5 Attachment(s)
Fishing with Al, Dennis, and Oley 9/6-9/8/16
My three day fishing adventure with Al (Wally), Dennis, and David (Oley), who hail from my home state of Wisconsin, began this past Tuesday.
The morning was warm, and humid, with a forecast calling for heat indexes on land to reach over 100 degrees!
They were staying at "Little Ted's Cottages", just down the road from Mazurik's boat access there in Marblehead, so I ran my usual morning errands of gassing up the Ranger, hitting Hi Way Bait for minnows and ice, and then eating a nice breakfast at Big Bopper's, before meeting them at the ramp.
After loading Dennis and Oley into the boat, Wally backed us in. Off we went to a spot on the west side of North Bass to look for some perch. The 10-12mph SW winds that morning made it pretty choppy up there with 1-3' waves.
However, when we got there, Oley was looking a little "green". I told him to lay the line over his finger, so he didn't have to watch the rod tip for a bite, and that he should keep his focus on the straight horizon, so it would help ease his seasickness. He tried, but it wasn't working.
We tried a couple of spots that showed good marks, but the bite was slow...I mean really slow...so, after Oley did a little chumming, we headed east to the protected side of North Bass to try and get to calmer waters for Oley's sake. It's also a very good perch spot this time of year, so I was confident we would find some fish over there. We weren't disappointed when the Helix lit up with big perch marks on the bottom.
With a push of a button, the Minn-Kota trolling motor deployed into the water, and with a push of another button, we were "anchored" with it's Spot Lock feature. My customers are always amazed by the ability of the trolling motor to hold us tight on a spot without using an old fashioned anchor. And, I am always grateful that I do not have to lift a heavy anchor every time I want to change spots....woot! woot!
Anyway, I digress...
As soon as we dropped lines into the water, we were getting bites, and bringing up nice perch. Perch that measured between 7 1/2 to 12 inches...with the majority of them being in the 8 to 10 inch range. But, Oley wasn't catching, and was chumming again...poor guy. This time, I told Dennis to come down off the bow, so Oley could go up there and lay down. I know when I used to get seasick that laying down and closing my eyes always helped. The rocking puts you to sleep rather than keep you seasick. It eventually worked, because at one point he was snoring.
So, while Oley slept, Wally, Dennis, and I had a good time catching 3 limits of perch. :)
When we were done, and loaded out, I drove the fish over to Bay's Edge Fish Cleaning for them, so they didn't have to get their nice clean cooler all full of slimy fish.
We made plans to meet at the same time the next morning, but I told Oley to take 2 Dramamine's that night, and 2 more again in the morning with breakfast. He's a big guy, about 6-3 and 310 pounds, so that one little Dramamine he took the first morning did nothing for him. He needed a lot in him. lol
The next morning, I did my same routine and met them at the launch at 6:30. We were on the water and headed to a spot out in front of Lakeside, that I had heard was producing, because I knew it would be windy on their third day, and wanted to see of there were biting perch there, in case the forecast was correct and we needed a closer spot along the protected shoreline.
However, we didn't stay there long, because I knew what was happening up north, and I didn't want to lose my spot up there. So, we headed up there after only about 15 minutes of fishing. When we arrived, there was one boat up there....and, guess where it was....right on the spot I was on the day before, so I took the spot my friend, Capt Kevin Swartz, was sitting on that day too.
To make a long story short...we caught 101 piggy perch in just under two hours up there. The grade was the same as the day before, with the exception of a big fat 13 1/4" perch that found our bait tasty. I stopped them at 101 instead of 120, because I still wanted to go back down in front of Lakeside Pier to find a bite there, so we had someplace to head to on the third morning.
We stopped to look what was underneath hundreds of Commorants and Seagulls that gathered in one area to feed, but I didn't mark anything that looked real "perchy", so we moved down to the north side of a pack of boats fishing in 24 foot of water, and set up. We managed to hit a good spot. They would only need a half hour to catch their 19 more and finish out the 4 man limit.
They had a great time, and the best news is, Oley didn't get seasick at all that morning, even though the waves up north were more like 2-4s than the 1-3's the day before. ;)
I dropped their fish off again, and told them I would watch the wind forecast for the next day and make the call to go, or not go, in the morning. They agreed that that was a good plan.
I woke up at 3:30am, as usual, and put a pot of coffee on to brew while I looked up the day's weather conditions. It was showing wind gusts to 31 out of the SW, but it wasn't doing anything to my wind chimes on my back deck. So, I let them know we would be going out to the spot we hit the day before out in front of Lakeside. That way we would still be in protected waters, and it wouldn't be so bad. They liked the plan, so we launched at the same time as the previous two days, and headed out.
To make another long story short, we tried several spots, and marked a lot of fish, but they wouldn't eat. So, my guys decided to make it a short day, and head back to Wisconsin a little earlier.
It was a fun three days fishing with Al, Dennis, and David. They are making plans to come back in May for a little walleye fishing....and, that makes me happy! :)
Tomorrow, I have one of my regular customers, Ben Rewa, and his crew for either perch or walleye...not sure yet. He likes to fish for walleye, so it might be time to hit Huron and start fishing them again. The water temps are getting lower, so there might be some action to be had.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
