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Fishing with Harry and Scott 6/24/17
No Pics...sorry! They wanted to release the fish, so we did it fast...Here's a sunrise for you. Ha!
Yesterday, was a Capt's cancellation, due to scattered thunderstorms throughout the day. I was scheduled to fish with Harry Ashbaugh and his friend, Scott, yesterday, and today. They took the day to go sight seeing a little bit and then invited me to lunch. I accepted his invitation, and met them over at Ciao Bella, where we would talk fishing, and go over the plan for the morning.
I left the house this morning at 4:30am, and headed over to Big Bopper's for some breakfast. When I left there, I had to go to Hi Way Bait and Tackle for some ice, before heading over to Mazurik's to meet up with Harry and Scott. I told them to meet me at 5:45, and we would be in the water by 6am. They were right on time. https://www.facebook.com/images/emoj...1/16/1f642.png
We headed out, and around the break wall, to be met by the glow of a sunrise on the eastern horizon. The sun hadn't peeked over the "edge of the earth" yet, so there was still that cool chill in the dark, that lay to the west.
The winds were from the west, according to the iWindSurf app, but a contradiction was discovered by those of us on the water this morning. In the "Slop Chute" it was from the west, but as you ventured further north, up the east side of South Bass Island, the winds seemed to whip around the SE corner of the island and head NE....so, that wind was from the SW. Then, as you got closer to Ballast Island and the NE corner of Middle Bass...over by Lucy's point...the winds were more WNW than W or SW. So, basically, the winds were strong enough to be from all over the place today. Our saving grace was that they weren't from the E or NE! https://www.facebook.com/images/emoj...1/16/1f642.png
Waves were 1-3 feet, and more like 2-3's when the gusts of wind showed up. It was a pleasant day though. The sun was shining, and it was cool enough to be comfortable in a light jacket.
We started out up by Ballast running my crawler harness program that I was running up in Canadian water this past week. (See previous blog for details if you haven't been keeping up)
We caught a couple of keeper walleye, and a few throw backs, along with some little Sheepshead before picking up to run back up to make another pass. This time I started out deep inside, between Middle Bass and Ballast Island. I switched things up to one side of the boat running Bandits, and the other side running 3 Bay Rats. Since the Rats and the Bandits run basically at the same depth per the line out, we ran the Bandits at 55, 65, and 85 back...and, the Rats were at 50, 70, and one was set up with a 2oz snap weight 25/100...(let 25 foot of line out, attach the snap weight...then let out another 75 feet until the line counter reaches 100').
A couple of little fish hit the Bandits, and one little walleye hit the outside Bay Rat a short time later. I changed out a Bay Rat for a Tadpole diving weight with a 6 foot fluorocarbon leader with a Stinger Spoon. We set it out at 45 back, to hit the 20' depth. By the end of that pass, I had removed all the Bay Rats and replaced them all with Tadpoles and Stinger Spoons. The Bandits and the spoons were keeping the guys busy with trophy sized sheepshead.
When we fished that pass, I thought it best to find another location. At lunch yesterday, Harry confessed he had never been on big water before, and that he was glad there were so many islands close by....I got the sense he did not want me taking him out into the wild blue yonder, where I sometimes go, and preferred I stick closer to land, so that was the plan. https://www.facebook.com/images/emoj...1/16/1f642.png
I decided to move down closer to Kelly's and fish the NW corner of it. When we got there, I figured since there was a little cold front today, maybe sizing down my spoon would help, so I took the Stinger Spoons off and put the Scorpion Spoons on.
We started picking up fish steadily until we got east of the Stone Dock...then it was a slow slow bite. We didn't have much time left in our 6 hour trip, so instead of picking everything up, and running back up....when given the choice, they opted to keep the baits in the water until the end. We picked up a few more fish before the end, that gave us a little over a 1 man limit of keepers out of I lost count of how many throw backs.
It didn't matter anyway, because my guys threw back every walleye they caught today. They had no plans to take any home with them. They both said they had a good time and learned a lot....and, that made me happy!
Tomorrow's trip has been rescheduled. My next scheduled trip is a 2 day trip with Matt Felder and his friend. They want to go to Ontario to fish walleye and smallmouth. However, if the forecast doesn't change, it looks like Monday would be a "no go" and we would only get Tuesday in. We shall see if it changes....fingers crossed!
Stay tuned.....
Capt Juls
