Fishing with Casey, Amy, and Ryan 8/21/2020

I had the past couple of days off. One day, was another NE wind, that I rescheduled, and yesterday was a scheduled day off. I was looking forward to getting back on the water this morning and back to work.

In the hope, that we could put 18 walleye in the boat in a couple hours, I stopped off at the Fisherman's Wharf to pick up some minnows and ice, so we could perch fish if the opportunity presented itself, before hitting the gas station to gas up the boat.


I was meeting my crew at Mazurik's at 6:15 for a 6:30 launch, but I showed up there around 5:45 to get things ready before they showed up. I had just finished up when they arrived around 6am, so we launched earlier than planned, at 6:15.


The sky was clear, the air temp was 63 degrees, and the wind was light out of the south-southwest. The lake was calm for a change, since the past week and a half was all E or NE winds, I think. I was really getting tired of those stupid rollers that come from across the entire lake with those wind directions, so this morning was a much needed and pleasant wind.


We headed out of Mazurik's to the east side of Kelly's. I had heard the north side of the Cedar Point Dump (or, some might call it the Marblehead Dump) was producing yesterday, so we headed there first. I set down on the NW corner of the dump and looked at the marks on the Helix, or I should say, I looked at the lack of marks on the Helix.


Since this was a learning trip, I said, "Let's set up here and head NE by the dump and see what happens". After showing Ryan and Casey how to set out the Off Shore boards, I showed them how to deploy the dipsies, so they didn't tangle. They caught on quick and we were off and trolling.


I didn't have a good feeling though, when the screen stayed basically blank, except for a fish here and there swimming across the bottom. And, for all I knew, they could have been the elusive yellow perch we were passing over.


We picked everything up and headed more NE to see if we could mark any fish....anywhere. We drove several miles one way, and then another way, and then another way...never marking anything better than what we saw when we first set up. I wasn't about to make a 30 mile run to the east, to where they are getting them "As fast as you can reel", because there had to be some fish closer to home.


Last year, we had plenty of walleye from Huron to Kelly's and up to the line, but I was left scratching my head in confusion when it seemed there were none to be found....not like we had last year at this time anyway. I headed down to the Huron dump and marked some fish. While not great, it was the best I had seen in all that driving around, so we set up and trolled to the west from there.


We picked up 9 walleye, some shorts, and a couple of white perch in that pass, and that was it. I had heard some chatter on the radio, and one voice I recognized, so I called him. He was 2 miles north of me and said they were catching, and had decent marks there. I had to scratch my head again, because that's one of the places we had stopped to take a look at what the Helix was showing me, and it didn't show squat. But, I thought maybe they moved in after we rolled through there, so we picked up and made the move north to try again.


As I suspected, the marks just weren't there. There was a pack of boats there, and ya'll know how much I love pack fishing....ugh. So, I started behind them and headed NE towards the rest of the pack, hoping to see these fish these guys were all fishing for. They never showed themselves though. There was only a lonely fish here and there across the bottom like I had two miles to the south. We weren't seeing any nets going the water the entire time we were up there either.


We ended catching two more going from east to west for a total of 11 walleye for the morning. If it weren't for the positive vibes and humor of my customers, it would have been an unbearable morning, since I had such high hopes for the day. But, they actually made it a fun morning even with the slow catching, so I'm thankful for that. :)


Casey, Amy, and Ryan said they had fun and have scheduled another trip for late October to try again. When we got back to Mazurik's, Casey said to me with a serious face, "You know, when I go out on the first trip with any new Captain...(he paused, and I got nervous as to what he was going to say)... we ALWAYS do poorly, so it's probably me. That means, the next trip out should be fantastic". I laughed, and said, "Well then, I'm really looking forward to the next one!"


Tomorrow's trip is with Dave Miller and his buddy, so I'll be looking at some new areas, since we deleted a lot of water today. Hopefully, we will find some better marks to set up on.


Stay tuned...


Capt Juls