Originally Posted by
Capt Juls
Left the house at 4:45 and headed straight down to Catawba to meet my Crew for a 5:30 launch. I got there with plenty of time to get the rods set up with the Bandits I wanted to run, and made sure the line attached to the snaps was still in good working condition, or if they needed to be re-tied.
Dee, Steve, and Brian showed up nice and early, and we were on our way out of the harbor at 5:23. The wind that I was expecting this morning wasn't there, so my plan to stay out front changed, and we headed back around the corner to fish the Shoals.
We went to the far side, and made a east to west pass across the north side of the hump, with Bandits set at 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, and 70 back. I figured it was best to keep it to 3 lines per side, rather than 4, because I knew it would probably get pretty chaotic very shortly. It was still dark out and we could just make out the boards in the water, without any lights on them.
We had just put the last bait in the water when the inside Off Shore board on the port side when flying back. Brian yelled, "Fish!!" And, pointed to the lively board, while Dee grabbed the rod. He had just started reeling that one in when the two outside boards went back....and, then, the middle board on the starboard side when shooting back. "Fish on the other side too", I said. Then, it was just a matter of getting them in the boat one at a time. Of those 5 fish, 3 were over 8 pounds...the biggest was just under 9 pounds. Woot! Woot!
What a way to start the morning! The sun wasn't even up yet, and we had a pile of fish in the live well already. My guys were smiling, and I was happy to have a pile of rods and baits all over the boat that needed to be cleaned up and set back out asap.
To make a long story short....it was an early bite again and slowed way down when the other charter boats showed up out there. We had 12 in the box by then, so we were pretty stoked by our good fortune on the early bite, and didn't sweat it.
We trolled around the shoal until we picked up 5 more fish and decided to get out of there, because it was getting too crowded and some Captains don't follow the rules of the road, the way they should....anyway, I digress....
We left there, and went back around the corner to fish the 16-17' contours west of Catawba and out in front of Port Clinton. We picked up two keepers and some throw backs on a bottom bouncer with a crawler harness and a Deep Husky Jerk. The Bandits were catching little fish...some not much bigger than the bait itself! lol
My guys wanted to go get their fish cleaned and get on the road back to Indiana, so we pulled the lines and headed in. Brian said, "This was the best trip to Erie I've ever had, and it restored my enthusiasm for fishing here. The only other charter I did here was with SeaBreeze Charters"...( But, I think it best if I don't publish what he said about their business.) ;)
They plan on coming back again next year, so that made me happy.
Tomorrow, I fish with Evan Parr and his fiancé. I fished with Evan a couple of weeks ago, and had a ton of fun, so I'm looking forward to fishing again tomorrow.
Oh, and by the way, the colors were the same as yesterday. :)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
