Day 2 Fishing with Jeremy, Greg, and Steve... 6/22/2024

[Capt Juls]

The dogs woke me up 45 minutes before my alarm was to go off, so I just got up, and stayed up. A cup of coffee, out on the back deck, hit the spot. While the dogs were busy with their morning routine of sniffing the yard for any critters that may have traveled through during the night, I checked the weather apps for the day's forecast.

I use iWindSurf for wind, Clime-NOAA for the weather/wind/precipitation, and RadarScope for incoming systems.
This time of year, when we will travel several miles out on the lake, I like to check the "Erie West Buoy", or otherwise known as the, "Weather Bouy", to us locals...because, it gives a good idea of what the lake will be like far off shore, and east of Kelly's.


This morning, it was 76 degrees, and muggy, when I left the house, and headed to Mazurik's, to meet my crew. I told them to meet me at 5AM so they could help me with a missing bolt in one of my trailer bunks. I got there at 4:30, so I could have the boat ready to go, when they got there. They showed up at 4:45.


We launched the boat, so I stayed with the boat, and they went to work on putting a new bolt in its spot on the trailer. We were headed out at 5:05am. Sunrise, right now, is 6:01, so it was still pretty dark out. I wasn't comfortable leaving that early, but the sky was glowing yellows and oranges, against a dark purple backdrop, to the east. We would just go slower, so we could avoid the commercial nets out there.


I wanted to stay closer today, and found a big pod of fish NE of Cedar Point, in 43 feet of water, so we set up there. I was able to get all the lines set, which kind of puzzled me, so I wondered if they were even walleye....or, why the heck they weren't biting.
Maybe, you could say, I get a little bit spoiled by these fish and expect that kind of bite all the time. lol
Anyway, as soon as I said, "I think, we should pick up and head back to the weather buoy. I don't think the wind will be that bad up there, today."....whoosh, the outside board on the port side went flying back. I was in the middle of putting dipsies away, when it happened, so I could only laugh, and say, "It happens every time I say I'm going to move!" The three of them laughed. It was a nice little eater around 18 inches long.


We caught another one, but I didn't want to spend the morning taking little fish off, and resetting lines. I was the only one setting lines yesterday and today, because my crew likes to fish, but they only get together once or twice a year, to do it. So, rather than try to train them, and have things take three times as long to set up...I did it all myself. "Let's get out of here", I said. We headed to the NE, for another 14 miles.


The lake was relatively flat, so I was able to let the big motor open up, and set a cruising speed of 52 mph. It wasn't going to take long to get there. Once we did, we moved on over to the area we fished yesterday. While there were more boats up there this morning, it was still considered, light traffic. Also, they were closer to the buoy than we were, so no one would be in our path.


We set up with the same program, that was dialed in during the two previous adventures up there.


On the starboard side, the Bill Lewis "PWC Lites" ran with 2 oz Guppie weights, behind Off Shore boards, at 50/80, 50/60, and 50/40.
On the port side, the baby "Spro 85s" ran at the 50/70, 50/57, and 50/43.


Colors were the same as the previous day, too.
PWC Lites: Green Tiger (2), and Blue Shiner.
Spro 85s: Chrome Perch, Purple Glass Perch, and Blue Chrome.


Dipsies ran the Ripplin Redfin (2), Yaleye Mooneye Minnow, and a spoon.
They didn't catch as many as the cranks behind boards did, but they caught some nice ones.
Zero setting at 47 and 50, the two setting at 65, and the three setting at 85 back.


Speed was normally held at 2.3-2.5mph, on the FishHawk. Sometimes, we went faster, and sometimes we went slower. They ate at every speed. However, let it be known, that the little baits, running behind the boards do not necessarily like to go over 2.6mph. They sometimes blow out...twist up...and, ruin the line/reel calibration, due to all the line that has to get stripped off, due to twisting. I have four reels getting respooled tomorrow. Uffda.


During one of those horrific tangles...I ended up having to handline a fish in, because the line wouldn't go through the guides. "Get the net! We've got a big one here", I yelled. And, one of them netted it, to get it in the boat. I wasn't going to swing it like a handliner, because the dipsey rods were in the way, and she was too big to swing. I think, that one went 27 inches.

We finished at 10am with 24 walleye in the cooler, and threw back around 7 sheephead, 2 white bass, and 3 shorts.


The water temp at the buoy was 75 degrees.


My guys were very happy with their two day outing, and are going back to Wisconsin with their fishy bounty to share with their friends and family, and that makes me happy.
Jeremy said he was told about me by someone back home, that reads my blog, has his own boat he brings down here, and fishes out here any chance he gets. Jeremy said his friend was on his way down here this weekend, and will be staying out on one of the islands for the next week. So, to Jeremy's friend, thank you for recommending me to them, and good luck next week!




I'm off tomorrow, and need to get a lot of chores done, but will be back out Monday and Tuesday.


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls