Fishing Day 2 with Chris, Dave, and JP... June 10, 2023

This morning, I left a little earlier than I did yesterday, to go pick up my crew, because I wanted to put some new spoons away that I bought yesterday afternoon, but didn't get around to taking them out of the packaging and putting them away. So, I pull in, put the baits away, and there is my crew, all ready to go, even though I was earlier than yesterday. lol Gotta love Wisco Boyz! :)

We hit the gas station for the usual, and headed out to Marblehead to launch. We hit the water at 5:20 and headed north. The weather was very nice. Calm winds from the west, partly cloudy/hazy sky, and a temp of around 70. I never looked at the air temp, actually, but I was wearing pants made of thin material and flip-flops, and I wasn't cold, so it wasn't below 65, or I would have been chilly.

Water temp, up on the line, was 64.9 degrees, this morning.

We set up over 35 feet of water and worked our way out to 40 feet. The cranks did much better today, than they did yesterday, and we were catching with Bandits behind Off Shore boards at 90 back and 50/42 (total: 92) with a 2oz snap-weight.
"Sun Spot" (stock)
"IB Infected" (DJ Custom Eye Lures)
"Green Clown" (Stock)
and a color I do not know the name of, or who painted it...sorry!

During a trolling pass from east to west, against the current, Sun Spot was running at 90 back, on the outside board, on the starboard side, and suddenly went flying back.
It was JP's turn to reel a fish in, so he grabbed the rod, and pointed it to the port side of the boat, (which forces the planer board to stay back as it comes in, rather than coming straight to the boat, where it would have a chance to tangle with the inside lines). "I need to tighten the drag," he said. I said, "Let me check it, first". I tested the drag, and tightened it a little bit. I said, "That's a big fish, you can't tighten the drag too much, or you could break the line, and lose it. Just take your time..it will get here."

He took his time, and it did get to the back of the boat, where Chris (or, was it Dave?) netted it for him. Luckily, it was hooked really well in the big fat/bone part of the upper lip, and wasn't going to come off easily, because he got it up by the motor, and Chris (or, was it Dave? lol) couldn't get the net in there, to net it. It was doing a lot of flipping around in that corner, and that's when I saw the size of the fish...OMG..WOW!!
I had to turn around, so I didn't have to watch that fiasco, and crossed my fingers that it would get in the net.

It did...and, high-fives and whoop/whoops were had by all! A measurement on the "Judge Ruler" showed us the tail just touching the line at the 30 inch mark. The scale read 9.28 pounds, though. I explained to them, that if that fish had been caught with a belly full of eggs, it would have easily gone 11 pounds.

Chris and Dave explained to JP, that this was a fish of a lifetime, and that people fish for a life time, and never catch one that size. He was very happy. He's going to get a replica made of it, to remember this trip. I asked him to send me a picture of it, when it was done, and he said he would. :)

The dipsies kept us busy with mostly little baby walleye, but every now and then a nice eater would show up, and take the spoon offerings. Yeck, and BadMo Arrow spoons were the ticket for us today.
Zero setting at 35 and 40 back
Three setting at 45 and 55 back

Speed was all over the place this morning, and we caught fish on the slow side of turns, which I'm guessing was probably 1.8-1.9mph, and going faster... up to 2.7mph GPS which was 2.5mph on the Fish Hawk.

We had fish early, and then when the fleet of charter boats showed up, it slowed way down. We had two limits by the time they showed up though, so we only needed 6 more for their limit, and it was only 8am....we had time.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time, when they needed to get off the water an hour early to head back to Wisconsin. We managed their limits, and I reeled in a couple of mine, too. Today's grade of fish was a little better than yesterday's, so they were very happy with the results.

They had fun, learned a lot, and caught a lot of fish, and said they would be back again, and that makes me happy! :)

Tomorrow, I am fishing with a customer that I had scheduled for Tuesday, but since Tuesday is supposed to blow, he took advantage of the nice weather tomorrow, and the fact that I had tomorrow open.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls