Fishing with Bryan, Chad, and Travis Stanszyk 7/8-9/2020

[Capt Juls]

I took the holiday weekend off, and wasn't back on the water until yesterday. I didn't report yesterday, because...well...I was hot and in a pissy mood...lol

Yesterday, I met Bryan and his two sons Chad and Travis, who came from PA, at Mazurik's at 5am. We launched at 5:15.

I thought it was going to be a light and variable wind when we launched, and the plan was to head to the weather buoy, but the wind was blowing out of the south at a good clip, and I decided against going 20 miles in those conditions. So, we went west instead. I didn't go far enough west though. I missed that good easy bite I heard about.


We picked a few here and there, but it was slow, and there was a lot of small fish and junk fish to pick through. Yesterday, to put it mildly, I found the motherload of sheephead. Uffda!


We only ended up with 7 keeper walleye and a catfish and the rest sheep, white perch, and white bass.


We were just west of Green working our way north to Rattlesnake.


At one point we left there to go to the east side of the Bass Islands and hit the middle out there between the NW corner of Kelly's, Lucy's, and Middle Island. While there are tempting marks out there...big ones too...most of those are big Sheephead, I think. We did catch a few walleye there too, but I think most are sheep, judging by how many we caught.


That was yesterday....today, was a new day. But, Travis had to go back to work, so it was only Bryan and Chad this morning.


We had left Mazurik's at 5:15 this morning, and headed NE at a nice cruising speed of 40mph. Since there wasn't any wind to speak of, the lake was flat. The 20 mile run out was smooth and only took us a 1/2 hour. The Helix marked fish from 35 to 41 feet down, so the Ulterra was deployed, along with the baby ETEC, and a course was set to head into the rising sun at a speed of 2.4-2.5mph.


Dipsies were set on the 3 setting at 124 back and the 0 setting at 65 back with spoons. We ran two Off Shore inline planers per side with Bandits. 100' and 80' back (unassisted) on the outside boards and 50/75 2oz on the two inside boards. Glare and Chrome Marvin were the higher bandits and Popsicle and a Chrome Popsicle were run behind the 2oz snapweights.


As they were catching fish, I turned to grab the net and found the most beautiful sunrise happening, and reached for my phone to take a picture...it wasn't where it was supposed to be. Just a slight panic set in as I looked around for it...and, then, realizing I left it in the truck I suddenly felt detached from the world and a little pissed off. lol
I forgot my phone in the truck when we launched, because a towel had gotten thrown over it at some point, and I missed it. "Oh well", I thought, we would only be gone a couple hours at the most, and I could live that long without my phone.
I was just mad that I didn't have anything to take pictures with today.


We had our limit in an hour and half this morning. We were the second boat up there (they must have gotten there in the dark), and then a flotilla showed up and there must have been at least 40-50 boats in the area by 7:30. We left and headed back at an even slower speed, and were back at the dock by 8:15. It was going to be another hot one today, so we were all glad to be back in early.


We transferred their fish to their cooler and I bid them a safe trip home.


Tomorrow's weather is going to be a little wet...maybe. They are calling for a chance of showers and thunderstorms, but I'm still looking at forecasts for what time that might happen.


I'm thinking we'll fish out of Catawba tomorrow, so if we have to make a run back in from an approaching storm...we can do it safely.


Tomorrow I have Ken Kreager and his family joining me. He and his son will fish, but I'm told the wife doesn't want to. (And, yes, before anyone calls/texts/emails me...I told him that she would have to have a fishing license just to be on the boat too.)


Stay tuned...

Capt Juls