Fishing with Ron, Josh, and Zach...11/20/2025

Ron, Josh, and Zach came over from MI, and were originally on the calendar for tomorrow, but the forecast for Friday was showing wind and rain most of the week, so I asked if they could do today, instead, and they could.

We left Mazruik's at 8am and headed to the north side of Kelly's where I had been the last time out. They are not in the brawl, so I just need to find them some "fish-fry" fish. :)

I started with what I had on the rods from the last trip up there, and put the "Purple Mist" Bandit out 145' behind the Off Shore board. It was sent out and was running in its place, when I started on the second rod. We didn't get to put it out, because when I looked out at the first board, it was dragging back, had a fish hanging on it. I like when the morning starts out like that, but I also don't get too excited, because I've had days where we would catch one fast, and then nothing for hours.

The Ulterra and the baby Merc were set on a SW to NE course, at 1.7mph on the Fish Hawk. The SOG was 2.07, but the Fish Hawk probe was reading 1.6mph down at 18 feet.

Water temp was 47 on the surface and 44 degrees down below.

I had set up the starboard side with the same program as last week, just to see if they still wanted that. But, too keep a long story short....because I have another trip tomorrow, and i'ts already getting late, so I don't want to write a long story.... :)

What ended up working best were three baits.

The Flicker 11s in "Flashy Pearl" and "Slick Purple Bengal" with a 2oz Guppie weight at 50/30. (The Flashy Pearl ran on both sides of the boat, and probably caught the most fish).

Second, was the Purple Mist Bandit at 145 back. We had three of those out at that distance, and all of them took fish.

We ran the south side of Gull Island Shoal, over 43-46' of water, and trolled on over to the north edge of Kelly Island Shoal. The best bite we found was on the edge of KI shoal in 40' of water.

We had a slow pick on the SW to NE troll, but when we turned around to go back the way we came, it turned into a fast bite. We added 6 to the cooler in 5 minutes. It was a small pod of active eaters, and gave my crew a taste of what this lake can be like sometimes. They were having fun, and that made me happy! :)

The wind picked up a little bit from the NE and the bite died for us. We would pick one up here and there, but it was definitely slower. Teashingly, I told Zach, "You had me throw that 17 incher back, so now we won't get any more". They all laughed and said I was probably right.

At least we had their limit in the cooler, and were working on getting some of mine, when it slowed down. They called it a 1/2 hour early, so they could get home earlier, and we headed in.

Tomorrow is my last scheduled trip, and it's only one man. Ken was originally scheduled for yesterday, but the forecast for tomorrow was showing light winds, and higher temps, so he was able to move to tomorrow.
He's in the brawl though, so we will be heading east to launch in the morning. I haven't decided if I should go all the way to Lorain, or if I should launch out of Huron, or Vermilion and head north.

I see the wind forecast went from less than 10 out of the SSW tomorrow, to now blowing much harder...with gusts to 20 out by the buoy.
I'll decide in the morning, after looking at the forecast again. It's always changing.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls