Springtime Shakedown Run with Chris Utter 3/9/2022

Well, this was the first morning back on the water since December, I think. Maybe it was early January, but either way, it's been a while since I fished out of my boat. She has been tucked away inside a nice warm building all winter, keeping her batteries charged up.

Chris Utter drove down from Wisconsin to fish with me today and tomorrow. He's the fella that always brings me the venison breakfast sausage that I make my biscuits and gravy with, and he told me that he filled one doe tag just to make me breakfast sausage, so I truly feel honored to have a friend like him. :)


We launched at Mazurik's a little after 8am and headed to the SE corner of Kelly's, since there was a light NW breeze, and we could take it from there towards Huron. We stopped every now and then to check for fish marks on the Solix, but it was pretty sparse everywhere we stopped, so we kept going.


We set up out in front of the white condos, but didn't mark much once we started trolling, and only stayed there for about a 1/2 hour. We picked up and headed back to the west and finally found some willing to bite on the SE corner of the island, where we started looking earlier. Again...not marking much, and really didn't even mark the ones that did bite.


Bandits and Spro Madeye 120s run behind Off Shore boards caught us a limit of fish today (we only went 6 for 8 today in 4 1/2 hours). Baits with white and green in them did very well (RC Crush), as did the old tried and true Blue/Chrome. We caught one fish on a Red Headed Wonderbread and one a Chartreuse Wonderbread too.


The port side ran the Spros and the starboard side ran the Bandits. The Spros were set at 110 on the outside board, 75 on the middle board, and 50/30 with a 2oz Guppie weight on the inside board. The 110 back took 3 fish (RC Crush), the 75 (Redheaded W) took one fish, and the inside board never took one, and was changed out several times.


The starboard side was set by Chris, and the only setting I remember on his side was the Blue/Chrome Bandit set at 75 back, because that one caught two nice fish. His snap-weighted bandit had a good hit, but it came unbuttoned before he could get to it, and it never got touched again. We were busy with another fish at the time, and missed it.


I was playing with the speed all morning, going from as slow at 1.1mph to 1.8mph...and, when we did hook up, we were running at 1.6mph. The best direction for us was going against the south passage current (west), which at 1.6 mph against the current would have had those baits dancing pretty hard, I think.


It was a nice day to get out. The winds were light, but picked up to around 9mph from the west towards noon, which made it a little chilly, but the sun had some out, so it wasn't too bad.


We will be launching out of Catawba in the morning to try some new areas.


Stay tuned...


Capt Juls

Its looking good nice to see you and hear a report , thinking about trolling more this year and might call you about a 1 or 2 man trip to get some training .

Sure is nice to read your reports again and look at the photos you include. I can almost feel the chilly breeze you spoke of. (deep inhale) Refreshing!!!

always a pleasure reading! thanks cap, looking forward too many more, nicely done!

Thanks for the post and great shake down cruise captain.Lake looked nice and flat too.Bonus getting a Juls fishing post to start 2022 season here too.