Fishing with the Wade Family 7/8/18

[Capt Juls]

I was on shore for the last two days, while Momma Nature huffed a little from the ENE, so I was excited to find light SE winds this morning when I opened the front door. I was ready to get back in the boat and back to work.

I was meeting my crew at Rickard's Bait at 5am this morning, since they were staying at the Holiday Inn Express across the street, and I had to stop there to get ice. However, I saw them walk over to the McDonald's when I came out of the shop, so I went over there to pick them up to save them a walk across the street.

Steve Wade introduced his sons, Collin and Aidan, and we loaded into the "Big Rusty" and headed to Mazurik's to launch. (FYI: Catawba Ramp will be closed until the end of the year, starting tomorrow 7//9/18)

We were treated to an express launch this morning, when Capt Kevin offered to dump us and park my truck. He was still waiting on his crew to show up, so I took him up on that offer...and, off we went.

After turning the Helix's chart speed all the way up, I split the screen to show me the sonar and the GPS. Because of the rollers, we were only running around 20-25mph, so I was able to get a really good reading on the Helix as we were on plane. After marking some fish we set up on them. The sunrise was gorgeous and was just over the horizon by the time we got all the lines set.

I ran the same program I've been running lately, which is a combination of crankbaits and spoons behind Off Shore Boards, #40 Tru-Trip Jets, and Dipsies. The Flicker Minnows were running anywhere from 45-90 back and the spoons were anywhere from 35 to 70 back on the Tru-Trips. The magic number for us the Dipsies was 66 on the number 1 setting. Speed was 2.2-2.5mph today.

We caught a lot of fish...but, some were thrown back, due to size, and some walleye escaped through the net when they came unhooked. My Green Bay model RS NET has a 2" mesh bag on it, and it's not containing these smaller fish, so I have another Green Bay RS Net coming that has a 1" mesh on it, to use until these little buggers get bigger. If you can't beat'em with what you have...get the right stuff to do the job, eh?

Anyway...we managed a few fish over a two-man limit, so while we didn't limit out with a boat limit, they still went home with a nice bunch of fish for a fish fry.
They said they had a great time, so that's all the really matters to me.

Collin and Aidan did a great job learning how to set the lines with all the different contraptions I use to get the baits where I want them, and were working like a well-oiled machine by mid-morning....woot! woot!

My crew for tomorrow canceled last minute, due to a "kids thing", so I'm either doing lawn care tomorrow, or I'm going perch'n with Kevin, since he has a perch trip on Thursday and would like to find a good spot to take them to. We shall see...

Stay tuned...

Capt Juls