Fishing with Steve and Keith... May 19, 2023

[Capt Juls]

My crew drove up this morning from Columbus, and met me at the launch at 5:30. The sky was already getting lighter, so we were able to launch and head out at 5:40. It's a 20 minute no wake zone out to the mouth of the Portage River, so it was a few minutes after 6am when we got the Vexus up on plane.

The wind forecast for the day had improved greatly from what it was saying the day before, so that was nice. The waves all day were 1' or less, and I'm guessing the wind never got over 10mph while we were out there.


We started inside the cans, but were kicked out of there at 8am, when the Coast Guard came across the radio telling everyone that the firing range would be closed off to boaters, until 6pm.


I decided to take a ride up to the "Triangle", which is the area between the bass islands...the "Triangle" being points on Rattle Snake, Green, and Middle Bass.


This time of year is usually good, and that area loaded with fish. That wasn't the case today. While there are some fish there, they are not there in the numbers that they normally would be, like in the past several years. I know we had a setback with water temps, but it's not that far off, and only lasted a week, so I'm not sure what's going on with the fish's migration patterns this year. I only know they are not where they normally would be.


To make a long story short....we tried Bandits, Flicker Minnows, Spro 120s, and a Reaper behind the Off Shore boards. The only crank that would catch fish today was the "IB Infected" custom Bandit that DJ paints. It's a chrome yellow/antifreeze color with small magenta dots all over it. We ended up putting three of those out, and all three caught fish. No other colors did, and I tried many.


The worm burners on dipsies caught 3, lost 2, and lost their worms, 5 times, so they were effective...just not very successfully effective. lol


The dipsey settings that caught fish were the three setting at 47 back, and the zero setting at 33.


Speed was 1.9-2.1 GPS (1.7-1.9 on the Fish Hawk).


Steve, who is a police officer, brought his Uncle, Keith, up to get some relaxing, much needed "water time" in. Steve started the morning off by saying, "We don't care if we catch fish, but it would be nice, if we do. I'm here to learn some things from you". And, learn, they did. Steve was running his side of the boat like a champ in no time at all. Keith had a brace on his wrist, so we took it easy on him and just had him reel in his fish, when it was his turn.


I felt bad for the dismal numbers of walleye in the cooler, but he assured me that they had a lot of fun, and learned what he needed to learn, so I feel a little better about that....but, geez....this poor catch streak of mine has got to turn around here soon. I know that firing range would have lit up around mid to late morning, but we couldn't stay there, so my game plan was thrown out the window. I hate when that happens....deep sigh.


Off-topic and a side note....just wanted to say, today was officially the first day we caught a Sheephead, from my boat. I was wondering when they would start wandering around more.


Anyway....I have rescheduled tomorrow, due to the NW wind and my customer (Father/daughter) needing to. So, I'll be back out Sunday through Thursday, which is looking really good all 5 days. I have a regular customer returning to fish with me on Sunday and Monday, and it's just him, so only 6 lines to play with.


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls

[Fishing Tiger]

Thank you for another thorough report.
I have no doubt your total catch numbers will soon be better than all most everyone. You are doing all the right things and are a Captain Par Excellence.

And likewise we started catching our first Sheepshead this week and there were some good ones.
BTW we caught our first Baby Sharks (what we call shorts) this week also. It is hard to believe the quality of fish this year.