Fishing with Cory, Sawyer, Holly, and Collin...10/3/2025

[Capt Juls]

Woke up early....(that's a given)...

Took care of the dogs, critters, and chores before leaving the house at 5:30, to head to the gas station and Hi-Way Bait, before driving over to Huron, to meet my crew.

This isn't a "Mom and Dad with the youngins"; this was a family trip, but related differently. Holly is Cory's sister-n-law (I think her sister married Cory, if I have the story straight), and Collin is Holly's boy. He's 15. Sawyer is Cory's boy, and he's 9.

I got to Huron around 6:30 and had told them to meet me at 7am, since the sunrise isn't until 7:30(ish), and took that opportunity to check all my lines in front of the crank baits, and cut some off, if I needed to. Only two were suspect, so it didn't take long. Then, I pulled the dipsey rods out and checked the leaders. I changed two of the four leaders due to abrasion and changed out a couple of spoons to worm-burners.

They showed up right on time. We launched, and headed out the river. The sky was clear, the air temp was in the mid to high 50's, but was forecasted to warm up to the 70s. The wind was light out of the SSE. The wind direction was NE yesterday, but was supposed to switch by early evening last night, so I was hoping it had enough time to lay down.

The rollers weren't too bad, but just enough to keep me from going too fast. I didn't want to beat up my customers, or the boat, so we took our time. As we rode out, I kept an eye on the Garmin, looking for good marks to start over.

We had headed towards Cranberry initially, because I was thinking of starting in close, thinking they might be in shallow that early, but changed my mind, and went towards deeper water instead.

I had a friend that was fishing the shallower stuff, and confirmed I had made the right decision. He wasn't doing well, and he said there was a lot of floating grass in that area.

The Garmin started marking some fish over 36 feet of water, so I decided to start there. The Ulterra was deployed first, then the baby Merc, and then the FishHawk. I had the Ulterra pointed towards Vermilion, which was a few miles away yet, and looked at the FishHawk, so I could set my speed....but, it wasn't working.
Long story short...I think the transducer cable, that has exposed wires at the plug in (that attaches to the unit), might be the culprit.
I'm already in communication with the company, so we'll see what happens. They were unbelievably quick to respond, which I really appreciate! Woot! Woot!

Anyway....with my confidence gone, because I don't know what speed my baits would be running down there...especially, when there are whacky currents happening...I set the speed to what the Garmin was showing for "Speed Over Ground", and crossed my fingers. lol

While none of them had ever caught a Walleye before, they were well versed anglers with other species, so I knew they could at least handle a rod. I didn't know what to expect from the youngest one, Sawyer, but I have to tell you, I couldn't stop saying how impressed I was with this kid. He's just the coolest! He's quiet, but a critical thinker, LOVES fishing, and could handle the dipsey rods better than a lot of adults I know. lol His patience was something to be admired, too. Usually, young ones under 10 can get kind of fussy if there's a slow bite happening, but not Sawyer......he's so cool.

Collin picked up how to put the Off Shore boards on the lines and helped me set lines. He's just an older version of Sawyer, so I think that family has some good genes and parenting happening. They were awesome!

I digress....

We started out with Flicker Minnow 11's on the starboard side, behind the Off Shore boards, and Walleye Nation Creation Reapers on the port side. I was only running 3 per side, to keep it simple.

Two dipsies ran off each corner...
zero settings started at 40 (port side) and 54 (starboard), and the three settings at 70 (starboard) and 55 (port). BadMo, Yeck, and Scorpion spoons were used. I tried a couple of worm-burners for the first hour, but nothing touched them, so I put regular spoons back on. The best leads would end up being:
Zero setting at 60 and the three settings at 70 and 100 back.

Nothing was interested in the cranks this morning. Eventually, the Reapers came off, and were replaced with Bandits, and the Flickers were replaced with Bill Lewis Lites, with 2oz snap weights. The only fish that chased our cranks were a couple of walleye interested in the Baby Bill's at 50/115, and 50/90 (50=where you attach the snap weight, and the other number is the total amount of line out).

We only ended up with 11 good eaters, but they were happy with that. They have a big family fish fry planned, and this catch would cover that event.
This family was so enjoyable to fish with, because they were so "chill", and just kept a positive attitude.
They all said they had a great time, and that makes me happy!

It's supposed to start cooling down again next week, so hopefully, that will kill the huge numbers of Spiney-Fleas in the system right now.
We marked fish here and there, but not in the numbers they are seeing way to the east yet. It will be nice when those fish decide to finally make the trek back this way.

My next trip is a 4-day perch trip with the two brothers from MI, who have come every fall for the past 8 years, I think. We always have a good time, and I always look forward to their time here. I've been hearing the bite is picking up, so fingers crossed it keeps improving!

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls