Fishing with Dan and Marcel...4/30/2026

Slept in until 3am, and then hit the back deck with the dogs and coffee. I was going to be doing a later start this morning, due to wind speed. It was forecast out of the NW, but was to lay down a little bit around 8am, so I told Dan to meet me at Mazurik's at 7:45.

Of course, I got there early and started getting the boat ready at 7:15. They pulled in at 7:30. It was good timing, because the forecast last night that had the wind lying down was now showing it would be staying the same most of the day, so why wait? It would be 12-15 out of the WNW most of the day.

I pointed the Vexus to the east side of Kelly's Island and took it slow, because it was rough. We marked fish on the SE corner, but kept going to see if there were fish up further....there weren't, or at least we weren't marking any, so we went back down to the SE side.

We started out with the waves behind us, and set up with Bandits behind Off Shore boards, and two dipsies.

When the FishHawk hit a speed of 1.9-2.0mph, the Ulterra and the baby Merc were set. SOG showed 2.2-2.3mph.

4 Bandits ran on the port side at 120, 90, 80, and 67 back (longest leads on the outside). Colors were:
Khaki (stock color)
Green Lantern (Slim Shady Custom)
Flare (stock color)
Pink/white/black (Not sure who makes it, I can't find it on Domka's site or DJ's site anymore...it looks like Pink Squirrel, but instead of black dots in the white part, there are three black stripes instead). I'm going to name it "Pink Zebra". :)

The starboard side had two dipsies...one on the zero setting at 40 back and one on the three setting at 63 back. Both caught fish. One fish was on a BadMo Arrow spoon in the green/blk/silver, and then that was changed out to a Yeck spoon in the "Confustion" color...that caught a fish, too.
The 3 setting ran a Stinger spoon in the "Confusion" color, and caught a nice fish.

The Bandits on the port side were running at 97, 81, and 71 behind the OST boards...colors were:
Fruit Dots (stock color)
(2) Electric Zebra (stock color)

All caught fish, but the Electric Zebra caught the most.

Water temp on the surface was 52. 7 and at 18 feet down, it was 54 degrees.

Dan and Marcel wanted to learn how to run the Off Shore boards, so after a quick tutorial...they were setting the lines. They learned quickly, so other than reminding them about the tension button (clicker), they had no issues or tangles while setting lines. They did great, and I have no doubts that they could go out tomorrow and do the same thing on their own, successfully.

After our three limits were in the cooler, we headed in. It didn't happen in an hour and a half, like I had been hearing for the previous few days, but we managed to do it in about 4 1/2 hours. It was a fun morning fishing with these two, and they both said they had fun and learned a lot, so mission accomplished!

Tomorrow, I have a couple from Iowa, and we'll be launching out of Catawba to fish the protected side of the islands. The forecast is calling for a NE wind with rain....fun...fun...deep sigh.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls