Originally Posted by
Capt Juls
Pat and his wife Emily came for a three day stay, and to fish with me for those three days, but it looks like Thursday is going to blow, so it's only going to be today and tomorrow.
Got up at 2:30, and went out on the back deck with the dogs, and my cup of coffee, to find a calm to zero breeze outside. Just the way I like it!
I was planning a longer ride this morning west of the islands, and knew my crew were older, and didn't want to beat them up on the ride out. So, thank you, Mother Nature, for behaving for them this morning.
I picked them up from the White Caps Motel at 5:15, and we headed into town to grab some ice for the cooler. We hit Catawba, and were in the water by 5:45. After the big motor warmed up to temp, we headed north, to the west side of the islands.
I set the Vexus down over 35 feet of water, and deployed the Terrova and the baby Merc with a course setting to the west at 2.0-2.2mph (GPS), which was 1.8-1.9 on the Fish Hawk.
Two Off Shore boards ran out each side with Bandits behind them on the port side.
Red Headed Wonder Bread was on the outside board at 80 back...(Domka Outdoors color), and a Slim Shady Custom color with the name of "Whiskey and Water" ran at 70 back...both baits ran unassisted.
On the starboard side we started with 2oz inline weights with double willow leaf crawler harnesses at 40 and 53 back. These were eventually taken off, due to lack of activity, and replaced with Flicker Minnow 11s with snap weights.
The "Pooh Bear" color ran 50/67 (total of 117 back) on the outside, and the "Purple Perch" ran at 30/45 behind the inside board.
The Pooh Bear color took two fish, and the Purple Perch took one. The Whiskey and Water Bandit took one, and the Red Head failed me this time out.
Two dipsies ran on each corner. The shorter/inside rods ran the zero setting at 35 on the port side, and 40 on the starboard side. The port side had a copper colored Yeck spoon, and the same on the starboard side. The only difference in the spoons is...while they both had the same pattern on the front side, the starboard side spoon had a blue back. I don't know the name of the color, since they don't put it on the package. (It has a green edge on the left side with a red dot at the skinny end of the spoon, and a black dot at the fatter end of the spoon.) If you don't have that one, the "Confusion" color works, too.
The longer/outside rods were running on the three settings, both at 47 back with black and gold Rippling Redfins. Both caught fish.
The dipsey program definitely outdid the cranks this morning.
Water temp was 59 degrees.
We started catching before all the lines could be set, and it was a steady pick from there. Not fire drill fast, but fast enough that I didn't get a lot of pictures this morning. :)
Emily was very good at reading the dipsey rods, and let me know when a fish was on, if I was busy reeling, or doing something else. We managed our 18 walleye by 8:30 this morning, and that's the fastest it's been for me in a long time! I'm very happy to see this kind of bite coming back to us.
Now that I said that out loud, though, I'm sure it will change....again. lol
I have the same crew tomorrow, and like me, they are really looking forward to it. The weather conditions in the morning should be the same as today. The wind comes in around 10AM, I think...or, at least that was the last forecast I looked at.
Fingers crossed!
Stay tuned.....
Capt Juls
