Fishing with the Rupp Brothers 5/9 & 5/10/15

[Capt Juls]

I fished the past two days with Don and Bob Rupp. Don flew in from California, and met his brother in Illinois, where they drove down together. I was initially concerned with the weather forecast, and had let them know before coming over here, that there might be a chance that we wouldn't get out due to storms. But, Don informed me that they were coming anyway, because he couldn't get a refund on his plane tickets. So, we planned for the worst, and hoped for the best, and as it turned out, the weather was perfect both days on the water.

Yesterday, the plan was to start out at G Can, because if there was going to be any pop up thunderstorms, we would be able to get off the water quickly. Most of the big charter boats were in there too, and it was getting too crowded for my liking. I checked the radar and found that it was going to be clear of any inclement weather for the time that we were on the water, so I asked them if they wanted to stay and fish for more small eaters, or go look for some big fish. Don replied, "Let's go for big fish", and Bob concurred. So, we pulled lines and headed up to the islands.


We set in at my one of my favorite spots up there on the west side of middle bass, and north of Put In Bay. We didn't go far before pulling another nice eater, which made me happy to see they were biting there. Then, it wasn't long before Don would catch his biggest walleye to date, which was a nice 28 1/2 inch eye. I thought the bite was going to be really good up there yesterday, but those two fish would be the last of them in that area. We trolled the area from Rattle Snake to Middle Bass, and South Bass hard, but only caught a sheephead and a couple white bass making our tally for the entire day only 4 fish....deep sigh. Grrrrr.

They enjoyed the weather and each other's company and were happy even though the fishing was tough. Both of them were very tired from their night out on the town the night before, so they were ready to go take a nap.
I dropped them off at their hotel and bid them goodnight. I would see them in the morning at 5:30.

Day Two:
I picked them up at the designated time and we hit Rickard's for some ice on the way to Catawba. We talked about how lucky they have been with the weather, and that it had rained over night, but the day looked like it was going to be a nice day again. It was.

We started out at G Can again, to try and get some eaters in the boat, before going looking for big fish again. We put two fish in the livewell there, and then headed to Niagra when the G Can area started getting crowded with big charter boats again.
We made one pass in the area just east of Niagra and put two more fish in the boat. I wasn't marking fish like I wanted, so we moved over to North Bass. We set lines, but I didn't like the clarity of the water up there....it was too clean. We also weren't marking any fish, so I said, "It's Monday, let's go back to Middle Bass, because we should have the place to ourselves today". But, that wasn't the case. As we got closer, we could see there were at least a dozen boats making the pass that I like to make, so I said, "We're not staying here...let's go. I have one more spot to look at".

I wanted to check the water at Starve Island, and it was indeed to my liking. Not too clean, and not very dirty...just right. Now, all I had to do was watch the Onyx to mark some fish. Low and behold...we marked some fish, so we set lines using the same exact program we've been running for the past week.
It wasn't long before one of them saw the first board tick back, but we weren't sure if there was a fish on it or not, because it didn't seem to be doing anything. As it turns out, that fish was swimming with the bait, so the board didn't go back.
Once he started to reel it in though, we could tell it was a big walleye. Then, another board went back and we now had two nice big walleye in the boat. Woot! Woot!
Uh Oh...another board just went back! Three big fish now. We trolled a little further and got another one. They were having a great time! As we made a turn to go back over them, we caught the 5th big fish in that spot bringing today's tally up to 9, and they couldn't have been happier. The fish at Starve were all 26-28 inches. Much nicer than the 20-24 inch fish at G Can.

We didn't get any going against the current, so I kept them out a little longer to make one more pass with the current, to try and get them their last three fish. It didn't happen, but it was a good effort on their part.

The water temp there was 59.7 degrees and we were fishing the contours from 35-41 foot of water, with the baits in the top 20 feet of the water column.

1oz inlines were 31 & 41 back and the number 2 Tadpoles were set at 25 & 27 back. Copper and Antifreeze undersides were the blades that were working best for us.

I was so proud of them. By mid morning, they were setting lines quickly, like they have been doing it for a long time. I rewarded them with some Off Shore Tackle hats I had in my truck, and said, "Congratulations, you have now officially graduated from "Board School"...here's your hat".

After loading out, I dropped them off at their hotel, and said our goodbyes. They talked about booking their trip again next spring, so that made me very happy.

Tomorrow's trip has been rescheduled, due to the wind forecast of 25-35 out of the southwest. Wednesday's trip has also been rescheduled, due to an unforeseen circumstance of my customer's. So, I won't be back on the water until Thursday.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls