Fishing with Mike and Carrie...10/11/2026

Sunday morning, I went to run errands and stopped in at Fisherman's Central to say, "Hi" to whoever was working there that morning. As I was standing near the register with the MGR, Dave, and associate, Cindy, a couple walked into the store. I said, "Good morning" to them, and Dave welcomed them, too. They said they were here from TX, and since it was a rainy morning, they were just out and about and stopped in.

After they browsed the store, they came over to talk to us. Mike said he was interested in the Vexus DVX22 as a new boat for himself. He's a bass fisherman and has always had bass boats. He and Carrie wanted something a little more protective for their future fishing adventures.

I asked him, "Do you have rain gear with you? I'll go get my boat and take you for a test ride this morning, if you want". He said they didn't. He and Carrie had a three-day charter set up with "Tarter Sauce Charters" for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday... and he has a 28' Duckworth boat with an enclosed cabin, so they didn't think to bring the rain gear.

At some point, Mike asked about fishing "tomorrow", which would be the day before they went out with Tarter. I looked at the wind forecast and said, "I'm free if you want to go tomorrow. Do you want to walleye or perch fish?" They both said, "Either, or both is good; we just want to go fishing". I smiled. "Well, we can start with walleye, and I can bring some frozen shiners along, too".
We set up a plan to meet at Mazurik's at 6:45 and go do some walleye fishing first.

I hadn't been walleye fishing for close to a month, I think, because I've been doing perch trips, so I was looking forward to it. The wind forecast was calling for 10-15 out of the SSW, with the wind picking up to 15 mph later in the morning.

My last time out perch'n I had marked a lot of walleye looking marks off the Marblehead lighthouse, so I thought I would start looking there. We launched at 7am and headed east. The marks were no longer where they were three days ago, so we kept going east towards Huron.

It was still pretty dark out, so we took our time. I was amazed at how few marks there were from Cedar Point all the way to the Huron Dump for this time of year, so we kept going until we were at the dump. I was zig-zagging from 34' of water out to 40'....looking. Nothing impressed me enough to stop, so we headed north from the east side of the dump.

I explained that the further north we went, that when it would get windy later, that the lake would get rougher, but that if it got too rough, we would head back and try for some perch near the launch. (I had marked some good schools right outside of Mazurik's as we left).

After marking some walleye, I decided to just set up and keep heading north, and hope we hit better marks.
Air temp was 64 degrees...water temp was also 64 degrees.
Speed on the FishHawk was 2-0 to 2.4 mph.

The setup was two dipsies off each corner. The zero settings were at 33 and 45 to start, and the two settings were at 60 and 65 to start. Eventually, the zero settings were catching at 47 and 50, and the three settings caught at 75 and 80 back.

The Off Shore boards ran two Bandits on the starboard side and two PWC lites with 20oz snap weights on the port side. The PWCs were set at 50/50 and 40/40....the Bandits were 100 and 65 back.

Bandit colors started with Red Headed and Black Headed Wonderbread, but were changed out to the "Slim Shady" "Fermi" (painted version) and set to 107 back, and Slim's "Green Lantern". The Fermi took a nice fish, so I changed out the PWC lites to Bandits and put another Fermi on that side at 107 back, and that one took a nice fish, too. Those were the only two crankbait fish; the others came on the Scorpion, Stinger, and Yeck spoons.

The two settings at 75 and 80 back caught better than the zero settings did.

In the beginning, we went for quite a while with nothing to show for it, so I said, "Let's change the angle of our dangle, because last night's wind and this morning's are opposite, so the currents are probably a little screwy this morning. I turned the Vexus to the NW, and kept the waves on the port corner. I didn't want to go in a more westerly direction, to keep the ride a little smoother, since they were having a little trouble keeping their balance in the boat.

The wind had started picking up, but it was still 2' or less out there, so we kept going. Then, the bite started, and we finally put fish in the cooler. Carrie caught her first walleye and was having fun. We only caught 8 out there before we decided it was getting a little rough for them, and decided to take a ride back to try for some perch near shore, where it was calmer.

Since Mike was interested in buying a new boat, I let him "Test Ride" the Vexus on the way back in. He and Carrie were both impressed with the boat and the ride, so chances are good they might buy one to replace the old bass boat. :)

They had a fun time and got to relax and enjoy the calm waters while perching (we put 6 in the cooler and threw back twice as many) before we loaded out. They are really nice and down-to-earth people, close to my age, so it was a very enjoyable experience for me, too, and that makes me happy! :)

My trip for this morning (Tuesday) has been rescheduled to the spring, due to the wind forecast of 18-28mph out of the SW. I did, however, get a call right before I went to bed last night from a grandfather who wanted to take his 22-year-old grandson fishing this week. Originally, he was looking at Friday, but it's supposed to blow on Friday, so I asked if Wednesday was a possibility for them. He said it was, so we will be headed out of Huron's launch at 7am tomorrow.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls