Fishing with Bill and Glen...4/8/2026

[Capt Juls]

Bill and Glen had scheduled a 2-day trip for Tuesday and Wednesday (4/7-4/8), but Tuesday showed up with freezing temps and gusty winds, so we rescheduled that trip to the 18th. We did get out for Wednesday's trip, though.

The morning started early, as usual, and I was up at 2am to have my coffee and cuddle time out on the back deck with the dogs, while I checked the weather forecast for the day. The wind forecast was out of the SE, and a little gusty early, but would be lying down towards late morning. The temps were chilly early, but would also be rising as the morning went on.

I told them that we would be doing a later start, and I would pick them up at 8:20 from the Whitecaps Motel, so we could launch by 9am. We only had to stop for ice for the fish cooler.

We hit Mazurik's on time and got in line to ready the boat. The ramp was busy, due to the NWT tournament guys launching and all of the out-of-staters, who are taking advantage of some open water vacations, due to ice-covered lakes back home.

Luckily, all these guys know how to launch boats quickly, so it wasn't a problem getting on the water in a timely fashion.

We headed out after the V-10 warmed up enough, and headed over towards Starve, but when we got closer, I didn't like the water clarity, so I turned the Vexus to the NE to look for better-looking water with some marks in it.
There were a lot of boats trolling the north side of Kelly's, but as I passed that way, I wasn't seeing the marks on the Garmin that would make me stop and start fishing in that crowd. (I don't like crowds).

We kept going east until we hit the bottom of Kelly Island Shoal, and started marking some good fish. I kept going east past the shoal until the marks ran out, and turned the boat around to head west. The waves were more east than SE, so we would be going with the waves.

The Ulttera and the baby Merc were deployed, as was the FishHawk, and the speed was set to 1.2 on the FishHawk. The SOG was showing 1.7mph when the FishHawk was showing 1.2mph.

The water was stained, but I could make out the prop, so it was perfect.

My guys had never run Off Shore boards before, so as I set lines, I showed them how to attach them to the lines. But, as it would turn out, they were more than happy to just let me set lines all morning, due to it being kind of rough, and they were having trouble standing up in the boat.

We started out with Bandits on the starboard side and P-10s with 2oz snap weights on the port side. Leads were:
Bandits: 50-100 back unassisted
P-10s: 20/20, 30/30, 40/40, 30/45

Bandit colors were Taco Salad, Blue/Chrome, Chrome Barbie, and Khaki
P-10s: Marvin, Blue/Chrome, Purple-headed wonder bread, and Lime/Orange throat

We caught the first fish before all the lines were set, and then nothing....deep sigh.
I said (chuckling), "I hate when that happens...makes it feel like a tournament day". It was time to move, because we were heading back into the minefield of boats, and I wasn't about to deal with that.

We picked everything up and headed down to the SE side of Kelly's, where there were fewer boats, and much better marks. After resetting lines again, removing the P-10s and replacing them with more Bandits, we hit a pocket of fish that put a quick 5 more walleye in the cooler. Bill and Glen were giggling like school boys with that kind of action....and, then, as we trolled further NW....nothing. Ooof!

We picked up one more time and headed further SE to make another pass in a more westerly direction than NW, and that turned out to be the right decision, as we would end up putting the rest of their limit in the cooler and a few of mine too, before heading back in.

The best leads that ended up catching the most fish were 85 and 115 back. Slim Shady Customs' Gender Reveal and Fermi were good producers, as was the stock blue/chrome and chromeBarbie. Khaki let me down, and didn't catch one fish this time. Taco Salad caught a couple, and DJ Custom's RC Crush caught, but was put out kind of late, so it didn't have time to show how well it would have done.

We headed back in around 2:15, and I had an issue at the ramp. I loaded the boat on the trailer, but hit the roller wrong, so I backed off to try again, and when I did that...for some reason the power steering went out on the Big V, and it was hard to steer it. It took all of my strength to turn the motor, but I was able to get it back on the trailer and hooked up this time.

I called Dubbert's as soon as we stopped at Port Clinton Fish, Co. to have the fish cleaned, and explained what happened, and that I didn't have a trip scheduled until Saturday, and asked if they could take a look at it for me. They said they could, and that I should bring it in first thing in the morning. Whew! That's a load off my chest! I didn't want to have to drive it two hours to the other Fisherman's Central store, where they have a service dept. (The store here in PC doesn't have a service dept). So, all's well that ends well...I'm hoping it was just a fuse. A fuse that I don't know where it resides, or something else that's not too hard to fix. Fingers crossed!

My next crew are locals, so looking at Friday's forecast, calling for gusty winds and some rain, we rescheduled for Saturday instead.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls

[Lynn M]

Hey Juls, great to see your detailed and interesting posts again! Glad you were able to get on the fish for your guys. I've only been out to Erie once this Spring and posted it on the "Early Season" post. It seem like we just haven't had many days that the weather has been good enough for me to make the 3 hour trip.
Hope the motor issue is a quick, easy and inexpensive fix. I guess if something is going to go bad on a trip, you couldn't ask for better timing.