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Fishing with Mike and his Buddies 4/24/16
Woke up at 3:30am, which was too early, but I couldn't sleep, so I got up and put the coffee on. I checked the weather and wind forecast, and was pleasantly surprised to find it was going to be a nice morning.
After gassing up the Ranger, and hitting Bopper's for breakfast, I drove over to Mazurik's to wait on my crew. They were camping last night at East Harbor State Park, in a tent, so I can only imagine how cold that had to be....brrr!
I was at the ramp early, so I texted them to let them know they could come over as soon as they were ready. They showed at a little before 7am, so we were on the water at 7. Thanks Nick Hogan for dumping us in, so we didn't have to wait!
With only a 4 hour trip scheduled, (something I no longer offer), we made a plan of hitting Mouse Island and the ferry channel area. The reports on the radio were that Bandits 45-65 back were working.
My guys had never run Off Shore boards before, so after a quick tutorial, and my looking over their shoulders, to make sure they didn't have any issues, they were setting the lines with ease.
We caught the first one on a Pink Lemonade Deep Walleye Bandit at 55 back, and then....nothing. So, with the info from the tournament still rolling around in my brain, I thought, "Why not?" So, I put a 2oz inline weight on and a 6' leader in front of a Natural Perch Bandit, and set it out 55 back. I'm only guessing, but I think that puts it in the 21' range. Our speed was 1.6mph.
It wasn't long and the board sporting the 2oz inline went surging back, and another nice walleye was put in the box...putting a smile on my face, since the program everyone else was catching fish on wasn't working for us for some reason.
We would end the short trip with 5 nice walleye. Four of them came on the 2oz set up, and just that first one came on the higher baits. It's funny how you can be running the same area, same baits, same colors, and one boat does well at it and the other does nothing. That's a head scratcher for sure!
The guys were happy to have enough for a great fish fry, and for learning a new technique, so that made me happy. :)
Tomorrow is a new group of guys (3 of them, I think?), who will be fishing with me for two days. The weather looks pretty decent for the next two days, so hopefully, the fish will be cooperative. Fingers crossed!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
