5/19: Anybody do any good between SBI & KI?

Made the mistake of leaving fish to go find fish. Initial stop was just east of Marblehead lighthouse and had great marks but nothing in an hour so we went in search of better spot. Trolled for another hour in 30FOW on the eastern fringes of that big pack of boats between SBI & KI (despite the fish finder showing nothing but a few stragglers hanging out at the bottom). Targeted all levels of water column. Nothing. So did an entire lap around KI, stopping at various points wherever there was a small pack of boats, but the fish finder never showed anything promising. So went back to our original spot east of Marblehead light house and put a quick 6 in the box before we had to call it a day. We were running all our cranks (bandits & FMs) at about 12-15 feet down in 23-27FOW. South to North troll is the only direction that produced, weirdly. Color didnÂ’t matter. Speed 2.2-2.4mph.

My question for the veterans in this community: why was there such a large pack of boats fishing over an area not showing good marks on the fish Finder? We were even right by a head boat. Like I said, we stopped & checked several areas. Is it possible that the fish were super high up in the water column and therefore donÂ’t show up on fish Finder bc they scatter away from the boat shadow? Maybe if we would have went towards the center of the pack we would have started marking fish? Just trying to understand so I can improve my ability to find fishÂ…thanks in advance for any feedback in terms of relying on a pack of boats to locate fish.

I went out there around noon on Saturday after the fog lifted a bit. We ended up casting since I saw what you did. Spotty fish on the outskirts of that big pack. We did find pockets of fish in the pack. Didn't have much time so we only fished for about 2 1/2 hours. Just me and the misses. Got 2 keepers, two 14" shorts, lost a nice one at the boat. Buddy of mine is a charter captain and fished somewhere up the middle and limited by 2pm. So they were there.

And for what it's worth, I generally avoid packs. Especially for perch fishing. I don't know how those perch packs form but 90% of the time if I get sucked into one I mark nothing and see no fish going over the sides.

The fish have been mostly deep. I see some suspended, but most have been tight to the bottom. I have been fishing down around 25’ in 30-35 fow. I was out that way on Saturday. Joined in the casting group. Picked up 2 on old school Erie D’s! Miss several short strikes. Went back to trolling lol

A lot of reasons people don't catch fish in "packs" of boats. Maybe the bite was on earlier and it had died off when you got there. Maybe you weren't fishing the right lures or the right depths. Maybe there is a decent but not large number of fish there, so the catching is intermittent. Maybe that area was good yesterday so a lot people went back today. Or... maybe, like a fish story I have, one boat stopped to "fun fish" (at that spot for no real reason) and then another stopped then another... until there was a "pack" fishing an area with few to no walleye. A lot of people still do the "look for the pack of boats" fish finding. If you know how to use your fish finder correctly, it rarely lies. It's a great tool - trust it. Unless the fish are right up near the surface and you aren't marking them. Try that zone for awhile to see if that's where they are. Sometimes they will be deeper then move up. That would explain good fishing for awhile then they "shut off". They didn't leave the area. They moved in the water column.

Fished in that pack with my wife and little toddler girl on Saturday and Sunday. Each for only about an hour or two before both gals wanted to do something else. I fished 2 rods, 1 with a gold erie dearie tipped with worm fan casting around the boat and 1 rod with a 1/8 ounce jig with a 3" curly tail and tipped with a worm. it was so calm the jig was able to stay tight to bottom and I just let it jig up and down with what little waves there were.

Jig rod outfished erie dearie 8-4. Caught 1 nice 20" keeper saturday and missed like 6 good bites in a row (a couple on each rod). Sunday I was dialed in and only missed 1 bite on the erie dearie. Jig caught 6 walleye and 1 sheep. 1 eye was decent, around 18-19", 1 was way short at like 9", and the other 4 were right near 15" (i couldnt find my tape so wasnt sure!). We decided not to keep any because we had other plans for the day and didnt want to add fish cleaning to the "plans". All returned safely to grow bigger.

Overall really nice catch rate and "action" considering we only fished maybe 3-4 hours over 2 days. Great to get some action for the little one to get excited about and she even reeled in 2 of the fish herself!

We are back up in early June with a work outing so I will report what we do then.

Tight lines all!!

Thanks for all the feedback everyone—really appreciate it as it helps improve my understanding—especially “West Basin” response. Glad to hear everyone had a great weekend of fishing!