Juls WFA Blog
Fishing with Colin, Mark, and Dave 9/19/17
by Capt Juls on 09/19/17I feel bad even beginning to write this, knowing that I am not going to give out the location, or even the general area of where I am perch fishing right now. Forgive me, but I just want to finish off my season with a bang, and some kick ass perch fishing for my customers, without a ton of boats moving in, to move the fish off.
There are a bunch of folks who are there with me now, and hopefully, they are keeping quiet too, but we'll see...I guess by the weekend, since it's going to be hot out, this area will be crowded too, and I'll have to move again.....deep sigh.
I really do like having a spot all to myself from time to time. :)
Anyway, we managed a 4 person limit in a little over 2 hours this morning, that went 41 pounds at the cleaners. My guys had a fantastic time, and didn't even mind getting rained on from time to time out there. Thankfully, the heavy stuff waited to come down after we were off the water. Unfortunately, for my nice clean boat....it wasn't home under the carport before it came down....ugh.
The highlight of the morning was this double winged dragon fly who hitched a ride. First, it was on the carpet...just hanging out with Colin, who was up on the bow of the boat. Then, it was hanging out on his shoe for awhile, before Colin moved it off his shoe, so it wouldn't get stepped on. Then, we thought it flew off, but I found it hanging out on the steering wheel of the Ranger. And, then, after we were done and ready to head back, I moved it to underneath the dash, by my feet, where it could hang out on my raincoat that was stuff under there. That way, it had a wind block. Once we were back at the ramp, we unloaded the boat in the parking lot, and moved the little bugger to a more natural setting where it could rest and revive itself.....or, get eaten by a bird...whichever comes first, I guess. :)
My crew for tomorrow consists of my customer from this past Sunday, and his friend, and since he's already seen my boat clean, I'm not even going to bother with it today, since it's all wet, and I can't vacuum it anyway. (Inside, I'm saying "Woot! Woot! Ha!)
I'll be meeting my crew at Big Bopper's in the morning for some grub, before heading out for some more perching fun.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Joe and Ron 9/18/17
by Capt Juls on 09/18/17I met my crew at Big Bopper's for breakfast, after stopping at Hi Way Bait for some minnows. I was able to replenish my frozen emerald shiner stock the past few days, because HI Way has had nice sized emeralds available. So, now, if the area runs out of them again, and only Goldies are available, I'll have my frozen to use too. Woot! Woot!
We launched out of Mazurik's and headed out for a morning of Perch fishing. The weather forecast was predicting 60% chance of rain, but we lucked out and finished up with our 90 perch by 9:45, and got in before it rained on us. The perch went 34 pounds at the cleaners, so Joe and Ron were very happy with the size and quality of the fish, and that makes me happy!
I will be fishing with Joe and another one of his friends on Friday of this week too. Joe has fished with me several times now, for both walleye and perch, and he must be lucky, because we always do well when he fishes with me. lol
Tomorrow, I have a new customer, and two of his friends, and we will be perch fishing again. I hope those little buggers stay right where they are for at least another 7 days, because I have seven more straight days of perch'n to get through, so I need them to stay there!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Day 2 Fishing with Dave, Sharon, and Scott 9/15/17
by Capt Juls on 09/15/17I picked my crew up at their hotel at 7am, and we headed to Mazurik's to launch. We were on the water by 7:20 and headed north from the break wall. Because of the later starts today, and yesterday, I didn't get my usual sunrise photos, but no worries...I'll be back to posting those again tomorrow. There's just something about starting the day with the sun greeting you on the horizon, when you're on the water. Kind of like cleansing the soul for a new beginning each day. :)
Okay, enough poetic gibberish....lol
We started out on the NW side of Kelly's island, and had just set up when Capt Kevin texted me to tell me he's got this great bite going at one of my other spots, so I asked, "How many do you have?" He said, "Four". lol I laughed, and said, "Let me know how fast you hit 15". About 10 minutes later he texted to say he had 10 already, so my crew was excited about that and wanted to go try by Kevin.
I had good marks where I set up, but they weren't interested in biting yet, so we moved to the west side of the Bass Islands next to Kevin. I didn't want to go back up to the line, because it was just getting too crowded up there...yuck.
It was like it was the day I was there, and called Kevin in....it was pretty much a spot on a spot bite. His boat was catching with a steady bite, but we weren't. So, when he and his customer were done with their 60, I moved into that spot and we started catching. Or, I should say, Sharon started catching! She was on fire! Then, Scott and Dave were catching, and all was well. :)
We would catch 66 perch there, and then it slowed down. We had an hour left to fish, so I asked them if they wanted to move back to that first spot, where we had marked fish, but never had time to get them going. They were all on board, so we hustled back there, and set up. It wasn't long before we started catching and we would end up catching 14 nice perch in 45 minutes. That little tidbit of information came from Scott, who was paying attention to numbers and time....Thanks Scott! :)
We didn't get our 120, but we did get 80 nice fat perch for them to add to their 60 from the day before. A nice haul to take back to Wisconsin for their family fish fries. Well done Meinerz family! It was a pleasure to fish with you the past two days! :)
Tomorrow, I have a mix of clients...three people who don't know each other, but two have fished with me before. You are all familiar with "Grasshopper", Ben Rewa, and maybe even previous customer, Rusty Gass....But, Dave Brenek is a new customer, who was willing to share a trip with these two, who also preferred to share a trip in order to split the cost. Luckily, it all worked out.
They are all meeting me at my house, so I figured I'll whip up some Chorizo and scrambled eggs with fried potato burritos for breakfast, before we hit the bait shop and launch.
I'll be hitting the spot we were at last today, first tomorrow, but I won't be leaving it as quickly. ;)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Day 2 Fishing with Dave, Sharon, and Scott 9/15/17
by Capt Juls on 09/15/17I picked my crew up at their hotel at 7am, and we headed to Mazurik's to launch. We were on the water by 7:20 and headed north from the break wall. Because of the later starts today, and yesterday, I didn't get my usual sunrise photos, but no worries...I'll be back to posting those again tomorrow. There's just something about starting the day with the sun greeting you on the horizon, when you're on the water. Kind of like cleansing the soul for a new beginning each day. :)
Okay, enough poetic gibberish....lol
We started out on the NW side of Kelly's island, and had just set up when Capt Kevin texted me to tell me he's got this great bite going at one of my other spots, so I asked, "How many do you have?" He said, "Four". lol I laughed, and said, "Let me know how fast you hit 15". About 10 minutes later he texted to say he had 10 already, so my crew was excited about that and wanted to go try by Kevin.
I had good marks where I set up, but they weren't interested in biting yet, so we moved to the west side of the Bass Islands next to Kevin. I didn't want to go back up to the line, because it was just getting too crowded up there...yuck.
It was like it was the day I was there, and called Kevin in....it was pretty much a spot on a spot bite. His boat was catching with a steady bite, but we weren't. So, when he and his customer were done with their 60, I moved into that spot and we started catching. Or, I should say, Sharon started catching! She was on fire! Then, Scott and Dave were catching, and all was well. :)
We would catch 66 perch there, and then it slowed down. We had an hour left to fish, so I asked them if they wanted to move back to that first spot, where we had marked fish, but never had time to get them going. They were all on board, so we hustled back there, and set up. It wasn't long before we started catching and we would end up catching 14 nice perch in 45 minutes. That little tidbit of information came from Scott, who was paying attention to numbers and time....Thanks Scott! :)
We didn't get our 120, but we did get 80 nice fat perch for them to add to their 60 from the day before. A nice haul to take back to Wisconsin for their family fish fries. Well done Meinerz family! It was a pleasure to fish with you the past two days! :)
Tomorrow, I have a mix of clients...three people who don't know each other, but two have fished with me before. You are all familiar with "Grasshopper", Ben Rewa, and maybe even previous customer, Rusty Gass....But, Dave Brenek is a new customer, who was willing to share a trip with these two, who also preferred to share a trip in order to split the cost. Luckily, it all worked out.
They are all meeting me at my house, so I figured I'll whip up some Chorizo and scrambled eggs with fried potato burritos for breakfast, before we hit the bait shop and launch.
I'll be hitting the spot we were at last today, first tomorrow, but I won't be leaving it as quickly. ;)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Day 1 of 2 with Dave, Sharon, and Scott Meinerz 9/14/17
by Capt Juls on 09/14/17Dave, Sharon, and their son Scott were scheduled to fish with Capt Gary on the Sara J today and tomorrow, but Capt Gary told them that the perch were not biting over by Lorain, but that the walleye were. Dave, and the family, wanted to fish for perch, so Capt Gary told him that he would refund their deposit, so they could come back to the west to fish for perch.
Dave had called me Monday afternoon, after reading my blog, stating I had several days off....to ask if I still had today and tomorrow free...I did. So, he booked the days, and today we set out after some perch. We hit three spots, but did best again up on the line straight north of Mazurik's.
It was a slow start...slow middle...and slow ending! The bite was light, and tough, but we managed to put 60 in the box before heading in. The quality was once again very very nice, and they were very happy with their catch today, so that's all that matters. :)
We'll be doing the same tomorrow, but the weatherman said it will be foggy in the AM..."thick fog" he said, so I expect there will be a lot of boats not going out tomorrow. We will though. I have a feeling the fish will be biting in those conditions. Then again, maybe it will be foggy on land, but not on the lake...one can only hope...sigh.
But, if you DO go, and it is foggy on the lake....PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY.... and, keep an eye out for other boaters on the water. Do not drive fast in foggy conditions...and, have your navigation lights on.
It should go without saying, but I have seen with my own eyes...boat operators driving recklessly in those conditions.
The fish will be there, even if it takes you a little longer to get there! Everyone wants to get off the water safe and sound, so if you don't want to think of your own safety...think of other's safety. THANKS!!
Good luck and be safe...:)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Day 2 with Ken and Doug 9/11/17
by Capt Juls on 09/11/17Today was the second day of a two day trip with Ken Groeschel and his friend, Doug...with one slight unfortunate change in plans...Doug was "calling in sick".
When I was pulling out of the driveway this morning, I got a text from Ken telling me, "Doug is sick, and can't go, so pick me up at the hotel at 5:45". I replied, "I'm on my way...stopping for gas first, and I'll be there at 5:45". Poor Doug...it must have been something he ate yesterday, but I promise...it wasn't my brownies! D'Oh!
I picked Ken up at the hotel, and we drove over to Big Bopper's for breakfast. They hadn't closed that section of 163 east yet...the one that had the signs up stating that they would be closing the road there on Sept 11 for 7 days. That's going to be a pain in the butt, but since I don't have anything scheduled for the next 6 days, I guess it won't affect me too much.
My friend "Trapper" was there at Big B's too, and when I asked him if he would want to go perch fishing with us today, he said, "Yes".
I hit Hi Way Bait after breakfast, because they changed their opening hour to 6am now, instead of 5:30. I think Rickard's is still open at 5:30 though...but, don't quote me on that. It doesn't get light now until around 6:45, so the later openings won't hurt anything.
After getting minnows and ice, we drove over to Catawba to launch, because I figured since I was going to go fish the northern part of the islands, I would be able to open the Ranger up on the lee wind side of the land bits. I was right...woot! woot! ;)
We set up on the north side of North Bass, where I found some perchy marks with the Humminbird. It was a pretty steady bite, but still not an "up and down" bite from 7am to 9:45, and then it slowed WAY down. We were 17 short of a three man limit by then though, so we just kept moving around and picking up a few here and a few there, until the we only needed 9 more. The last spot produced well though, and it wasn't long before we had those last nine in the cooler.
Normally, I would have stayed on that first spot, knowing they would turn on again....because, I was still marking them there...but, Ken kept saying, "Let's move over there a little bit", or "Let's move 100 feet"...lol So, I obliged. :)
Never the less, it was a fun fun morning and we managed 29 pounds at the cleaners. Doug met us at Port Clinton Fish Co., and was looking in much better form, than I had expected him too....so that was good! They said they had a good time and would be back again next season, so that made me happy. :)
I'm off until Monday the 18th, unless someone contacts me for a charter this week.
So, until then....I'll be cleaning my house, cleaning my yard, and getting ready, because.....(said in the voice of Eddard Stark) "Winter is Coming".
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Ken and Doug 9/10/17
by Capt Juls on 09/10/17Hit Hi Way Bait for minnows and ice, before meeting my second Wisconsin crew this week, at Big Bopper's for a hearty breakfast. Ken Groeschel and his friend, Doug, came down to do some perch fishing with me.
We headed out of Mazurik's at 6:45, and headed north to start the morning. We set up, near the line, and had fish coming in right away.
I thought for sure we would be done with our 90 in just a few hours, because of how good they were biting right away. But, that was not to be. Shortly after the 15th one went in the box the east wind picked up, and the bite slowed way down......Grrrrr!
I haven't had an "up and down" bite at all this season yet, and it's making me crazy....double Grrrrr! lol
We stayed there for a couple hours... and, when we had a little over one ticket in the box, we decided to make a move to the west side of the islands to try the lee side of them.
Long story short, because I'm tired and out of time tonight....we ended the day with 83 perch, and my crew and I were happy. The grade of fish was good too. The fish cleaners weighed them in at 28 pounds. :)
The three of us are fishing again tomorrow. The wind forecast is out of the east again, but with less velocity, so maybe they will be biting better again in the morning. We shall see....
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Kevin, Jason, and Corey 9/9/17
by Capt Juls on 09/09/17Back before Christmas, Kevin contacted me about getting a gift certificate when he paid the deposit, so he could give it to Jason as a Christmas present. The first day they had scheduled was back in May, to do some walleye fishing, but it was a blow day, so they moved it to September to do some perch fishing. Today, we finally made it out...and, they were not disappointed.
I had them meet me at my house at 6am, and we drove into town together. After stopping to top off the gas tank in the boat, I hit Hi Way bait for some minnows and ice. Then, due to the wind direction, I thought it would be better to launch out of Catawba, and try out front....so, we did.
However, I didn't see anything worth setting up on out front, and figured we would have to cross the slop chute to get up to the protected side of the islands to look for some perch there. Kevin had told me that they had gone out of Turtle Creek yesterday, and hit Niagara and D Can, but only caught 5 perch the entire time they were out...ouch! :(
All I had to do was find some willing to bite to show them a good time. After looking around near Rattlesnake and Middle Bass Islands, I settled on a spot in 33 feet of water between the two. My Mega Imaging showed some good "perchy" marks, and it was the most I had seen the entire way up there, so we gave it a shot.
I said, "Okay, dollar on the first yellow to go in the box". They were all set up and fishing before I even had minnow on any of my hooks, so they had a head start....but, guess who won the bragging rights again...oh yeah...I'm bragging again! Hehehe! :)
When we hit 5 perch in the box, I said, "Well, we just tied yesterday's catch", and smiled. Then, we proceeded to smash yesterday's catch as the guys all were putting fish in the box and my side wasn't producing anything.....yet. Then, after they had put a bunch in, then my side lit up too, and I was catching again, and helping to put fish in the box.
We had gotten to 113, and only needed 7 more, when I spotted a boat, with 4 young guys in it, that I had been watching all morning, because they weren't catching anything. They kept seeing us catching fish, and moved three times to try a better spot, but never got too close to us.
Finally, I waved them over, and told to set up "right here", as I pointed to the spot to my port side. He said, "Thanks, we've only caught gobies and sheepshead so far".
But, there was a slight problem.... the person driving didn't understand boat control, and when I said "Set up right there", he thought I mean drop the anchor right there, instead of moving back up...setting the anchor, and then having his boat set up in the right spot. By dropping the anchor right there, he slid back way off the spot, and almost into Capt Kevin's boat.
I quickly asked my guys, "Are you good with what we have?" (Seeing how they had their limits and we were just working on mine at the time), and they said, "Yes". So, I told the guy we were leaving and to take my spot. As we were leaving them, we saw them catch a perch. So, hopefully, they were able to catch a bunch before going home. And dude, if you're the driver, and you're reading this....next time drop the anchor 100' ahead of where you want to be sitting. lol
Thankfully, my guys were cool, and had no problem giving up the spot with only 7 perch to go.
Everyone had fun...and, I even listened to country music...Corey played his playlist this morning, instead of mine. It was a nice change, since I have listened to mine just about every day for the past 8 months! :)
Tomorrow, the winds are supposed to be out of the east, but since the forecast keeps changing, I'll wait until the morning to decide which ramp I want to go out of. I'll be meeting my crew at Big Bopper's for breakfast at 6am.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Day 3 Fishing with Walleye Weiss, Jim, and Jack 9/8/17
by Capt Juls on 09/08/17It was a another chilly morning, but not quite as chilly as it was yesterday morning. I headed into town to get minnows...Rickard's was open and had a good supply of Goldie's available. Once again, I paid for ice, but walked out of the store without it (so, Rick...I'll get that tomorrow morning..lol). If I had a dollar for every time I did that...deep sigh...
Anyway, I met my Wisco crew over at Big Bopper's at 6am for breakfast. We made plans to launch from Mazurik's. When I was moving the perch cooler around I realized I had forgotten the ice at Rickard's and my guys ran back to Hi Way bait to get me another bag. Thanks guys!! :)
We were on the water and heading out at 7am. I wanted to go back up to the spot we were at on day one with them, so we headed north. 20 minutes later, we were "anchored" with the Minn Kota, and fishing. We were the second boat to the area this morning this time.
I announced our usual bet..."First person to put a yellow perch in the box wins a dollar", and less than a minute later, I was the lucky one putting that first fish in the box.
However, it should be noted, that none of us ever paid out on the bets...it was more or less just a bragging rights with pretend money. Ha!
The bite was slow to start, so I kept my eye on the strange clouds above us, because they were calling for water spouts again, and I didn't want one coming down on us. But, nothing every materialized, and all was well. The sky was "active" this morning with strange clouds, and was pretty cool to watch.
We were able to put 120 nice plump perch in the cooler in 5 1/2 hours, so you can see it wasn't a very fast bite, but fast enough to keep it fun....and, that's all that matters.
I really enjoyed fishing with "Walleye", Jim, and Jack this past three days, and look forward to them coming back again next September. They've already discussed coming back, so that makes me happy too. :)
Tomorrow, I fish with Kevin, Bill, and Jason for some more Lake Erie "Gold". They are meeting me here at the house in the morning (driving in from the west), so that will let me sleep in just a little longer tomorrow...yay! :)
Not sure which ramp I'm using yet, because I'll look at the wind forecast again in the morning. It's going to be an ENE wind, so if it's not too bad...we'll head back out of Mazurik's, but If I need to... we'll launch out of Catawba, and fish those perch out front....out of the rough stuff.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Day 2 Fishing with Walleye Weiss, Jim, and Jack 9/7/17
by Capt Juls on 09/07/17After a Big Bopper's breakfast with my Wisco crew, they followed me over to Catawba ramp to launch. We were the only rig in the parking lot. I didn't think there were going to be too many people going out today, due to the WNW wind. She was blowing at a steady 16-17mph with gusts up to 20 from time to time.
I chose to go out of Catawba, because I was expecting a west wind, and that would have made the waves a little less than what they would be up where we were yesterday. But, the wind wasn't quite out of the west...it was a little NW too, so there wasn't much protection from the land by Oak Harbor today. However, it wasn't that bad. We were floating in 1-3's with the occasional 4's thrown in for good measure.
They caught their three man limit of 90 perch, but they really had to work for them. These guys have the patience of saints, and the grit of an old western cowboys, but they got the job done... one perch at a time!
The water clarity over by Clinton Reef was dirtying up pretty quickly. We would catch some and then it would stop...then, we would catch some...then, it would stop. The bite was sometimes very light, and sometimes very aggressive. We repeated that scenario at four different locations between Clinton Reef and the ramp.
The winds for tomorrow are a little lighter, but not by much... and, we are looking at going out from 9 to 3pm unless the hourly forecast changes for the better, and we can get out earlier. But, looking at it just now, it would appear that I get to sleep in a little in the morning, and the 9 to 3 schedule will hold.
We will launch out of Mazurik's and head back up to where we were yesterday.
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing with Walleye Weiss, Jim, and Jack 9/6-8/17
by Capt Juls on 09/06/17Today, was day one of the three day trip, for the Wisconsin crew consisting of a fella that goes by the nickname, "Walleye" (and, I'm still unclear of his real name!) and his two friends, Jim and Jack. All three hail from someplace close to "Packer Land", or the "Frozen Tundra".
After I stopped to gas up the boat, I hit Hi Way Bait for some minnows and ice. I met them over at Big Bopper's for breakfast at 5:45, and chatted with them while they ate. I had made some breakfast at home before heading out, so I wasn't hungry.
We headed over to Mazurik's after breakfast, and launched by 6:45. We headed back up to where I was the day before, and set up in the exact same spot...give or take a few feet. They started pulling fish before I even had a line in the water, so that made me happy. I was afraid that bright full moon last night, or the cold temps that came in, might shut them down some, but they bit pretty aggressively today.
They do seem to prefer the emeralds to the goldies, but the goldies work if they are tiny ones, or they are cut in half. So, don't fret if you don't have any emeralds...the goldies WILL work! :)
We were the first ones out there this morning, but it didn't take long for a pack to form around us. We watched a beautiful sunrise this morning, with the chill in the air, the dark clouds made it feel like a crisp fall morning. There were several waterspouts on the eastern horizon as the rain moved from the WNW to the ESE. It was pretty cool to see too. Many times there were more than on spout touching down at the same time. And, it looked like a couple of them got pretty gigantic...like a "miles wide" kind of "wide", but luckily they were far away from us, so there was nothing to worry about. The sky to the west of us was not threatening at all.
We plucked 120 wiggly perch from 37 foot of water and headed back with everyone smiling, and saying how much fun it was this morning. They enjoyed my brownies, and my selection of songs on my playlist, and said they would pay just to sit out there and listen to that all morning. lol So, that made me happy too....:)
We will be at it again tomorrow, but the winds will be a little stronger than they were today. The winds today were only 8-10mph out of the W-NW creating waves that were less than 2 feet. Tomorrow's forecast is for 5-15 out of the W, so we should expect to see 2-3's in most places when it hits 15mph, like it did yesterday.
See you out there tomorrow....be safe! Water temps are starting to go down again. It's at 68 right now.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Steve and Jeremy Chapman 9/5/17
by Capt Juls on 09/05/17Last night we had some pretty high energy thunderstorms in the area, but they were cleared out by this morning. Jeremy had texted me early this morning, to see if we were still going, because his forecast for the Columbus area said lots of rain and wind. I looked at my RadarScope app, and it showed me what he was looking at, so I assured him that the winds were only 8 out of the W early and then building to 15 around noon. There was a slight chance of rain forecast for mid morning too, so he was cool with that and said they would be up here in 2 hours.
Today, Capt Kevin, was invited to tag along, so we would have more baits in the water, and since he wasn't doing anything today, he opted to go with us. We met Steve and Jeremy at Mazurik's and launched at 7:30...we headed towards Lucy's to look around. There's still a lot of fish in the area, so after finding what we thought were the right marks on the Helix, using the Mega Imaging, I hit the "Spot Lock" button on the Ulterra and set up over them.
It was a slow pick to start, and I almost moved, due to the slowness of it, but it wasn't even a minute after I mentioned we should move that Kevin picked up a perch...then, Steve did...and, then Jeremy did too. So, I gave it more time. And, luckily I did, because it just got better and better by the hour. But, the wind and waves got worse by the hour too.
It wasn't that bad though, but it was getting pretty bouncy by the end. I would say, when we started it was 1-2' waves, and by the end of our 120 perch catch, we were bouncing in solid 2-3's with an occasional 4 footer.
The ride back in was wet for Jeremy and Kevin, because of the "cross wind" spray, that was hitting them while sitting in the back. I heard a little bit of whining from the both of them, and reminded them that if they had listened to their Capt. they would have had their rain gear with them today. Ha! I'd like to say, "That will teach them!" But, I know it won't. lol
Anyway, it was a fun day for all of us today. We took the fish over to Port Clinton Fish, Co. for them, and the 120 perch weighed in at 40 pound even (18 pounds after they were cleaned), so you can see the size was very good today. :)
I start a three day trip with three Wisconsinites tomorrow, and will be hitting the same spot again, first thing in the morning. The forecast looks really good for tomorrow too. Yay! We'll be launching out of Mazurik's again, after a good breakfast at Big Bopper's.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Bennett, Glenn, and Amy 8/30/17
by Capt Juls on 08/30/17At 5:30 this morning, I hit Hi Way Bait for some emerald shiners, and started to head back to Catawba to meet my crew at 6:45.
My crew for the day was Bennett Welch, and Glenn and Amy Osowski. Ben had bid on my trip that was donated by Jim Gammons to a Red Cross Charity event held at the Catawba Island Club back in July. He was treating Glenn and Amy to this trip.
When I looked at the weather before I left, there was no rain on the radar, but when some rain drops started to hit my windshield near 163 and 269N, I checked it again. A pop up shower was headed over the lake towards the town, and was going to rain pretty hard, but not for long.
I was a little pissed that my nice clean boat was now getting wet, but it is what it is, and there's nothing to do about it, but dry it off with a towel when it stops.
I was hoping that my crew would have rain gear with them, or they were going to have wet butts. I was worried that they wouldn't, because the forecast wasn't calling for any rain. Thankfully, they did.
We were going to wait for it to completely pass, but it wasn't moving as fast as I thought it was, and I figured if we went over to H Can we would skirt the edge of it. Well, I was close, but we still got rained on. We set up there, but there were few marks on the Helix's screen. I figured we would fish there until the rain passed, or stopped enough that I could drive the boat without getting the "Sting Eye" from the rain drops.
It didn't take long before the rain let up enough, so that we could run up to D Can and check there. The Mega Imaging was picking up some good fish on the bottom, so we gave it 15 minutes....nothing. So, we headed northeast...I was headed to the red buoy at West Reef, but the Helix lit up with marks about 2 miles west of the rattles on Rattlesnake, so I shut the boat down and set up on them with the "Spot Lock". I can't express how nice it is to use that feature on the Ulterra...just hit a button and the boat is anchored...and, no back pain! Ha!
Anyway...I digress....
I said, "Okay, it's 8:41...we'll give it to 9:00, and if they don't start biting, we'll move". But, luckily, they started to bite. It was slow at first, but within those 20 minutes, we had a pretty steady bite going...even some doubles. The grade of perch was nice too, and no one was complaining. :)
Amy had never perch fished before, and after a 1/2 morning of using the reel with the handle on the wrong side, she mentioned it, and let me change it for her....her technique greatly improved once she was more comfortable with the reel. lol
A funny moment, was when Bennett broke a hook off in a huge perch's mouth, and I could see the wheels turning in his head....I knew he wanted to remove the hook and toss the hook overboard, but instead what happened was....he looked at the hook, looked at me looking at him...and, then, somehow thinking he had removed the hook already...tossed the fish, with the hook still in its lip, overboard. We all laughed at his blooper moment. I'm sure it was one of those "you had to be there" moments, because it doesn't sound as funny in writing as it did in real life. :)
We limited out with 120 perch in about 3 1/2 hours. That's the best bite I've had in two weeks now. I also heard that the east side of the bass islands, where I was fishing the last few times out, lit up today, and limits were easy to come by.
I'm still concerned about the lack of smaller perch in the system right now, and fear that the young walleye have ravaged that year class of perch. That might not bode well for the future of our perch fishery....I guess we'll have to wait and see though.
Everyone had a good time, and Glenn and Amy would like to plan another trip the third week in September, to treat Ben, if it works out for everyone, and the weather plays nice. Fingers crossed! I really had a good time with them, and would love to fish with them again. :)
I'm not out again until September 5th....I don't have anything scheduled until then. But, looking at the wind forecast for the next few days, I guess I'm lucky I didn't have anything scheduled. She's going to blow some tomorrow, bad on Friday, and Saturday morning, but should be laying down again by Saturday afternoon. So, if you're going....be safe!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Levi, TJ, and Garrett 8/27/17
by Capt Juls on 08/28/17My crew for the day was a three generational crew consisting of a Grandpa (TJ), Dad (Levi), and a 5 1/2 year old son (Garrett). I was told that while Garrett was an accomplished young angler already, he had never fished for perch....and, neither had Dad or Grandpa. So, it was going to be a fun day of firsts for all of them. :)
I met them at Big Bopper's after running to both Hi Way Bait and Rickard's Bait, hoping to find some nice emerald shiners, but that was not to be. Hi Way only had the goldies, and Rickard's only had the goldie/pinhead mix. I had heard Jeannett's had nice sized emeralds, but she only takes cash, and I seldom ever have cash on my person. Anyway, I had some of my frozen emeralds that were the "good size", so I was good with our bait situation.
It was a nice morning, with partly cloudy skies, 58 degrees, and a light east wind. The temp was supposed to rise into the low 70's.
We launched out of Mazurik's at 6:30am and headed north towards some old numbers there in the "triangle" (between Lucy's, Middle Island, and Kelly's NW corner. There are a lot of perch out there, but it was a tougher bite for us again. We moved a few times, and found some piggy perch that were willing to bite, but it was one of those bites where they would come in....we would catch 6 or 7, and think it was "starting", and then they would disappear again for 15-20 minutes...then, come back again and do the same thing. Every time I would say, "Let's move" they would start catching again, and I would stay. lol That's so frustrating. The size was very good, so it was hard to move when they would show back up.
Levi told me that he fishes the FLW Bass events, and has been doing so for about 6 to 7 years. His son Garrett is only 5 1/2, so Garrett has grown up fishing with his Dad. He learned how to use a spinning reel at 3 years old....and, I explained that I caught my first fish at 4 years old, but back then, it was a line tied to a stick...not a fancy spinning reel. lol
I was a little concerned as to whether a 5 1/2 year old would be able to last a full 6 hours out there, and not get bored, but Garrett showed me that he has fishing in his blood and loves it. He was catching and reeling in his own fish, and keeping up with the rest of us, and even doing better than us at one point, because his arm got tired and he laid the rod down, so the baits were just laying on the bottom. When he picked his rod back up, it had a fish on it. He did that several times and each time it worked, and had a perch on the other end. However, when I tried the same trick, it didn't work for me. Ha!
Garrett fought a big sheepshead, and only needed a little bit of help from me, mostly because I was afraid of him losing my rod over the side of the boat, not because he actually needed my help. I just wanted to make sure it didn't happen. :)
By the end of the trip, they had brought in a bunch of big perch...not sure on the count exactly, because we found out later that Garrett admitted to playing with the flapper in the "Catch Counter" that counts the perch as they are tossed down the chute....but, it didn't matter, because we know it wasn't even close to a 4 person limit. But, there were enough for a couple very nice family fish fries.
Everyone had a good time, and liked perch fishing....and, that made me happy.
My next trip is Wednesday, with Ben Welch, a previous customer who bid on a donated trip at an auction for the Red Cross through the Catawba Island Club, and his two guests, who are psychologists with the VA Hospital in Toledo. We will be looking for more perch again.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Greg and Ryan Faulks 8/26/17
by Capt Juls on 08/26/17I left the house at 5:15, so I could hit the gas station to fill both the truck and the boat, before hitting up Hi Way bait for some minnows. They had a nice mix of emeralds and goldies that were the perfect size. The pinheads were a little too small for my liking, since the perch showed me yesterday that they were more than willing to munch on the bigger minnows again. If I don't have to use pinheads, I prefer not to, because they get sucked off the hooks to quickly.
I met my crew of the father and son duo of Greg and Ryan Faulks (Wisconsin) at Catawba this morning, since they were staying about a mile north of the park on Catawba Island. It was a short ride for them to meet me there. I got there a little early and got the boat ready to go...and, also installed the navigation lights for the ride out.
When they arrived, I told them we would wait a few minutes for it to get a little lighter out, and then take a leisurely ride out to the area just west of Gull Island Shoal...they agreed.
I started out going across the bottom of South Bass, but it was a NE wind, and the lake was a bit bumpy...not bad...just enough to make is slower going than normal though, so I turned and headed north to go up the west side of the island.
I opened up the 300G2 as we got to the protected side of the island, and it shaved off a lot of time by doing do. Then as we scooted out between Ballast Island, and the navigational buoys, it was a short 2 mile ride, to my spot from yesterday.
After we set the anchor with the Spot Lock on the Ulterra, we started fishing. And, yes, I had the Ugly Sticks rigged up for them this time. :) The bite wasn't as quick to start as it was yesterday, so after we had spent an hour there, and only had 6 perch to show for it, we moved to another spot closer to Lucy's point, and started picking up some perch there. The perch in that spot were very nice....fat little buggers. Greg and Ryan were very pleased and were having a great time.
I don't know what it is about Wisconsin folks, but we all just seem to always get along so well. lol I think it's our "laid back" attitudes, and "anything goes, as long as it's safe fun" ideals. Since they said they had fun and a good time, I have to believe them...and, that makes me happy. :)
We ended up moving back to our original spot with about 45 minutes to go, and put 10 in the box pretty quickly. I should have probably stayed there from the beginning, and would have probably limited out with 90, but we ended the day with only 50....actually, it was 5 more than they thought they were allowed, so they were happy with it. Greg was thinking that it was only 15 per person instead of 30 per person. :)
After we finished, I took them and their fish over to Port Clinton Fish to be cleaned, and they went over to Slater's to wait. They asked me to join them for lunch, so I asked, "Can I go drop the boat off and come back to meet you there?" And, they were cool with that, so that's what I did. Lunch was great, and the conversation even better. These are two very interesting fellows, and I look forward to fishing with them in the spring for some walleye. :)
I'll be back out tomorrow with Levi Northup and his 5 1/2 year old son to do some more perch'n. The weather looks great for tomorrow, so I'm hoping the fish cooperate. I'm told this youngster is quite an accomplished angler for his age. It should be a fun day tomorrow too. Woot! Woot!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Benji, Keith, and Max 8/25/17
by Capt Juls on 08/25/17My crew showed up at my house at 5:30, and we hit the gas station, Hi Way Bait, and Big Bopper's before hitting the launch at Mazurik's at 6:30.
We headed north out of the harbor, and set up west of Gull in 34 foot of water. We were after some striped gold today, an we found them on the first spot. The size was very good, and my crew was starting to get the hang of it. Then, I heard...."SNAP", and I turned around to see that one of the new Denali perch rods had snapped in two when Benji set the hook. I was pissed (not at Benji, but at the stupid rod). This was the second Denali perch rod to do that in just a couple of months!
I had forgotten to put the extra rod in the boat, like I kept telling myself to do since the last one broke, so I did the only thing I could do, and that was to give my rod to Benji to use.
Now, this is not just any old rod, this is a Fenwick Ultra Light that I have used since 1989 to catch bluegills and perch on. It used to be a 6' rod, but back in the early 90's, while fishing on the lake my parents live on, I broke a foot off of the tip when a giant Dog Fish chomped on the bluegill I was reeling in. So, it's been a 5' ultra light since then, and never broke again. So, I'm always a little leary to give away my "good luck" rod to a customer. lol
I had resigned myself to sitting this one out, and Benji said, "Here you keep fishing", as he tried to hand me the rod. I said, "No, no way...this is your trip. You keep fishing. I'm good". As I sat there watching them all though, I got the idea to just fish with the broken rod tip and some line tied to it. I tied the Skipper 9 rig on and the weight, and tossed it over the side to let just the right amount of line out, and then ran it through several guides, and tied it off. This way, I could still hold the line on my finger and feel the bite, just like I normally do.
It worked. I caught fish by setting the hook, tossing the rod tip down on the storage compartment, and then handlining the fish in the boat. I think I caught 15 or more that way, and had fun doing it. Well, fun until the wind would blow that 30 pound Power Pro and tangle me up, and I would have to spend 5 minutes untangling things.
Anyhoooo...it all worked out in the end. They caught bunches...only 3 short of their 3 man limit, and everyone had a good time. The bite was the best I've experienced in the past two weeks, so maybe this cooler weather is helping with the bite a little. The bites were definitely stronger, and not as light as the previous trips out. I'm hoping they remain there for the weekend. I have two more perch trips tomorrow and Sunday, and would like to limit out for a change. :)
We shall see....
Tomorrow I fish with Ryan Faulk and his Dad (I think it's his Dad? I can't remember), and we'll be launching out of Catawba, simply because they are staying at Beach Cliff, which is right down the road, so that's more convenient for them, and it makes no difference to me if we launch there or out of Mazurik's.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing Day 2 with Bob and Greg 8/24/17
by Capt Juls on 08/24/17The morning was a repeat from the day before with Bob and Greg...picked up bait at Rickard's on the way to Bopper's for breakfast, and then hit Mazurik's to launch.
It was a north wind today, and picked up as soon as we were on the lake. The waves when we launched were only 2 foot or less, but quickly turned into 2's and 3's with some 4's thrown in for good measure. We weren't going far this morning though, so it was a non-factor in my opinion, because I knew the Ulterra would hold us in the rougher conditions without any issues.
Unlike an anchor, where one would need to put out extra rode to keep the bow from taking water over the front, the Ulterra "rides the waves" while keeping the boat on the spot, using "Spot Lock". It uses 2 GPS's for extra accuracy, and less drifting, too. I just love that machine, and would be lost without it now, that I've grown so dependent on it's functions.
Anyway....I digress...I do that a lot...sorry. lol
The bite was slow to start, and after only 6 perch in the box in the first 45 minutes, I decided to see if I could spy better marks on the Helix with the Mega Imaging over closer to Kelly's island, so we would be out of the wind more. But, after riding the entire length of the island, on the south side, I didn't mark anything.
There were a bunch of boats over there on the SE side, but I think the first boat went there to be out of the wind, and then a second one did the same...next thing you know there's four boats, and then it turns into a pack. Either they were fishing phantom fish, or my Helix needs adjusting on some settings, because I didn't mark squat over there.
We ended up going right back to our first spot and finishing out their 6 hours right there. Caught a total of 52 perch today. It was a light bite, and a tricky bite. As I explained to them what was going on down there, Bob was understanding it, and started catching....Greg struggled today and only caught 3 perch. :(
I was surprised to find a bluegill out there too, but there he was...at the end of my line....and, that made me happy! But. I'm sure the little gill was not so happy. :)
I'll be perch fishing again with Benji Reisenbeck and his crew tomorrow.
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing with Bob and Greg 8/23/17
by Capt Juls on 08/23/17Yesterday was a blow day, since there was a "Small Craft Advisory" from 9am to late evening, so no report from yesterday.
Today...
I picked my crew up at their hotel at 5:30 and stopped to get some minnows from Rickard's. He was putting out signs that say they have Emerald Shiners, when we pulled in, so I was a bit excited to see that. However, when I got out of the truck and motioned to Rick with some "happy clapping" he said, "Their Pinheads", and my clapping stopped. lol
I normally hate using pinheads, because they're so tiny, and hard to keep on the hooks. I had some of my frozen emeralds with me, so I wasn't too upset about it, and he said there were goldens mixed in with them, so I was cool with that and bought 3 scoops.
It turned out to be the ticket to catching our perch today....all they wanted were the tiny little pinheads. They didn't want my larger emeralds or goldens at all today. That confused me until I put two and two together, and realized that just last week the perch were puking up tiny pinhead sized fish. I thought they were baby Gobies, but they could have been the baby emeralds in the system now. That's good to see, because we haven't had any good hatches of emeralds for a couple years, due to weather in June. or so I'm told (I'm no expert on minnows).
We even caught a few smaller perch, which I was happy to see, because I haven't seen as many little perch as we have in the past. I'm thinking that all the extra walleye we have in the system now, it is wreaking havoc on our young perch. Maybe if there is a good bait hatch, they will leave the perch alone. I doubt it though....who doesn't like a good perch dinner? Why would the walleye be any different? ;)
Bob and Greg are return customers, who like to come down here from Wisconsin and just decompress. So, it's not all about catching fish....but, it sure is more fun when we do! They ended the day with only 38 large perch that went 20 pounds at the cleaners....so, 1/2 pound fatties. They were happy with that.
We were hiding out of the wind on the east side of South Bass Island and a little SSE off the monument in 28' of water. There are a lot of fish there, and they would come and go. If we had all the fish we missed, due to their lite bites, we would have limited out quite early, but it was a tricky bite. Only a handful had them deep inside their throats. The rest were just barely hooked on the lip.
We will be out again tomorrow to give it another shot. North winds tomorrow, but not as strong, so I think we can move further north and east to give it a go.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Ray and Debbie Willig 8/21/17
by Capt Juls on 08/21/17After stopping at Hi Way Bait to pick up some minnows and ice, I headed over to Big Bopper's to meet Ray and Debbie for breakfast.
We sat with my friend "Trapper", who often fishes by himself, (and with me sometimes), so we could catch up on things, since we hadn't been at Big B's at the same time in a long time. :)
Trapper gave me some good intel on some walleye east of Kellys, so since the lake was relatively calm, we changed our plans of just perching...to doing walleye first, and then perch'n.
We weren't that far from Cedar Point, and caught our first keeper walleye on a stock Black/Chrome Bandit. I was running them with 2oz snap weights 25-30' in front of the lures and then putting them out a total distance of 70, 75, 80, 85, 90 and 95 before putting the Off Shore boards on.
We started with a speed of 2.4mph, but a call to Trapper on the radio to find out what his speed was the day before, told me to slow it down to 1.8-1.9mph. That's when we caught our first fish of the morning.
Trolling for another mile, we would only pick up a couple more short walleye, even though the marks on the Helix were pretty darn good. I thought maybe it was a directional thing, so we turned to head back west again. And, since they didn't want it at what I thought was a fast speed of 2.4-2.5mph, and the slower speed of 1.8-1.9 only produced a few fish.
But, thanks to a Facebook posting by a "friend", who mentioned he had the same thing happening to him the other day, and suggested I go "crazy fast" to get better results. So, I did. Or, what I thought was crazy fast...anyway. I sped up the baby ETEC to move us at 3.0mph...............and, it worked!
As soon as the boat started moving faster the starboard side, inside board, went back. Then, the middle board, and finally the outside board. We had three short fish in 5 minutes of speeding it up. Then, we caught another keeper walleye, a giant sheepshead, and a white perch. And, then, another keeper walleye and more shorts.
We had discussed going perch'n since we had three good eaters in the box, and still had three hours to try to find some "gold". Capt Kevin texted me to tell me he had already caught 36 perch on one of my previous spots, so I told my crew and they were anxious to go and try it. So, we packed up the walleye gear and headed back to the island area.
Once we arrived to the spot and found Kevin, he mentioned that they hadn't caught any in the time it took me to get from the Cedar Point area to South Bass Island. lol Just my luck! We set up on some good marks and gave it a shot, but it wasn't meant to be....nothing bit us there......we moved 25 yards away on some better marks....nothing bit our offerings there either. It was frustrating, because I had fresh emeralds this morning!! Uffda!! They should have been jumping on those minnows..lol
Anyway....I digress...
We moved one more time to the NW corner of Kelly's and caught a handful of nice ones. It was not what I was looking forward to, but it was what it was.
Ray and Debbie had a good time, and relaxed with a few beers, and good conversation. They were looking forward to watching the Solar Eclipse after we got off the water, and even had the glasses for it. They gave me a pair of glasses too, so I could watch it, but I gave mine to a young family that was looking for some glasses. They wanted their kids to see it, and I wanted them to see it too.
I have some great guys from Wisconsin here for the next three days to fish with me. We will do walleye and perch, but we'll never know at any given time what we'll be fishing for, because they just want to have a good time and catch whatever is biting.
Tomorrow's weather looks kind of iffy, so we'll be checking that out at breakfast. The winds might keep us off the lake, or at the very least, limit us to where we can go on the lake. We shall see....
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Doyle, Jacob, and Brock 8/20/17
by Capt Juls on 08/20/17Doyle and his son, Jacob, and his son in law Brock drove in from Indiana this morning and met me at my house, so we could drive to the launch together from here.
They wanted to go either walleye or perch fishing, whichever was going to do better. Doyle had some info on some walleye to the west, and since the wind forecast was for light winds today, we decided to hit up Rickard's for minnows and launch out of Catawba, to make that run over there.
I figured if the walleye weren't going, we could perch fish instead...thus the stop for minnows.
Well, I called my friend Nate, who let me know about a walleye bite that was pretty far away from Catawba, so I asked my crew if they were up for a boat ride, and they said yes.
Doyle is the fella buying my boat at the end of the month, so it was fun to get him out in it. I asked him if he wanted to drive it out to the spot, but he didn't want to..."Not yet", he said. He would drive it later in the day. I guess maybe he thought I would yell at him or something...hehehe Anyway....we made the long run west and put some Bandits out behind the Off Shore boards.
Nate was out there too, and we kept each other informed about what was working as we caught fish. Between us, we narrowed it down to a weighted program. I'm not exactly sure how he was running his, but I think maybe he was running his behind 2oz inline weights, because he was running his lines off the "big boards", where as I was running mine with 2oz snap weights 25-30 feet in front of the lure behind inline boards. The total distance back behind the planer board was 70-80 back. Speed was 2.2-2.4mph and we were fishing in 27-28 feet of water. There was a lot of floating algae bloom throughout the water column over there.
We lost a few fish, and a couple lures, due to over zealous reeling on the part of "Bass Guy" syndrome...lol That's what I call it when a person reels too fast, instead of "nice and steady", and that fish is water skiing on the surface to the boat. If you're ever wondering....no...you shouldn't try to ski and lift a 3-4 pound walleye in the boat, with no net, while it's thrashing about....deep sigh.
But, on the bright side, we did manage to put 5-6 walleye in the box, before we decided to go give perching a try someplace.
The wind was stronger in the morning than they had been calling for, and the nice calm lake was 1-3 where we were. It did calm down by 10am when we went searching for perch, so at least we could run a little faster then earlier in the morning.
By now, Doyle was learning the ropes with all the equipment. He was getting familiar with the Humminbird unit and how to read what it was telling him, the Minn-Kota Ulterra, and its touch screen remote, the "baby ETEC" kicker, and the most fun one...the Evinrude 300 G2. I had him move us from spot to spot to try and find some perch. We only managed two small sheepshead and a few lost minnows, before Doyle called it a day and we headed back in.
After we got back to my house, I asked if Jacob and Brock wanted to take the extra minnows over to my neighbor's pond to feed the fish, and so they did. I'm sure the fish were very happy. And, that made me happy. :)
Doyle is happy also, and can't wait to pick the Ranger up in October. That will be sad day for me, because it's been my favorite one so far. He picked GREAT colors on this one. ;)
Tomorrow I am fishing with Ray Willig and his buddies, and we're going to try for some perch again. They are staying at Little Ted's Cottage's, so we'll launch out of Mazurik's even though there are spots to the west I want to try, that I marked fish at on the way in today. It's never a long ride in a Ranger...wink wink.
Don't burn your eyeballs tomorrow...:)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
