Fishing with Vito and Friend 4/23/17

I hit Big Bopper's at 5:30 this morning, and then hit Hiway Bait for some crawlers, in case I needed to try them today. Water temps are getting up to the mid 50's now, so crawlers might be the ticket soon.

I drove down to Catawba at 6am, and was a 1/2 hour early to meet my crew. It gave me the time to get the rods all set up, and go over the boat, before they showed up.

They showed up right on time, and we launched at 6:30am....right before the sun came up. It was beautiful morning....finally!
Mother Nature threw us a reprieve today, and the wave forecast for 1-3's was only 6" or less all day long. Whew!

I wanted to check out Scott Point Shoal first thing, since it was right around the corner. We marked a ton of fish, but only made one pass there. I had a feeling they were mostly sheepshead, when we had a board go racing back, only to find a "Fish-O" Sheep on the end of the line. However, we did catch one small eater walleye there too.

I just didn't have a lot of confidence in that area yet, so we moved west to around the east end of F-can. There were marks there too, but nothing biting. Then, we moved up to the area between Middle Bass, South Bass, and Rattlesnake. There were not a lot of marks on the pass we made, but we did manage two walleye in that area up there.

We decided to take a ride out to the reef complex and join the armada of boats trolling and jigging out there.

We made a few passes over an area I fished last week, and put 3 more nice fish in. No Fish-O's, but fine specimens none the less. :)

With two hours left, of an 8 hour trip, I asked them if they would mind if we hit another spot on the way back. They didn't mind at all, so se headed south of the reefs, and trolled west to east over 16' of water. A double hit, and we got both of those in the boat too. That gave Vito and his friend, Saunders, their limit.

We headed down towards G can, so I could check the water clarity and see if we could get a few more to bite. It was cloudier there....I don't want to say, "muddy", because it wasn't really a brown color....more of the light green..but, cloudy. I could just make out the cavitation plate there.

We pulled the Off Shore boards for about a 1/2 hour, and it was time to go in. While we were pulling lines, Saunders said, "I just got one!" It was a nice plump little keeper, that would give us a final total for the day of 9.

Bandits were working best for us at 45 and 50 back at 1.6 to 1.8 mph.
Best colors for us were, Domka Outdoor's "Huff Daddy Chrome" and "Fancy Perch". The stock colors were the Blue/Chrome, Natural Perch, and Green Clown...my favorite, Khaki, let me down today. It got zero. :(

When I got home, I had to take the dogs for a walk, because they gave me the big brown "sad eyes"..... make brownies, clean the kitchen and living room, and make a big batch of Venison Sausage gravy...for biscuits and gravy in the morning with my customers..Capt Dan and the crew are coming over at 5:30am. I'll make the buttermilk biscuits in the morning. I'm tired...

Capt. Dan Woodward is working with us this week, since there are 4 of them, and I only take up to three people. Two will fish with Dan all week, and I will fish with the other two.

I had Craig and Scott last year at this time, and had a great time in the boat with them. So, I'm looking forward to a fun week, this week.

I hope Mother Nature will be kind to us.... Fingers crossed!

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls