Fishing with Dan and Mike....6/11/2024

[Capt Juls]

The other night, when I was climbing in bed, I got a phone call from Dan. He and his Dad had just arrived in Port Clinton, and had never fished Lake Erie before. I gave him what information I had that might help them, and said, "Good night".The next day, I sent them a text, "Are you doing okay out there? Are you catching?". He replied, saying that it was pretty rough, and that they were back on shore eating lunch. They hadn't caught anything. Dan asked if I had the next day open, but I didn't, and told him I had Tuesday open, if they wanted it. They did.


I picked them up at 4:30, at their Air B-N-B, and we headed to Vermilion to launch. The wind forecast was for 5-8mph out of the NW-N-NE for the morning, so I thought it would be better to launch there, than at Huron. I knew it would be rough, even with low wind speed numbers, like the above.


It was 1-3s this morning, when we got out of the mouth of the river. First we headed straight out to 40-41 feet of water and turned the boat west. There were good marks, and I figured we could catch a limit by the time we got closer to Huron.


While it was non-stop action...it was the wrong size fish. Out of 25-30 fish caught, there was still only 5 in the cooler. "I think we should head north to cleaner water", I said. "It will take some time to get up to where I want to go, but the water will be cleaner, and I believe the fish will be bigger". They were on board with that decision, so we picked up everything, and took a ride for about a 1/2 hour, and set up over 50 feet of water and had the nose turned, so we were headed towards shallower water, as we trolled.


We ran dipsies on the zero, two, and three settings. The two inside dipsies, on the zero settings were set at 54 on the starboard side, and 40 on the port side. The two setting ran on the starboard side at 65 back, and the three setting ran on the port side at 55 back.


Yeck spoons and Scorpion spoons ran off the dipsies and were in constant action.


The starboard side ran Bill Lewis PWC Lites with 2 oz snap weights at 50/80, 50/50, and 50/27 behind Off Shore boards.


The port side could only run two baits behind the boards, due to the rod limitation, of three per angler. So, two Bandits ran at 120 and 80 back, unassisted.


Speed was 2.3-2.7 mph
Water temp was 66.7 degrees


The wind subsided a little bit by mid morning, allowing us to make a turn over the area, but going with the waves was a better bite, so we turned back around, and since we only needed two more fish at the time, it wasn't long before we were done.


Dan, and Mike were impressed with the fishery we have here, and learned a lot. Laughing, I said to Dan, "Congratulations on being the only male this season, that I only had to give instructions to ONCE, and you did everything right!" I added, "Usually, it's the wives that listen to me, and I only have to tell them once." They both laughed, and he graciously accepted his accolade.


We finished the morning with them catching their two man limit, and me reeling in my 6 also. It was a much better bite after we moved north, because the majority of fish didn't have to be measured, and my crew was really happy with their bounty, after their dismal results the day before, and that makes me happy!


I have a three day trip, with an Indiana crew, starting tomorrow. I'm just going to go right back there tomorrow, if the wind allows us too. I see the forecast has changed and that area might be too rough. Hopefully, it will change again by morning. Thursday, won't find us there, due to wind direction and speed, so I'll have to figure out someplace else to go. Friday, is a possibility though, but it will be a little rougher than it was early this morning. Rough, but doable.


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls