Fishing with Gunner, Austin, and Ryan 3/17/2022

Well, I have to suck it up and report this trip, because it's not cool to only post the most successful trips that I get in the books.

Today was one of those humbling days....deep sigh.

I got to Mazurik's at 6:10 (long before the sky would start to lighten), and got things ready for the day.
I was meeting my Illinois crew at 7am. Sunrise was to be at 7:42. Last night, there was an almost-full moon (it will be full tomorrow), shining down from clear skies, so we got the almost-full moon to the west, and the sun coming up in the east, this morning.

We hit the water a little after 7am and headed north. I'll tell you everywhere we went today, only because I sucked, and kept making the wrong decisions. I realize it happens, but it never "tastes" good when it does happen. Anyway...

We started east of Ballast and set up with all P-10's with 2oz snap weights at 20/20, 25/25, 30/30, and 35/35 behind the Off Shore boards. Speed was 1.1-1.2mph. The water temp had dropped from the day before, due to the NE wind last night moving colder surface water in.

We marked fish here and there, but they were tight to the bottom. My first guess was that they had been feeding last night, with that almost-full moon making it easy for them to see. We trolled along, and the boards started to disappear under the surface of the water and move back out of line. I had never seen that before, and didn't notice any ice on the water, so I had Gunner, Austin, and Ryan reel them in, and that's when we found crystals of ice covering everything on the boards.

I assumed it was due to the decrease in water temps, so I made the decision to move. I thought we would go over to the north side of Kelly's where I had ended up yesterday, because the water was a bit dirtier there, and I thought it might be warmer. I was wrong.

As we drove over there, I noticed the temp reading was dropping even more, and it was two degrees down from yesterday. I didn't even stop there, and turned the boat and headed west of the islands. We went to E can and marked some fish between 17-25' over 28 feet of water.

We set up with P-10's on one side and Spros on the other side. When nothing happened, I had them take the P-10's off and replaced them with Bandits. We caught our first fish on a Bandit 80 back. The skunk was out of the box, but I didn't have a good feeling. We trolled another mile, with nothing to show for it.

But, then, a friend texted me and told me they had 5 up north of us a couple miles, so we picked everything up and headed that way. But, when we got there, the screen was blank, so we didn't stay long.

The next move was back towards the islands. I wanted to check West Reef, but thought that with the NE wind pushing cold water in, that that might not be the best place to look, so we headed towards the north side of Green and set up with a pass towards Middle Bass. There were marks at first, but then they soon disappeared too. Aarrrrggghhh! Come on!! lol

The last stop was down at the Starve/Ferry Lane area. We set up again, and put a snap weight on one Bandit and one Spro (running the inside boards) at 50/25, and both of those took a fish, but only the Spro's fish made it to the boat. The other got off before it was seen.

If it wasn't for the positivity, and the good nature of my crew, it would have been a miserable trip. But, they were awesome, and so much fun! They said they had fished with another Capt yesterday, and they didn't catch any fish, so they said they were already ahead. lol

They donated their two fish to my neighbor, Jerry, so they didn't have to bother with them. Neighbor Jerry was happy to get them too, and he said to say, "Thank you!"

Well, I don't have any excuses, other than I didn't find the right fish today. (she hangs her head and shakes it slowly back and forth)...

They were scheduled for two days, but with another NE wind tomorrow, we decided it was probably best for them to head back to Illinois in the morning.

They did send me a text that made me feel a little better though...it read:
"All good. You changed up the program and made educated guesses at what move to make next, and trained your crew quick on how to make moves. We'll team up on some walleyes again, when the temp is right... they don’t stand a chance."

So, I am looking forward to fishing with these guys again, because they made a bad day GREAT! :)

Saturday, is the next scheduled day, but with a 96% chance of rain/snow and gusty winds...I'm not going to run.

Sunday, is probably a "go".

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls