Fishing with the Claypool Family 5/6/2021

Waves were 2' or less. The water temp was 53 point something degrees. :)

Jesse and his wife Stacy brought their 11-year-old daughter Bri, and their 9-year-old son Ethan out for a fun day of fishing. Everyone was excited to get out on the lake, so we headed north to the other side of Kelly's to start. I hadn't been out, due to reschedules, so it was like starting all over, but it didn't take long to get some fish going once we got set up.

The program was all Spro Madeye 120 cranks, and I kept them to a minimum of three rods per side, since I had a young family, so we could keep it real simple.  

I showed Jesse, who had never used this kind of equipment before how to use the line counter reels and how to attach the Off Shore boards....he learned very quickly.

Baits were set out on the Port side at 45, 55, and 65 (longest leads on the outside) and 42, 53, and 71 on the Starboard side.  

Colors were Port side (in the same order as above)  Brown Marble, Blue/Chrome, and Lemon-Lime.  On the Starboard side it was Blue/Chrome, Lemon-Lime, and Golden Perch.

All colors, except the Lemon-Lime took fish (I think it caught one, but was so far behind the others we decided to change it), so the LL's came off and were replaced with Purple Glass Perch, which was a good color today too.  The hot combos were the Brown Marble at 45 back, Blue/Chrome and Purple Perch at 53 and 63 back, and the Golden Perch at 71 back.  

Speed was between 1.8-2.1 mph.

At one point, Stacy was bringing a fish in, and when I was bringing the board up to me to take if off the line, the line just snapped in my fingers, and the board and the fish started drifting away. I said, "Pick everything up quick, we have to go get that board". I laid a waypoint down as soon as it happened, so I would have a good idea where to find it. The wind had picked up, and we were in 1-3's, so keeping an eye on the board was pretty much impossible.  

Luckily, we found it, and it still had the fish attached to it, so I just handlined it into the boat....much to the delight of everyone. 

Since we had everything picked up, we moved back to our original starting point, so we could make that pass along my line again.  No sooner than had we got set up the boards starting darting back again. We had several doubles today, but no legit triples. :)

We ended up with their 4 limits and 4 of my 6 for a total of 28 walleye. They couldn't have been happier, and Stacy was already figuring out what walleye dish they were going to have for dinner tonight.

Since they drove in from over by Maumee, OH....I suggested that they stop over at Cutcher's Fish Cleaning, since it was on their way home and have George clean the fish for them.

While we were fishing, Jesse was wondering how he was going to get all the fish in the small cooler they brought along. Luckily, they had some heavy-duty garbage bags to use too, so it all worked out. They were not expecting the size of walleye we caught today....which is always fun for me, because they aren't the only ones that have brought along a cooler that would not hold all the fish that get caught. It always makes me giggle inside, when that happens. :)

It was a fun day, and a lot of great memories were made for their family. Stacy suggested bringing them back for a perch trip, and that makes me happy! You all know how much I LOVE Perch fishing. Woot! Woot! 

Tomorrow, I have three generations of the Carlson family joining me (the youngest being 9 years old). We plan on launching at 6:15, unless there is rain in the am, upon which we can probably delay it a bit to let it pass. I'll know more in the morning when I get up at 3am.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls