Fishing with Keith and Jeremy...3/29/2026

Originally, I had a scheduled trip for this morning, but my customer for the day, Vito, had to know by early morning yesterday, because he would be traveling down from Wisconsin. So, at 5a.m., I gave him the forecast as I saw it, and at that time, it wasn't looking good for today. It was showing gusts on one app at 24mph and on another app as high as 30mph. And, at the time, I didn't have a good satellite pic to know how dirty the water was. Long story short...he had an alternate date in April as a backup, and chose to use that date instead, based on the forecast at the time.

I texted him and said, "You know, if you come down...it will probably be nasty, and it will suck, but if you stay home, the forecast is probably going to change for the better". And that's exactly what happened. By afternoon yesterday, the wind forecast had improved for today, and the clouds parted for a good satellite pic showing a muddy lake, but also showed several areas of fishable water.

After seeing all the reports from those who went out yesterday, I wanted to go fishing anyway. It would give me a chance to make sure everything was working and get the cobwebs off my brain. I needed it. :)

I called my friend Keith, who is always ready to go fishing on a moment's notice, and he said he wanted to go, too. He asked if he could bring his friend, Jeremy, along too. "Of course", I said. That would allow us to run more lines.
I told him that I would check the forecast in the morning and decide what time to launch.

Fast forward to this morning....I checked the forecast and decided it would be decent enough to launch around 8:30. The wind was fine, and I just wanted the temperature to rise a little before heading out. By 8am, it was calling for around 40 degrees, so at 4:15, I sent Keith a text asking, "Can you guys be here at 8am?" No answer. I figured he was still sleeping.
He wouldn't wake up and respond until 8:15...deep sigh.
I told him to get here as fast as they could, because I had been waiting for hours already. Keith and Jeremy showed up at 9 a.m., and we were at Mazurik's by 9:30.

The parking lot was full, so I ended up parking my truck and trailer on the grass in a convenient spot, but a long walk from the ramp. The ramp was busy, but the bulk of the boats had already launched, so it wasn't congested.

We headed out around 9:45 and got to the east side of Kelly's at 10AM. I could see a pack of boats out east of Airport Reef that extended all the way up to the line. I don't like fishing in packs, so I stayed to the west of them and closer to the reef. I'm guessing they were out in 43-45' of water, and we started in 38'.

The surface temp was reading 36.9 degrees, and the FishHawk was reading 38.2 degrees at 18' down.

The Ulterra and the baby Merc were deployed and set to a speed of 1.4-1.5mph on the FishHawk, and a course was set to the north towards Kelly Island Shoal.

Jeremy has fished a lot, but never trolling with Off Shore boards, so while Keith set up the starboard side with Bandits and snap weights, I showed Jeremy how to attach the boards and set them out. He was struggling at first, but he's a fast learner, and once he got the hang of it, he was doing fine.

Bandits ran on the starboard side at 50/21 (total 71 back), 50/25, 50/30, and 50/40.
Bandit colors Keith ran were:
Khaki
Taco Salad
A custom purple/pink/black/silver one, I don't know the name of
And...? I'm not sure what else he chose, as I was busy training Jeremy.
The last one was changed out for another Khaki, because Khaki was super hot this morning.

Jeremy started with 4 Bandits, but I don't remember what they were. I'm going to tell you what he ended up running on his side which was catching fish.
(2) Khaki at 77 back
Marvin P-10 at 30/30 2oz
Blue/Chrome/Orange belly 40/40 2oz

Khaki definitely caught the most fish, with the blue/chrome P-10 coming in second as the best fish catcher.

We only fished for 3 hours and had 14 nice fish in the cooler. We would have been done earlier if the fish had stayed hooked. We had 5 come unbuttoned before they got to the boat.

The best speed ended being between 1.3-1.5 (SOG) / 1.0-1.2 (FishHawk)

It felt good to be back on the water and catching fish again. It has been a LONG winter, and I'm ready to get back at it again.

The next trip is scheduled for Saturday, 4/4, but we'll see...again, the forecast is looking icky. But this time, my crew is local, so we can play it by ear, and it's too far out to do anything right now. I'm hoping it changes for the better....fingers crossed! :)

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls