Round up for the week:

Fishing Day 2 with Jeremy, Greg, and Steve…6/22/2024
The dogs woke me up 45 minutes before my alarm was to go off, so I just got up, and stayed up. A cup of coffee, out on the back deck, hit the spot. While the dogs were busy with their morning routine of sniffing the yard for any critters that may have traveled through during the night, I checked the weather apps for the day’s forecast.
I use iWindSurf for wind, Clime-NOAA for the weather/wind/precipitation, and RadarScope for incoming systems.
This time of year, when we will travel several miles out on the lake, I like to check the “Erie West Buoy”, or otherwise known as the, “Weather Buoy”, to us locals…because, it gives a good idea of what the lake will be like far off shore, and east of Kelly’s.
This morning, it was 76 degrees, and muggy, when I left the house, and headed to Mazurik’s, to meet my crew. I told them to meet me at 5AM so they could help me with a missing bolt in one of my trailer bunks. I got there at 4:30, so I could have the boat ready to go, when they got there. They showed up at 4:45.
We launched the boat, so I stayed with the boat, and they went to work on putting a new bolt in its spot on the trailer. We were headed out at 5:05am. Sunrise, right now, is 6:01, so it was still pretty dark out. I wasn’t comfortable leaving that early, but the sky was glowing yellows and oranges, against a dark purple backdrop, to the east. We would just go slower, so we could avoid the commercial nets out there.
I wanted to stay closer today, and found a big pod of fish NE of Cedar Point, in 43 feet of water, so we set up there. I was able to get all the lines set, which kind of puzzled me, so I wondered if they were even walleye….or, why the heck they weren’t biting.
Maybe, you could say, I get a little bit spoiled by these fish and expect that kind of bite all the time. lol
Anyway, as soon as I said, “I think, we should pick up and head back to the weather buoy. I don’t think the wind will be that bad up there, today.”….whoosh, the outside board on the port side went flying back. I was in the middle of putting dipsies away, when it happened, so I could only laugh, and say, “It happens every time I say I’m going to move!” The three of them laughed. It was a nice little eater around 18 inches long.
We caught another one, but I didn’t want to spend the morning taking little fish off, and resetting lines. I was the only one setting lines yesterday and today, because my crew likes to fish, but they only get together once or twice a year, to do it. So, rather than try to train them, and have things take three times as long to set up…I did it all myself. “Let’s get out of here”, I said. We headed to the NE, for another 14 miles.
The lake was relatively flat, so I was able to let the big motor open up, and set a cruising speed of 52 mph. It wasn’t going to take long to get there. Once we did, we moved on over to the area we fished yesterday. While there were more boats up there this morning, it was still considered, light traffic. Also, they were closer to the buoy than we were, so no one would be in our path.
We set up with the same program, that was dialed in during the two previous adventures up there.
On the starboard side, the Bill Lewis “PWC Lites” ran with 2 oz Guppie weights, behind Off Shore boards, at 50/80, 50/60, and 50/40.
On the port side, the baby “Spro 85s” ran at the 50/70, 50/57, and 50/43.
Colors were the same as the previous day, too.
PWC Lites: Green Tiger (2), and Blue Shiner.
Spro 85s: Chrome Perch, Purple Glass Perch, and Blue Chrome.
Dipsies ran the Ripplin Redfin (2), Yaleye Mooneye Minnow, and a spoon.
They didn’t catch as many as the cranks behind boards did, but they caught some nice ones.
Zero setting at 47 and 50, the two setting at 65, and the three setting at 85 back.
Speed was normally held at 2.3-2.5mph, on the FishHawk. Sometimes, we went faster, and sometimes we went slower. They ate at every speed. However, let it be known, that the little baits, running behind the boards do not necessarily like to go over 2.6mph. They sometimes blow out…twist up…and, ruin the line/reel calibration, due to all the line that has to get stripped off, due to twisting. I have four reels getting respooled tomorrow. Uffda.
During one of those horrific tangles…I ended up having to handline a fish in, because the line wouldn’t go through the guides. “Get the net! We’ve got a big one here”, I yelled. And, one of them netted it, to get it in the boat. I wasn’t going to swing it like a handliner, because the dipsey rods were in the way, and she was too big to swing. I think, that one went 27 inches.
We finished at 10am with 24 walleye in the cooler, and threw back around 7 sheephead, 2 white bass, and 3 shorts.
The water temp at the buoy was 75 degrees.
My guys were very happy with their two day outing, and are going back to Wisconsin with their fishy bounty to share with their friends and family, and that makes me happy.
Jeremy said he was told about me by someone back home, that reads my blog, has his own boat he brings down here, and fishes out here any chance he gets. Jeremy said his friend was on his way down here this weekend, and will be staying out on one of the islands for the next week. So, to Jeremy’s friend, thank you for recommending me to them, and good luck next week! 🙂
I’m off tomorrow, and need to get a lot of chores done, but will be back out Monday and Tuesday.

6/21
Fun morning, with this Wisconsin crew. Launched out of vermilion at 5:15, and hit the weather buoy area again…set up by 6:20. Same program I got dialed in mid morning, yesterday, and finished in half the time, today….the fish were not as big as yesterday, but still didn’t have to measure any. Only two legit throw backs, and a handful of keeper size, that we let go, to get bigger…
No long story today…I need to cut my grass.

Fishing with “Papa Mike”, Mike, and Michael…6/20/2024
At 2am, it felt like I was stepping into a sauna, when I hit the back deck with the dogs, and a coffee in hand. The wind apps were showing light and variable winds, so I thought the lake would be smooth enough to launch out of Mazurik’s and head out towards the Weather Buoy, and not take forever to get there.
I met my crew at Mazurik’s at 5:15, and we headed out at 5:30. The sky was clear, the air was a humid 75 degrees, and the wind was around 5mph out of the E in the South Passage….NNW on the east side of Kelly’s…and the NNE-E up on the line. Needless to say, the lake was not smooth, and it took us around 50 minutes to go 17 miles. It looked smooth, but the rollers were enough to keep me from going fast, and beating everyone, and the boat, up.
Once we got out there, I wasn’t marking fish, like I have over the past several years, at this time. I silently panicked a little bit, because that was a long run to a spot that wasn’t holding fish.
I decided that the marks we were being shown were enough to set up on, and hoped that they would improve as we trolled, so I got busy. “Do you want to learn how to set lines, and stuff?”, I asked Mike. He replied, that he didn’t have a boat, and didn’t need to learn it, so that saved me a lot of time, and talking.
I started with the same program that has been working for me, over the past couple of weeks. The “Blue Shiner” Baby Billy PWCs (Bill Lewis “Precision Walleye Crank Lite” for those that don’t know what I’m talking about)….caught the first one at 100 back (50/50 with a 2oz Guppie weight). We saw it, and it was a nice fish, but we lost it. I said, “Good, at least we know there are some hungry fish around”.
I was relieved to have one hit so quickly, while I was still setting lines, because I was marking very little on the Humminbird, when it did. However, I know from past experience, that this has happened to me before…where I wasn’t marking anything, but the bite was good, so I had a glimmer of hope of being able to stay there. And, not have to go find fish. (We had already spent 50 minutes of their time on the ride out).
We started in 42 feet of water, directly south of the buoy, and had the nose of the Vexus pointed SW, at a speed of 2.3-2.5mph. When we hit 46 feet of water, there were no marks at all. So, I turned the boat around, so we could get back up on top of that bar, and stay in the 42-44 feet of water. It seemed like it took forever to get back to the right depth, but once we did, we started picking away at them.
However, I wasn’t happy with the speed of the bite, so I started changing up baits. Three ineffective spoons came off the dipsies, and were replaced with “Rippling Red Fins” in blue/chrome, and black/gold chrome (2). The fourth dipsey remained a spoon, but I changed it out several times, until the fish told me they liked the NASCAR “Michigan Stinger” spoon.
The Redfins caught several nice fish, and the spoon caught 3, I think….it wasn’t out that long.
I changed out one black/gold Redfin with a “Baby Walleye” (I think that’s the name) “Yaleye Mooneye Minnow”…and, it caught some beauties.
The zero setting lines, were set at 47 and 54 back. The two setting, was set at 65 back and the 3 setting started out at 55, but when I changed out the spoon for the Redfin, I moved the dipsey to 85 back, and it started catching better.
All these set ups caught fish.
The starboard side ran the baby PWCs at my usual program of “Green Tiger” at 50/80 with 2oz, “Blue Shiner” at 50/50, and “Barbie” at 50/27. Barbie did nothing for a couple hours, so it came off, and another “Green Tiger” was added.
Bandits started out on the port side at 120, 100, and 80 back, but didn’t catch anything, so they were replaced with the “Baby Spros” in “Chrome Perch 50/80, Blue Chrome 50/50, and “Purple Glass Perch” 50/47. These all caught at least one fish each, if not two.
We only put 16 walleye in the cooler today, but we lost 9 nice eyes, so we would have limited there, had we been able to get all the fish in the boat. We only had one throw back, and 4-5 Sheephead, so it was nice having a good grade of fish, that didn’t need to be measured, for a change.
Grandpa Mike, Dad Mike, and Michael (son/grandson) did a great job today, and kept the mood positive, and friendly, so it was a good time. Michael pitched in, and helped me set lines, after getting some quick instructions, and did great.
It was nice to get the help, since the sun was high, and the heat was getting pumped up. I was drip sweating down my face, which drives me nuts. lol
Which reminds me, I should go take a shower.
Tomorrow’s crew, came down from Wisconsin, and fished with Capt David Kraut today, because I didn’t have today open. I will have them for the next two days.
The weather is going to be hot again, and the winds around 3mph out of the same directions as today.
I think I’ll launch out of Vermilion tomorrow. I’d rather pay for truck gas, than the premium stuff the big black beast on the back of my boat drinks. Vermilion will save me several miles of travel, and I can run the trough out, if it’s out of the ENE.
Stay tuned….