Fishing with Bill and Max Claassen... July 12, 2023

I wasn't going to write a report, because of the late start today, but it wasn't a usual day, so I wanted to share it.

The bad news is, there is a missing young man in the lake right now. His last known location was at the 36/53 line (near F Can). He went overboard last night around 10:45/11PM, and didn't surface. I don't know any details beyond that.

When we arrived at Catawba this morning, there was the Sheriff's truck, and boat trailer in the lot, along with two other squad cars, that I assume were out there with him...searching.

The USCG had their orange helicopter out looking, and that big C1 airplane (is that what it's called? I forget). That big plane that flies so slow, that it looks like it could just fall out of the sky...that one. The USCG also had one of their boats out near South Bass, too.

I listened to channel 16 the entire time I was out there, and as of 2pm, when we got off the water, he still had not been found. So, if anyone reading this is going to be near that area, please keep an eye out for him. If you have Side Scan on your unit...use it. It may just find him.

He's 21 years old and wearing a white t-shirt, and khaki shorts.

I hope they find him soon, so his family and friends can get some closure.

Fishing Report:

It was rougher than expected this morning. It was 1-3s on the west side of islands, so we headed up to the "Triangle", between the islands, to see if there were any fish up there, and to fish more protected water. I didn't want Bill to be uncomfortable, again.

We set up at the south end of Middle Bass, and trolled north, over 31' of water.

Mag 44s ran behind the Off Shore boards on both sides at 50-90 back. Blue Chrome, black/gold, and purple glass perch.

Dipsies were running on both corners again, and ran on the usual zero and three settings. I like those settings, because it is less likely to cause tangles, with that kind of separation. :)
Zero settings were at 30 and 40, and the three settings were at 65 and 70. Yeck, Scorpion, Stinger spoons ran on three rods, and the black/gold Ripplin Redfin ran on the 4th.

Speed was 2.2 on the Fish Hawk and 2.3-2.5 GPS/SOG.

We made one long ass pass, from there, to around the north side of Rattlesnake...down the front side of Green, and down to the F Can area.

We caught a fish here and there, but the the most productive areas were east of E Can to F Can, and F Can to Catawba.
The bite got better the shallower we got. The bite picked up over 27 feet and kept going and getting better as we entered into 24 feet. We also had a lot more shorts to deal with there, too. The eaters were nicer, however, so dealing with all the shorts was worth it.

One Mag44 was running on the starboard outside board at 60 back, and the "IB Infected" Bandit (DJ Custom Eye Lures creation) was running at 65 back.

On the Port side, two "Blue Shiner" Bandits (original blue shiner color/stock) at 70 and 80 back.

All of those caught multiple fish.

The dipsies were brought up to:
zero setting: 27 and 30
three setting: 43 and 47

The black/gold RR was replaced with another Yeck spoon.

Copper backs were best today. "Confusion" was a hot one.

We put our three-person limit in the cooler, but did a lot of catching today. We went through tons of shorts, one cat, several sheep, and a few white perch....oh, and two yellow perch, to get the 18 eaters, so it was a lot of work, today.

Water temp is 75.5 at F Can right now.

I'm going to cut this short, because my pup is climbing all over me, while I'm trying to write this, and wants to play....so, I must go play before I go to bed.

Tomorrow is the same crew....not sure what the plan is yet. I'll decide that in the morning, when I know what the winds and forecast are.

Stay tuned.....

Capt Juls