Fishing with the Hubbard Family....6/6/2025

I was up earlier than usual, so I left the house a 1/2 hour earlier, and headed to the gas station at 4 AM. Bought my ice, and skipped the smokes, because they went up again. I'm going to have to be done with them now...it's ridiculous to pay so much just to take years off of my life. Thanks, you greedy bastards, for making me quit!

Anyway...rant over...lol

I hit Mazurik's at 4:30, so I had 45 minutes to get things ready before my crew showed up at 5:15. When I pulled in the park, it was completely empty, and very quiet...just how I like it. I readied the boat and the gear, and spent a little time on the internet.

Brian (Dad), Mitch, and Nick are from Wisconsin, and live not far from where I lived, when I lived there.
Even though they showed up right on time, we still had to wait a bit, for it to get lighter out, so I said to them, "I'll go hit the bathroom, and get rid of the last bit of coffee, then we can go". By the time I got back, more rigs were starting to pull into the park.

The air temp was 65 degrees, the sky was cloudy, and the wind was around 5-7mph out of the NE. I looked at the radar, and it showed scattered showers headed towards the lake, which surprised me, since my weather app was saying, "No precipitation" for the entire day. I guess that's what happens when the NWS and NOAA lose funding for important weather tests needed for proper forecasts.....deep sigh.

We launched, and our destination was north to the line, and then, I would figure it out from there. The drizzle started about halfway, and made my visibility even worse, and I had to keep wiping my glasses off, so I could see. At one point, we almost ran over a Perch net that was set up on the NW side of Kelly's....not far from the red buoy at American Eagle Shoal. It was on the port side, and the bow seat was blocking my vision at that angle, so I didn't see it until we were almost on it. Luckily, it was the single flag end, and I only had to dodge the little floats that are on the outside of the flags, and didn't have to worry about anything in the middle.

Once we got up to the line (west side of Middle Island), I turned the boat and headed to the east side of Gull Island Shoal.... and, north of Kelly Island Shoal. The plan was to hit the area I fished my last time out, and see if the fish were still in the area. The Garmin had marked fish here and there, but there wasn't any big schools showing up. Reports from the days I wasn't fishing told me that they should be there.

The FishHawk was deployed to 20 feet (showed a water temp of 63.6 degrees), and the Ulterra and baby Merc worked in unison, at a speed of 2.2-2.5mph on a southerly troll. The waves were set on the port stern, so speed control could be maintained. We were over 42 feet of water, and that would change here and there as we trolled south.

The dipsies went out first, with the zero settings on 35 and 54, and the three settings at 65 and 71. Yeck, Stinger, and BadMo spoons were on all of them.
Color didn't seem to matter....they all caught fish.

I ran the same crank program I've been running the last several times out, and they all produced, too, but the spoons definitely out-fished the cranks this morning.

Bandits and Livingston Walleye Minnows ran behind the Off Shore boards. The Bandits ran on the port side at 120 back (outside board), 80, 67, and 50 (inside board).
The Walleye Minnows ran at 97 (outside), 80, 65, and 57 back (inside).

Colors were:
Bandits: 120 back was that one I don't know the name of...it's a custom color by Slim Shady Customs, and is like a green and blue fade, (maybe Mike Schlimgen will see this and tell me what it is, because I can't find it on his site). 80 back was Buck Fever, by Domka Outdoors, 67 back was Pooh Bear, Domka Outdoors, and the 50 back was Green Lantern, by Slim Shady Customs.

Walleye Minnows:
97 back was LimeLight, 80 back was Sherbert, 65 back was Chrome XXX Shad, and 57 back was another Sherbert.

Everything above caught fish.

The dipsies had to be checked often, to make sure the itty-bitties were not being dragged around, and almost every time we checked, there they were....anywhere from 5 to 12 inches, just spinning around and around...poor little fishies. They were all returned unharmed. That's why dispsies need to be check regularly. :)

They caught their three-man limit, and I reeled in mine, too. It's been years since they had been to Lake Erie, so learning to troll was the game plan. They did a great job, and picked the routine up quick. I showed them how to attach the Off Shore boards, and set them back out into their original spots, without having to move other boards, to do it. We only had a couple of tangles due to the wind, but nothing bad, thankfully.

I have the same crew tomorrow, and told them I would like to visit Vermilion in the morning, so they will be meeting me at my house, and we will drive over there together. It's a lot cheaper in gas, and a better ride, than riding across the lake with another NE wind. The winds should be the same tomorrow, which is forecast to be 8-10mph.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls