Fishing with Mike and Kurt 5/20/16

Launched out of Catawba, and picked my crew up on South Bass Island at 6am.
We headed out to Kelly Island Shoal to start the morning.

Starting at the NE can, we set up and headed towards the middle green can on the west side of the shoal. There were a few other boats already there when we arrived, and by the speed they were running, we could tell they were running crawlers. We started with Bandits, since the report I had the from the day before was that the Bandits were successful...albeit, a slow pick.

We only had one pull back out there in the first pass, so I said, "After we finish this pass to the can, let's move". Mike was talking about his memories of fishing on the east side of Kelly's, out in front of the airport, so I said, "Well, it's about time those fish started moving in there, so we can check it out if you want to. Or, we can go over to Gull Island Shoal". They opted to fish the east side of Kelly's...so, we moved south.

We made three passes in there, going from 30' of water to 24' of water, and caught three walleye and one sheepshead when we hit the 26' range.

Bandits 55-75 back. Black Headed Wonder Bread, Green Clown, and a pink and white custom color caught fish. We didn't see any of the boats pulling crawlers pull a net, so we didn't bother switching over to them.

With only a couple hours left in their trip, I suggested we head over to Gull and see if we could get lucky out there. We made one pass down the east side of the shoal...but, didn't mark any decent fish until we got to the SE corner, near the red can. The west side of the shoal looked a lot cleaner, and we didn't see any nets pulled by any of the boats working that side of it, so with one hour to go, we headed to the area between South Bass Island and Rattlesnake.

The water had cleaned up there, from the previous day, but was still pretty dirty closer to Middle Bass. There were a ton of good looking marks there, but we didn't get anything to go. Then, we ran out of time, and I had to get them back to the island.

We had a good time, even though they only caught a few walleye. And, from the chatter on the radio, it was obvious that most of the boats out there yesterday were struggling. The clear sky, and full moon the night before, didn't help the morning bite either.

My customer for Saturday/Sunday has opted to reschedule Saturday's trip, and just go Sunday, due to unfavorable weather for Saturday. Since he's in OH and driving in each day, it's not an issue. So, I have the day off, and will be back out Sunday...

Stay tuned...

Capt Juls