Hook Em Mark

Fished with Captain Daryl and Mark after Daryl's therapy. Temperature at mid day was in the upper 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 70s. The wind was light out of the east and the waves were less than a foot. The water temp is 68 degrees. Got a report that the fish were not in the swamp anymore so we headed out to the Michigan dumping grounds and set lines. We had wiggle warts set at 75 feet on one side of the boat and spoons and mini disk set at 65 feet back on the other side of the boat. The wiggle warts started to out produce the spoons so we put wiggle warts on both sides of the boat. We were fishing the Michigan/Ohio border on the Michigan side (41 50 000 / 083 17 500) in 22 feet of water. The catch was not very fast but we just picked away at the fish. Caught very few junk fish and we kept 18 walleye. About half way through the trip Mark put a hook in his finger trying to remove the lure from the fish. We did the fishing line trick to remove it, put on a little peroxide and he was good to go.

Wiggle Warts

Fished with Captain Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 60s. When we arrived at the marina this morning there were no hi lo drivers. Come to find out Amy scheduled the drivers for 8:00 AM, even though the marina opens at 7:00 AM. The winds were out of the northeast 10 to 15 knots. When we started fishing the waves were about a foot and when we quit fishing they were 2 to 3 feet. The water temp is 65 degrees. Started fishing just past the S-Buoy trolling towards Turtle Island. We were running wiggle warts anywhere from 25 to 50 feet behind the boards without much luck. Once we were north of Turtle Island we started to catch some fish with the wiggle warts set at 40 feet back. Caught very few junk fish and we would have had our limit but it started getting pretty rough. Kept 11 walleye for the trip. When I got home they told me it rained all day around here. We never had a drop of rain on the water, go figure.

Last Trip Using Worms

Fished with Joe and Doug. Temperature this morning was in the middle 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 70s. The wind was out of the southwest early and then it switched to the southeast.  Waves were less than a foot and the water temp is 64 degrees. We started fishing in 12 feet of water by the N buoy in front of Bolles Harbor and trolled towards the C-buoy. We used crawlers 35 and 40 feet behind the boards. We started setting lines and we had 3 fish on real quick. Decided to pull lines and make another pass through the same area. Picked up a few more walleye but then we ran into silver bass and sheep head. We decided to just stay and work this area and pick away at the walleye and put up with the junk fish. Not sure why but we lost a lot of fish today. Had them on for a while and they would just get off. Kept 13 walleye for the trip.

Ran The Crawlers Again Today

Fished with Daryl after his therapy session. Temperature was in the lower 60s when we started fishing and it was in the upper 60s when we quit. The wind was out of the northwest about 10 knots with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 60 degrees. We decided to stay fishing with the night crawlers. We fished the northwest side of the dumping grounds trolling crawlers 40 feet behind the boards with 2 ounce weights. Pink and purple blades worked the best. Trolling speed was around 1.5 MPH. We trolled with the waves and it only took a couple of passes and we were done. Kept 12 walleye and 1 nice perch. Caught about 6 silver bass and 1 large catfish. Just another nice day on the water.

First Trolling Trip

Fished with Daryl. Temperature this afternoon was in the lower 50's and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 50s. The wind was light and variable with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 59 Degrees. Started fishing at the mud line which was a half mile West of the E buoy. We were trolling worms with 2 ounce weights. One side of the boat was set at 35 feet back and the other side of the boat was set at 50 feet back. The side set at 50 back started to catch more fish so we switched them all to 50 feet back. On the first pass we caught 8 walleye and a few silver bass and on the second pass we caught our other 4 walleye. The best area was 41 49 000 / 083 21 240. We caught all the fish in clean water. Kept 12 walleye and we put back 2 walleye that were 15 inches. Just a nice day on the lake with very little boat traffic.

Felt Like Summer

Fished with Daryl after his therapy appointment.  Temperature midday was in the lower 70's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 80's. The wind was out of the east at 10 knots when we started fishing and about 1:30 it switched to the south about 10 knots. Waves were around a foot. The water temp is 54 Degrees. When we came out of the harbor there was a pack of boats about 1/2 mile east of the S buoy so we headed out that way. When we got there the water was very dirty and we did not see any action so we headed towards Turtle Island. When we arrived at Turtle Island there were only about 6 boats fishing. The water was a little cleaner but it was still dirty. Caught the first fish in a couple of minutes so that gave us some confidence fishing the dirty water. We had a lot of hits today but we just could not hook them up. Kept 5 walleye and we also caught some white perch. Check out the new link I just added for the wind conditions at Toledo Light.

Maiden Voyage

Fished with Daryl. Temperature this afternoon was in the lower 50's and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 50's. The wind was out of the northeast 10 to 12 knots with waves about 1 foot. The water temp is 52 Degrees. We went fishing after Daryl's therapy appointment. The game plan was to get my boat ready for fishing and hit the lake for a couple of hours and then put the batteries in Daryl's boat. We got my boat ready and the lake did not look too bad so away we went. Headed out to Turtle Island and there were only 3 boats fishing. We set up on some old way points and started drifting. Made a long drift and we had no hits. Made another move towards some more old way points and started another drift. About halfway through the drift Daryl caught the first fish of the year using a blade bait. Went back up for another drift and we caught two more fish off the blade baits. Tried two more drifts and we only had a couple of hits so we called it a day. The water was stained, water temp was good and the wave action was good, so I was surprised that we only caught 3 fish. We planned on fishing tomorrow but the weather is not looking very good.