Fishing with Jeff Baker, Jeff, and Will 11/3/2022

Huron was a zoo again yesterday, so I didn't want to deal with that mess, and pray that someone didn't damage my trailer while it sat in an overcrowded parking lot. We launched out of Marblehead, and had the launch pretty much to ourselves, except for another captain friend of mine, who was there waiting on his crew, and a family of three launching a pontoon boat to go perch'n.  It was very relaxing. :)

We headed out, and started out at Airport Reef in 34' of water and trolled the outside edge of the reef up towards the tip of the island. We landed 4 walleye in that one long pass.  There was one set of perch nets, set up off the tip of the reef, and surprised me....we were kind of close, but with quick assessment, quickly figured out there was no danger of getting in it.  We were on the single flag end, and on the outside of it, so all was well.

Captain Bobby Greene, who was the other captain at the launch, sent me a text to tell me he had moved from the area I was in, and found some good marks to the east. He sent me the numbers, and it turned out they were right on top of the marks I laid on my Helix last Saturday and Sunday, so I told my guys we were moving over there.

We picked up and made took a ride to the east, and set up again. We were running Bandits and Reapers unassisted by the reef, and only caught one of the 4 walleye on the Reaper, so we took all those off and put 4 more Bandits out again.

Since we were in the area I was last weekend, I decided to try the program I ran last weekend, too.

Bandits unassisted, behind the Off Shore boards, on the starboard side at 120, 110, 100, and 85 back, and with the 2oz Guppie weights running at 35/85, 35/65, 35/50, and 35/35 on the port side.

Bandit colors that worked well today were....

Daydream

RC Crush

Red Headed Wonderbread

Red Head

IB Frozen

There wasn't a lot of traffic out there, and at one point, there was a red StarCraft next to us that looked like they were trolling pretty fast. I was doing 1.6-1.7mph, and because of the angle he was running, I couldn't tell how fast he was actually going, but it looked fast.  I got on the radio....."Red StarCraft are you on channel 79?"  At first there was silence, so I figured he wasn't, so I put the mic down, and turned around to check the boards. At that time, a voice came over the radio, and I think he said his name, but I didn't make it out, and he said my name, and asked how we were doing. I told him, "We have 10 in the box...what speed are you doing? You look like you're hauling ass, and hauling in fish at that speed, too." He told me, "2.0mph going south, and 1.6-1.7 (I think that's what he said on his slow speed) going north. Red and white Bandits at 120 back". He was finishing up, and just fun fishing by that time, so I thanked him for his info, and dug out some red/white Bandits to put out on the starboard side.

He didn't lie. They worked. Thank you for the info, Mr. I can't remember your name in the red StarCraft! We were able to put 8 more fish in the cooler in time to finish out their 3-man limit. I appreciated the help. :)

Jeff Baker (I'm using his last name, because there were two Jeff's on the boat, and JB booked the trip with me)....he and his friends fish together all the time, and he wanted to learn how to use  the inline boards. They have done other charters, but he said they didn't let them do anything, but reel in the fish. The Captain set all the lines.  I told him when we got in the boat, that if they really wanted to learn that I would teach them, and they could set their own boards, and they would be proficient by the end of the 6 hours.

They started out a bit shaky, but a couple of hours in, and they were setting lines just fine. They were even able to set the Off Shore boards back out in their original positions without having to move other boards out of the way. I was so proud of them. They did a great job! We only had one small tangle, and never lost a fish, so I call that a successful trip...and, that makes me happy!

Jeff asked me a lot of questions, and wrote my answers down on his little notepad, so he could remember the information, later, when they set up their boats with Off Shore boards and dipsies.

It was a fun morning, and a beautiful day on the lake. The wind was light out of the south in the morning, and then went down to practically nothing by 1:00. Some bugs showed up when the wind died, too, but they weren't too annoying.

The guys had fun, and I have no doubt that they will be able to duplicate what they learned today, on their own. And, with a little more practice, they will have the confidence to keep on troll'n on. :)

I'm off until the 11th, and hopefully that weekend will be nice, so I can get out a few more times, before I stop for the season. This little pup of mine needs some attention and some training, so that's my job in the off season, this year.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls