Fishing Day 1 with John and Janet...7/29/2024
by Capt Juls on 07/29/24John and Janet, drove in from Missouri yesterday, and made it to Port Clinton around 3:30pm. John called, and said he had some Bison (a roast and some strip steaks), and some homemade salsa for me, and asked if I would come and pick it up, since the little fridge in their room only had a tiny freezer in it. "I'll be right over", I said. Heck yeah, I want that! lol Yum!
It gave me a chance to meet them, before our three day trip started, and I knew then, that we would have a good time. They are really nice people. :)
John, who is an avid outdoorsman, and fishes and hunts all over the world, had never perch fished before....so, I didn't want to disappoint, and felt the pressure to get on some. Having not been perch'n a lot, yet, I was a bit nervous, since I had reports saying some did very well, while many others did not. I didn't want to be one of the "did nots", this morning.
We launched out of Mazurik's at 5:45, and headed towards Green Island. I checked the red buoy on the south side of Starve Island first, because that rock pile can sometimes hold a good school of perch...but, they weren't there, this morning. So, we kept going until we got to the west side of the Ferry lane, then slowed down to get better sonar readings.
When we hit 29 feet of water, the Helix started marking fish on the bottom, so I put the Terrova in the water, but I wasn't ready to stop yet. I just wanted it down, so when I did find the right fish, I could stop the boat with the big motor, and hit Spot-Loc on top of them. We found better marks in 28 feet of water, and "anchored up".
After a quick explanation of how to work the crappie rigs, and bait the hooks with minnows, John and Janet got to work. "A dollar for the first yellow?", I asked, and John said, "I'm in"....so was Janet. Luckily, John caught the first White Perch, but I caught the first yellow...woot! woot!
The crappie rigs are some that I make myself, and the Emerald Shiners came from Hi Way Bait. They are small, but big enough. I used some that were frozen in Wintergreen Rubbing Alcohol, and they used the fresh ones. Both caught fish.
It wasn't a fast bite, but it wasn't super slow either. As Janet would comment on the ride home, "The bite was fast enough to keep a person interested". I didn't want to go looking for other fish, and potentially lose a good spot, if the bite got better, so we never moved.
We ended up with 48 of our 90 fish limit, but both of them were more than happy with that count...especially, John, because he was planning on cleaning them all himself. "That's going to take me a couple hours", he said. I smiled, and shook my head in agreement.
Our time was running out, when some heavy rain was approaching from the SSW, so we headed in. Just as we got back to the dock, the heavy clouds dumped buckets of water down on us...that was fun...(smirk with an eye-roll inserted here).
They mentioned more than once, how much fun they had, so mission accomplished! I had a good time fishing with them, too...and, am looking forward to the next two days fishing for walleye.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
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