Fishing with Eric and Rob 7/3/18

My crew was staying at a motel near my house, so they agreed to drive here to meet me at 4:30 this morning.  We loaded in the Excursion and headed to the gas station to gas up the boat, and grab some ice for the coolers.

We drove into the Catawba launch a little after 5am... it was still dark. After I readied the boat and the equipment, we launched around 5:20. We had to use the navigation lights, because the sky was just starting to lighten up, but it wasn't light enough to go without them.

It was a warm muggy morning. The sky was clear, and the wind was light out of the east, when we left the launch and headed NNW at a nice cruising speed of 30 mph.  It's nice that early in the morning, before the crowds of boats hit the lake, and you can greet the sun as it makes its daily appearance with such "flare". It's a special feeling to witness that, that can't be explained in words, so I won't even try. ;)

I turned the Helix's sonar chart speed up to 10 and watched for pods of fish that we could set up on.  (By the way, it appears there are a lot of perch around D Can and Niagara Reef right now, so if you're looking for perch you might want to check those areas out. I can't wait for the perch trips to start..I could use a little variety right about now)...anyway....as we continued on, the Helix lit up with good walleye marks, so we set up on them.

I fired up the "baby-ETEC" so it could push us, while the Ulterra guided us on a westerly course. That put the waves behind us, so the ride was much smoother.  It was a little bumpy out there with 1-2's to start, but not too bad at all...and, then, 1-3's as the sun came up and the wind picked up a little bit.

Since there were only three of us, we could only run 6 lines, so I chose to run two #11 Flicker Minnows on each side, and a #40 Tru-Trip Jet Diver with a spoon off each corner.  The cranks were run at 55, 65, 75, and 95 back, and the spoons were run anywhere from 35 to 50 back, at a speed of 2.2-2.4mph.

At one point, I moved three Flicker's to the starboard side and ran those behind the Off Shore boards. I removed one Flicker and replaced it with a dipsy diver/spoon on the port side along with the one Jet from that side too. The other Jet was still working the other corner. So, 4 baits ran off one side and 2 baits ran off the other side.  The dipsy took two or three fish, but I'm not happy with the new dipsy rods I bought the other day after my old dipsy rod broke about 6 inches off the tip.

The old Dipsy rods were the 8'3" Browning SilaFlex rods, and the tip was super easy to read when a smaller fish was on.  With these new Shimano Telora 8' rods, the tips are too stiff. Which means, I can drag a small walleye around for a long time without noticing any change in the rod action.  Me no likey....I must find better rods for that. 

Anyway.....after the crew caught their limit of walleye I said, "We can catch 6 more", and asked them, "Do you want to stay here and get done fast? Or, do you want to go try another area to see what's happening there?"  I wanted to check out an area closer to Catawba, since the winds on Friday might be "iffy", and I wanted something closer to home, if we do get out there.  They both agreed they thought it was a good idea to go look for more fish someplace else.  So, we moved. :)

Again, I put my trust in the Helix to show me where the walleye are, and it didn't disappoint!  Earlier that morning, I showed my guys what I was looking at on the screen, and then showed them the "Precision Trolling Data" app that we all use, and how it works. Then, we set the baits just above the fish marks we were seeing on the screen, and soon, we started catching.  (That's exactly how it's supposed to work...but, there ARE  those days where it seems that nothing you do is right, and nothing you do is going to put a walleye in the cooler. (Deep sigh) I hate those days....lol  And, if anyone tells you they NEVER have a tough day on the lake...don't trust them! Ha!

Luckily though, today everything went as planned....woot! woot! Eric and Rob said they would like to book with me again, so that made me happy! :)

I'm off for the 4th of July, and my July 5th customer just sent a message cancelling on Thursday, due to a work conflict...and, Friday's winds are being watched right now. So, I'll either be out Friday, or Saturday...it all depends on Momma Nature's mood. ;)

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls