Fishing Two Days with Jack, Jake, and Braden 8/28-29/2021

I didn't do a report yesterday, because it was so dismal on our perch attempt, that there wasn't anything to report, but a whopping 6 perch in the cooler. lol But, after thinking about it, if I tell you where I went, then you might nave to waste all that gas looking there too.


We left Mazurik's before the sun came up, and headed north, between the islands. I wanted to check an area that had held perch in late August, that I had fished before. They weren't there.


We headed up to Lucy's Point....a scattered population, but no schools of perch that would keep my guys entertained.


Then, we headed up to the red buoy on the north side of north bass to check there.
We set up on a rock pile with the Ulterra's Spot Lock, and fished it for about 20 minutes. Nothing. We left.
T
he next spot was over on the east side of Sugar Island. There were some drifters in there, so I made sure to keep off their line and set up on the edge of the channel in 27 feet of water.


We caught some white bass, 6 nice perch, and a couple of sheephead. The wind shifted, so now the drifters were on a line with us. Since the bite had died and the lack of perch numbers there, we decided to make another move.


The wind had picked up, so we moved back around to the east side of the islands, and tried looking around that deep hole on the north side of Ballast Island....again, just a scattered fish mark here and there on the Solix.


By now, I'm frustrated... lol The wind was really picking up now, so we headed down towards Mouse, and fished the NE side of it. The current was ripping from the east to the west, even though the lake naturally flows from west to east, and the wind was also blowing from the WSW. We had good marks below us, but the only thing that was caught there in 20 minutes, was a catfish.


As we were moving....again....the boys looked so dreadfully bored, that I said to Jack, "Today is a bust, If they want to be done, we can go in", so he turned around and asked them both if they wanted to go in, and they quickly shook their heads, "Yes", in unison. lol We were done. It was brutally hot, and a very tough perch day for us.


So, if that information was helpful....glad I could help. :)


On to this morning....

I was fishing with Jack Marcus and his two sons, Jake and Braden. Both boys are in high school and fishing on their high school's bass fishing team, and Jack brought them over to Ohio, from Illinois, to fish Lake Erie with them. They stayed at the Kalahari Water Park Resort over in Sandusky, which I thought was brilliant, because who wouldn't want to go relax in some cool water after a hot day on the lake? Admittedly, I was a little envious. :)

This morning's forecast, was calling for light winds from the SW, partly cloudy skies by mid-morning, and a temp in the high 80s by 11am. My crew met me out on Marblehead, at Dempsey's boat access, at 6:15. We headed out the Bay Point Marina access, and over to the east side of Kelly's, and set up in 37 feet of water.


The Ulterra and the kicker were humming along on a ENE direction, at a speed of 2.5 mph as we set up. I showed Jake and Braden how to set the baits, running behind the Off Shore boards, with the 2oz weights.
They put the Guppy weights on at the 40 mark, and then let out another 50-75 feet, before attaching the boards. (For those that don't know what a Guppy is, Guppies are snap weights from Off Shore Tackle Co.)


The port side ran the tried and true Black/Gold Ripplin Redfins (2) and the two dipsies off the corner.


I kept it simple, by only running two boards per side, and 2 dipsies per side, even though we were allowed 12 lines out.


The dipsies were set on the usual starting numbers....the zero setting was at 40-45, the 2 setting at 70-75, and the 3 setting at 80 or 91.


The spoons were the NASCAR Stinger spoon, a Watermelon Scorpion spoon, and Copper Yeck spoon with orange tape on the edges, and a Walleye Nation Creation Boogie Shad (shallow diving crank).


The port side, ran Ripplin Redfins too...another Black/Gold and a Black/Chrome.


Everything caught fish this morning. We ended up with their three-man limit, and one of mine. A couple fish were lost, and the rest were shorties we would find when we periodically checked the divers for weeds or little hanger on'rs.


The bite was very good early, and then got steadily tougher as the sun got higher in the sky, and it got hot out. The crew was given the option of going in after their limit was met, or to keep fishing, and they opted for the first option.

When we were picking everything up to head in, we found that one of the black/gold Ripplin's had been bit off. The snap was gone, and there wasn't any curly line at the end to indicate that the knot came undone. It was a clean cut, like a muskie hit it. I never saw it happen, and the weight was still on it, so it didn't change the board's action at all....deep sigh, at least I know it was towards the end, and not out that long, because we kept having to clean the lines, baits, and boards from all the floating grass out there, and we had just done that side about 15-20 minutes prior to pulling lines.


Jack, was a great net man for the boys, as they reeled in the dipsey fish. It took a few tries to get the "Reel down to the dipsey, then lift, and back up" routine down, but they eventually got it mastered, and did a great job putting fish in the cooler.


From the talk on the radio, it sounded like it was pretty tough out there for a lot of people, once the early morning bite slowed down...so, it wasn't just us.


Tomorrow, I have a perch trip again, but this time, instead of searching for them around the islands again, I'm headed west....way west. Fingers crossed! :)


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls

Way to stick with it Juls the fishing Gods sometimes just don't bless us. You worked it out on them walleye though. I've taken August off. Be back at it in a couple weeks. Thanks for the report.

I lost 2 spoons the same way Saturday, in the same area

Thanks again for your reports Juls.

Shows us we are all human.
I was out Sunday 30 mins after you from BP in friends boat. We started just north of dump and headed ENE with wind on troll 2.7-3.0 mph. Harnesses on 1 side 2 on slide divers and 1 on 40 jet off board. The other side had same hardware with spoons. We struggled only put 3 in box. But I had a fish on a lite bite diver with harness for 30 plus seconds. It was big on the outside and kept moving outside away from boat. It was heavy I couldn't move its head but kept feeling him swim. Then it turned away from me for 20 feet took out drag and broke off. Same thing as you a clean break on 20 pound fluoro. This was in the first hour we fished and 5 minutes later my buddy says, snap out of it whats wrong. I said I cannot get the thought out of my head I just lost a musky. I've fought and landed a handful 9-11 pound walleye and none of them took me to task like that fish. He was just playing with me.

Rickerd

Could have been a big northern Pike as well. Lake Erie has alot of northerns in it. Catch them all the time in the spring in the rivers. Especially the Sandusky. Most people don't even fish for them. I've caught puke in the 33"-38" range. I'm sure there are bigger ones out there. A 28" northern will fight just like that and bite off 50 lb test braid with ease. I go in a puke fishing trip every up by the Upper peninsula and catch tons of northerns that fight just like that and will bite off 65 lb test braid

I've yet to see a pike in Lake Erie. That's not to say, You're lying. I've seen the Muskie, but no Pike. Glad to hear you've caught some out there. We do a Ontario Fly In for pike every year, so I like them very much. :)

I've seen pictures from a guy I know with a 36 and 42 inch pike he caught in the channel between Margaretaville and the bay. He released them.

Juls - I see you have a Mercury engine now. New boat or just new engines?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cheeseheadinohio

I've seen pictures from a guy I know with a 36 and 42 inch pike he caught in the channel between Margaretaville and the bay. He released them.

Juls - I see you have a Mercury engine now. New boat or just new engines?

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New to me boat....it's a 2020 621 FS Pro

Just wanted to say thank you for all of your reports throughout the season.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rickerd

Thanks again for your reports Juls.

Shows us we are all human.
I was out Sunday 30 mins after you from BP in friends boat. We started just north of dump and headed ENE with wind on troll 2.7-3.0 mph. Harnesses on 1 side 2 on slide divers and 1 on 40 jet off board. The other side had same hardware with spoons. We struggled only put 3 in box. But I had a fish on a lite bite diver with harness for 30 plus seconds. It was big on the outside and kept moving outside away from boat. It was heavy I couldn't move its head but kept feeling him swim. Then it turned away from me for 20 feet took out drag and broke off. Same thing as you a clean break on 20 pound fluoro. This was in the first hour we fished and 5 minutes later my buddy says, snap out of it whats wrong. I said I cannot get the thought out of my head I just lost a musky. I've fought and landed a handful 9-11 pound walleye and none of them took me to task like that fish. He was just playing with me.

Rickerd

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My biggest sheephead to date is 14.5 lbs. When I hooked this fish, it started taking line in short spurts and was not stopping. Finnally had to pull gear and chase it. Out in open water targeting walleyes my guess would be a very large sheephead. 20+ pounders are out there. In fairness, there are pike and muskey out there, but they generally hang around skinnier water around structure. I've caught just about every thing that will bite a trolled lure in Erie(steelhead, browns, coho, a king, whitefish, pike , muskey, large/smallmouth/rock bass, you get the picture) and sheephead, pound for pound, are as a good a fight as any and big ones will test your tackle.

sheephead don't swim upstream so to say and you always feel their pulsing. Definately was not a sheep.
Rickerd