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Fishing with Mike, Paul, and Fred 5/31/19
My alarm woke me out of a deep sleep at 2:45, and I wanted to smash it, but instead, I slid out of bed and headed to the kitchen to make some coffee. It was hot and delicious, so I took it out on the back deck to check the weather this morning.
Much to my sleepy delight, it was warm and calm, which meant it was going to be a great day on the water! I smiled, took a deep breath, and happily sipped on my coffee while Dexter walked the fenceline looking for varmints to chase away.
Today, I would be fishing with Mike, Paul, and Fred. I arrived at the White Caps Motel at 4:20, and to my surprise, they were right on time for the 4:30 pick up. They followed me in their vehicles, so as not to take up parking at the motel for when the new guests arrived, which I thought was pretty thoughtful of them, and we headed to Big Bopper's for some breakfast.
After breakfast, we headed over to Mazurik's to launch. We were in the water and headed north by 5:40am. After the Helix marked some fish on the sonar, we stopped to set up. I deployed the Ulterra and put the baby ETEC down, and fired it up. The Ulterra's power level was set to 5 and the baby ETEC's throttle was adjusted until the speed was a steady 2.3-2.4mph.
The dipsies were set out the same distance as yesterday, to start....49 on the 3 setting and 33 on the 1 setting. Eventually, we would keep one side at those numbers and the other side was slid down to 57 and 41.
An hour into the morning, and when I felt confident that my crew could handle it, we set two Off Shore boards out on each side to give us 8 lines in the water. Bandits ran on the starboard side at 61 and 65 back (blue/chrome and Buck Fever) and number 11 Flicker Minnows ran on the port side at 55 and 75 back (Purple Flash and Slick Sunset). They all caught fish this morning. At one point, I changed out the Buck Fever to the Antifreeze, simply to see if it would catch a fish. That color is hot on some days and not on others....but, in the little amount of time out there...it did catch a fish.
At one point, it seemed like the bite died, but that's only because we had fish hanging on every dipsey, and didn't realize it. Once they give that one good headshake, and you miss it by being preoccupied with something else...it's like they give up and just get pulled along...so the rod tip doesn't move. Lesson learned...when it's a good bite...check the dipsies more often! Once we cleared them...it was game on again. Ha!
We had several instances where we were pulling in more than one fish at a time, and thankfully these guys know how to dance, because it can sometimes feel like a waltz when 4 adult bodies are moving around to position themselves with rods and nets, and one false move could have rendered my bare feet a painful outcome.
We released some good eaters back to the lake to get bigger for the next time someone catches them, and filled the cooler with a few better ones. Paul was happy to have landed a nice 27 1/2 incher off a blue/chrome Bandit, and put that one in the cooler too. The overall grade was very nice, and the guys went back to Michigan with smiles on their faces. They definitely had a good time....and, that makes me happy.
Tomorrow, I have a group of 3 that I will meet over at Mazurik's, because they will be camping at East Harbor tonight. The forecast looks pretty good wind-wise, but there may be a scattered thunderstorm to look out for sometime tomorrow.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
