Algae is Starting to Form

Fished with Captain Daryl and Jim after the therapy session. Temperature when we started fishing was in the lower 70s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 80s. The wind was out of the northeast less than 10 knots with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 75 degrees and the algae is starting to appear on the water. Started fishing at (41 49 250 / 083 23 150) trolling with wiggle warts set at 65 feet back trolling at 3 mph. Started catching walleye right out of the gate and it only slowed down one time for us. Towards the end of the trip we caught the last 6 fish at the 49 / 22 line. This was Jim's first time walleye fishing on the great lakes and he did great and caught a lot of walleye. Kept 18 walleye and only had a few junk fish to deal with.

Just Missed the Storms Again

Fished with Daryl and Mark after the therapy session. Temperature when we started to fish was in the middle 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70s. The wind was out of the east southeast less than 10 knots most of the day and the waves were less than a foot. The water temp is 71 degrees. The flies were terrible today. We sprayed with bug spray and 45 minutes later you had to spray yourself again. Started fishing on the northeast side of the dump trolling with wiggle warts set at 75 feet back. Made a pass through here and we caught no fish so we headed towards the Michigan / Ohio border. Nothing but a few junk fish. Switched to dipsy's and spoons set at 60 feet back on one side and that did not help. We were marking some fish but not catching any walleye. Made a swing towards the E- Buoy and we took off the wiggle warts and put on crawlers set at 50 feet back. Finally caught a fish off that set up but then it went dead. Took off the crawlers and put on jet 20s and spoons set at 50 feet back and we started to catch a few walleye. We caught all of the walleye just south of the E- Buoy. The dipsy set up probably caught a few more fish than the jet 20s. A huge storm started to roll in so we pulled lines and headed for port. This time we beat the rain putting the boat away and cleaning the fish but when we went to dump the guts it started to rain. Kept 6 walleye and had 3 walleye that were under size that we put back.

Just Missed the Storms

Fished with Captain Daryl and Mark after Daryl's therapy appointment. Temperature when we started fishing was in the middle 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70s. The wind was out of the south when we started to fish and then it switched to the southeast 6 to 15 knots. The waves were anywhere from 1 to 2 feet and the water temp is 69 degrees. We decided to try and stay in Michigan waters to find some fish. We stopped short of the E-buoy and looked for some fish, then we motored through the Michigan dumping grounds and there were very few marks. We moved towards walleye ally where we marked a few fish so we set lines here (41 49 050 / 083 18 700). We trolled up and down the Michigan / Ohio border fishing in Michigan waters. We set up with wiggle warts set at 75 feet back on one side of the boat and 85 feet back on the other side of the boat. After a while of trolling we caught more fish off the 75 foot set up so we switched all the poles to 75 feet back. The best color wiggle warts were the metallic green or light green with a red bill. We also caught some fish off the large dipsy's set at 30 feet back with purple spoons. We started to troll back down the border when Daryl noticed some dark clouds back by Toledo Beach Marina. It was a good thing that we were only 4 1/2 miles out from the marina. We made a mad dash pulling lines and headed back to port, got the boat put away, cleaned the fish and dumped the guts all before the rain started. Kept 16 walleye and we missed the rain.

Just Too Far to go Walleye Fishing

Fished with Joe and John. Temperature this morning was in the middle 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 60s. The wind was out of the east around 10 knots and then it started to rotate to the north less than 10 knots. The waves in the morning were about a foot and then laid down to less than a foot. The water temp is 68 degrees. We had a major blow yesterday so I was not sure what was going on with the fishing. We headed out to where we fished on the last trip hoping the fish would still be there. We set up about 1 mile short of where we were last trip with dipsy's and spoons set at 90 feet back and jet 40s and spoons set at 65 feet back. Did not mark a lot of fish so we headed northeast hoping to find some fish. Finally started to catch some walleye around the 41 45 325 / 083 04 750 line so we just stayed here and pecked away at the walleye. Caught a few junk fish but it wasn't too bad and Joe caught a couple of plastic bags. One of them had a life vest in it. He would not hold them up for the pictures, that little wimp. Kept 15 walleye and a couple of plastic bags.

The Mayfly Hatch has Started

Fished with Daryl. Been working on the boat with Daryl over the last 9 days and we finally got it all put back together with the help of Derek. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 70s. The wind was out of the southwest 12 to 18 knots with waves 2 to 3 feet. The water temp is 69 degrees and the mayfly hatch is under way. Started fishing where we left off on the last trip and we caught 2 walleye and a few silver bass. We trolled towards the pack of boats to the northeast of us and when we got there we caught a couple more walleye and some junk fish. We decided to head back to our original location and we only caught a few junk fish. We pulled lines and went back towards the pack of boats (41 45 600 / 083 06 550) and set up with mini disk and spoons set at 90 feet back and jet 40s and spoons set at 70 feet back. Once we did that we were on the fish. We just stayed right in this area and caught our 12 walleye. By this time we had solid 3 foot waves which made for a tough ride back to port.

Close to West Sister

Fished with Captain Daryl and Mark after the therapy session which is turning out to be a good thing. This is the third trip that we missed out on the large waves in the morning. Temperature when we started fishing was in the upper 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 70s. The wind was light and variable with no waves. The water temp is 68 degrees. Started fishing by McDonald's trolling wiggle warts. We were marking some fish but we only caught one walleye. Pulled lines and headed to the east and set up in 28 feet of water. Started fishing again with wiggle warts set at 75 and 85 feet back. After a half hour of fishing with out a hit we decided to put mini disk and spoons on one side of the boat. As we were doing that we caught a fish off the wiggle warts. Just got the mini disk in the water and they started to catch some fish. Made the decision to pull the wiggle warts and put jet 40s with spoons out. Once we did that it was game on for us. We caught most of the fish around 41 45 300 / 083 09 000 with the disk set at 90 feet back (which caught most of the fish) and the jet 40s set at 65 feet back. Kept 18 walleye and caught very few junk fish.