Bill, who is from MN, had just come from visiting family out in NY, and reserved the date, so he could stop and fish Lake Erie on his way home. Luckily, the weather was cooperative, and he got his trip in.
Having had the bad luck up in Canada the day before, I opted to go with some information from a fella named Frank on walleye.com, who shared his latest catch information with the forum.
So, after picking Bill up at his hotel, stopping for ice at HI Way Bait, and getting breakfast at Big Bopper's, we launched out of Mazurik's at 6am. While at breakfast, I learned that one of the other Captain's having breakfast there didn't have a trip that morning, so we invited him to fish with us, so we could run two more lines. The day before, I had told Trapper and a few other Captains at Bopper's about Frank's info, and they fished it the day I was up in Canada. Those that went there caught fish, so that's where we were headed after breakfast.
We hit the SE corner of Kelly's, and targeted the 25-28 foot of water, pulling Bandits 55-75 back without weight....speed was 1.9-2.0mph. We did best going from a west to east pull. We managed to catch Bill's limit of nice eater sized walleye, with the largest going 26 1/2 inches, and a barn yard full of giant sheep. At one point we had all six boards loaded up, and only one of them was a walleye...the rest were board sinking Sheep. But, it was entertainment, and a lot more fun that just washing the boards, like we did the day before up in Canada. lol
Then, since Bill wanted to try perch'n yesterday too, we went looking for some. Typically, the area where we were walleye fishing is usually good for perch too, so we set up there first. I caught a goby, and the boys weren't getting bit, so we moved up to the line on the north side of Gull Island Shoal. The first bite was a nice 10 inch perch, so I thought "Woot! Woot! We found some!" But, it was slow, and Bill and I only caught two more in about 15 minutes, and Trapper didn't catch any, so my patience wore thin. I know, I know....you have to give it more time, but knowing that Trapper doesn't even like to perch fish, I got impatient, and decided to move again. I know better than to not give a spot at least 20 minutes before moving, when there are marks down there, but it was hot and buggy, and we could always go back to walleye fishing.
We hit three more spots after the Gull spot, and didn't catch anymore, so we opted to do more walleye fishing back down in the original spot with the last hour and a half to go.
We caught one more walleye for the cooler, and more giant sheepshead, and a nice catfish, that Bill took for the dinner table.
It was a nice day, and Bill had fun, caught some fish to take home, and said he wants to come back next year. However, he said next time he would fly in and rent a car rather than make the long drive from MN. :)
Tomorrow's forecast is calling for 10-20's from the WNW, so we'll see if that trip is a go. I have to talk to the customer about the conditions that's going to cause.
So...Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
p.s....Thanks for the info Frank! :)
