Fishing with Darrell and Kevin 11/17/17
by Capt Juls on 11/17/17I woke up this morning, and the first thing I did was check the wind forecast on iWindSurf, to see what the forecast held for us today. Capt Kevin Swartz had invited me to go with him and his customer, Darrell, (from Indiana), to do a little walleye fishing.
Kevin picked me up at 6:45 and we jumped on RT 2 to drive to the other side of Port Clinton. The Draw Bridge downtown on 163 is closed until some time in May, so going through town, to get to the other end of town is no longer an option until mid May some time....ugh.
Anyway, the plan for the day was a 6 hour trip....and, if we caught the walleye fast, we would use up the rest of the time fishing for Perch....woot! woot! :)
So, needless to say, we stopped at Rickard's Bait to pick up some Emeralds....(which, by the way, were the perfect sized minnows.)
We met Darrell at Mazurik's at 7:15 and launched by 7:30.....headed north out of the break wall, and up to the north side of Kelly's Island.
As Kevin and Darrell discussed the virtues of using electronics to find fish...Kevin told Darrell what it was he thought he was seeing on the screen. After marking a few nice fish, he deployed the Ulterra, and set the iPilot in an easterly direction toward the shoal.
The rods were all set with Smithwick Top 20's, running anywhere from 65 to 95 back, at a speed of 1.7mph. We would only manage 3 walleye on that mile long pull.
After discussing where we should go next, we headed to the Sandusky Dumping Grounds. Kevin stopped short of it, and pulled Off Shore boards into the waves, still running Top 20's. I think we caught 2 or 3 more on that pull to the SE, giving us a total of 5 or 6....I can't remember exactly.
I suggested that we pick everything up, and run inside...then, turn around to make the pull from south to north...going with the waves. Kevin agreed, so he ran us inside to about 33 foot of water...turned us around, and set the iPilot on a NW pull, which put the waves on the Ranger's starboard corner.
This time, on the run back up to the inside, I changed out the Top 20's that were on the side Darrell and I were running, all to #11 Flicker Minnows. We chose to use the chrome purple/ with the orange belly, "Fancy Chartreuse", and "IB Frozen". I wanted to see if there was a bite higher in the water column, so I set them out at 45, 55, and 65 back.
After Kevin's side was set, and our side was set, Kevin grabbed the urinal and went to the front of the boat for some privacy. I said to Darrell, "This is when I like to yell, 'Fish!!'", and laughed. Just as I said that, Darrell points to a board on our side and yells, "Fish!" I couldn't help but laugh again! :)
Shortly after boxing that one, another one hit on our side of the boat. The Flickers set at 45 and 55 had both taken a fish. Kevin kept his Top 20's out just a little longer, to make sure it wasn't a fluke, before eventually switching everything up to Flicker Minnows.
To make this long story shorter...we ended the day with a three person limit of walleye, and Darrell kept expressing how much he enjoyed the day, which made both Kevin and I happy. :)
The perch will have to wait for another day, because we ran out of time, and it was close to the time we needed to head in.
There is some very crappy weather headed this way, (some rain, and lots of wind for the next several days), so until next weekend, stay warm and dry....be safe!
Thanks for reading...
Capt Juls
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