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Fishing with Ed and Ben Jacobson 3/24/19
Woke up and took my coffee out on the back deck to check the wind and temp, early this morning. I was pleasantly surprised to find just a very light SW wind and temps in the high 30's. The forecast was for light SW winds, less than 10 mph, all day and a high of 50. I was looking forward to spending a fun day with my Father and Son crew from Wisconsin.
Ben bought this trip for his Dad, for the purpose of getting Ed on some big walleye.
I ran into town to gas up the boat and get some ice, before picking my crew up at 6:30. After a hearty breakfast at Ala-Carte, we drove back over to White Caps to launch.
At 7:45 AM, as we motored down the channel towards the lake, the sun was just peaking up over the horizon. It would take us 20 minutes or so to get to the mouth of the river, so I took that opportunity to put some RPM time on the baby E-TEC. I needed to get an hour of time in on it with the RPMs over 2500, before I start using it for the summer.
The plan was to hit the firing range cans, so I headed to G Can area first. The Ulterra was deployed and set for a south to north troll near the can at 1/2-1/4mph. After a quick tutorial of how to use the line counters and the Off Shore boards we got busy. I set up using the Bandits that were productive on my last trip out. The leads were set to 45/55/65/75/85, and 90 back unassisted (no weight). We spent about 20 mintues there...not marking anything while we trolled, so I had them pick everything up and we headed down to H Can.
I was SE of the pack, with only a boat or two around, when we set up again with a SE to NW trolling pass at 1.2-1.4mph. It wasn't long and the first board went back with a violent tug. I said, "Here we go! That looks like it's a nice one!" It was a nice 5 pound(ish) walleye, and the biggest Ed has ever caught, so it was the first PB breaker in the boat today. :)
Ben saw the next board go back and said, "Fish!" "Take it!", I said, and scurried to move rods around while he reeled in the outside board. That fish was a twin to the first one, so after a picture of the two of them with their fish, we put them in the cooler and started to set the lines out again. The next board went back before we could get the last line in. And, of course, it's always the outside board, so again, I moved rods around and then had to quickly get the lures out of the nets, so I could use one to net the fish.
The third fish was a 7.75 pounder and definitely Ed's biggest to date. Both of them were very excited and few high-fives were given too. But, before the excitement waned, another tell tale sign of a "fish on" was spied. It was Ben's turn this time, and he reeled in a nice 9.49 pounder. Another personal best for them both.
We had four fish in the boat, and two baits still swimming. I decided to make a turn and go back over that pass again, but was knocked off my line by others who had the right of way. By the time I got back to the starting point and turned around again, there were 4 or 5 boats that were drifting and jigging on line I wanted to go back over....deep sigh. I gave in, and got out of the pack, and headed north to the area I was at the other day...north of Turtle Creek.
We set up in a little deeper water this time. The 26-27' of water was holding fish, and the Helix showed some good marks near the bottom and mid water column.
To make this long story shorter, and with our time on the water running out...we would only catch 5 more eaters there, and then head to the waters east of Ballast Island on another tip from a friend, that I wanted to check out.
Again, we set up in 26-27' of water. The clarity was cleaner than anywhere else we had been today, and the marks were very good too. We would catch 6 more fish there. We only caught a total of 15 today, and kept our 12. Not a fast bite like I thought it was going to be when we started out, but it was a fun day none the less, and I can't ask for more than that. I have talked to people who were not even as fortunate as that, so I can't complain one bit!!
Ben and Ed said they had a great time, and would like to come back again sometime....and, that makes me happy! :)
Tomorrow is a blow day, and Tuesday is going to be a high of 36 (no thanks!), so I won't be back out until Wednesday with my two regulars, Tim and Matt McGlothlin. They are here for two days, but Thursday is looking "iffy" right now. We shall see.
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
