Fishing with John and Matt 7/8/2022

[Capt Juls]

This morning, I had John Williams and his Son-in-Law Matt with me. Some of you might remember John from a previous trip this past May, when we had kind of a slow bite over by the cans, but he was able to get his two personal bests in one morning...the largest being a nice fat 29 incher.

Anyway, I told them I would pick them up at the White Caps Motel at 4:30, but as is my routine, I showed up there 15 minutes early. As I was texting him, to let him know they could take their time, and that I was early, I heard a tapping noise, but it was light, so, confused, I looked around and just figured my brakes were settling in after parking. "That's weird", I thought.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see a silhouette in my passenger's side window...and, it scared the crap out of me! It was only John, lightly tapping on the window, to let me know they were out there already. He had tapped on my tonneau cover, on his way to the window, so the "brake noise" mystery was solved. lol


We were early, so I took the long way through town, to go get ice for the coolers. The truck and boat were already gassed up, so that saved us some time, too.


The plan was to launch at Huron again, since it's just been so good, and so easy over there, and it's cheaper to drive the truck over there than to run the big motor across the lake, like I've always done in the past, since the truck can take the 87 and the Verado drinks the good stuff.


We launched at 5am and headed out the river. The sunrise is starting to get a little later now, so I'm going to adjust my timing for that. It was still good to go at 5am, since it was a partly cloudy sky this morning, and not a full cloud coverage. Had it been cloud covered, it wouldn't have been light enough to go until closer to 5:30, but as it was....the horizon started to lighten up enough to see the lake's surface on our way out.


There was a 3mph wind out of the SW this morning, and ENE tiny rollers coming in the other way, but they were small enough that it didn't really impede how fast you could drive across the lake, so that was nice.
We headed to the same area I have been fishing for the last several weeks, and the fish were still there.


We started in 38 feet of water and finished up in 43 feet of water. The action was pretty much non-stop, but there were a lot of shorts in the mix. The final box contained mostly 16-17 inch fish, with a couple of bigger ones in there. Good eaters, that my crew was happy with.


I only set them up with the 4 dipsies/spoons, because I figured the bite would be fast again, and there's no sense adding more lines, if they are not needed. Even with only 4 lines out, we still finished up in a little less than two hours.


Started with the zero setting at 30 and 35, but eventually moved them down to between 40 and 50 feet back.


The two settings started at 40 and 50, but were then adjusted to 55 on one side and 75 on the other side. The deeper leads did better this morning.


Speed was 2.5mph


The white perch, white bass, and sheephead were minimal today, and not a big problem.


I gave them a couple options, so they could stay out, but they were good with going in to have breakfast, and getting the fish cleaned, before heading back to Cincinnati. I gave them a slower boat ride in, so they could enjoy the lake a little longer. (We stopped on the way in, to pick up a floating giant balloon, too.)


They were supposed to have a two day trip, but it's been cut short, due to the wind forecast for tomorrow, which I'm positive will be a "small craft advisory", if it doesn't change overnight, which it could, since the forecasting has been wacky lately. Strong, gusty, NE winds up to 33 mph are forecast right now. So, they went home.


Hopefully, Sunday's forecast changes a little bit....ENE 13-19 is forecast right now, and that's not fun. Fingers crossed!


Stay tuned...


Capt Juls