Three Days Fishing with Marc and Jim... 6-28/29/30-23

Picked my crew up from the Best Western at 5:15 and headed to Mazurik's to launch. The wind was blowing out of the north, with gusts over 15mph, so after talking with Capt Mitch Daugherty, while in the get ready lanes, we both decided to hold off for a while, and launch later. So, I took them back to the hotel, went home and grabbed the dogs, so I could take them for a walk, before leaving again.

I picked my crew back up at 8am and we headed back to the launch, and found the lake no longer white capping, and headed out.  I decided to go towards Huron to fish the dump, on a suggestion of a friend that had been there the previous day, who did well.

We set up with crawler harnesses behind the Off Shore boards, as the bug hatch was still happening, and I find during a bug hatch that crawlers usually do best. We were over 37-40 feet of water on our passes. The first pass was west to east and then the second pass was going back the other direction, over the same fish.

2oz inline weights ran on the starboard side, and 3oz weights were on the port side.  2oz at 25, 42, 55, and 62 back, and the 3oz at 20, 40, 50, and 60 back.

We caught a ton of little fish, and had to keep checking the worms, as they were getting stolen from short strikes.

Eventually, and a little too late into the trip, I switched one side to Flicker Minnow 11s, and immediately got hit on the first bait, as I was setting the second one out. Got that fish in, and the second board went back, with another keeper. I set both sides up with Flicker Minnows at 100, 80, 70, and 60 back, and ended the trip with 11 of our 18 fish limit.  Hindsight is 20/20, of course, and I should have switched up sooner.

Speed was l.7-1.8 on the Fish Hawk.

Day 2: Walleye Fishing 

Picked my crew up at 4:30, and headed to the gas station to gas up the truck, because we were headed to Vermilion to launch, this time. My plan was to hit Lorain waters for a better limit of fish. We were headed out of the river at 5:30, and went NNE to the Sand Bar, first. We fished the SE side of the bottom tip, over 48 to 50 feet of water.

This time, I set up with two dipsies on both sides, with the inside rod running on the zero setting, and the outside rod running on the 3 setting.  Yeck spoons and Scorpion spoons were on three, and a black/gold Ripplin Redfin was on the other. However, the Redfin was only catching smaller fish, so it got changed up to a Scorpion spoon, too.

Bandits and Reef Runner Mag 44s ran behind the Off Shore boards. The Bandits were set at 110 (Blue Shiner), and 80 (Green Shiner) back, and the Mag 44s were set at 90 (black/gold) and 80 (blue/chrome) back.

Speed was 2.2 on the Fish Hawk.

The dipsies shined that day, and the cranks would only catch three of our 3-person limit. 

Day 3: Perch Fishing

Long story short....it sucked.  We only managed to catch 11 of our 90 fish limit. lol

I did catch a nice 20" walleye, though, so that was a little more meat for their freezer.

At one point, Jim had minnow slime hands, and leaned over the side of the boat to wash his hands, not realizing the brand new ultralight rod under his body, doesn't bend that far, and snapped it in two places.  I had only brought three perch rods, so I had to give him mine to use, with 2 1/2 hours to go. 

The bad part is, Marc and I were the only two catching, or even feeling the bite (Jim has bad feeling in his hands), so he wasn't being very productive. It was hard to just sit there, and not fish. I love perch fishing, so I was really disappointed that I couldn't fish anymore.

Yeah, I know..."You should always have a back up rod in the boat". I thought of that, and almost brought the third rod, but thought we would be fine with just one rod per person.  It was the first perch trip of the season, so I wasn't thinking something like this would happen.

I don't usually let anyone use my rod, because I've had it since 1987, and it's my "special rod", and even had someone offer me a lot of money for it, and refused. It's just an old Fenwick Ultralight, that was broken by a dog fish, back in Wisco, that took a foot off the tip, so I made this 5' rod, my perch rod. It's been the best rod I've ever had, or tried, and can't find anything like it as far as feel and action go. I keep looking though, because one day, this rod will break on a big fish, too....and, I'll need something to replace it with. The Presso Ultralights (5') I bought for my customers have been working well, but they are still not like my rod.

Anyway....my crew, who have been fishing with me since 2014, still enjoyed the morning, and the nicer weather. The smoke that was hanging in the air the first two days had dissipated quite a bit, so it was more comfortable out there. They headed back to Wisco with enough fillets for many fish fries to hold them over, until their next visit down here. 

I'm off for several days now, because my big sister and brother-in-law are coming down from Wisconsin, to celebrate her birthday, and the 4th of July, with me.

I'll be back on the water July 6th.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls