Originally Posted by
Capt Juls
I got to start my day off by stopping by Magruder hospital for a random drug test, at 6am. I had to meet my customers at 8am, so I had to do it before meeting them. It's just one of those annoyances we must go through to keep our Capt's licenses.
Hey, guess what? It was raining again! No surprise there, eh? I'm so sick of this freaky weather I could just....just...oh, I don't know...do something un-lady like! D'Oh!
After my fun time at the hospital, I ran and got gas for the truck and boat, hit Hi Way Bait for ice, shiners, and crawlers, and then went back to the Walmart to meet up Andy, his friend, Jeff, and Jeff's son Max. We would be driving over to Huron this morning to give it a go over there.
We launched at 8:30 and headed over to Cranberry Creek.
Freaky weather again....No rain to start...calm waters. Then, once we got to our first spot it was pouring rain and gusty SE winds. About two hours later, the wind just went from SE to WNW in a split second. It was very unusual, because normally, it would subside first, while it is changing around to come from another direction like that. Huh....
While we did mark a ton of fish in the 27-31 foot of water over in front of Cranberry, we only got two to bite. So, I headed over to Sawmill and set lines to see if there were fish over there, and possibly more willing to bite. There were more fish there, but they were in the same mood....deep sigh.
So, I asked the guys if they wanted to give perch fishing a try. I had heard there was a good bite by the red buoy by the Huron River channel. They said, "Yes". We gave that a shot for about a half hour with only 2 sheephead to show for it.
So, I suggested they might want to save some money and cut the trip short at only 4 hours instead of the 8 they planned on.
They thought about it, but were still having fun out there, and decided they wanted to try back over by Cranberry again. Maybe the fish would turn on? So, back we went. Mind you....it's still raining and these guys are not wearing rain gear (Max had Frogg Toggs on at least). I had gortex on and I was WET....Andy and Jeff were soaked through and through! lol
We made one more pass over by CC, and had one sink the board. Andy handed the rod off to young Max, and I gave netting duties to Andy after I took the Off Shore board off. I thought it was going to be a big sheephead, the way it was fighting, but it turned out to be a nice fat 27 1/2 inch walleye!
Andy almost knocked it off with the net the first time he stabbed at it, but he managed to keep the netting out of the hooks and got her in the net the second time. Whew!
Max was pretty funny. After putting it in the cooler, he sat on the cooler, because it was so big he thought it was going to jump out. lol
After nothing for the next 1/2 hour, after that one and only fish in that pass, I told them, "With the north winds building, and the slow fishing, and it's still raining, I'm cutting this trip to 6 hours"....so, we pulled lines and headed in.
It was rough coming in the channel with the waves going against the current, but it was doable....just had to surf them in.
I dropped their fish off at Bay's Edge, and took them back to their truck at Walmart. We said our goodbyes, and set up a date in April to do some walleye fishing next year. I gave them some good restaurant suggestions and headed home with my soggy self. After putting the boat to bed, I took a nice long hot shower, and made something to eat. Tomorrow is another day, and I hope the fishing is much better.
I am headed to Canada with a customer who lives locally, and we're planning to hit the Wagon Wheel first, then maybe Sheridan Point, and then, maybe up and around to the east side, and back down.
The Lake Erie weather is supposed to be really nice tomorrow, so I hope they get it right this time. I could use a really nice day for a change.
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
