Fishing with Don and Jerry 7/26/2022

After I made some coffee, and grabbed Dexter's treats, he and I went out to the back deck, to check the weather. "What do you think, big boy? It's nice and cool out, should I keep the windows in the house open today?" I asked. 

Of course, he just kind of gave me an acknowledgment, with a "side-eye" glance, as he ate his cookie.  "No, you're right, it's still pretty humid", I said.

It was a beautiful morning, with cooler temps than the previous couple of weeks. The air temp was in the mid to high 50s, and the wind was very light out of the SSW. The wind forecast was calling for wind less than 8mph, all day. My favorite kind of day. 

I picked my Minnesota crew up at the White Caps Motel at 5:20. I wasn't going to drive to Huron this morning, so I didn't have to leave as early as I was last week.

Don and Jerry were right on time, so we hit the gas station  for gas and ice, and then hit Hi-Way Bait for some minnows. 

We were walleye fishing today, but I was hopeful that we could get the walleye early and then go for some perch, if time allowed.  I figured if there wasn't time, and we didn't use the minnows, my neighbor's pond has largemouth bass and big bluegills in it, that would gladly take the minnows off my hands, so they didn't go to waste.

We launched out of Mazurik's at 6am and headed to the east side of Kelly's. To make a long story shorter....we fished for two and a half hours, marking fish on the Solix, only to find the cooler still empty.  I debated on where to go next, and told the guys to pick up, because there has to be active fish somewhere.  And, since I had been doing well to the east, I opted to hit the Huron area. It was a good move. We started catching right away, and it continued until we ran out of time.

We were trolling in 40-41 feet of water with both Bandits and dipsies with spoons.

The Bandits were run behind the Off Shore boards, set with 2 oz Guppy weights (at the 50 mark), and let out a total length of 120 and 87 back on the starboard side, and 120 and 115 on the port side.

Colors used were: Green Lantern, Furmi-Nuff, Blue Chrome, and Carrot Top

They all took fish as soon as they were set, but that wouldn't last, and the Bandit bite would slow down, while the spoon bite would pick up, as the morning progressed.

The dipsies were on their usual zero and two settings, but the lead lengths were changing constantly, until we found that 45 back on the zero setting and 65 back on the two settings were catching consistently, and pretty quickly.

Speed was 2.5-2.7 going east and 2.4-2.5, 2.6 going west.  The easterly direction had more action than the westerly troll, did.

We went through a ton of little fish, junk fish, and dropped fish, to get our 17 keepers, but Don and Jerry were kept busy, and had a great time learning how to use dipsies. They caught on very quickly, and did a great job! 

I have them again tomorrow, but tomorrow's trip is exclusively a perch trip, so we'll be launching out of Mazurik's or Catawba, in the morning....I'm not sure which one yet.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls