Fishing with the Chapman's 6/9/15

[Capt Juls]

It was a fiasco of a morning yesterday, and our 9am start ended up starting at 12:30pm instead....I screwed up...again (deep sigh). Let me explain.

My normal routine when I get home from a fishing trip is, to back the boat in under the carport, get out of the truck and immediately plug in the boat's charger. Well, last Sunday, I got out of the truck and went to inspect a stream of water bubbling up from the end of my driveway. There was a water main break...again. This is the third one in about 5 years. So, with my arms full of smelly fish/boat towels, and the dogs barking inside the house, because they were glad I was home, I went directly in the house first, and forgot to plug my charger in. And, I never thought of it again until I went to check it yesterday morning before my trip, and realized my mistake. Arrrrrggghhh!

I had an hour and a half before I had to meet them at Mazurik's, so I plugged it in and waited to see what level the batteries were at. I guess I was hoping it would show a better charge than it did, because Sunday's trip was only a short 4 hour excursion. Nope! They stayed at 25% for a long time...ugh. So, I called my crew, who were driving up from Columbus, and told them what happened. I asked them to meet me at my house, and we would go have breakfast, go pick up Jeremy's fish he had at "Mike's Taxidermy", and then go get their licenses. I had hoped the batteries would be charged enough by then to have the Ulterra to use for the day.

I still had a lot of time before they showed up, so I left with the dogs to take them for a morning walk, and to pick up some ice for the fish cooler. When I got back my driveway was full of men, equipment, and trucks ready to fix that water main break. They had my boat blocked in! I told them I needed to get it out from under the carport before they started work. They moved all their stuff and I pulled it out and re-positioned it, so I could get it plugged in again. They were very accommodating. This was a big job, because they had the road crew out there doing the stop and go traffic around my driveway.

Fast forward....Steve and Jeremy showed up and picked me up from my neighbor's driveway. We went and did everything I stated above, and came back to my house. While we were at breakfast, a friend who was out in the morning called me to say, "You should reschedule it's solid 4's out here with some 5's". I said, "I can't! I have already rescheduled these two twice now, due to weather, and it's supposed to lay down this afternoon". He said, "Well, it just took us 45 minutes to go from the SW corner of Kellys to Mazurik's". I thanked him for his report and told my guys what he said. I told them that we should hold off on our start time until Noon, because iwindsurf was showing it laying down around that time. And, because it was a WSW wind, it would lay down much faster than if it were out of the opposite direction. They agreed, because they were determined to go fishing.

I checked the batteries again, and found they were fully charged! Woot! Woot! Hooray!

We hit Mazurik's at Noon and were headed up to the west side of Gull to fish. We started up closer to the line, and headed southeast along the edge of the shoal, and picked up 4 small walleye right away. Whew! There would be no "skunk" in the boat today!

We made that pass and then turned around to go back up that line again. We didn't pick up any walleye going that direction, but we did get some sheep, cats, and whites. At that point, I decided to pick up and go over to Lucy's Point to see if there were fish over there.

The lake had laid down nicely by now and it was a very enjoyable afternoon on the lake. We set down just south of Lucy's and I went to deploy the Ulterra...."No Motor Found"...huh? What? But, I had a full charge! Or, so I thought. I told them I had to do it "Old School" and run the kicker from the back. So, since Steve was pretty much restricted to his seat, due to a hip surgery that put 6 very large screws in his bones, it was going to be up to Jeremy to man the boards. I didn't have my "Captain" to steer the boat anymore and had to do it manually....ugh...who ever said, "I miss the good old days" doesn't remember how restricting sitting on a tiller can be! Ha!

Well, we did manage to pick up 8 more walleye in a pass from Lucy's back over to the southern end of Gull Island Shoal, so we did manage to fish the old school way. Jeremy did a heck of a job following my instructions when it came to reeling in fish and setting lines on his own. I would just get off the motor long enough to net the fish for him.

Our program was crawler harnesses, of course. But, unlike the program last month, the distance back was a little further out. We ran the 1oz inlines back 41-59 and the #2 Tadpoles 43-50 back (and, any number in between). We had a 4oz bottom bouncer out too, and that caught 3 nice walleye for us. Our speed was 1.5mph.

It was a long day, but it was a fun day. Steve and Jeremy are two of my regulars and do 4-5 trips per season, so we are all very comfortable with each other in the boat. It's more like fishing with my best buds than with customers....meaning I get to swear like a sailor if I feel like it, and so do they.

Oh! Before I forget....when I went to unplug the Ulterra for the day, I noticed that the plug had partially come out, and THAT is why it read "Motor Not Found"! It wasn't because the batteries were dead. OMG! I did it "old school" when I didn't have to, because I didn't check the obvious first. Lesson learned.

I have today off, but I'm back to a full schedule starting tomorrow and barring any bad weather, so....

Stay tuned!

Capt Juls