First Day Back on the Water! Woot! Woot!

I didn't have a scheduled trip, but I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather and get the new Ranger out for a shakedown run, and try to see if I still knew how to catch some walleye for my trips coming up this weekend. ;)

I asked a young couple to go with me, so I could run more lines. Mark works in the produce dept of the local Kroger store, and his girlfriend Cassie works at "Waldo Peppers", a local restaurant with some pretty good food. Mark had run into me at the last place I did a seminar and mentioned that he had never trolled before...he was a "caster".  I had remembered when I talked to him at the store, that he mentioned that he had Tuesdays off, so I sent a text to see if he wanted to go...and, he did.

It was a fun morning west of Catawba. The wind was light out of the west to start, and died down as the day went on. It was switching though...at around 2pm it was coming out of the east for  a short time...then, it died again, and switched to the SW.  

 It was chilly early on, but when the wind died and the sun was out...it got warm. Then, if the sun disappeared, it felt about 5-10 degrees colder. I didn't know whether to put my warm hat on or take it off...it was a decision made several times today. lol

We ran P-10's  with 1 oz snapweights 25/25 and 30/30 at 1.0 to 1.2 mph to start... we caught 5 fish on those. In the afternoon, we switched to Bandits at 1.2-1.4mph with no weight at 75, 85, and 90 back. We caught 9 more with the Bandits, in much less time than it took to get the first 5 with the P-10's. We fished 25' of water with the p-10s and 22' of water with the Bandits....wink wink. ;)

The Helix wasn't marking a lot of fish at the Cans either. We would see a pod of fish, get a little excited and then... nothing. Then, see another small pod, cross our fingers, and then...nothing. Deep sigh.

I didn't make any runs to other areas, since I was just making sure everything was working as it should, and teaching my crew how to run the Off Shore inline Planers.  It was more about revitalizing my soul today than putting fish in the boat. And, today was a good day for that.  Of course, it's always better in flip flops...but, we're not there yet. 

Thursday, I'll be fishing with my regulars, Steve and Jeremy Chapman. They're always game for an adventure, so I'll be exploring a different area than today. ;)

Stay tuned...

Capt Juls