Fishing with 3 Generations of Wirthman Men 5/27/2022

Joe Wirthman, his son, Charlie, and Charlie's son, Brandon, met me at Mazurik's at 5:30, this morning. We launched, just as the sky was beginning to lighten from its nightly sleep, and headed out into the South Passage.

The forecast had changed for the better, since last night, and the gusty SSW winds they had predicted for this morning, didn't get that bad. The forecast had changed this morning to 5-15, from a 15-20mph forecast last night, so that was good. The rain had moved and stayed south of the lake, too, so we didn't get rained on at all this morning. Yay!


I asked Joe why he wanted to hire me, since he told me that he had his own boat here, and was already catching limits the past few days, when they went out. "I want to learn. We get a lot of tangles running inline boards, and I want to know what I'm doing wrong, or how I can improve it", he said. "Well, okay, we can do that, we'll be running dipsies along with the boards, right now.", I replied. He said, "That's great...I have dipsies, but I don't really know how to use them, so it will be good to learn".


We set up with the two dipsies off each corner. The "inside rod" is a 7' rod and the "outside rod" is an 8'3" rod. The inside rods were running at the zero setting, and the outside rods were running on the two setting. Zero settings were 25 and 27 back. The two settings were at 35 and 40 back.


Bandits were running behind the Off Shore boards at 40, 50, 60, and 70 back. All took a fish or two, except the 50 for some reason.


Colors were:
Blue Chrome
Carrot Top
Chrome Furmi-Nuff
Chrome Barbie


Speed was 2.4-2.5mph


The spoon bite was definitely better for us, which is nice, because it's so easy to use the dipsies. So . Much . Less . Work! :)


My crew had a good time, and learned a lot. I let them set the dipsies, the boards, and net fish....I would just interject with instructions, on how not to screw it up. Charlie said to me, "What did you do before you were a fishing guide?" As I gathered my thoughts, to answer, he asks, "Were you a cop, by chance?" I laughed, and said, "No, but I probably would have a made a good one, eh?".
They did a great job this morning, and went home happy, and that makes me happy!


Tomorrow, I have a new crew that wants to learn stuff....so, I'm going to teach them some stuff, and hopefully, we'll catch some more fish. Fingers Crossed!


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls

When people talk about south passage where is that?

I have never trolled spoons. Can anyone tell me a brand or description of what people are using. Thanks

Michigan Stinger are probably the most popular trolling spoons. I like to use Yeck and Bass Pro Demon Dancer. Wonderbread and Chartreuse are my best colors.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Capt Juls

Joe Wirthman, his son, Charlie, and Charlie's son, Brandon, met me at Mazurik's at 5:30, this morning. We launched, just as the sky was beginning to lighten from its nightly sleep, and headed out into the South Passage.

The forecast had changed for the better, since last night, and the gusty SSW winds they had predicted for this morning, didn't get that bad. The forecast had changed this morning to 5-15, from a 15-20mph forecast last night, so that was good. The rain had moved and stayed south of the lake, too, so we didn't get rained on at all this morning. Yay!


I asked Joe why he wanted to hire me, since he told me that he had his own boat here, and was already catching limits the past few days, when they went out. "I want to learn. We get a lot of tangles running inline boards, and I want to know what I'm doing wrong, or how I can improve it", he said. "Well, okay, we can do that, we'll be running dipsies along with the boards, right now.", I replied. He said, "That's great...I have dipsies, but I don't really know how to use them, so it will be good to learn".


We set up with the two dipsies off each corner. The "inside rod" is a 7' rod and the "outside rod" is an 8'3" rod. The inside rods were running at the zero setting, and the outside rods were running on the two setting. Zero settings were 25 and 27 back. The two settings were at 35 and 40 back.


Bandits were running behind the Off Shore boards at 40, 50, 60, and 70 back. All took a fish or two, except the 50 for some reason.


Colors were:
Blue Chrome
Carrot Top
Chrome Furmi-Nuff
Chrome Barbie


Speed was 2.4-2.5mph


The spoon bite was definitely better for us, which is nice, because it's so easy to use the dipsies. So . Much . Less . Work! :)


My crew had a good time, and learned a lot. I let them set the dipsies, the boards, and net fish....I would just interject with instructions, on how not to screw it up. Charlie said to me, "What did you do before you were a fishing guide?" As I gathered my thoughts, to answer, he asks, "Were you a cop, by chance?" I laughed, and said, "No, but I probably would have a made a good one, eh?".
They did a great job this morning, and went home happy, and that makes me happy!


Tomorrow, I have a new crew that wants to learn stuff....so, I'm going to teach them some stuff, and hopefully, we'll catch some more fish. Fingers Crossed!


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls

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Thanks for the shout-out, again! Glad to see that you are putting the "Fermi Chrome" to good use! I will be trying it for the first time tomorrow morning along with the new "Whiskey and Water" that you ordered. I will let you know which one works better. Cheers! Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fish nut

When people talk about south passage where is that?

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The "south passage" is the water between the mainland and the islands. The "middle passage" is the water that passes through the bass islands, and the "north passage" is the water north of the bass islands and Canada.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by slimshady

Thanks for the shout-out, again! Glad to see that you are putting the "Fermi Chrome" to good use! I will be trying it for the first time tomorrow morning along with the new "Whiskey and Water" that you ordered. I will let you know which one works better. Cheers! Mike

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The Curmi-Chrome was good. My Whiskey and Water color showed up yesterday, so I'll try that one and that Green Lantern one this morning. :)

I too thought the "south passage" was the water between south bass and Catawba point like Juls.When I was discussing that south passage with another charter captain, he told me that also included the water between Kellies and Marblehead.This morning was looking at an old chart that is in a picture frame at our lake house.The words South Passage is written on a line that does run from between south bass and Catawba through America eagle reef and between Kellies and Marblehead and off to the east.So it can reference different things to either fisherman or ship captains.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by itsbob

I too thought the "south passage" was the water between south bass and Catawba point like Juls.

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I didn't say that...you misunderstood.

I said, "The "south passage" is the water between the mainland and the islands."

That would include both the Bass Islands and Kelly's.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Capt Juls

The Fermi-Chrome was good. My Whiskey and Water color showed up yesterday, so I'll try that one and that Green Lantern one this morning. :)

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Nice! We did well on Fermi-Chrome on Saturday too, but the regular Fermi-Nuff was even better for me. It caught 7 or 8 of our 23 and all of the biggest ones. I only had one with me, of course.