Fishing with Bob and LeAnn Johnson 4/15/15

Picked up Bob and LeAnn from their hotel at 6:30 this morning, and headed to Catawba to launch. It's nice this time of year, when I don't have to stop for ice and crawlers every morning. Sure does save on time and money. :)

We hit the same spot I was in yesterday, because I was taught a long time ago that you never leave fish to find fish...right?
We didn't have the second Off Shore board out before the first one got pulled back by a nice 6 pound (ish) walleye. We only got two more on the first pass even though we were marking a ton of big fish below us. On the second pass, we ended up with a total of only 7 fish. It had me scratching my head since we could still see the fish in the area.

The Captain of the 'Sara-J' was on the radio talking to one of his buddies about how the fish he's catching were only 4' down, so I had my crew bring a few baits up high in the water column on the next pass.

Nothing....nada....zip...zero! No takers on the high program for us. So, when we picked up to move back up to make another pass, we moved to the other side of the passage. We set our lines back out to my original program of P-10's at 30/30 with the 1oz snap weight.

We trolled for about 10 minutes, and I said, "I think they want some music", so I turned on the stereo. The first song was just ending, and some Supertramp started to play. Suddenly, I hear Bob say from the bow of the boat, "Fish on!" Woot! Woot!
LeAnn grabbed the rod with the fish on, while I cleared the rod with the inside board. I looked over to check the boards on the other side, and the middle board was going back too. Bob jumped on that rod, and was able to bring it around the inside board without tangling lines.
After getting LeAnn's fish in the boat with one net, I laid it down on the floor and jumped over to help Bob get his board and snap weight off. Just as I'm grabbing the second net for Bob's fish, LeAnn starts reeling in another fish!
Luckily, the hooks came out of the second net easily, so we could net the third big fish. Going from a stagnant 7 fish to suddenly 10 with two to go is a great feeling. What fun!
The last two fish came within the next 10 mintues, so we were done by 10:30.

We drove over to Bay's Edge to get their fish cleaned before going to grab some lunch. They were heading back to Illinois this afternoon, and had a 5 hour drive ahead of them. This was the second time I have fished with Bob and LeAnn, and they feel more like "family" than customers. That makes me happy. :)

Today's weather conditions were:
5-12mph ENE winds with sunshine
Waves 2 foot or less early and 1-3's by late morning.
Water temps 45.7
Location: Mouse Island

Tommorrow's trip is day one of a two day charter so.....

Stay tuned!

Capt Juls