Fishing with Josh, Mark, and Doug 10/2/2021

This morning, I had Josh, Mark, and Doug, who live in the area. Josh's wife, bought him a gift certificate for Father's Day, because he has been a long time reader of my blog, and always wanted to fish with me, so he could learn a few things. We had to reschedule a couple of times in September, due to wind, but today we finally got out.

Josh and his crew, use big boards when they troll, but wanted to learn about running the Off Shore planer boards, and dipsies. Doug had used dipsies before, but was only confident to run one per side, because he was hesitant to run more for fear of tangles, and he runs another brand of inline planer boards, so he had some experience already. Josh and Mark were newbies to the inline board presentation, so I knew it would be easy to teach them, since they would learn it "my way". lol


I met them at Mazurik's at 7:15, and we hit the water shortly after. The air temp was warmer than yesterday's 48 degrees, with a low of 59 this morning. The high for today was forecast to hit 80 degrees by late afternoon. The wind this morning was SSE at 9 when we left the dock and headed east towards Huron. The sky was partly cloudy.


We weren't going to make that 23-mile run again, like yesterday, because the winds were supposed to pick up for the first few hours and then die down again. We set up north of Huron in 40 feet of water and headed north with the waves. I was hoping they wouldn't build to more than 1-3's, and they didn't. As we headed further from shore the waves got bigger, but then stabilized, and never got any bigger than 2-3's. By 10am, the wind and the lake were laying down again, and it was back to 2 feet or less.


Our first pass, was about 3 miles long, and the water depth was 44 feet where we stopped to head back to make another pass through our line again. We picked away at them the entire way. It was never a fast bite, but rather, it was a slow steady bite, and we managed to get our 24 keepers in 5 hours.


The guys did a great job learning, and asking a lot of questions, and when my trolling motor batteries died after only 2 1/2 hours, I was then stuck in the driver's seat to steer the boat with the kicker (it's tied to the main, so at least I could steer with the steering wheel). I'm guessing an outage at my house two days ago must have blown my MKC-460 charger, and after using the batteries yesterday, there wasn't enough juice left in them, to use them all day today too. Luckily, I think ahead and had a brand-new charger in the building where I keep my boat in the winter. Matt Wieland did the diagnostics, and installed the new one this afternoon, (Thanks Matt!), so she should be good to go on Monday for my next trip out. Whew! Crisis averted. :)


Anyway, since there were four of using the boat today, we were allowed 12 lines, but only ran 10. Since they were still learning, it was easier to just run three Off Shore boards per side, and my usual 2 dipsies per corner, just to keep it simple.


When we set up for the second pass, I told my crew that I had to steer the boat with the steering wheel, so it was up to them to do the entire set up. I trusted them, since I had watched them for the first three hours, and they listened, so I waited till they were all set up to look back and see if I had to correct anything. Only one planer board was riding too close to another, so they adjusted that, and we were back in business. But, that was it...they did a fantastic job setting the presentation.


Giving someone who wants to learn, the instruction and the trust to do it, and letting them actually do it, will give them the confidence to take what they learn and do it in their own boat. And, as we all know, when you have confidence...fishing is a lot more fun!


On the first pass, we ran Bandits behind the boards and did 2oz weights on the starboard side, and unassisted baits on the port side.
The 2oz program was 50/75, 50/60, and 50/35. Colors were that purple/white/black-splotchy one with the pink on it, Green Clown, and Sun Spot.


The unassisted program was 120, 110, and 85 back. Colors were Fruit Dots, Blue Chrome, and Sun Spot.


All of those caught fish at one time or another.


The dipsies were running the usual zero and three settings.
On the zero settings, one ran the Red Headed Wonderbread Yeck Spoon, and the other ran a Slick Alwive #7 Flick Shad.
On the three settings, one ran another Slick Alwive, and the other ran a Black/Gold Ripplin Redfin.


Zero settings were 48 and 70 back.
Three settings were 77 and 85 back.


The Yeck spoon caught a few, as did the Flicker Shad. The Ripplin Redfin caught nothing today, so it was changed out to a copper/orange Yeck spoon and caught one pretty fast, but that was it for that one, so it was changed out to a Scorpion spoon (don't know the color, but it was silver with white tape/a iridescent edge/black dot). That one caught one almost as soon as it was set out, but I'm not sure if it caught anymore after that, I was mostly facing forward trying to control the boat.


The Flicker Shad running on the zero setting at 70 back was changed out to a #7 Flicker Minnow in the purple/chrome/red belly, and that one took the most fish for the day, I think.


Speed was 2.2-2.4 mph. If I went slower....no bites....if I went faster...no bites, so we tried to keep it in the speed zone they wanted today. That little I-Troll dial thingy is pretty awesome for dialing in the right speed, and it doesn't make me miss my baby ETEC so much. My baby E had the button on the tiller handle that basically does the same thing. So, that makes me happy. :)


When we picked up, ran back, and made our second pass...we took the 2oz weights off, because the unassisted Bandits were producing more than the weighted side. But, the rest of the program was the same. We finished up with 15 minutes to spare, so we took a nice easy ride back in and enjoyed the fine weather, before the rain forecasted for the late afternoon.


Josh, Mark, and Doug all said they learned a ton, and are looking forward to practicing what they learned on their own boat, and I can't ask for anything more than that. Mission accomplished! Woot! Woot!


Tomorrow, is a day off....my crew is here through Tuesday, and I was able to move them to Monday, due to a cancellation for medical reasons of one of my Monday crew, so we don't have to fish in the rain tomorrow...yay! lol


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls

Another great report Juls. I've got a question how deep does that 50/75 with the 2 once get your bandit to. I have a chart that tells me how deep a 2 once goes but adding a bandit to the equation is a little confusing.

The info is in the Precision Trolling Data App. It runs at 31 feet at 2.25 mph. 29 feet at 2.5mph.

Thank you. I downloaded the app.

The app says 31 feet down is 120 line out at 2.25. How do you get 75 for the 50/2 method.

the standard thinking is for every oz. of weight add 4 ft...so 2 oz. would be 8 ft deeper.

Got it. 50/75 is 125.
At 2.25 mph it would be 50/80 or 130 total line out. Thanks. Can't wait to put this to use.

Great report, Capt. I am planning to reschedule my trip with you next June with my daughter & grandson.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Windy1

Great report, Capt. I am planning to reschedule my trip with you next June with my daughter & grandson.

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Cool...I look forward to it. The only date taken in June of 2022 so far is the 18th, so you have time to choose a date. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Capt Juls

Cool...I look forward to it. The only date taken in June of 2022 so far is the 18th, so you have time to choose a date. :)

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Sounds good. I will be in touch :cool: D. Miller