Fishing with Kevin, Sean, and Dan 8/19/17

We planned to meet at Mazurik's at 6:30, so I was ahead of schedule a little bit. On my way out there, I stopped in at Hi Way Bait to see if they had any Emerald shiners, but I knew they wouldn't. However, even though I already bought 4 scoops from Rickard's, I bought two more scoops from Dwight, because I didn't want to walk out empty handed.  I figured I could always give the left over minnows to my neighbor's "pond fish", because they're always hungry.

As I walked out of the store, lightning flashed across the sky to the west. I wasn't expecting any weather, so I pulled up the radar on my phone app, and checked to see what was going on over there, and where it was headed.  Well, it wasn't good. There was a storm headed our way, and would take about an hour to an hour and a half to move on out. The radar showed a lot of lightning strikes happening, so there was only one thing to do....post pone the trip a little while.

I drove over to Mazurik's to meet them, and they were already there.  I told them I wanted to wait this out, but also that I wanted to launch out of Catawba instead. They agreed to follow me over there. I called them back on the way, and asked if they wanted to stop for some breakfast at Bopper's while we waited it out, and they said, "Yes". So, we stopped in.

After breakfast, I had changed my mind again about what launch to go out of, and went back to Mazurik's. We were headed out of the harbor by 7:30, so only an hour behind schedule.

We headed up to the north side of North Bass Island first, to see if the perch were in there yet.....they weren't.  Then, we went to Taco Bell to check there...nothing there either.

We found some biting fish near West Reef, but it was a slow bite. They would come and go, and come and go....which is pretty typical of how the bite has been lately. If you get lucky and set up on some fish that are hungry, it's game on! But, if you set up on some fish that have been gorging on those little spiney fleas and baby Gobies, it's a tougher bite.  

And, speaking of "bites"...the bite has been wicked light...they are getting very good at snatching minnows off the hook without getting their lips near the hooks. lol 

I must have missed more fish this season than I ever have. I like to think that I'm a pretty darn good perch angler, but I feel like a rookie this season....deep sigh.

Anyway, by the talk on the radio,  and amongst my Capt friends, I am not alone in my thinking.

With all the excuses said, hehehe....we only caught 19 perch yesterday. Granted, they were all very nice perch, but still....ONLY 19 in 6 hours!  I was marking fish all over the place with my Helix Mega Imaging unit, you know...one of those "fancy fish finders", as my Dad calls them, but I just couldn't land on the hungriest ones.

My guys were a ton of fun to fish with, and the kind of customers I just adore. They kept their spirits high, and kept thinking positive right to the very end. Then, they just shrugged and smiled and said, "That's fishing! Thank you, we had a great time".  That made me very happy to hear, because we tried....we really really tried. We hit a lot of spots all around the islands, but came up very short of a 4 person limit.

Kevin said, "I'd like to bring the boys back in the spring and try for some big walleye", and I told him that I would be more than happy to take them out again. That made me very happy. :)

More perch'n to come....

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls