Fishing with John and Seth Feldhausen 6/4/19
by Capt Juls on 06/04/19Woke up at 2am with one of my cats purring on my chest....needless to say, it was enough to keep me up, so I got up, made some coffee, and set off to the back deck to check the weather for the day. I was greeted with a cool, calm, morning. I thought to myself, "It's going to be a great day".
I picked my guys up from the White Caps Motel at 4:50 and we headed off to Rickard's Bait to pick up some ice and some shiners. The shiners would be needed after we caught our limit of walleye, for a round of perch'n.
After we left the bait shop, we headed to the Big B's for some breakfast, and got to know each other a little bit. John and Seth are Grandfather and Grandson...who love to fish together, and they wanted to do a trip out here. I was looking forward to this trip for a long time. I was going to take my birthday off tomorrow, but when he reserved his days months ago, and wanted two days, I could hardly say, "No.". Besides, fishing on my birthday? I like that idea...how freak'n lucky am I? :)
When we got back in the truck to head to the launch, John asked Seth, "Get me that box out of my bag". Out came a bright yellow wrapped birthday present with a card. "Your birthday is tomorrow, right?", asked John. I nodded, still trying to believe that a customer... one I had never fished with before...would bring me a birthday gift! It made my morning, and I opened the card and gift with the enthusiasm of a kid.....well, a kid on his/her birthday. lol
John had brought me a beautiful metal art piece that was created on a round saw blade...it's very cool. It had a majestic Elk, mountains, and a pine tree on it. "Thank you, it's beautiful! I know just where I'm going to put it too", I said. And, with a happy heart, we headed on over to the launch.
We launched out of Mazurik's at 6am, and headed north to where I have been fishing the past several days. With the wind switch from the NNW to the SSW this morning, I stopped short of where I had been starting and set in with a SW to NE trolling pass. I deployed the Ulterra, set it to power level 5, and fired up the baby E-TEC to get my speed to 2.1-2.3mph to start. (I would adjust from there as the fish told me what they wanted, which was again closer to 2.3mph.)
It was pretty much the same program with dipsies and Off Shore boards, but besides just using spoons on the dipsies, I swapped out two spoons for the Ripplin Redfins. The "Huff Daddy" and "Firetiger" paint schemes were the ticket and caught several good eaters. The spoons were pretty much 50/50 against the RR's in the catch rate. The "Buck Fever" Bandit caught 2 eyes...one at 42 back and one at 51 back. The "Blue/Chrome" Bandit caught one walleye today at 61 back.
*Sorry...I never took notice of the water temperature, but I think it was around 64?
The first pass produced some fish, but a lot of fish were lost, due to the guys learning how to use dipsies and boards. Neither of which they have ever used before. On the second pass, I changed the direction of the trolling pass to a SE to NW this time. The fish seemed to be more active with that direction and the guys were getting the hang of it, so we were done with 18 before we finished that entire pass.
We put all the walleye stuff away and went to look for perch....after three spots, we found some bigger ones. But, they were also hanging out with big white perch and big sheepshead. It didn't matter though, because they were just happy to be fishing and catching. The species didn't really matter all that much, but it was always good when the target species was put in the cooler. John also caught a nice smallmouth out in a spot that I would never have guessed a smallmouth to be, so that was a nice surprise today too.
The 6 hours was almost up, and the sky was looking like there was heavy rain coming, so we packed it up with 24 perch and 18 walleye in the box. There were probably just as many sheepshead and white perch as there were perch too, so they had a good time today....mission accomplished. And, that makes me happy! :)
Tomorrow's weather is a little snotty, but we'll figure out what to do in the morning. I'm never set on anything until I hit the launch and look at the lake. The conditions will determine where we fish tomorrow....
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
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