2 Attachment(s)
Fishing Day One with Bob, Mike, and Larry...9/9/19
I picked my crew up from the White Caps Motel at 6am and we headed to Big Bopper's after gassing up and hitting Rickard's Bait for some ice. I did pick up 4 scoops of minnows too, in case the walleye bite was faster than my previous trips, so we could try for some perch if there was time.
We launched at 7:15 and headed ENE out of Mazurik's. The winds were light, but the NE rollers were still coming in, so even though the surface of the lake looked calm from a distance, once we were on it, traveling wasn't going to be very fast. We took our time and headed out to the 33/32 line. The Ulterra was deployed and directed to troll a westerly pass. The baby ETEC was set so the speed was at 2.3-2.5mph.
My crew had run dipsies before, so I didn't have to train them on how to set them, and they did great. The zero setting dips were set at 45 and 50...the 1 1/2 setting dips were set at 65 and 75, and the three setting dips were set at 95 and 100 back.
Spoons that ended up being the best for us were the Blue/Silver, Red Headed Wonderbread, and Water Melon. The Blue Silver Ripplin Redfin ran on the three setting at 95 back and took several fish.
Our third fish on that pass was a big girl. She was just under the 30" mark on the "Judge", and brought big smiles to the crew....and, to me. Those big fish still make my knees shake when I see them coming in, with their big mouths wide open. lol
We only caught 4 fish on that first pass, and since the winds were getting even lighter, and the lake was laying down more, we picked everything up and made a move down towards the Huron Dump. The marks on the Helix were good, but not the greatest. There were enough for me to give it a shot, so we set up with a southwesterly troll. We caught one right away, but then it was a long period before the next one showed up. "Time to change the angle of our dangle", I said, and I turned to boat to go east and then northeast. We picked up a couple more in that direction, but I wasn't satisfied, so I changed the direction one more time to go in that westerly direction again, and we started catching at a better rate.
We would end our 6 hour trip with 16 in the box and threw back around 10 that were just under 15". They all went back with a kiss and a whisper, wishing them to grow up to be 20 pounds. :)
My crew did a great job today, and had a good time. The conversation was enjoyable and it was nice that the weather was beautiful for their trip. These boys are all older and Mike is a two time Purple Heart recipient, so I felt honored just to have them on my boat today!
We are going to launch out of Huron tomorrow, since the wind forecast is calling for south winds gusting to 19-20mph. A shorter ride is in order here, and we can use the wind to our advantage over there....hopefully. The fish just have to cooperate for us.
Needless to say, we didn't have time to try for perch, so my neighbor's fish got to eat all the minnows. ;)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
