Draggin the Line with John 6/10

[itsbob]

Went out fishing Saturday with John and his daughter Lauren and her boyfriend Tony. John had them get Canadian licenses so would have less boat traffic. Left the dock at 5:15 and headed east of the bass islands. Treated to a sunrise over Pelee and had a fish in the box by 6am.Headed east, downwind on a long 2hr pass that put 18 fish in the cooler. Had out 4 bandits on inline boards, 2 harnesses on #2 tadpoles at 45 and 2 spoon harnesses on #3 setting dipsey at 40 and 45. They all caught fish. Then we drove out of the fish so far that it took us another half hour to get marks again when we turned around. By the time we got back to the marks the bite had changed too and the fish were deeper. We changed the dipseys to a 60 lead and added a third dipsey at #1 setting at 40. Changed the harnesses to 60 but left out the original 3 bandits at 100,80 and 55. The bandits did not catch another fish...should have added a weight to them but was still getting marks at 20ft so left them there. We caught our final fish by 11am all on the deeper spoons and harnesses. Our 24 weighed 62lbs. Speed was around 2. 3mph.Caught our first 3 shorts of season and 2 white perch. Biggest was 25". Also got a close up look at the white pelicans when a commercial boat dumped some junk fish in water in front of us. The birds had a field day.

[Capt Juls]

Great report...thanks for sharing.

[itsbob]

Thanks juls.John was bragging that we got out as early as juls.When set up could only see one other boat out in distance.I said it could have been you since you get out at first light most of the time too.

[Capt Juls]

Lol....that's funny.

[Baha299]

Great report and info.

[LazyDays]

Great detailed report, thanks for sharing. Quick follow up question: I always thought crawler harnesses had to be pulled at slower speeds (I.e. 1.2-1.8mph) to be effective and therefore could not be mixed with a bandit & spoon program which usually need to be run at speeds > 2mph. I always thought you had to pick one or the other but based on your report, this does not appear to be the case.

[itsbob]

We use almost exclusively,double willow harnesses when we troll,because they can be run at higher speeds.Like up to 2.5-2.7mph.We caught with gold and purple/pink spoons Saturday.Tried chartreuse but that color didn't catch that day.

[LazyDays]

Thanks for the clarifying that—good to know! When u run your DW harness…do u use a whole crawler or just a half? Appreciate your guidance.

[itsbob]

We use a whole worm.But want it running as straight as possible so hook thick part of worm as close to tip as possible and hook once through back hook trying to keep length of worm and line the same.I tie all my harnesses,so I use 20# Seaguar fluorocarbon line and tie a #1 gamagatsu single hook in front and a treble 3" away in rear.Use two quick change clevis and tie the whole rig 6.5ft long with a loop in front and place a swivel on loop.That swivel goes to our #2 tadpole.Have had good luck catching our biggest fish on the harness running at 60 off our inline boards using a purple willow blade with a pink back.Caught the biggest last Saturday too.Funny story from last trip..... John had to take a break from driving to take a leak and when he came back to pee,had a fish on.So told John to reel it in.Got that fish almost to net and it came off.Couple hours later same thing happened when had to take break and lost another one.The only two all day and lost them both.Finally again got a big one on and John's reeling in and I'm talking smack about him losing last 2 fish while he's reeling in.We net that fish and it's our biggest of day too.