Fishing with Tom and Liz 10/1/2021

[Capt Juls]

Well, hello strangers! It's been a while. The month of September was a disaster with all the wind we had, not to mention a monsoon that hit us last week. Ugh...but, today was a better day!

Left the house at 6:30 and picked my crew up at the White Caps Motel at 6:35. We hit the gas station in town to top off the boat, and grab some ice for the coolers, then headed to Mazurik's to launch.


I was told there was a decent bite near Lorain yesterday, so the plan was to make that 23-mile run and see what we could do over there. As we headed out, the sky was clear, and I knew it was going to be a ride looking right into the sun, which made it hard to see my Humminbird screen with black dots in my eyes, but we made it.
The air temp this morning was 48 degrees at 7am, and the water temp was 67 degrees.
Winds were light out of the SE at around 5-7mph, but there were still some slight residual NE rollers from yesterday's wind, so it was a weird ride out there. (The ride home would prove to be much nicer, as the winds laid down to almost nothing....smoothing the lake's surface, for an even nicer ride back in. But, I digress....let's catch some fish first!)


As we approached the end of my "go to" line on the GPS, the silhouettes of boats started to appear on the horizon, and my heart started beating a little faster. It's not often, that I will make that long run over there, but today was the day to do it. And, I had been off for so long that I wanted to catch fish more than my customers even did!


Tom and Liz, who live in MI, were looking forward to catching some fish, and I didn't want to disappoint them. I always say, "Expect the worst and hope for the best", before every trip, because you just never know what Lake Erie is willing to give you on any given day.


After we reached a good starting point, south of the other handful of boats there, the 400 was shut down and the Ulterra and baby merc were deployed, and set to a speed of 2.2mph, with a course headed to the NE, towards Lorain.


We could only run 9 lines today, so to keep it simple...we ran 8. Two Off Shore boards pulled Bandits with 2oz snap weights on each side and two dipsies were running off each corner.


Bandit colors that worked for us today, were Sun Spot, Blue/Chrome, Green Clown, and a purple/white/black splotchy paint job one with a pink chin (I don't remember the name of that one...it's a custom color).
50/50, 50/57, 50/60, and 50/85 were the best leads.


Dipsies were on the zero and three settings on both sides and ran spoons and cranks.
The Red Headed Wonderbread Yeck spoon, of course, was doing its job this morning on the zero setting at 58 back early, and then 65 back later in the morning.
The #7 Flicker Shad in the Slick Alwive color was on two dipsies and killing it. It ran on a zero setting at 70 back and a three setting at 80 back. It probably caught most of the fish.
The other three setting dipsey ran a Black/Gold Ripplin Redfin and caught a couple too.


The first fish was just a regular eater, and I thought to myself, "Sheesh, I could have stayed over by the islands for these little guys", but then the next several fish that came in had me as excited as my customers. They weren't monsters, but when you're used to catching 1-3 pounders by the islands, and the 4-6 pound fish start coming in, it's almost as exciting as seeing a 10-11 pound fish coming in during the spring run. lol


We managed our 18 fish limit and started our long ride back. We made a stop out in front of Cedar Point, and the lighthouse, so Tom could get some nice pictures of them from the water to remember the day.


They had a great time, and Tom said he would like to come back again next season, so that makes me happy!


Tomorrow, I have a crew that had to be rescheduled a couple of times this season, due to wind, but with the wind forecast for tomorrow, we can get out, but I will not be making the run I did today. We'll have to find a new spot closer to home. Fingers crossed!


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls

[gizmos]

Nice ! Love yours and others post . First year in many thst I haven't made it up at least once. Have to keep the surgeons in business right ?
Love to imagine thru your post !

[Windy1]

Nicely done, Capt.