Juls WFA Blog
Fishing with Steve and Jeremy Chapman 5/15/17
by Capt Juls on 05/15/17Steve and Jeremy usually drive up from Columbus, but when I told them how early they needed to meet me at my house, they opted to drive up the night before and stay in Port Clinton for the night.
They showed up at my house right on time, at 5am. We loaded into the truck and headed west again.
It was the same routine as the day before, and it didn't disappoint. But, it did take a little longer to put 3 limits in the boat. Today, it took 2 hours...:)
Again, Bandits 40,45, and 51 back at 2.2-2.5mph...blue chrome, crown juls, pooh bear purple, and taco salad were the hot colors.
Tomorrow, I have Joe Jay and his friend, Skip, who stopped by earlier to make sure they knew where I lived. The plan is the same as today and yesterday, and hopefully, the fish will still be cooperative.
The fish bit very well before the sun hit the water, and then slowed down as the sun got higher in the sky. We'll see what kind of mood the fish are in tomorrow.
That full moon is getting smaller now, so hopefully, the regular feeding schedule will be back in full swing next week. Finger crossed...:)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Randy and Kenny 5/14/17
by Capt Juls on 05/15/17Randy and Kenny were standing outside their hotel when I drove up at 4:30am to pick them up. We headed to Catawba to launch, but when we got there, I could hear the waves from the lake, in the dark. So, I took a walk down to the pier to get a better look at how rough it was. It was rolling in at 2 foot or less, but I figured it would be a better idea to drive over to Turtle Creek to launch instead of riding all the way across in the dark on a kind of rough lake.
So, we packed into the truck once again and headed west. We launchd at Turtle Creek at 5:25, and were setting lines at 5:45am. The boards were still a little hard to see that early, but we could just make them out enough to see if they had a fish on or not.
The catching started right away, and we could never get all 6 lines out, because the fish just kept coming. We caught our limits in just an hour. Everything was on Bandits 40 & 45 back at 2.3-2.4mph. Blue Chrome, Crown Juls, Pooh Bear Purple, and Taco Salad were the colors that were hot. We targeted 13-14' of water and made only 1 and a half passes.
It was a quick morning, and the brothers were happy to be able to get back to Indianapolis for Mother's Day, so I was able to get a lot done around the house and yard. :)
I'll be with Jeremy and Steve Chapman tomorrow, and plan the same game plan.
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing with Randy and Kenny 5/13/17
by Capt Juls on 05/13/17I left my house at 4:45 this morning. Stopped in at Rickard's Bait and Tackle for a bag of ice, and then picked my crew up a little after 5am at the Country Inn and Suites. We hit Micky D's to grab some breakfast "to go", and headed to Catawba to launch by 5:30am.
We headed out on a calm lake....(finally, those north and east winds had stopped blowing, and gave us a reprieve for a change)...set up a short distance from the launch in 19 feet of water, and pointed the bow of the boat west. We had good marks, but they weren't jumping in the boat like they did last Wednesday.
We only managed three walleye today....all on Bandits 55 back at 1.7mph.
I'll be fishing with Randy and Kenny again in the morning, and plan on an even earlier start (5am). We hope to be on a better bite tomorrow....we shall see.
Stay tuned...
Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's out there! My Mom is pretty awesome....and, I'm very fortunate that I got to be her's. :)
Capt Juls
It's an afternoon bite right now....
by Capt Juls on 05/12/17I had a trip today, but to make a long story short....we zeroed today. :(
We started out at Niagara Reef....along with just about every other boat that was on the water this morning, because the water was cleaner from the reef and north of the reef.
We trolled Bandits 40, 45, 50,55, 75, and 100 back, but didn't connect with anything toothy.
Then, we headed NE towards West Reef, and ran over some dirty water that was holding a lot of fish, and was a few degrees warmer, so we turned around and set up to make a pass over them. They, however, didn't want to come out to play either.
So, we went on to West Reef to see if we could play with some smallmouth up in the shallows, while running some Top 20's on one side, at 25, 30, and 35 back and Bandits on the other side at 30, 40, and 50 back. But, we only had one big pull back and lost it before we could get the board off. It was a big fish though...whatever it was.
I'm thinking that the afternoon bite will probably be better this afternoon, due to the bright moon we had last night, and because of the reports of a good bite yesterday afternoon.
Tomorrow, I hope to be launching a little earlier in the am, and hitting the reef complex earlier too.
Good luck to those that get out tomorrow....the mud is cleaning up nicely all over the western basin and the bite should get better and better each day.
To view the satellite picture from today, just click on the weather tab above, and click on the "Satellite Pic" button.
Happy Mother's Day to all those Moms out there too! Have a wonderful weekend!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Evan and Tim 5/10/17
by Capt Juls on 05/10/17I met Evan and Tim at Catawba this morning, for a 6:30am launch. We headed toward the reef complex after getting word of decent water clarity and a good bite over there.
We set up our Off Shore spread with Bandits 40,45,50, and 55 back and set a speed of 1.8-2.0mph going with the waves, using the "Baby ETEC" to push the boat, and the Ulterra on the bow to steer it.
The wind was out of the east today, and really wasn't blowing much at all in the early am, but as the day went on the wind speed picked up a little. The waves were mostly 2 foot or less, but there were a few 3's thrown in for good measure.
It wasn't long before the first board went back, indicating a fish on. I was hoping it wasn't a sheepshead, or white bass, but it was...it was a whitey. While that fish was still in the net, the second board went back, and Tim reeled in the first walleye.
Evan and Tim fish together a lot out of Evan's boat, back in MI. They wanted some pointers on running inline boards, and after spending the morning with them, and all the fish they reeled in.... I have no doubt that they learned enough, and now have the confidence to run more than two per side on their own boat.
They caught their 12 walleye by 9:30am, and the rest of the morning we spent working on my limit, so they could keep fishing, and learning some tricks.
They did a great job, and it was a lot of fun fishing with these two young men. Evan has May 25th reserved too, and hopefully his fiancé can make it this time. She was supposed to come today, but couldn't make it, so Tim gladly filled in. :)
Tomorrow is supposed to blow out of the ENE pretty good, early, and then calm down for a few hours. We will be launching out of Catawba at 9am, to catch those lesser winds, and breaks in the rain.
I doubt I can get back out to where I was today, so I'm going to be going up the west side of the islands in search of some clean water. I'll see what the weather man has to say about tomorrow, a little later. My plans may change completely...you never know. lol
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Monday Fishing Report....5/8/17
by Capt Juls on 05/09/17Met my guys at Mazurik's and launched at 6:15am. The conditions, was a clear sky with a 5-15mph NW wind. Waves were 1-3 feet.
After the big rain and winds we just had from Thursday through Sunday...the lake was really muddy on the south shore, so we just headed north to start out and look for cleaner water.
The last place I left fish, was up by Lucy's Point, so I headed that way first. The water began to clear up on the north side of the Monument on South Bass Island.
We set up north of Lucy's and headed in a SE direction (with the waves). We had good marks, but couldn't get anything to bite. We ran chrome Bandits all over the water column, but the word on the radio was that no one was catching.
My suspicion was that the full moon had these fish inactive, due to full bellies. With clear skies the night before, and that giant moon, the fish would have been feeding at night. The reports I received later in the afternoon told me that my suspicion was probably correct, because the bite turned on later in the afternoon.
I was supposed to fish with Gary and Mark again today, but since they brought their own Ranger here from Nebraska, I had the feeling they were just nervous about being on the big lake for the first time, and suggested they take their own boat out today instead, because the conditions were going to be nice today.
After I dropped them off at the ramp yesterday, they went and had some lunch and went back out, and did what we were doing in the morning. They ended up catching 6 walleye, a couple sheepshead, and some whitebass. :)
So, I'm off today, and will get my grass cut (if the ground is still not too wet) before it rains again on Thursday.
I'll be back out again on Wednesday, but asked my customer if we could do a later start, so we could get the late morning...early afternoon...bite.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Mother Nature.....sigh
by Capt Juls on 05/07/17Well, the strong winds are finally subsiding...It's been a long 3 days. The rivers are flooded, and dumping mud into the lake. I suspect after all this rain, that the farm lands will have a lot of phosphorus run off and cause a bad algae bloom this summer. Fingers crossed that I'm wrong. I hate fishing in pea soup.
There is clean water to the north, and to the east, so my only advice after this flooding blow, is to find the clean water with some marks in it, and start fishing.
I haven't been out since last Wednesday, and my weekend was rescheduled, so I'll be back on the water tomorrow (Monday 5/8). So, until then....I don't know anything. Sorry!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with DeAnn and Carol 5/3/17
by Capt Juls on 05/03/17Today I fished with DeAnn Herting and her friend Carol. DeAnn and her husband Bob fished with me last year on this day, but this year, they came out with their friends, Max and Carol, too.
I took the ladies, while Capt Kevin took the guys. We had a friendly little competition going between the guys and the girls, for the bragging rights that would be enjoyed on their ride home.
They had booked 4 days with Kevin, and one day with me, because I was already booked. However, today was the only day, of those four, that would allow them to get out on the water.
It was still a little windy early on this morning, so we waited to launch at 11am. They were staying in a condo close to Kevin, so they just rode with him to Mazurik's, and I met them there.
Thankfully, it was later, because it gave me a chance to get the grass cut before the next three days flood the area with another 2-4 inches of rain....ugh.
Anyway, the ladies and I started out at the stone dock on Kelly's (NW corner for those that might not know what the "stone dock" is.) The word on the radio was that it was a very tough bite and a lot of people were struggling. The water there was a little murkier than I liked, but it was still fishable. The water temp was 56.7 degrees
I told DeAnn and Carol, "Keep you expectations low, because it will be a lot more fun when we do catch a fish". They laughed, and agreed.
After one pass, a turn, and another 1/2 of a pass....we watched an Off Shore board go shooting back...."Fish On!" Woot! Woot! While Carol reeled that fish in, I looked over and the middle board on the port side was going back too. DeAnn grabbed that rod and started reeling her fish in.
Carol's fish turned out to be a big Sheepshead, and DeAnn's fish was a 5-6 pound walleye, caught on a Blue/Chrome Bandit at 100 back at 1.7-1.8mph.
We finished out that pass, and I had them reel everything in, so we could head north to Lucy's Point. The water looked cleaner to the north, and I felt our chances of catching were better in cleaner water.
The really clean water between Kelly's and Lucy's was colder than the dirtier water around it. The clean water was only 49.7 degrees, and the stained water at Lucy's was holding at 57.4 degrees.
To make a long story short, we would end up catching a total of 7 walleye in the box, 1 throw back, 1 that got off, a Sheep, and 3 white bass. All fish were caught on the Blue/Chrome Bandit at 100 back.
We started out with 6 different colors on, but by the third fish we switched out 5 baits, so I could run all Blue Chromes, and leave the 6th one to experiment with.
The ladies won the bragging rights for the day, so they were pretty happy....and, that made me happy. :)
My trips for the next two days are rescheduled to next April, and my Saturday trip is still watching the forecast for one more day, before making any decision on that trip.
So, until Mother Nature gets over this hissy fit she's throwing right now, we'll just have to be patient. We'll have to just wait for some nice warm stable weather.
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Day 1 & 2 With My Montana Men....4/24-25/17
by Capt Juls on 04/25/17Craig Anderson and Scott Duke fished with me last year on this same week. The weather was better last year, and the fishing was much better too. With that said, here's a re-cap from yesterday and today's trips with these two fun guys.
They came out with their friends Jeff and Brian, who are fishing with Capt Dan Woodward for the week.
Day one started with strong NE winds... waves were 1-3's in the south passage in the morning, and even less up in the triangle between the Bass Islands. So, I thought it would be a good idea to take them up there while the winds were still on the lower side. (Winds were expected to increase all morning...and, they did).
Long story short...we did squat up there, and the winds were building, so I thought it would be a good idea to get back to the protected side of Catawba while the getting was good. The waves were 3-5's at 11am when we went through it, so the timing was good.
The water was muddy as we passed the west side Catawba Point, so I just kept going SW until I found some cleaner water, and we set up there. We were trolling Bandits over 17' of water at 25, 35, 40, 45, 50, and 55 back at 1.6mph. The first board to go back caught a nice smallmouth. It wasn't what we were targeting, but after watching the boards do nothing all morning, it was nice to see a board finally go back. Ha!
Then, the next board to go back was a foul hooked white bass.....sigh. It was not going the way I planned. Then, I heard Rick Lacourse's voice in my head say, "They're surfing today". So, I grabbed a rod, and reeled in the board, and reset it at a mere 15' back. As soon as I sat back down, and looked over, that board was being pulled back... hard. "Fish On!"
Scott reeled in a nice 28 inch walleye. She was already spawned out...(water temps are mid 50's now). That one was caught on a Domka Outdoors custom color called Huff Daddy Chrome. With only an hour and a half left to fish, we reset all the baits higher in the water column and ended up catching 4 nice walleye in three passes. It was way too rough to turn and troll back up, so we picked up and ran back up, to reset each time.
There were a couple of boats that came in behind me, so I got on the radio, in case they were monitoring channel 79 and let them know the fish were "surfing", and gave them the distance back. A friend of mine, who happened to be one of those boats, texted me to thank me for the radio info, because he ended up taking two in the one pass he made through there too....woot! woot!. :)
Day 2:
We launchd at 6:30 this morning out of Catawba, and headed straight back to the spot where we caught them the day before, but the water was dirtier than the day before, so I was less enthusiastic about our chances again. There were less waves this morning, so we only set two lines up as high as the day before, and lowered the other 4 baits in the water column.
Our first one was another nice 28 incher, and was caught on a Green Clown Bandit at 21 back. We only made one pass there this morning, because we were talking with Gary Zart on the radio, who also happened to be catching them at 20 foot back, in a spot not too far from us. So, since the water was dirty where we were, we decided to move over by them and try out luck.
We were trolling over 23' of water and the marks on the Helix were incredible. During our first pass, from and east to west troll, we had a double on, but only one would turn out to be a walleye (27"), and the other was a foul hooked white bass (I've concluded, with so many foul hooked whites that they are a "stupid fish"). :)
That one came on another Green Clown Bandit at 20 back. Then, nothing for the next hour.
So, I decided to go check out the E and D can areas. I marked a few fish, but nothing like we would normally see this time of year. The lack of bait balls on the screen and tons of marks we usually would have has me scratching my head at this point. But, I digress.
Anyway, we made a short pass from D towards Niagara, but it was brutally slow. So we headed to the area between Crib Reef and Toussaint Reef and pointed the bow towards K can.....nothing. I know, I know....had I gone all the way to K can we would have caught small fish there. But, we're after big fish.
So, with an hour and a half left...we headed back to our first spot and ended up catching a healthy 29 inch walleye on a "Taco Salad" Bandit at 25 back.
That would be it for the day, and we headed in.
Sorry to make this a quick ending, but I just looked at the clock and I'm going to be late for a delicious dinner they are making me tonight. Chicken Cordon Blue with a Pistachio / Green Olive pesto Pasta, and roasted asparagus ....MmmmmmMmmmmmGood! Thanks Chef Craig!
Tomorrow will be day three of five, and I think we'll launch out of Mazurik's and hit some new water and scenery. I'll talk to Capt Dan tonight at dinner. :)
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
Fishing with Vito and Friend...4/23/17
by Capt Juls on 04/23/17I hit Big Bopper's at 5:30 this morning, and then hit Hiway Bait for some crawlers, in case I needed to try them today. Water temps are getting up to the mid 50's now, so crawlers might be the ticket soon.
I drove down to Catawba at 6am, and was a 1/2 hour early to meet my crew. It gave me the time to get the rods all set up, and go over the boat, before they showed up.
They showed up right on time, and we launched at 6:30am....right before the sun came up. It was beautiful morning....finally!
Mother Nature threw us a reprieve today, and the wave forecast for 1-3's was only 6" or less all day long. Whew!
I wanted to check out Scott Point Shoal first thing, since it was right around the corner. We marked a ton of fish, but only made one pass there. I had a feeling they were mostly sheepshead, when we had a board go racing back, only to find a "Fish-O" Sheep on the end of the line. However, we did catch one small eater walleye there too.
I just didn't have a lot of confidence in that area yet, so we moved west to around the east end of F-can. There were marks there too, but nothing biting. Then, we moved up to the area between Middle Bass, South Bass, and Rattlesnake. There were not a lot of marks on the pass we made, but we did manage two walleye in that area up there.
We decided to take a ride out to the reef complex and join the armada of boats trolling and jigging out there.
We made a few passes over an area I fished last week, and put 3 more nice fish in. No Fish-O's, but fine specimens none the less. :)
With two hours left, of an 8 hour trip, I asked them if they would mind if we hit another spot on the way back. They didn't mind at all, so se headed south of the reefs, and trolled west to east over 16' of water. A double hit, and we got both of those in the boat too. That gave Vito and his friend, Saunders their limit.
We headed down towards G can, so I could check the water clarity and see if we could get a few more to bite. It was cloudier there....I don't want to say, "muddy", because it wasn't really a brown color....more of the light green..but, cloudy. I could just make out the cavitation plate there.
We pulled the Off Shore boards for about a 1/2 hour, and it was time to go in. While we were pulling lines, Saunders said, "I just got one!" It was a nice plump little keeper, that would give us a final total for the day of 9.
Bandits were working best for us at 45 and 50 back at 1.6 to 1.8 mph.
Best colors for us were, Domka Outdoor's "Huff Daddy Chrome" and "Fancy Perch". The stock colors were the Blue/Chrome, Natural Perch, and Green Clown...my favorite, Khaki, let me down today. It got zero. :(
When I got home, I had to take the dogs for a walk, because they gave me the big brown "sad eyes"..... make brownies, clean the kitchen and living room, and make a big batch of Venison Sausage gravy...for biscuits and gravy in the morning with my customers..Capt Dan and the crew are coming over at 5:30am. I'll make the buttermilk biscuits in the morning. I'm tired...
Capt. Dan Woodward is working with us this week, since there are 4 of them, and I only take up to three people. Two will fish with Dan all week, and I will fish with the other two.
I had Craig and Scott last year at this time, and had a great time in the boat with them. So, I'm looking forward to a fun week, this week.
I hope Mother Nature will be kind to us.... Fingers crossed!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Best Laid Plans of Mice and Fishermen.... 3/17/17
by Capt Juls on 04/18/17Yesterday, (3/17), started off right....until...
I picked up Grant, his Dad Jamie, and Phillip at their hotel at 6:30, so we could launch by 7am at Catawba. There was a group of 6 men, and as you all know, I only take 3, so they had a second boat with them.
They needed to stop and gas it up first, so we stopped off at the Speedway, so they could do so. No problem....we still made it down to Catawba with time to spare.
As I unhooked the boat, put my antenna up, unstrapped the port side, put the kicker up, unstrapped the starboard side, I reached up to trim up the G2, and......nothing. Uh oh....what the heck? Tried the trim at the throttle and nothing...but, it was cycling the motor and little computer thingy on the dash, so I knew it was getting power. "This is not good", I thought.
I called "Dubbert's Marine Service" in town, but it was only 7am, and I know they don't open until 8am, but Dawn was in early and answered the phone. I told her what was going on, and she offered to have the guys come down to Catawba to help when they got in. But, instead of waiting, I drove the boat over to them, so when they got in, it would go faster.
I was just hoping that it was something easy.....and, it was. All it was was a ground wire in the trim relay that needed to be tightened down...whew!
Okay, so now we're an hour and a half late from starting. But, it was a beautiful morning, so that made things easier.
We were headed to the north side of Big Pickerel, and showed up there around 9am. Kevin had 6 in the box by the time we even showed up up there. We caught a nice 7 1/2 pound walleye within the first 15 minutes of setting up, and thought it was going to be a great "catching day". Well, it was for others, but not for us apparently. We would go for a couple more hours with nothing, even though we were running the same program as my friends who were in the same area....(palm to forehead) I wasn't marking anything on the Helix either, so I was having a hard time staying there, even though others were catching. (In hindsight, I should have just stayed there all day) But, nooooo....I got impatient again. lol
I made a move down to Niagra to check the water clarity and fish marks. The marks were better on the SE side of the reef, but the water was much more stained than on the north side of it. I could just make out the cavitation plate.
We did have better marks on the SE side though, so I thought setting up on the SE side and working my way north would be a good plan. We went from the SE corner of Niagara Reef to the north, but the marks were showing up less and less, so not such a good plan....deep sigh. "Just shoot me...shoot me now", I thought to myself. lol
We decided to go back to the first spot and try again. We picked up two more fish, but they were far and few between. I don't know what was wrong with me yesterday, but whatever I was doing, it never felt "right"....my confidence was slim to none yesterday, I think.
Thank God, these guys were "happy people", because they sure made my miserable day an easier one. And, they really liked my brownies, so that made me happy. :)
We were doing an 8 hour day, so with three hours left, we headed over to North Bass area, and made a pass. Again, I wasn't marking anything up on West Reef, so we made one short pass and headed down to D, E, and F cans to check things out in case we needed a closer area for todays east wind conditions. Again, in hindsight, I probably should have joined the group of boats fishing between Rattle Snake, Sugar, and North Bass, but again, my mind wasn't right yesterday, and I didn't go in there.
We set up between F and E cans and headed to F can. Fish marks were plentiful on the Helix, in the right zone, so I felt confident that we would pick up a few more fish. I was wrong.....ugh....nothing in the last two hours. Was it the east wind that started up? Or, was I just cursed yesterday? Who knows...(shaking my head).
I hate those kinds of days, but I now they happen. I've had days where I was the one catching and my friends were struggling, so I know sometimes it's just the way it goes. I've always said, "I would rather be lucky than good". But, yesterday, luck sure wasn't on my side, and I wasn't very good either! ;)
Today, (Tuesday), I would have taken the other three guys that were in the other boat, and my guys would take the other boat. However, with stronger east winds forecast, they decided to head home this morning instead. I can't blame them.
They did say, however, that they learned a ton about how to run Off Shore boards, and would like to come back at a later date this summer, when the weather was more stable, so I guess they still enjoyed the whacky trip. lol
My regular customers for tomorrow, (Wednesday), are waiting for a weather report tonight, before I go to bed, to decide if we will go or not. They are forecasting rain and thunderstorms for the AM tomorrow, with gusty south winds. So, we'll see....
Stay tuned...
Capt Juls
South Dakota Crew Going Home....
by Capt Juls on 04/15/17I haven't been out since Thursday, and won't be again until Monday.
Friday, Capt Kevin and Capt Chuck, and I discussed the wind, and whether we were going to run our charters....we decided the conditions were less than favorable and told our customers the news. They had no problem with our decision, so we all stayed on shore.
Sure, others went out, but our customers had three days of fishing under their belt, and decided they would go to Cleveland for the day. They asked if we would be fishing today (Saturday) since the forecast was less than stellar (last time we looked yesterday morning), because they were interested in going to see the Tigers play the Indians while they were in town, and it didn't start until just before 8pm, and they would be getting back very late. We told them to go have fun!
Sunday's weather is crap, so my regulars coming from Wisco, for a two day trip on Sunday and Monday have rescheduled to late June, because they didn't want to just fish one day. Good call on their part, I think.
Then, I called my Tuesday customer to see if he wanted to move his trip to Monday, because the weather looks fantastic for Monday, and not so much for Tuesday, but he decided to take both days. :)
Tuesday's forecast is all over the place, so it may or may not be a go on Tuesday, but there's a chance it will.
I won't be back out until Monday, so I have no reports for the rest of this weekend.
So, until Monday....
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Day 3 with the Bill, "Eryn", and Louie 4/13/17
by Capt Juls on 04/13/17This morning, Bill, "Eryn", and Louie met me at Catawba at 6:30am, and we launched by 6:45.
We didn't go far, due to the east wind, and opted to try the can area today. We ventured to the NE side of F and G cans, and set a course towards the SE of G.
We ran 4 Deep Husky Jerk(12"s) and 4 Badits. The DHJs were run on the two outside Off Shore boards on each side, and the Bandits ran off the two inside boards on each side. DHJ's were 20 and 30 back on the port side and 35 and 45 on the starboard. The Bandits on the port side were 25 and 35 back, while the starboard side went 45 and 55....speed was anywhere from 1-3 to 1.7 mph.
After the first pass, I asked Bill if he wanted to go back in, because he was green, green, green in the gills, and not doing well (too much fun the night before...lol something about a bottle of "Fire Ball"...wink wink). :)
While running back up to make another pass from F can back down to G, I looked over at Bill, who was sitting beside me in the passenger seat, and asked him, "Would you like me to take you in? You can take a day off." He didn't hesitate and said, "Yes!" So, we made a short detour to the launch, and dropped him off. I think he made a very wise decision....very wise. Been there and done that...and, it sucks!
After "Eryn", Louie, and I dropped Bill off, we headed off to go fishing again.
We would end the 6 hour trip with 5 fish in the live well, (the largest only going 25 inches), one white bass, and one throw back. Two boards had pulled back, but the fish came unbuttoned before we even got the board close enough to take off.
Colors that worked for us today in the Bandits were the stock color: Khaki (of course), blue chrome, and Natural Perch. The Domka Outdoors color called, "Huff Daddy Chrome" also caught fish. The huskies caught one, but I don't know the name of the color. It's a custom color and looks like a dark hot pink with black tiger stripes down it's back.
We were off the water by 1pm, which gave me time to get my chores done, so that felt good to get a little caught up. My friend, Scott, came down to go fishing with co workers, and to pick up his Ranger that he lent me for the month of March, while mine was being built. (Thanks again Scotty!). So, he and his two dogs are staying with us.
We are watching the winds for tomorrow, and I'll ask what Capt Kevin, and Capt Chuck, want to do about tomorrow's trip. They are forecast to go more NE tomorrow, so it will be little rougher than it was today. Today's waves were 1-3's building to 2-4's. I suspect tomorrow's waves will be closer to 3-5s if the forecast doesn't change.
So...Stay Tuned....
Capt Juls
Day 2 with Bill, Eryn, and Louie 4/12/17
by Capt Juls on 04/12/17Okay...let me correct the spelling of Eryn to Aaron, but explain that it wasn't my fault it was misspelled! That's the spelling he gave me in the boat yesterday morning, so now, that's how I'm going to spell it the rest of the week....just because! Ha!
This morning, my crew, and Capt Kevin's and Capt Chuck's crews, met us at Catawba State Park at 6:30am, so we could be on the water by 6:45 (before the NWT competitors).
The winds were stronger than forecast for this morning, so that was a l little disappointing. I was looking forward to a glass like lake, so I could open up that 300 G2, but it was a bit bumpy with the winds at 10-13 out of the NW...it wasn't too bad though, and we made a long run out to the reef complex, where it turns out everyone else decided to go to too!
It was kind of cool seeing all the NWT boats coming from a long distance away... with their boats spraying water high and wide, as their boats crushed the waves.
The bite wasn't on fire, but it was enough to keep my guys interested and excited every time the board went back. We managed 6 nice walleye, and two white bass, with our best five going 32 1/2 pounds...(Note: you can take the woman out of tournaments, but you can't take the touranment out of the girl...heheheh). I'm going to look later and see where we would have ended up with that weight. I'm guessing middle of the pack someplace....where I usually ended up. ;)
5 of the eyes were females, that were all post spawn....the other was a chunky little 18" male.
Bandits 30-50 back at 1.5 worked for us. Best colors were stock colors: Khaki, & Natural Perch, and Custom Color: "Domka Outdoor's" Huff Daddy Chrome. Khaki took the most fish, which is no longer a surprise to me. If you asked me to choose only one color to run...that would be it!
After we caught 5 fish up by the reefs, we moved down to check the G can area to check for clean water, and toss some lines in. The water was cleaner to the west shore, but on top of the cans it was muddy. We pulled a 29" fish there, shortly after putting the lines in, but that was it for the last hour of our trip.
There is a clean strip just off the point of Catawba that I might try in the morning, since we're launching right there, it only makes sense to give it a try. Some of my biggest fish in the past, this time of year, have come off that point. But, this spring has been anything but "normal".
Who knows...:)
Time to go eat some Mexican food....I'm starving, and don't feel like cooking!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Finally Back on the Water....4/12/17
by Capt Juls on 04/11/17I hadn't been out on the water since Saturday...."Why?", doesn't matter...it's a long story. lol
Anyway, today was the first day of a 5 day trip with a group of 9 from South Dakota.
In my boat, I'm fishing with Bill, Mica, and Eryn. Capt Kevin Swartz has three more, and Capt Chuck Oeder has the last three. We're all working together to put them on some fish.
The bite has been less than stellar this season so far. Due to the March winds, early on, the lake got really torn up, and turned to chocolate milk. Then, it started to clean up west of the islands, and we started catching some fish in the usual haunts. But, it was short lived, when another Nor'Easter came roaring in last Friday to churn it up again....deep sigh.
We left Mazurik's this morning at 7am, and headed up the east side of Kelly's Island to find clean water with some marks in it. I ended up making the first past on the SE corner of Kelly Island's Shoal...headed NW to go up the west side of it.
We marked fish there, but didn't get any to go, and there weren't as many marks as I would have liked to have seen. So, a call to Kevin confirmed that there were fish north of Kelly's in deeper water.
It was cloudy in the morning, but the waves were 6" at best. The sun was trying to come out at 9:30, and we were hoping the sun would help with the bite. But, a phone call to Kevin, from a friend, told him to go west of the islands, and that the water was cleaning up here and there. So, after he discussed it with me and Chuck, we decided to pull lines and head west about 15 miles as the crow flies. The ride was great and I'm happy to say the new Ranger 621 with the 300 ETEC G2 are performing nicely. :)
We fished the reef area and targeted 11-17 foot of water with Bandits trolled 20-40 back at 1.4-1.5 mph. However, I'm hearing of fish being caught at speeds upwards of 1.7-1.8mph, so I might just give that a try tomorrow too.
We didn't catch any big fish today, but we managed 6 fish out of the 11 pull backs on the Off Shore boards...and, 3 bonus piggy Sheep.
Oh, and we also lost two bandits to a big toothy critter with a very big mouth and big teeth! We never saw it, but it severed the line like "Butta". lol
Tomorrow's weather looks pretty good. Winds are forecast below 10mph out of the WSW all day, so moving around the lake will be easy. A good thing for the NWT competitors, who are starting the tournament tomorrow and want to go to far away locations.
We'll be launching out of Catawba in the morning, to cut our run to the west side of the islands in half. :)
See you out there!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Nice Weather for the Weekend...4/7/17
by Capt Juls on 04/07/17My last trip this past week was on Tuesday, due to the weather, and the South Dakota crew cutting their 6 day trip down to only 3...they went home early.
The winds this week will muddy the West side of the islands again, which is disappointing, because after a month of mud on that side, we had just gotten back on that side to fish this past Monday and Tuesday.
So, there has been nothing to report.
I have had a lot of PM's and texts asking me if they should bother coming this weekend, and I do not like to make those calls for someone else. I ask that they look at the weather links on my site and make those calls for themselves. I don't want to be responsible for telling someone to stay home, only to find out the fish will be biting someplace....or, to tell them to come and the weather changes and they don't get out.
While I try to be helpful in any way that I can....I'll make those calls for my customers, but I don't want to make those calls for anyone else.
So, please...take a look at the same forecasts that I have to check and make that call for your own travel plans. If you want to go fishing on a nice day, but it's tough fishing....go fishing. If you only want to catch a lot of fish...this isn't the weekend for that. It's going to be tough after this blow, and all this rain.
I'll be back out tomorrow with some more South Dakota guys, along with Capt Kevin, who is taking part of the same group. They lost today, but will get the next two days in.
It looks like Monday and Tuesday are a blow again, but at least it southerly winds instead of north, so that's a positive.
The NWT tournament starts on Wednesday, so it looks like they are only getting the weekend in for pre fishing....ugh. Good luck to all of the competitors! See you out there. :)
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Derek, Terry, and "The Deuce" 4/2/17
by Capt Juls on 04/03/17Derek, Terry, and "The Deuce" are part of 21 friends that drove out from SD for a 6 day trip. We started on April 1st, but the fishing was slow, so nothing to report for day one. lol
Today was a different story though. The water west of the islands cleaned up enough for us to finally hit the cans, and it didn't disappoint. The water temps were hitting 40 degrees yesterday, and shorter leads on the Bandits were the ticket for us. Khaki at 25 back took 5 of our 9 fish at speeds varying between 1.5-1.8 mph. Other leads that worked were 35, 45, and 55. We dropped 4 fish that just didn't hook up well also.
The weather was beautiful too. Light winds, partly sunny skies, and warmer temps made it an enjoyable day. We fished for 10 hours, and plan to only fish for 6 hours tomorrow, due to rain coming in.
I have a feeling that Tuesday's blow from the NW is going to muddy up the can area again, but we'll see.
While most of the females we caught were not spawned out yet, one was, and others were catching some that were already spawned out too. Hopefully, the winds will behave and let the mud settle to give those hatchlings later this month a chance to find some food. Fingers crossed!
That's all for now...busy, busy, busy!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
http://julswalleyefishingadvent.homestead.com/Pics-Pg-22.html?_=1491205337578
Day 2 of 5 with the SD Crew...:)
by Capt Juls on 03/28/17Met my crew, and Capt Kevin's crew, at Big Bopper's for breakfast at 7am this morning.
Yesterday, I had Gary, Lane, and Greg....and, Kevin had Sam, Tyler, and Tim. Today we flip flopped our crews...so, today I had Sam, Tyler, and Tim with me, and Kevin took the other three with him.
After breakfast, we headed over to Mazurik's to launch at 8am. We headed back to the area north of Kelly's, because we didn't hear of any better water clarity than what we had there.
The skies were gray, the winds were out of the north, and the waves were 1-3 feet all day. The fishing was tough again for us, but we managed to put 4 in the box, throw one back that was too small, and lost a bigger fish behind the boat. (Kevin's crew had it even tougher, when they only managed one in the box today).
I had a very small spot out in the middle of no where....giving it no rhyme or reason why that one very small area was producing bites for us. Any time we crossed that spot, we would pick up a fish. The last time we passed over it, we had a double go off, but one of those fish is the one we lost behind the boat. :(
Bandits were the ticket again, and 90 and 100 were the magic numbers. Purple Hot Tiger, Black Gold, and Crown Juls were the three colors that caught fish for us. Speed, was slower today. After talking with Kevin this morning at breakfast, I found out that he was keeping his speed yesterday at .08-1.1 (even though, when I asked what speed he was running he said, "1.1"). That little tidbit might have been the difference between him catching 11 fish yesterday, and my boat only catching 5 fish.....but, who knows? It could have been that dang banana that was quietly smuggled on board... Hehehe! ;)
Anyway, I digress.... It was a fun day getting to know the other 1/2 of the South Dakota crew, and I enjoyed their company very much. They are very good fishermen, and a pleasure to fish with.
Tomorrow, we will be heading back up there again, because the guys we know that were headed to the west side of the islands, to check out the water clarity said it still stinks over there. Too much mud still. :(
So, until tomorrow....Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
Fishing with Greg, Lane, and Gary 3/27/17
by Capt Juls on 03/27/17Left the house at 6:25am, to go top off the Ranger's gas tank, before stopping in the "Big Boy" parking lot to pick up my crew. I was early, and I was pleasantly surprised to see them open the garage door of their condo rental, 3 minutes later.
I would be splitting a 6 man crew from Mitchell and Brookings, SD with Capt Kevin for the week.
Today was the first day of their 5 day trip, and I had Greg, Lane, and Gary for the day. Kevin had Sam, Tyler, and Tim. (Tomorrow, we'll switch, so we both of us get to fish with both crews. They are pretty awesome people, and a pure pleasure to fish with. :)
Kevin and his crew, did twice as well as we did. They put 11 nice "good eaters" (3-8 pounds) in the boat...and, we only put 5 in our boat. While we were changing things up to try and increase our catch rate, Gary said, "There's a fish", as he watched the Off Shore board slide back out of the marching line. He reeled in a beautiful 11.2 pound walleye, and that made him happy. :)
The skies were grey this morning, with a fog haze on the horizon for most of the day. It cleared up from time to time, closer to noon. The Sun popped out here and there, and the winds died down to almost nothing at times. It was a glorious day to be on the lake, weather-wise
The water up between the islands is the cleanest I've heard about, or seen. We were fishing on the NNW side of Kelly's all day, where the water clarity is near perfect, and the water temp is up a few degrees from last week. It was hard to see all those marks that were so tight to the bottom all day. They sure had something bothering them today.
Every now and then, the marks would be around that 15-20 depth, and we would catch them. But, they were few are far between. Most of them were on the bottom and inactive....at least that's what we experienced.
We ran Badits, P-10's, and a Flicker Minnow....just to see if they wanted something besides the Bandit. But, everything we caught was on a Bandit either 90 or 100 back. Our best color was the Huff Daddy Chrome, Pink Lemonade Chrome, and Purple Hot Tiger(?) Speed was 1.1-1.3mph today.
It was a fun day, and my crew couldn't have had a more positive attitude. They were happy with the experience, and that made me happy. :)
Tomorrow, I get to fish with Sam, Tyler, and Tim, and Kevin will fish with Gary, Lane, and Greg....so....
Stay tuned.....
Capt Juls
Photos from today's trip can be viewed here:
http://julswalleyefishingadvent.homestead.com/Pics-Pg-22.html?_=1490654119360
Weekend Trips Cancelled...
by Capt Juls on 03/25/17Friday we had 78 degree weather, with sunshine. Today, (Saturday), it's blowing out of the NE again. It wasn't as windy this morning, as it is this afternoon, but my customers, who are regulars, decided to cancel last night after looking at the wind forecast.
My trip tomorrow has been cancelled too, due to weather.
I'll be starting a 5 day trip with some South Dakota men on Monday. The weather is looking better on Monday and Tuesday.
The new Ranger 621 should be in my driveway about mid week...(fingers crossed!)
It's going to be a very busy week next week!
So Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
