Fishing with Mike, Kathy, and Mariane...8/12/2026

[Capt Juls]

Short report today, due to time and stuff to do...

Picked up Mike, Kathy, and their granddaughter, Mariane, from the Whitecaps Motel at 5:30.

The morning start was a fiasco as we tried to find some live minnows....any minnows.The first stop was Hi-Way Bait, but they were out completely. Then, I backtracked to PC Party Mart, and he gave me the last 4 scoops of Goldies that he had (1/3 of them were dead). So, I made one last stop at Bay's Edge, and she gave me the last 1 1/2 scoops of tiny Sand Shiners that she had. I wasn't feeling very positive about was in the bucket.

I had frozen ones with me that I froze yesterday, after running around for 3 hours looking for some to freeze. All I could find were Sand Shiners, but that's okay, because they work, too. I figured we would make do with what live ones we had and the frozen ones, too. So, we headed to Mazurik's to launch.

As I was getting the boat ready, I realized that I hadn't picked up any ice for the coolers, and we would need to run back to Hi-Way Bait to get some. After securing the boat back on the trailer, off we went.

As I walked through their door, Dwight said, "We've got minnows...he just showed up a few minutes ago". I said, "It's a good thing I forgot to get ice, or I wouldn't have come back this morning". I dumped the pathetic survivors of the morning's search, and had Dwight put some fresh clean water in my bucket along with 5 scoops of nice-sized lively shiners. It was a mix of Emeralds and Sand Shiners, so I was very happy with that.

We made it back to Mazurik's and launched by 7am. I headed to the lighthouse first, and found some there. Not many, but the marks were good. I think they were just not ready to bite yet. We gave them the normal 1/2 hour, and then headed towards Green Island to try over there. On our way, the Garmin picked up on some decent marks just east of Mouse Island, so I stopped to give it a try to see what they were. They were mostly White Perch, so we left and went to a spot south of Green over 29.4' of water.

As usual, there were a lot more little perch biting, and we threw so many back....If they make it for another couple of years, the perch fishing will be pretty darn good!

My crew was a lot of fun to fish with, and very interesting people. Mike and Kathy live in a cabin in the woods, and are homesteaders to an extent, and Mariane is an accomplished golfer, going to college in Florida. She got a full-ride scholarship for her golfing achievements, too. I asked her what her best score is, and she said a "68 from the men's tees". Wow! That's really good! lol
She's majoring in accounting.

They had a good time, and so did I. Mike said he wants to go again, but maybe for walleye next time, and that makes me happy!

I have perch trips for the next three days, so hopefully, tomorrow's trip is more successful in putting more perch through the "Catch-Counter".

Stay tuned...

Capt Juls