Fishing with he Minges Family...7/3/2025

I was originally going to launch at Huron, this morning, but yesterday afternoon, I noticed that today's wind direction would be out of the west-northwest at 5-10mph with gusts up to 17, so I thought it would be a good idea to launch out of Mazurik's instead.

I had heard of some fish east of Cedar Point...and, knowing the area I had been fishing the last 8 trips out was probably still holding fish...I thought I would make one long troll from east of CP, to where I had been fishing.

I met my crew at Mazurik's. We launched at 5:30, and headed east.
The air temp felt like 70 degrees (I didn't look). The sky was clear with stars shining to the west, while the Sun was making its way towards the horizon to the east. The sky was just beginning to lighten up enough, so that I could read the waves on our ride out. The surface water temp was 76 degrees.

The Garmin marked fish, pretty much the entire way from Lakeside/Marblehead, to the white condos (east of CP), where I came off plane. The Ulterra and baby Merc were deployed over 28 feet of water, and set to a speed of 2.5mph using the FishHawk for guidence.
The water temp at 18' was, 77 degrees.

There were fish marks all over the water column, so we set the dipsies first.

The zero setting was at 28 and 35, but quickly dropped to the numbers I had been fishing with during the last trips out....43 and 54 back.

The three settings went out with my usual numbers of 65 and 71.

BadMO, Yeck, and Scorpion spoons all caught fish. Color mattered a little bit more today, though, so when one would keep getting hit, I would put another one out.
The copper Yeck#11 spoon, with the orange edges and orange belly was hot.
Scorpions: Blue/Silver, and a purple/maroon(ish) color, with one edge painted chartreuse.
BadMo: Silver belly with a green and black back

We kept it simple and only ran two Off Shore boards out each side, even though we could have had 4 out each side, along with the 4 dipsies...for a total of 12 lines out. Jason learned how to set the boards, and helped set lines, after I initially set them and showed him how I do it.

Bandit colors that caught fish were the Blue/Chrome (120 back) and Sunspot (77 back) All were unassisted...meaning, no weight was used.

The starboard side got changed out several times. I started with the baby Spros (85s), that had worked so well the last time out, but they weren't doing well enough, so I swapped them for the Flicker Minnow 11s. "Racy Shad" caught one, but then nothing....so, I swapped them out again for Bill Lewis PWC Lite's, with snap weights.
2oz snap weight was put on at 50' of line out, and then another 50' was let out, before putting the board on...that color was, "Green Tiger".
"Purple Tiger", ran 50/30 with a 2oz snap weight.
They both caught several fish.

Morgan, who is only 16, did a fantastic job learning how to run the dipsies, but still struggled to see when a fish was hanging on one or not. "I don't know how you see that", I was told. "The line angles change", I said.
It also helps when I'm the one controlling the boat, so I know if we are in a turn, or hitting a current, when a change does happen. I told them, "If you suspect it...check it...you don't need my permission". It takes less than a minute to check and reset a dipsey. And, if by chance there is a fish on it, we can get it in the boat...a win-win.

We didn't have a fast and furious morning, like I have previously, but it was steady enough to keep them busy and entertained. We only put 15 nice keepers in the cooler...however, we also threw back many legals...which would have filled our 4-person limit.

They were very happy with their catch, this morning, and said how much fun they had. Amy caught the biggest fish (27 1/2)...and, according to Jason and Morgan, she always does! Ha! Jason said he learned a lot, and wants to come back with some friends to fish with me again, and that makes me happy! :)

I'm off tomorrow....but, will be back out Saturday, with a crew from the Dayton area. They are driving up Saturday morning and meeting me at Huron.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls