Fishing with Steve and Jeremy 3/16/2022
by Capt Juls on 03/16/22Today, was the first official charter of the season, and it was with two of my regulars, Steve Chapman and his son Jeremy. Steve was my very first customer back in 2012, and has been fishing with me for several trips a season for the past 10 years now....(this is the start of my 11th season, guiding.) They feel more like family than just customers now, and we always have a great time, whether the fish cooperate, or not, on any given trip.
This morning, they drove in from Columbus. We were supposed to launch at 8am, but they didn't make it to Mazurik's until 9am. Steve just had a complete shoulder replacement last week, and he can only move so fast right now. He wanted to be out there even if he couldn't reel any fish in.
Speaking of fish. We only went 9 for 11 today. We started out with a quick three fish in the box, but then it got crowded, and the bite slowed down. I don't know if it was the number of boats in the area, or it was just the mid-morning lull that happens on days with bright moon nights. The full moon is happening this Friday, so the big cheese is getting bigger and brighter in the sky at night, which is when the walleye love to feed, since they have those "special eyeballs" and all. Usually, the bite will be good very early in the morning and then mid to late afternoon as the evening approaches.
From what I heard on the radio today, it was slow for many. But, it wasn't slow for some others. There was one boat by me that was just hammering them, but I don't know what they were doing other than running baits behind inline boards, but they figured something out, that no one else did.
My puzzle never got pieced together.....different leads were hitting, and different colors, and different bodied baits. There wasn't a pattern showing up, so I never got dialed in today.
Bandits at 120, 110, 97, 91, 75, 67, and 62 caught and the P-10's with 2oz at 25/25 and 35/35 also caught fish.
Speed was 1.2-1.4
Water temp where we were was 35 degrees.
When I did find a small pod of biting fish and caught 3 or 4 in a row, I would turn, to go back through them, and would get cut off by other boats in the area that had the right of way, so we missed the pod on the way back through. We would watch as the other boats would pick a couple up on the line I wanted to take....deep sigh.
Time to start leaving when the packs move in on me....it's not worth the mood it puts me in. I can find other fish on this big lake.
Tomorrow, I have three fellas from Illinois, and we will be heading out very early compared to today, so hopefully, that helps us with the morning bite.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
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