Fishing with Lee and Cameron...7/25/2026

The air temp was 68 degrees, the wind was barely noticeable, and the sky was clear.

The wind forecast for the morning was a switching wind. It was quiet on my deck, because it had been NE overnight, but it was in the middle of the switch to the NW, so it was less than 5mph at 2a.m. By launch time at 6a.m., it would be picking up to 10-12mph out of the NW. That meant that the rollers on the lake would still be coming in from the NE, while a NW wind would blow the waves up to 1-3' feet.

I picked up Lee and his son, Cameron, at the Country Inn and Suites at 5:15, and we hit Hi-Way Bait for some ice before heading to Mazurik's.  We launched and headed NE at a slow pace, due to the rollers and boat wakes in the South Passage.

The ride didn't get much faster after leaving the South Passage, like I thought it might, so we just kept going at a slow 20mph and took our time getting up near the line NE of Kelly's.  I kept an eye on the Garmin, so I could look for walleye below us on the ride out. I was hoping I didn't have to go all the way to the Weather Buoy in those conditions...it would take forever. 

Luckily, we found some good marks around the 36/35 line, over 43' of water, so I shut the big black motor down and deployed the Ulterra and Baby Merc. The Ulterra was set to power level 6 since we were headed into the rollers, and the Baby Merc putted along, pushing us at a good pace to keep the speed around 2.5mph on the FishHawk.  The course was set from west to east. The waves were building, so if we wanted to go back over the same line, we wouldn't go into them, but rather pick up and make a run back up.

I only wanted to use the 4 dipsies, so if the bite was good, we wouldn't get done so fast, and they could spend some quality Father/Son time on the water together this morning.

The inside dipsies ran on the zero setting. The port side ran at 60 back, and the starboard side ran at 65 back. (Eventually, both sides would be running at 63 back.)

The outside rods ran on the three setting. The port side ran at 85 back, and the starboard side ran at 95 back. They never changed. 

BadMo, Scorpion, and Yeck spoons were used.  That Yeck with the special blue painted belly that DJ Custom Eye Lures does for me (color name: "Tourney Winner") is still catching fish, and I have never taken it off this season.  I had him paint me a bunch more, too. 

No Off Shore boards or snap weights today...kept it simple. We had our 18 walleye in the cooler by 10:00.  We only caught, maybe, a dozen junk fish in the mix, so that was nice.  

Cameron was reeling in a big fish, and when he lifted the rod for that last 6' of the leader, a huge catfish came up and rolled violently....and he lost it. It broke off one of my orange Yeck spoons, which made me sad.  I need to replace it, because I only have one more of those in my box, and it's a good one.  

The kitty, at a guess, easily went 10 pounds. The head on it was huge. I use 20# test Sunline for the leaders...it may have had a knot in the line, or something for it to break where it did. Oh well....it happens...at least it was just a cat and not a big walleye. :)

We did pick up once and made a run back towards where we started earlier, but didn't go back far enough. We should have gone another mile, I think. The second pass was too short for my liking. After the screen went clear of fish marks, I turned the Vexus around and started going into the waves. They were starting to lay down a little bit, and instead of being 2-3's they were more 1 and 2s with some 3s thrown in for good measure. I felt comfortable going into them with those conditions. 

I don't like it over that, because it's rough and my customers have a hard enough time trying to get their sea legs to work out there, so I try to make it as comfortable as possible...when possible.

We caught more fish going from west to east than we did going from east to west, so once we had gone a mile to a mile and a half, I turned again and headed east. We finished up on half of that last pass.

Lee and Cameron had a great time and enjoyed the experience. Cameron has never been on this big lake to fish, and mostly wades rivers for smallies. That's something I used to love to do when I lived in Wisconsin, years ago, so his mentioning it brought back a gush of memories for me...that I relived in my head while we set the dipsies. Those were fun days for sure! 

Lee doesn't do much fishing, but wanted to catch his first walleye...so, that has been checked off his bucket list. Yay!

Cameron was hands-on in helping set the dipsies. He was a quick learner and was setting them out with ease in no time at all. Lee was happy just to reel in his fishand hand me the net when I needed it. It was a good time for all of us today. Mother Nature was in a good mood, and we all appreciated it!

I'm not scheduled until the 31st and the 1st, so if I pick up a trip before then, I'll be sure to give a report. 

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls