Fishing with Mike 5/19/2025

Said, "Good bye" to my sister and brother-in-law, this morning, as they were leaving to head back to Wisconsin, and I was leaving to go pick up Mike at the White Caps Motel. It was time to get back to work, after having a nice relaxing visit with my family over the past 4 days/nights.

The weather at 5:30 AM was a chilly 50 degrees, with a NNE wind at around 10 mph. The sky was cloudy, but it wasn't supposed to rain. The wind was to diminish around 9:00-10 AM, to around 5 mph.

The water temp was at 58 on the surface, and 60 degrees down at 18 feet.

Mike was here from the Chicago area, and was originally supposed to fish with a good friend of his, from MN, and someone who I used to fish against in the FLW and PWT tournaments, Kevin Kraft, but the April date was a blow day, so they had to reschedule. Kevin couldn't, but Mike still wanted to come.

Mike is an intelligent fellow, and he easily keeps the conversation flowing. He's 75, but looks like a man in his 60's, and claims it's "good genetics". :)

We stopped for gas and ice, and then headed down the road for some crawlers, at Hi-Way bait. Fisherman's Central has them, but they don't open until 7 AM. It would have been more convenient if they had been open, though, because it's right next to the gas station I use in the mornings. :(

We launched out of Catawba, due to the wind direction, and planned to go up the west side of the Bass Islands, to fish calmer waters. Capt Sam, (PorkChop Express), had left Catawba before me, but headed NE on the east side of the islands. He would text me later to tell me that it was rough on that side....3-4s.

The Garmin had marked fish all the way from the point of Catawba, all the way up to Rattlesnake. The water got muddier the further north we went, so I turned the Vexus around to head back the way we came.

The Ulterra and the baby Merc were deployed, and set to 2.0-2.1 mph on the FishHawk. We ran Bandits and a Flicker Minnow on 4 of the Off Shore boards, and ran one dipsey off each corner...on the zero setting. The port side ran at 28 back and had a worm-burner on it. The starboard side ran on the zero setting, too, and was set at 40.

"Pooh Bear" Bandit ran at 120 back and was the first to catch a fish. The worm-burners caught, but a spoon didn't. The "Fire Tail Hot Perch" Flicker Minnow 11 at 47 back caught, too. Bill Lewis Lites didn't take any this time, and neither did a few Bandits that I changed out several times. We switched it up to running crawler harnesses, since the cranks weren't getting the attention I thought they would, with the marks we were trolling over.

A pink bellied BadMo Arrow blade caught a couple, Pink Squirrel, and some others with gold bellies, along with gold, green, red, and black on the back side, caught fish.

2oz inline at 25, 30, and 40 caught fish. Worms were missing at 50 back, too.

Speed during the harness pull was 1.5-1.7 mph.

We only went 5 for 8 today, but we still had fun. Mike said he learned a lot, and enjoyed it, so that makes me happy! He said the little 3 pounder (biggest of the morning) would be considered a "Giant" where they fish on Lake of the Woods, so he as tickled pink with it.

We dropped the fish off at Port Clinton Fish Co., so Mike didn't have to clean them, and then stopped at Jolly Rogers for lunch, while the fish were being cleaned, so he could get a perch sandwich. He'd been craving one since he got here.

After picking up the fish, I took him back to his Motel, so he could hit the road back to Illinois, and I could go home and feed my beastie best friends, who were patiently waiting for me.

It's supposed to start blowing again...surprise-surprise...deep sigh. I'll be rescheduling trips this week....again. (insert eye-role here).

Stay Tuned....

Capt Juls