Stupid Weather....
by Capt Juls on 05/21/17I haven't blogged since the 16th, because there really wasn't much to report.
I was the second boat to Capt Kevin's charter of 6 men from Wisconsin. We fished less than favorable conditions on Wednesday, where we were restricted to staying tight to the south shore, due to strong SW winds. We managed 5 keepers out of about 20 hook ups. The rest were too small to put in the box.
Thursday was a day off due to weather and lake conditions.
Friday we got out, but it was a rough morning too, with gusty NE winds and waves at a steady 2-3 foot with many 4's thrown in....and, some 5's. We picked the crews up at South Bass at 6:45am.
My guys wanted to run crawlers, so I obliged. We caught one walleye in the slop chute by the ferry, and dropped two others before the rod was even out of the rod holders.
Then, we moved up to Middle Bass and made a pass along the west side of the island. We caught a few big sheepshead, but no walleye.
We moved up to the north side of North Bass, because the leader of my crew said he had "heard" of a big fish being caught up there, so I obliged.
The ride up to that side was rough with the NE wind. We set up, and started a pull from the buoys on the north side, and headed SW along the break.
More than once, it was mentioned how rough it was, so I figured they were uncomfortable, and said, "Pick them up, and we'll move back over to the protected side of the island".
We set up on the the south side of West Reef and headed south. The waves were much smaller, and we changed over from crawlers to Bandits. We hooked up with 4 big smallmouth on top of the reef, and two eyes after we were off the reef.
We ended the day, and I took them back to the island, to drop them off.
On my way back in to Catawba, I spotted an orange board floating in the waves, and made several attempts to retrieve it in the rough water. Finally, I managed to net it, and headed in. There was a name and phone number on the board, and I recognized the area code as a Wisconsin phone number.
I called the number when I got in, and left a message for the owner. It turns out they were staying out on South Bass too, and would be leaving the next morning on the first Ferry out. I told him that I would meet him after he was off the ferry and return his board to him.
He was thankful for the kind gesture, and that made me happy.
Saturday, we cancelled our trip, due to a strong east wind, with waves forecast at 3-6 foot, (but, a report told me they were closer to 4-8 feet).
Fast forward to this morning (Sunday 5/21)....my crew cancelled, due to wanting to stay fishing on a lake to the south of Lake Erie, where they were whacking the walleye pretty fast, and then limiting on crappies. They also didn't want to fish in the 80% chance of rain and thunderstorms forecast for the day, so I couldn't blame them, and told them to have fun.
I'm taking the day off, and getting the house clean. Maybe I'll go see a movie. I don't know yet.
Tomorrow's weather doesn't look very good either, so I'm waiting to see what the forecast does, and whether my regular customer wants to go try it.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
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