Fishing with James, Chris, and "Schmitty" (Chris)... 11/5/2023

[Capt Juls]

I had to reschedule this trip a couple of weeks ago, due to wind, so I had been watching the forecast as the day approached, and it kept getting better day by day, so I told my crew it would be a go.

Originally, the forecast was for the wind to settle down around 8am, but when I went out on the back deck with my coffee at 3am, the wind had already died down to a whopping 3mph. The temp was 46 degrees, so I knew it was going to be a nice day...other than some expected rain showers from time to time throughout the morning.


My boat is in heated storage now, so I had to go across town to get her. I dropped Alfie off at my friend, Jen's house first, so he could spend the day with his brother Ozzie, and his girlfriends, Buoy and Sunny, while I worked. I didn't want him spending the day alone, now that is big brother, Dexter has passed over the Rainbow Bridge. So, thank you, Jen and Matt, for taking care of him.


I got to the building a little early, so I could organize some things, before hitting the water. I hit the gas station to gas her up and get some ice for the cooler, before heading over to Mazurik's to meet my crew at 8:45. They were already there, when I arrived, so the day was already off to a good start.


We launched at 9am and after the big motor warmed up to temp, we headed off to the east side of Kelly's. I hadn't been walleye fishing for quite some time, because all of my last trips the past month and a half were perch trips, so it was just a matter of driving until I marked some fish.


We found "some marks" at the 32/27 line, but they weren't stacked, like we often see in some people's photos of their electronics, where it becomes "As fast as you can reel", but more scattered. We decided to give it a try.


The Terrova was deployed, and the baby Merc engaged, and a NE heading was set at a speed of 1.8-2.0 mph. The Fish Hawk showed that the surface temp of 53.4 was the same as the temp down at 15 feet. The SOG was also the same going in that direction.


The port side was set up with 3 white bodied bandits, running behind Off Shore boards. The outside board ran at 120 back (unassisted), the middle board at 80, and the inside board at 60. All three would catch a fish or two.


The starboard side started out running the new Berkley Deep Hit Sticks with the same leads, but didn't catch anything, so they were eventually swapped out for the Berkley Flicker Minnow 11s. The outside bait ran at 100 back, the middle board at 70, and the inside board at 60. All three of these would catch a few fish, too.


Two dipsies ran off each corner, with the inside set on the zero setting, and the outside rods running dipsies on the three setting, with spoons, shallow Hit Sticks, and Ripplin Redfin's. Dialing it in, three rods would end up running the smaller BadMo Arrow spoons in the green and black (silver back), and one white bodied Ripplin Redfin ran on one of the three settings.


The zero settings with spoons caught at 36 to 47 back. The three settings caught at 50 to 80 back. Most of the fish were caught on the dipsies.


When we ran out of marks, I turned the boat around to head back west. The SOG was 2.3 while the Fish Hawk showed 1.9-2.0mph, going that direction. We picked away at them until they caught their limits, and two of mine... then, around noon, the bite slowed for us. We fished for another hour, when they decided they wanted to get back, so they could get the fish cleaned before heading home.


We had a great time out there, and they were very happy with the 20 fish in the cooler, since I didn't have real high hopes of a good bite, since all the reports I had received from the two days before weren't that great.


I had fished with James and Chris back in 2020, and that day we had only gone 11 for 15, but they had a great time that day, too, so I knew they were the positive kind of anglers, and no matter what happened, it would be a good day on the water.


Luckily, though, we beat that day, and put more fish in the cooler for their fish fry efforts. James couldn't have been happier. Chris was a great "first mate", and Schmitty, who had never caught a walleye before, is now hooked and wants to bring some other friends out here to go fishing with me, too....and, that makes me happy!


This was the last customer trip of the season, unless a forecast shows nice weather coming in, because I have a few that I can call last minute, if they want to get out.


Otherwise, I'll be doing a little Fall Walleye Brawling, and Walleye Slamming with Jen and Matt for the rest of the month.


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls

[Mapleshade]

Thank you for the great post. I’m learning a lot from all you share. One bit of the lingo I don’t understand yet is what you mean by the 32/27 line. Suspect it’s shorthand for latitude/longitude points on the chart plotter. Thanks again!

[Capt Juls]

Thank you for the great post. I’m learning a lot from all you share. One bit of the lingo I don’t understand yet is what you mean by the 32/27 line. Suspect it’s shorthand for latitude/longitude points on the chart plotter. Thanks again!

Yes, it's the middle numbers of the lat/long.... 41.32.XXX - 82.27.XXX The first is the north/south numbers and the second is the east/west numbers. The numbers go up as you go north on the lake and the numbers go down the further east you go.

So, if your fishing at the 32/27 and someone says I'm at the 31/31...you can look at your numbers and know he's one mile south and 4 miles west of you.