Shake Down Fish With John Sunday 4/11

Found out this week,my buddy John got his boat put in the water at the CIC marina and he was coming up from Zanesville to check the boat out and put gear on boat.John had knee surgery about 3wks ago and was having trouble getting around.I said i could drive over to help him with the boat and hoping to even get out fishing.
The forcast did not look good for Sunday,which was our only available day.We checked the boat out Saturday afternoon and stowed the gear.The forcast for Sunday kept improving and looked like we would be able to fish after all. We headed to the north side of Kellies and set up on some marks and started putting out the lines.When putting out the 4th line, noticed the board surge back with the orange bandit at 95ft.A sight i'd been waiting to see again the past 6mo.Brought in a 27" fish which turned out to be biggest of the day.During the next 30min went 3 for 5 with another fish on that same orange bandit.
We worked that same area for next 3.5hrs and went 13 for 17.Had double at end of day and let that fish go.Weight at cleaners was 51lbs.Biggest fish we had caught in many years.Had a blast and the weather conditions were beautiful.Had a 2ft chop out of SW, partly cloudy and no rain.Not as many boats out as would have expected for a weekend.Dreadfull forcast must have scared alot of people from heading out.We did not have to dodge another troller all day.
Speed was 2.0mph.I did not catch another fish on that orange bandit at 95 the rest of day even though i checked it.Blue Chrome at 80, and a DJ custom he has no name for at 70 did very well.That custom is a front and back chartruese with white in middle with pink dots on the white.On the inside boards i ran 2oz sinkers.One was 20/2oz/25 with RC crush which did real well and the other 20/2oz/30 with humble bee also caught.All cranks were bandits.

Great post . Sounds like a good trip.

When we were setting up gear to head out john did not want to hook trolling bags up.I had to persuade him to do it because it is very difficult to do on his boat once on the water.Figured we needed to get down to 1.5 to 1.7mph.When found some good marks turned into the wind and we were able to get down to 2.0mph without the bags.I started putting out the rods and we hooked up 5 times in like 30min going 2.0mph into the wind and most likely into any current since we were headed west.The bite stopped so we turned and was going to head back through where we caught those fish.Now we were going east and downwind and most likely down current.Our speed was now 2.3mph.We went through where we got 5 pull backs and got nothing.We turned around and went back through into wind at 2.0 and caught fish again.When we turned again,east with the wind,put bag in and slowed down to 2.0mph and caught a couple fish on this pass.I was actually surprised we caught going so fast.So change up your speed to see what's working that day.Another way to find out what speed is catching that day, make S turns and not which side is hooking up.Another thing that happens with the S turns is your cranks will rise up or get pulled down in the water column and that movement does trigger bites too.

Hey itsbob, I’m more of a salmon fisher than walleye but we’re bringing my boat over in two weeks. Anyways I have a depth raider on one of my riggers and (like Jules said a while back) it’s amazing the difference in speed. On Lake MI we fish down 100 or more sometimes and what we think it with current can be totally different under water. This year will be the first with a probe on Erie for us and I’m excited to see if they help or hinder our catch rates. One question for the locals: on Lake MI I pay close attention to my lines trying to keep the running straight behind the boat (with or against the current) as running sideways through the current not only can cause more tangles but tends to reduce the amount of bites. Is this true on Erie with eyes as well? I’ve never really paid any mind to it but I guess it will be my job to put us on fish.
thanks!

Probably the best you can do to help the bite and prevent tangles is to tune your cranks so running straight.We were running all bandits and a lot of people say you don't need to tune them.Well,I was checking the bandits we were running and I was tuning them if need .Probably half of the 6 we ran I adjusted.
Not much you can do with current besides running a different direction.I have found the current not causing tangles because they affect all the lines the same.But running boards always run longest lead on outside.

Thanks itsbob I’ll need all the help I can get now... The guy that started our trip just had a heart attack so he’s out (but ok). If your on the water the week of 5/3, look me up. 25’ Bayliner trophy named Crooked Hook staying at Little Teds. I’ll be on 79.