Fishing with Joe, Seth, and Carter 7/12/2020

It was a late start this morning, due to the wind forecast and the fact that I had three generations on the boat today. Joe brought his son, Seth, and his grandson, Carter, along for a walleye trip.

The remnants of yesterday's big NW blow would be subsiding after sunrise, so I didn't get the usual sunrise pic I like to start the day with. We launched at Mazurik's at 8am and headed out. I thought about going west, but thought it might be a little muddy since the winds were 30mph yesterday, and turned the bow to the NE instead.


It was a little rough, but not bad at 8am. The forecast said it would be a light wind out of the NNE most of the day, and subsiding even more as the afternoon approached.


We rounded the SE corner of Kelly's on the outside of the pack of boats that were hiding there from the earlier NW winds, I'm guessing. I thought I would go see what was up on the north side of the shoal this morning...and, if there were marks, we would fish them. We hit the Canadian line and the Helix was marking what looked like Walleye to me, so we set up.


The Ulterra took us on a course to the west over 43 feet of water. We set out the dipsies on the 3 setting at 124 and 94 back, the 1 setting at 61, and the 0 setting at 54 (and 57, 60, 65, and 70 at one point too). Two Bandits were out the port side behind Off Shore boards at 100 back. I had told Joe, "100 and 60 back", but he only heard the 100 and set them both out at the same distance. Both of them caught fish. Popsicle and RC Crush were the two colors.


Reef Runner Mag 44's were set out on the Starboard side at 75 and 60 back behind the Offshore's. Mag's took fish at 75, 60, and 45 back. Black/Gold and Bare Naked Purple Perch were the colors.


I didn't notice the water temperature, but it's up there over 75 degrees now, and close to 80. Two days ago, it was hitting 80 out in front of Catawba, but that's shallower water than the east side of Kelly's too.


Seth would help 10 year old Carter reel in fish with the dipsies, because the long rods and heavy divers made it difficult for him to do it alone. Carter was also having fun counting the fish that went in the cooler, because he got to be in charge of the counter-clicker thingy.


We caught fish pretty quickly at 8am, but then by 1pm we were sitting at only 15 walleye in the box and twice as many "junk fish" species to the count. "It's time to change the angle of our dangle", I said and turned the boat gradually until we were in a more favorable direction. I found that our bite was happening when we were on an east to west troll or a SE to NW troll, but it slowed when we were heading west to east or NW to SE. So, with that last dangle change, we started getting bit again, and put their last three in the box.


The highlight of the day was Seth's big catfish. I didn't get a pic, because I wanted to get it back in the water, and not give it time to slime my boat. They didn't care to hold it anyway, so....no pic. It was a good one though...I'm guessing in the 10 pound range.


Joe said he will be back again, and plans to make this an annual thing. He said they all really enjoyed the trip, learned stuff, and had a great time....and, that makes me happy!


Tomorrow's forecast is calling for sunshine, 10mph winds out of the NE, and temps in the high 70's to low 80's. Or, simply....it's going to be a gorgeous day to be on the lake!


I'll be launching out of Catawba in the morning with Mike Krakow and his crew for the first day of their two day trip.


Stay tuned...


Capt Juls