Fishing with Mike, Huey, and Josh 5/21/19

Scotty is from Ohio, but a promotion and transfer took him to Red Wing, MN. He resides on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi there.  He and I used to fish a lot together...my ex had taken him under his wing years ago, like he did me, and helped him understand this lake a little better too. Anyway, he's here fishing for the week, but he's not on my schedule, and is on vacation, so I want him to get some much needed rest if he needs it.

So, now, I sit on the back deck with my phone and a cup of coffee, before I get dressed and head out.   I left the house at 4:30, and he was still sleeping, so I figured he needs it. 

After hitting the gas station to fill up the Ranger and get some ice, I headed to Big Bopper's to meet up with Mike, Huey, and Josh for some breakfast. As usual, Cindy Michaels, one of Bopper's best servers, was working bright and early, and greeted me with that big smile she shares with everyone that comes in, and instantly brightened my morning.

Mike and the gang showed up at 5am. We left there a little after 5:30 and headed to Mazurik's to launch.  We headed out of the ramp area a little before 7am and went north to the line. I knew those fish were still there, and the lake conditions were not bad this morning, so it was an easy ride up there. There was a light NE wind, sending in a few rollers, but they weren't bad at all.  

The water temperature was 55.2 up there this morning.

I wanted to try some different dipsey rods this morning, since I had heard so many reports that the spoon program on Tru-Trip Jets was working well now. I figured that the dipsies might do well too.

A Facebook friend had dropped off two Shakespeare Alpha 7'6" rods to try out, and I switched out the other two rods to my 7' Med Ugly Sticks that I use for my board rods.  Both worked better than I expected, so I suspect I'll just keep using these. The tips are very easy to read when a fish is on now....woot! woot!

We ran a Ripplin Redfin on the 3 setting/47 back on the port side, and a Yeck Spoon on the 1 setting/28 back/port side.  On the Starboard side, we ran a Rippling Redfin on the 1 setting/30 back, and a Scorpion Spoon on the 3 setting/50 back. 

Speed was 2.1-2.3mph.

We caught 7  walleye on an East to West troll, that was maybe a 1/2 mile long...and, then, we turned to go back the other way.....we didn't catch any going West to East. We made another turn to go back East to West and picked up 2 more walleye.  The Humminbird showed that the fish were pushing further down in the water column, so I thought maybe it was time to go find some other more active fish.  At least we had an early flurry to get the juices flowing. :)

We left the line NE of Lucy's and headed east towards Kelly's. My plan was to go down the east side of Kelly's until we marked some fish, and set up again. The Helix wasn't marking much until we got down towards the Cedar Point Dumping Grounds, but they weren't the marks I was searching for, so we moved west a bit and got on the west side of the ferry line and set up again.

This time we ran two Off Shore boards off each side with Blue/Chrome (2), Huff Daddy, and Chrome Barbie Bandits from 45-65 back and the 4 dipsies set up like the previous spot.

The Bandit took the first and second fish, so I swapped out the 4 dipsies for 4 more Off Shore boards and Bandits. We would fill out their 3 man limit in the time allotted us, and that made them happy. 

  

We never stayed on any one line, due to the boat traffic in the area, so it's easy to say that there are fish all over the place between the mainland and the islands right now. The South Passage is definitely a busy highway with bustling walleye.

Mike, Huey, and Josh had a good time, and will be back in June for another round of fun and adventure, and that makes me happy. :)

Tomorrow's forecast is calling for gusty east winds in the morning, so as of right now, I am planning a late morning launch unless that forecast changes by morning, and we can plan on an earlier launch.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls