Fishing with Steve and Ernie...6/1/2026
by Capt Juls on 06/01/26Steve and Ernie came from Indiana to fish Lake Erie. They have never fished here before. I picked them up from the Whitecaps Motel at 5am and we headed to Mazurik's to launch after topping the gas off in the Vexus and getting some ice for the coolers.
The air temp was in the low 60s, the wind was calm, and the sky was mostly clear.
We arrived at the ramp first and got in the water before it started to get busy. The satellite pic from yesterday showed some cleaner water to the north of Kelly's, so we headed there.
The Ulterra's course was from the SW to the NE over 43' of water. The FishHawk was sent down to 18'. The baby Merc was set to push the boat at a speed of 2.5mph.
However, the FishHawk was reading 1.2mph no matter how fast or slow I turned the iTrolls controls, and I was scratching my head on that one. That just wasn't right.
Eventually, I pulled it up, thinking I should change the batteries in the probe, and that's when I found my issue.
My dumb ass attached the mainline to the hole that has the little chain that holds the weight, so it wasn't running right down there.
After I attached it to the correct hole, it performed the way it is designed. Lesson learned.
Dipsies were sent out first....the usual zero and three settings on both sides of the boat.
The zero on the port side was set to 30, and on the starboard side it was set to 40. Both were running Yeck spoons with the blue belly that DJ Customs paints for me. He adds the royal blue to the underside, and they just plain work.
The three settings were 53 (port side) and 72 (starboard side). Those were running BadMo Arrow spoons.
Bandits were running behind the Off Shore boards on each side. On the port side, a Slim Shady custom called "Psycho Killer" ran at 80 back, and "SunSpot" (stock color) ran at 120 back.
On the starboard side, it started out with "Blue Shiner" at 90 back and another "Psycho Killer" at 80 back.
Each one caught fish, but the starboard side slowed down and were switched out to the Spro 120 Madeyes in "Perch Chrome" and "Slick Purple Bengal" at 130 and 80 back, respectively.
We caught 25 fish plus 3 sheephead, but only kept 16. The bugs got to be more than my guys wanted to deal with, so they decided to head in, get the fish cleaned, and head back to Indiana instead of trying to finish out the last hour and a half.
They enjoyed the morning. It was probably the quietest trip I've ever done, since neither had any interest in learning how to set the lines, and just wanted to reel their fish in, so they just relaxed and listened to some good music, while waiting for a fish to bite.
I, on the other hand, was working my butt off, setting and resetting lines, changing lures, watching the speed, and dipsey lines, to keep those fish coming in. lol
It was a fun morning, and the dogs were happy to see me home early today, and that makes ME happy! :)
I'm off tomorrow, but am scheduled for Wed, Thurs, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The wind is looking good for Wed/Thurs, and on the edge for Friday/Sat (15-25 SW on Friday and 13-20 on Saturday), and Sunday looks like a blow day if it doesn't change. It's calling for gusts in the 30s out of the SW on Sunday, right now.
On Wednesday and Thursday, I have Danny Harris again. This time, he's bringing a friend who is coming all the way from Utah to fish with him.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Comments (0)
