They wanted to learn how to troll crawler harnesses behind inline planer boards.
They met me at my house in the morning, then we drove into town to gas up the Ranger, get some ice for the cooler, and some Mickey D's for my belly.. When we arrived at the ramp at 8am, my regular fishing partner Steve was waiting for us.
We headed to the North side of Kelly's to start the day. The conditions were perfect. After many days of blowing winds, the lake was calm for a change and made moving around a lot easier. The first pass we made was in front of North Bay where I had had successful trips earlier in the week.
Double willow leaf wire harnesses on 6' leaders behind #2 Tadpoles pulled at 1.6-1.8 in various colors was the order of the day. We marked several clouds of Mayflies floating to the surface...and, I mean BIG clouds! So, Port Clinton, its going to be a messy buggy week for us, I think. The fish didn't bite for us at N. Bay, so we moved. Were they full from gorging on the Mayflies? I don't know, but it could very well be the case.
We decided to move to the Canadian Line between Middle Island and North Bass Island, and started an East to West troll at 1.8 mph. After passing over some good marks and not getting a pull back, I tried dropping our speed down from 1.8 to 1.6 and immediately a board went back. It was pretty good fishing after the speed change and the boys had a great time.
Jim was pretty excited and asked where he could buy the boards to use on his boat. It looks like another drift/caster has been made a believer in the effectiveness of trolling. He also commented and said that it was a lot more involved than he originally thought.....we trollers get that a lot. lol
Anyway, it was a successful day on the water and I had two very enthusiastic clients that took away some knowledge to use on their boat. That's always the goal. To teach others how to use the equipment that's available to everyone. Some things can look intimidating if you've never tried it before, but with a little practice it becomes very easy and less intimidating.
Jim had seen the "Review" page on my site and sent me an email the next morning with the following. I couldn't help but feel kind of proud of myself.....thanks for the kind words Jim. :)
"My son and I went with Captain Juls on her Ranger for a trolling seminar on Lake Erie this weekend. I have fished the Lake for over 40 years and thought I knew everything about walleye fishing but, I must admit, I was wrong.
Captain Juls is the real deal! Her expertise, dedication, commitment, and integrity set her apart from most Charter Captains. We not only caught walleye, but she was constantly teaching and suggesting different techniques of how to catch those wonderful fish we all chase around the western basin for six months out of the year. I appreciated the opportunity to see how a true professional operates.
It’s apparent that Captain Juls loves what she does and is a great teacher. I look forward to the next time my son and I can get out with her for another Walleye adventure."
Captain Juls is the real deal! Her expertise, dedication, commitment, and integrity set her apart from most Charter Captains. We not only caught walleye, but she was constantly teaching and suggesting different techniques of how to catch those wonderful fish we all chase around the western basin for six months out of the year. I appreciated the opportunity to see how a true professional operates.
It’s apparent that Captain Juls loves what she does and is a great teacher. I look forward to the next time my son and I can get out with her for another Walleye adventure."
Capt Juls
June 4th Trip...Great Time With Two Great Guys!
by Capt Juls on 06/05/13I was meeting my regular customer, Steve Chapman, and his son Jeremy at Mazurik's ramp at 8am, so I got up at 5am and made them some dark chocolate brownies and Deviled Egg salad for sandwiches later in the day.
I stopped off at the gas station to top off the tank in the boat, and headed to Hi Way Bait and Tackle to pick up some ice. I took in some of the still warm brownies for the guys working and they appreciated that very much. Guess who didn't have to pay for ice! lol
Larry Lambert was at the shop, and gave me some fishing info, but it meant that I had to switch out my regular crawler harness set ups for his custom made double willow leaf crawler harnesses. These harnesses would allow me to run the boat at a faster speed, which would help in the rougher conditions than the marine forecast was calling for. They sure missed that one. The forecast said "1 foot or less" for wave heights, but it was sure more like 3-5's on our way out to the starting spot on the NE corner of Kelly's!
We set in at the green can between the shoal and the NE tip of the island and set a course for a SW troll in front of North Bay. The fish were stacked in there.
Shortly after setting lines out, we caught the first walleye of the day. A nice 29 inch fish. In that first pass we would catch and box 6 walleye and miss 3 others. We also caught a few sheephead to keep things interesting.
We were running our baits with 2oz Tadpoles and inline weights behind Off Shore boards at a speed between 1.6 and 1.8 (with surges to 2.0) mph.
Colors were all over the board from Perch pattern, pinks, purples, and oranges, so color wasn't a factor yesterday. They liked them all.
We made another run up to make another pass, but this time, though we were still marking fish, they were not biting as quickly. We missed a couple more light biters and caught 4 more walleye to finish out their trip with 10 in the box that went 40 pounds. They were both very happy customers.
We had talked about the perch fishing on the lake, and I told them that I love to perch fish, so they are bringing their wives up on the 16th of June to do a little perch'n. That will be a great day if we can find a nice school of them around the islands.
They treated me to a couple of drinks and an early dinner at Ciao Bella, a new italian restaurant in town, for my birthday, and they headed home.
It's always a fun day on the water with these two and I always look forward to fishing with them.
It's my birthday today, so I am on shore writing articles that have deadlines, and hoping to get my grass cut before I have to work tonight (happy birthday to me, right? ha!)
I have a trip in the morning...if the conditions are right. They are an older couple staying out on Kelly's Island for the week, so if it's going to be too rough I will cancel it. I won't know until I get to the ramp in the morning. If I don't show up at the ramp on the island by 8am they know I'm not coming and will go have breakfast. :)
The forecast is calling for NE winds again, which makes it rougher than normal for a 15mph wind out there.
Have a great day everyone!
Capt Juls
Tuesday June 4th....headed out this morning
by Capt Juls on 06/04/13
I was up early to make some dark chocolate brownies for my charter today, along with some deviled egg salad sandwiches...so, now the house smells like chocolate eggs. lol
Have a great day everyone...I'm going fish'n with two of my regular customers, so it should be a really fun day! :)
You'll hear about it later....conditions today are:
TODAY...NORTHEAST WINDS 10 KNOTS OR LESS. WAVES 1 FOOT OR LESS. Sunny with a high near 65
I have 5 days left in June that are available for charters..
by Capt Juls on 05/29/13
I changed my work schedule around, so I could fit more charters in, so the dates available to you now are Saturdays, 22nd & 29th....and Sundays 16, 23, 30th.
Book your "Adventure" asap...first person to hold a date with a 100.00 deposit gets the date. (It's the only fair way to do it). :)
Capt Juls
Memorial Day Fishing Trip with the Jacksons
by Capt Juls on 05/28/13May 27th, 2013
Charlene Jackson called me on Friday of last week, and said that she had seen my article in "The Beacon", (a local paper that I write a weekly fishing report for).
Last weekend, when they were here fishing on another charter boat, she picked up the paper in the hotel and took it home to Indiana with her.
She said that she and her husband owned a smaller boat and wanted to learn how to troll with it. I said, "Well, that's what I do best, and if you're good students, by the end of the 6 hours you will know how to run crawler harnesses behind OST boards and use spoons behind dipsies and jet divers."
My Ranger 621 is only a couple feet bigger than their boat, so it was a perfect fit for them. And, as I had promised, by the end of the 6 hours they were both running their respective sides of the boat without my help, except for a little guidance here and there to tweak things.
We started the morning off by launching at Mazurik's. We dropped in at American Eagle Shoal, but didn't mark anything, so we moved on out to the south side of Gull Island Shoal and didn't mark anything there either, so we moved once again....this time to Lucy's Point.
We set a trolling pass to the North side of Northbass Island, and I went about teaching them how to set up the rods with dipsies and jet divers. I explained how the dipsies have left and right side capabilities and explained the depth chart and how it works. I recently bought some 40 Tru-Trip Jet Divers that I was looking forward to trying out, since the radio is always on fire with announcements from the "Pooh Bear" and his other fleet of Captains saying things like, "40 Tru-Trips 45' and 50' back...another double", or "another one in the box"..."Just got a triple"!
The only difference between the old style jet divers and the new Tru-Trips is that the new ones have a release on them like the dipsies, so that when set properly, and a fish hits, it releases and you're not fighting the jet diver to the boat. The fish usually comes to the surface, unless it's a toad, and stays deep on its own. :)
Anyhooo...back to the story....
We caught one walleye and two sheephead at Lucy's, so we picked up and went to the west side of Northbass, where I had done so well the weekend before with Larry and Steve. This time, I pulled the crawler harness rods out of the rod locker and showed them how to hook the crawlers and explained how the lightest weights go on the outside boards and the heavier weights on the inside. Once we were set up and trolling, it wasn't long before we hooked up with some nice eaters.
It was the exact same program as last weekend with Larry and Steve. We ran 1 ounce inlines and 1 ounce Tadpoles 35 back and the 2 ounce Tadpoles 28' back. Our speed was between 1.1 and 1.3mph.
We made three passes...the first pass we caught three fish. The second pass we caught another three fish. And, the last pass we caught two fish, so now we had 9 of their 12 fish in the box.
It had started to rain with a couple hours to go, and the wind had switched from East to Southwest. The bite just seemed to go south, so we decided to move. I took a route back south around west reef and through the channel between Northbass and Middlebass Islands and stopped short of Lucy's point. We were marking some fish there, so we put the crawlers back out to see if we could catch three more fish, and finish out their limit.
An announcement on the radio had said that chartreuse was working well for someone, and the fish had moved higher in the water column. We made some quick adjustments and it wasn't long after that that a fish had hit one of our harnesses sporting a blade with a chartreuse underbelly, so I changed all the pink blades out to blades with chartreuse underbellies. Soon after doing that, we caught the last two fish and headed in.
It was a wet day, but it was a lot of fun fishing with Mr. and Mrs Jackson. They were very good students and I have no doubt that they will be able to take what they learned and use it on their home lake.
My next charter is June 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
I'll be turning the big "5-0" on the 5th, so I'm hoping 4 successful days of fishing is a great way to celebrate my birthday this year. Fingers crossed!
Wish I could make it back to Wisconsin to celebrate the milestone with my twin brother and other family, but it looks like it will just be a party with me and my dogs...again....sigh.
Customer Review found on Walleye Central...
by Capt Juls on 05/24/13I thought I would share this here, since it was a nice report. ;)
This was written by Steve Johnson who fished with me this past weekend with Larry Schmitz. Steve wrote:
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 Erie TripA buddy and I just made a short trip to Lake Erie. We Drove Saturday, fished Sunday and Monday and drove back home Monday afternoon and evening. This was the 1st Lake Erie trip for both of us. I started communicating with Juls, one of Walleye Central's moderators, last August. I decided that we would use her services after our 1st email exchange. It was a wise decision. A single statement made by my buddy says it all. His comment on the way home was "I am done going to Canada and will be going back to Lake Erie and will be hiring Juls every time". We had no idea what to expect, but were very impressed with the hospitality and fishing experience she provided. She picked us up at our motel the 1st day and even agreed to joined us for dinner. We were (probably still are) novices at fishing with planer boards. She was a good teacher and was very patient with a couple of almost senior guys that needed more than a little coaching to do it right. The best part of the story was the fishing. Sunday, day one, was a little slow. We got four Walleyes and then decided to have some fun catching perch. Monday was a different story. We spent no more than 4 hours fishing for Walleyes and boated 14. Two were over 10 pounds and the top five averaged 8.5 pounds. We had a great time and will be repeating the trip, including hiring Juls if she will have us. Larry and I will go together again, he will be making a trip with his grandchildren and I will be arranging one with my wife, daughter and granddaughter. Larry and I would plan our family trips together, but we would both want to use Juls and her Ranger isn’t big enough for that. I hope I haven’t crossed the line with my comments about Juls as I didn’t ask her what I could say. If so, I trust that one of our moderators will let me know. I just told her I was going to post something here hoping to make a few Walleye Central regulars jealous. I have been to Canada and experienced a 100+ Walleye day for 2 ½ guys (don’t ask) and this was far better. I will take the quality we caught over quantity any day. |
