Fishing with Jim, Mike Sr., and Mike Jr 3/17/18
by Capt Juls on 03/17/18
Fishing with Jim, Mike Sr, and Mike Jr 3/17/18
First, let me apologize for no pictures....uffda! Still getting the winter cobwebs out of my brain. :(
My crew met me at my house at 8:30, and we drove over to Mazurik's, together, to launch by 9am. It was a frosty morning, with "dew ice" covering the Ranger and her ETECs, but there was no wind, so that was really really nice for a change.
As we readied the boat, Capt Chuck Oeder showed up in line behind us. He offered to "dump us", and park the truck. I took him up on that offer so we all loaded in the boat and launched. We sat out front until the motor temp reached 124 degrees, to help prevent any motor issues by running it at such a cold temp (It was only 25 degrees this morning).
The new 300 G2 purred as we rode across the glass-like lake, towards the north side of Kelly's. Once we traveled out of the muddy water, we found a ton of marks, and perfect mixing water, where I thought we should start.
We would spend the next 4 hours picking a fish here, picking a fish there, watching a board sink back only to come back up into marching formation again, or reeling it in and feeling the fish come off.
We had 12 hookups, brought 6 to the boat, but had to throw two of those back, because they were just hitting the 15" mark. We didn't want to take a chance of it shrinking before we got in. You just never know when the ODNR will be waiting at the launch to check your fish. The ones that did make it to the cooler were small fish...16-22 inches.
I kept hoping the sun would come out and make those deep fish more active, and bring them up higher in the water column, but it was taking its old sweet time.
We ran Perfect 10's with 1oz and 2oz snap weights, at 30/30, and Bandits with 2oz snap weights anywhere from 20/20 to 20/80. The Lemon Lime Crush/orange belly Perfect 10 was hot, as was the new IB Twisted from DJ's Custom Eye Lures.
Speed was anywhere from 1.0 to 1.7mph. We caught one when I had it up to 1.7mph, so I guess slow or fast...you can catch fish. ;)
We lost a lot of fish at 1.0mph, and the ones that were hooked were just barely hooked, so the fish were definitely not in an aggressive mood in that spot for slow baits.
After 4 hours we got word of another decent bite, in a spot that was not mine to give, so I'm biting my lip not to give out that information. I like to keep my friends so I won't divulge their info. That's up to them to give out. I hope you understand. We ran 12 miles and set down. I didn't mark one fish on the Helix, so I was disappointed in moving from those other fish. I know, I know...."You don't leave fish to find fish"....but, when my fish are not being aggressive, and you tell me you just landed a triple....I'm picking up and leaving those lazy souls down in the deeper depths.
Their main focus of this trip was to learn how to run the Off Shore inline boards.They did that, and they caught a few fish for a fish fry. All in all, it was a good day. It wasn't too cold, and it wasn't so freak'n windy for a change. The company was great, and we all appreciated being out on the water, on such a nice day. The music played, and we munched on brownies, beef jerky, and peanut butter cookies in between jumping for a rod. lol
It was a good learning trip, and they did a fantastic job of setting the lines and bringing them back in. I have no doubt in my mind, that they will be able to take what they learned today and apply it to their boat with successful results.
It was a fun trip, and I'm grateful for a good time on the water, even if the little beasties didn't want to play aggressively today. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer, with full sunshine all day, and temps in the mid 50's.
I haven't decided if I'm going out of Catawba or Mazurik's tomorrow yet. I guess I'll know in the morning. :)
Water temps were 34-35 degrees in the spots I was in today.
Stay tuned....
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