Fishing with Mike, Gary, and Lee Christianson 4-22/23-18

Yesterday, (4/22), was a one fish day....ugh.  We caught that fish before the lines were all set on the first pass near F can...then, nothing.  So, we moved north to Middle Bass, where I had been the day before to see if it cleaned up more. While it was a tiny bit cleaner, it wasn't holding the marks in the same areas that it did the day before. We made one half assed pass there, and decided to move north of North Bass. The water was cleaner up there, rougher with the ENE wind, and holding good marks...but, we didn't catch any...sigh.

So, a long story short, on day one....one stinking fish. But, on the bright side, I wasn't in Pooh Bear's Book of Shame, which one must be entered into if you zero for the day...woot! woot!

After discussing with the crew what they would want to do the next day, they decided on trying out some jigging in the morning, and then going trolling, so that's what we did today.

The crew met me at my house a little before 6am this morning, and we loaded up in my truck to go to Turtle Creek to launch. While I had heard you didn't need minnows to catch fish with the hair jigs, we decided it was better to have and not need, than to need and not have. So, we stopped off at Dream Catcher Bait and Tackle on the way towards Turtle to pick up a scoop of emeralds, and some ice.

We launched by 6:30 and headed out the channel. The plan was to either hit Locust or Toussaint...I chose Toussaint Reef.  We made one short pass and Gary picked up a 16 inch walleye. On the second pass...I moved up to realign our drift, and the crew got busy. Gary caught two more on that pass and Mike caught another one, giving us a total of 4 (biggest was 24 inches). 

After a third pass with nothing, (and the radio chatter that was talking about a slow jig bite), we decided to try our luck and go trolling for some bigger fish.  

 I set off for Niagara, hoping the water clarity would stay the same as it was over on the other reefs, but it wasn't. It was that stained/muddyish color that was all over most of the western basin right now.

The Helix told me the water temps by the reefs was 41.7, but over in the muddier water, it was a bit warmer at 42.3. There were good marks on the east side of the reef, but we couldn't get them to go.

We hit the North Bass Island area, and was pleasantly surprised to find cleaner water for a change.  We made a couple of passes, and managed two nice fish, with the largest going 27.5 inches. The fish have very big heads right now, and bodies that don't match...making them very odd looking.  They are a bit on the skinny side right now, but that will soon change as they put the feed bag on after this spawn.

Both of those fish were caught on DJ's Custom "IB Frozen" colors at 90 back (no weight) and 20/40 with a 2oz "Guppie" Snap Weight. Speed was 1.8mph.

My guys were scheduled to fish tomorrow, but with the slow bite, a continuing east wind....and, some rain in the forecast, they opted to head home a day early. I'm happy to have the day off to catch up on some grocery shopping, house cleaning, and serving the almighty Dexter (the dog) and his sister, Jill though. They miss me. :)

So, if the weather cooperates, I'll be out the rest of the week after tomorrow.

Stay tuned...

Capt Juls