Fishing with Carol and Hugh Gaylord... July 8, 2023

There must be a bass tournament today, because the Speedway was lined up with them at 5:15.

We launched by 5:45, and headed a little west, to start the morning. Neither Hugh nor Carol, have ever used Off Shore inline planers, or dipsies before. Hugh had limited mobility, so he was unable to do any of the setting up, but he was helpful with the handing off of the net. :)

I explained everything to Carol, as I set up the Reef Runner Mag 44's behind the Off Shore boards on the port side....set at 25 and 35 back, over shallower water, and, then, to 50 and 42 feet back, over the deeper water. 

Flicker Minnow 11s ran on the starboard side, at 30 and 50 back over the shallower water, and then taken off, to be replaced with two more Mag 44s at 60 and 50 back, over the deeper water. 

The port side ran the blue/chrome and the black/gold 44s.  The starboard side ran the blue/chrome and Purple Glass Perch 44s. All four caught fish this morning.  

Two dipsies ran off each corner, with the inside rods set at zero, and the outside rods set on the 3 setting.  Scorpion and Yeck spoons were on three rods, and a gold/black Ripplin Redfin ran on the fourth.

The zero settings were running at 25 and 27 back, in the shallower water (16-18 feet), but lowered to 30 and 35 when we were over deeper water (27-30 feet)

The three settings were running at 45 and 55 back (Ripplin on the 55), at all times...meaning the depth of water didn't matter for the three settings....they remained the same. All the setups caught fish.

Speed was 2.2 on the Fish Hawk and 2.3-2.4 on the GPS.  

Water temp, west of Catawba, was 75 degrees at 15 feet down (Fish Hawk). I don't remember looking at the Helix for the surface temp...sorry.

We put 10 eater walleye in the cooler and tossed back a bunch of small walleye, sheephead, white perch, and two big catfish. One was around 5 pounds and the other was every bit of 10 pounds, if not more. 

I had been watching my radar app.. (RadarScope-Pro version), to see how long we could stay fishing. The app was showing some lightning strikes in the system that was moving in, so I wanted to make sure we didn't get stuck at a busy ramp, when everyone else would decide it was time to go in, so we picked up and headed in. We were able to load out, prep the boat for the road, and load up the truck, right before it started raining.  As we drove out the park, a lot of boats were headed to the dock.  So, it was the right move at the right time. :)

We were headed to "Port Clinton Fish Cleaning", when I realized that I handed the cooler down to Carol, but I didn't tell her to put it in the back of the truck, because I would do it when I climbed down.  But, as I was walking down the steps on the front of the boat, Carol said, "How do you like those "EZEESteps"?  And, I got distracted, and told her what I thought of them......I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened next...I forgot to load the cooler into the truck.  AAAaarrrrgghh!

The sick feeling hit me when we were almost downtown, and I knew I hadn't put the cooler in the back of the truck, and I know Carol hadn't, either. OMG! It's sitting in the parking lot at Catawba. 

"Someone is going to take it", I thought. "It's an expensive cooler,  and has 10 nice walleye in it, someone will surely take it".  

I thought it would be long gone, when we got back there.

To my relief, as we pulled into the lot...there it was. Sitting there, all alone....waiting. Whew!!  I didn't want to have to buy them fish to take home, and I certainly didn't want to have to buy a new 120qt cooler! So, thank you, to everyone that walked right on by it...I appreciate it. :)

My crew for tomorrow wants to reschedule..so I'll be back out on Monday.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls