Fishing with Joel, Roxy, and Chris 6/29/19

The day was forecast to be a hot one, so I wanted to get an early start again, and picked my crew up from the White Caps Motel at 4:20. Joel and Roxy are from Wyoming, and Chris is a relative from Michigan. We headed into downtown to eat at Ala-Carte, which opens at 4:30am, before heading over to Huron to launch.

It's the weekend, and I felt that there would be fewer boats over there than over by the islands or Cedar Point, and I wanted to be able to troll without having to look over my shoulder every couple of minutes to take note of moving traffic, and who has the right of way.

As the morning light began to break, we were idling out of the Huron River. It was still dark enough to probably need navigation lights, and yet light enough not to have to, so I opted to leave it in the rod locker. I figured by the time we got to the end of the river we wouldn't need it. Besides, there were only two other boats heading out ahead of us, and the lake was ours. :)

I put the sparkly red and white Ranger up on plane and headed NW from the river, and watched the Helix for the sign that there were fish below. We only went a mile or so, before I shut the G2 off and deployed the bow-mount trolling motor and Baby-E-TEC. The Ulterra was set at a power level of 5 and directed on a SW to ENE course. The Baby-"E" pushed us at a speed of 2.2-24 mph for most of the time, but was also pushing at 2.5-2.7 mph...both speeds caught fish.

My crew had never used dipsies or Off Shore boards before, but quickly learned and were working them proficiently in no time at all. When we were setting up, Chris was letting out a Yozuri crankbait, and before he could get to 75' back, I saw him set the hook on a fish that didn't want to wait. The skunk was out of the box in less than a minute of fishing. I smiled inside knowing it was going to be a great morning.

The forecast was for partly cloudy skies with wind gusts from the SW at 15-20, which would be no more than 1-3 foot waves out of Huron. But, for most of the morning it was less than two's. We caught our 4 man limit early and played catch and release for a few more hours. They came a long way to fish here, and I wasn't about to take them in that fast, and I didn't have any perch stuff in the boat.

Same program as the past several trips....but the Yozuri Crystal Minnow (4 3/8) were new. Capt Kelly Schmidt painted some and gave me three to try. I used the blue/orange belly and the one that looks similar to a "Huff Daddy" scheme...(I don't know the names he's calling them...sorry). All I can say about their performance today is, "It's going to cost me a lot of money!"....deep sigh. I was pretty impressed with their performance today, and I want to pick up some more.
Bandits 42 and 55 back....blue/chrome and Buck Fever
Yozuri's were eventually dialed in at 51 back.

The dipsies were set on the 3 and 0 settings on both sides of the boat. Spoons with either blue/silver, green/silver, or purple/chart/silver very productive. The 3 setting was set anywhere from 49 to 71, and caught fish on every numeration we thought to try.
The zero setting was either 27 or 35 most of the time and also caught a lot of fish.

Joel, Roxy, and Chris said they had a great time, and were all smiles....and, that makes me happy!

Needless to say, the fishing is excellent right now, so if you have a window of opportunity...and, a means....you should come and fish Lake Erie's Western Basin for a good time, and some great memories. :)

I'm headed to Wisconsin for the week, to visit family, so I won't be blogging anything until my first trip, on the 7th.

Good luck this week....stay safe....and, have fun!

Stay tuned...

Capt Juls