Fishing Two-Days with Mick, Mark, and Jeff...5/27 & 29, 2026

[Capt Juls]

Since this is a two-day report in one, I'll keep the story short for both and it will still be long enough. Ha!

Day 1:
Picked the guys up at the Whitecaps Motel at 5am, stopped to get ice, and then headed to Mazurik's to launch. We were headed north of Kelly's, up to the line, at 5:45. When we got up there, the Garmin wasn't marking very much, so I decided to try the north side of North Bass Island. The Garmin was marking a few more fish than before, so I stopped over 34' of water.

Down went the Ulterra, and the baby Merc was started. The troll would be from east to west on the outside of West Reef, but south of the Canadian line at 2.3-2.5mph on the FishHawk.

Since we had 4 people on the boat, we could run 12 lines. 4 Off Shore boards ran on each side with Bandits in tow. Two dipsies ran off each corner in back, too.

The dipsies ran a "Worm-Burner" and a spoon on each side. The inside rods ran on the zero settings, and the outside rods ran the three settings.
The zero settings started at 25 and 27 back, and the three settings ran at 37 and 50 back.
BadMo Arrow spoons, Yeck Y11 spoons, and Worm-Burners all caught fish.

Bandit colors were:
Psycho Killer (Slim Shady Custom)
Green Lantern (Slim Shady Custom)
Blue Shiner (stock color)
Fruit Dots (stock)
Khaki (stock)
IB Infected (DJ Custom Eye Lures)
Pooh Bear (Domka Outdoors)
Buck Fever (Domka Outdoors)

Bandits were running anywhere from 117 to 57 back.

After passing the NW side of the reef, I saw the water getting dirtier, we turned and went from west to east over the same fish, but they didn't really like that direction, and we only caught two or three going that way. As the sun got higher the bite slowed down for us, so we decided to move down towards Kelly's. At that time we had two of their three limits in the cooler.

I decided to try going shallower in North Bay to see if there were any hiding up in there, like they are know to do from time to time. There were a lot of boats 1/2-1 mile off the outside of North Bay, but no one was in there, so we slid in and set up over 21' of water. We started on the west side of the bay, and worked our way around to the east side of it. We didn't catch any until we got to the east side of it...near those two humps just inside the bay. We now had 14 fish and needed two more in the next 45 minutes, before we ran out of time.

We trolled out of the bay and to the east...through the cut between the island and the shoal, and caught a few more in the cut. We needed one more fish to finish out their limit....had it on, and lost it at the back of the boat, so they only had 17.
We had thrown several shorts back and one that was 15 inches. I don't keep them unless they are 15 1/2", and only if the customer wants to keep it. (15 1/2" because they shrink when they get on ice, and I don't want one shrinking under 15 inches from the cold...that would cost ME a ticket!

They said they enjoyed the morning, learned a lot, and had a great time, and that makes me happy!

That night, the forecast was showing much stronger winds from the north for the next morning, and calm winds for Friday (today), so after discussing it with my guys, they decided to fish Friday instead of the next day.

Of course, it wasn't the same forecast when I got up the next morning, and we could have fished, but they had made plans for the day, and were still good with going the next day.

That brings us to this morning....Day 2:

Initially, my plan was to drive over to Lorain (55 minutes from my house), and launch at Hot Waters, but that changed. I was given good reports from the island area, and decided to nix the two hour round trip that would go through miles of construction on RT 2, and stay closer to home. My guys were good with that decision.

Mick didn't make the trip this morning, due to feeling sick, and stayed back, while Mark and Jeff headed to the truck. Same routine...hit the gas station for ice, and then head to the launch. This time, we used Catawba. At 5:30 we were on our way north to the west side of the islands.

As we approached the west side of Green the Garmin screen was showing a decent amount of fish over 31' of water, so we set up there.
This time, we could only run 9 lines, so I only set up 8, to keep it simple. Two Off Shore boards on each side and two dipsies on each side.

Dipsies: zero setting at 27 and 30 back
Three settings at 50 and 60 back

Slim Shady's "Psycho Killer" Bandit took the first three at 80 back on the port side, so I put another one out on the starboard side at 80 back, too, but it didn't pull any....so weird.

Other colors that eventually worked were:
SunSpot at 50/45 w/2oz (stock)
Blue Shiner (stock) 107 back
Marvin (Domka, I think?) 97 back
And a "Slick Purple Bengel" Flicker Minnow 11 at 95 back

We worked from Green to the east side of Rattlesnake...the north side of Rattle to West Reef, and then back down in front of the west side of the islands....back to Green. We marked fish, but they weren't that interested and most that did hit were not aggressively hitting, and were barely hooked.

We only ended with their two limits today, and I was kicking myself for not going all the way to Lorain this morning. But, I really had higher expectations for the area we fished this morning. Oh well....another wrong decision to put in the books. The road construction was my biggest deterrent in that travel plan.

We worked hard for them this morning (changed a lot of bait colors), and it was a grind to get the 12 we did (plus 4 throwbacks that went back). The day ended with a big sheephead that took both of them reeling it in. Jeff handed it off to Mark, who eventually got it in.
While they fought its roley-poley body in, I started pulling the dipsies, because it was time to head in, and that way I could cut the baby Merc off, and slow the boat down, so they could get it in the boat easier.

They both said they had a good time, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. There were no bugs out there today, either...yay!

I just received a text from Mick, who stayed on shore today, stating he was feeling much better...thanked me for everything and said, "See you next year", and that makes me happy!

I'm off the next two days, an will be back at it on Monday with Steve Jeziorski and his friends. Right now, the forecast for Monday looks really nice. Fingers crossed!

Stay tuned...

Capt Juls