Advice for Casters/Drifters

[slimshady]

Thank you to everyone for the advice! We ended up with a shortened trip, but a great one none the less. With the threat of thunderstorms looming, we cancelled plans of camping and fished Saturday only. The weather ended up working out great, the 11 am storms missed us and we were able to get a full day in.

Up at 345, kids and boat loaded by 430, met everyone at Mazuriks by 7, on the water by about 730, and motored straight to Middle Harbor Shoal. We thought about hitting American Eagle, but weren't sure what would happen with the storms, so opted to stay close in. Got to Middle Harbor Shoal, first cast of the day was made by my 5 year old son, who immediately hooked into a beautiful 23 inch walleye! Needless to say, everyone on the boat was now very excited for a good day of fishing. Mere minutes later my cousin hooked into another 22-23" walleye. We worked the shoal a handful of times, then moved off towards the crowd to the NE of us in the South Passage.

We ended the day with a full cooler (by our standards) - kept 6-7 nice walleye, 5 channel cats, and even got a nice perch in the mix. Threw back another 6 or so shorts, couple white bass, and the obligatory sheephead. We weren't able to work as effectively as hoped, we ended up with only 1 boat with 6 adults and 2 kids - not a lot of room to effectively cast! But that didn't stop everyone from having a great time and we're all excited to do it again!

The bite was definitely best in the shallows, early in the day. Yellow/Red and Yellow/Green Erie Dearies were the big winners, casting worm harnesses got their fair share. Bottom bouncers were used to get some cats (my 7 year old loves cats!).

Once again, thank you to everyone that gave advice, we certainly appreciated it and are excited to do more trips!

Rob

Wow, 6 adults and 2 kids in one boat casting...sounds like a perfect recipe for a trip to the emergency room to get hooks removed from someone's head. It's impressive that you were able to catch any and not have that happen with that kind of crew. How big was the boat?

[Randrasik]

Yeah, it was a challenge! Everyone made a coordinated effort - and kept sunglasses/eye protection on Those who were content to relax and watch the drifting rods were spaced between the casters to try and space things out. Still - lots of crossed lines. Boat is a 23' Sea Ray open bow - more set up for skiing and cruising, but got the job done fishing