Fishing with the Houghton Family... 7/22/2023

**Capt Juls** · 07-22-2023, 12:38 PM

Picked the Houghton men up at the Walmart parking lot at 4:45, hit the Speedway for the usual stuff, and drove over to Vermilion to launch. When we arrived at the launch, there were 5 or 6 boats in line, ahead of us.

The forecast for the day was calling for sunny, with wind out of the NW at 5-6mph, and an air temp of 80-something. As perfect a morning, that one could ask for...other than asking for a light, southerly, wind direction.

We launched and headed out to the ENE for about a 1/2 hour ride. It looked nice and flat on the water's surface, but the residual rollers from last night's winds kept us from going very fast.

The Helix started showing some good marks below, so we stopped. The Minn-Kota was deployed, and the baby Merc fired up...a course to the north was set on the Terrova, and the baby Merc pushed us along at 2.3-2.5 GPS.
I don't have a Fish Hawk report, because it wouldn't work this morning. I put fresh batteries in both the unit and the probe, and still nothing but dashes on the screen. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, so I put it away, and went "old school" on it.

As we trolled north, I would vary the direction from time to time, to see if the bite was better, one way, or another. It mattered. As it turned out...they liked the easterly troll the best. It was non-stop after that turn to starboard.

But, I get ahead of myself....

We set up with the dipsies first. Bill had limited knowledge of them, and the boys didn't have any, but they caught on really quickly on how to retrieve a fish, and set them back out again. Orion was fine with letting his big brother be first mate, and doing all the setting, while he took the seat in the bow...where he would call out when a fish was on....that is, until it was his turn to reel one in again, which kept him busy, going from the back of the boat, to the front of the boat.

Dipsey settings were the usual for deep water:
Zero setting at 40 and 50 back
Three setting was at 70 and 80 back to start, but the 70 was eventually lowered to 80, too.

Bandits ran behind Off Shore boards...
The port side ran Chrome Barbie on the outside at 97 back, Pooh Bear at 75, and Blue Shiner at 65.

The starboard side ran Perch at 130 back, Glare at 85, and Blue Shiner at 70 back.

All colors and depths caught fish this morning, but the spoons out-fished the cranks, once again. Yeck and BadMo Arrow spoons were preferred over the Stinger and Scorpion spoons, this morning, for some reason. I changed them out for a couple more Yecks, and it was fish after fish.

"Confusion" was a hot Yeck spoon, morning. The green/black/sliver Arrow caught too, but the Sheephead really liked that one, too.

I had a Ripplin Redfin out for a little bit, but it didn't catch anything, so it didn't stay out long.

Orion had never caught a walleye over 16 inches, so when he reeled in a nice 5-6 pounder he was all smiles! And, I was all smiles! It's been a while since I've had this nice of a grade of fish in the boat. It was nice not having to deal with all the little fish, like we do by the islands. We didn't catch any shorts today. But, the Sheephead and White Bass were plentiful, and kept us busy in-between Walleye bites.

I don't know what happened to the morning, that the weatherman was talking about, because after the beautiful sunrise we got to witness, the sky to the west, turning dark gray, and showing a rainbow. So that meant it was raining...and, coming our way.

"I didn't know it was supposed to rain this morning...none of the apps predicted this one," I said. After taking some photos of the rainbow, while my guys reeled in, and netted fish, I dug out a raincoat for Orion to wear. The older two didn't mind getting wet, and I had a lightweight one on, from our drive out, so I was okay, too.

The fish kept coming....and coming, and coming. It was so much fun!

We had our 24 by 8:30.

The ride home was upbeat, and full of giggles....just a perfect morning.