Fishing Forum

Hit Willard Sunday for a few hours didn’t launch until about 11 figured no need to be there early and hoped water would warm in afternoon. Water temp in south Marina 41 when we launched main lake 49-50 at that time. Headed north out into the great beyond trolled in 14 to 18 feet with deep running  cranks at 2.5mph. Got 5 hits hooked 4 landed 3 wipers. Two better ones 6.4 and 4.6 lbs smaller third one. Water warmed to about 52 in main lake late afternoon, it was 55 in north marina poked around a bit for crappie, still a bit early. Saw one caught could not mark any. Heard of a few caught but nothing consistent yet.

I think that is the first trolling for wiper report, that experienced success, that I have read this year. That is good to hear the activity is picking up.

Congrats on the wipers, that is the next fish I'll be going after here in a couple weeks.

Man wish I would have seen this one before I went yesterday, I would have dragged the cranks a little more... I didn't have my tolling motor purring so my big motor trolls about 2.7 mph so maybe it would have worked... I thought that would have been way too fast for this early in the year... Guess not... Thanks for the details that helps... Jeff

Great report, Ira's been wanting to try dragging cranks but we have never done any good going that fast this early, when the water is this cold, I guess it just goes to show that it is possible. Do you mind sharing what color the cranks were that you were pulling, thanks.

Nice fish, Patrick!

Started at slower speeds but no success . Told my buddy we needed to troll faster he said but it’s cold we should stay slower. I said baits will run deeper and sometimes it will trigger reaction strikes even when cold. I’ve done the same thing on stripers early. Bingo we got all the hits going faster. Water is a bit stained depending on which part of the lake more or less.
We used Brighter colors for better visibility to the fish.

NICE FISH!!!

Looking forward to things to heat up in the next few weeks!!!

Great news! Those are some nice ones!!

Awesome  glad someone is catching. Thanks  for the share.

(04-18-2023, 03:56 AM)Mildog Wrote: [ -> ]Hit Willard Sunday for a few hours didn’t launch until about 11 figured no need to be there early and hoped water would warm in afternoon. Water temp in south Marina 41 when we launched main lake 49-50 at that time. Headed north out into the great beyond trolled in 14 to 18 feet with deep running  cranks at 2.5mph. Got 5 hits hooked 4 landed 3 wipers. Two better ones 6.4 and 4.6 lbs smaller third one. Water warmed to about 52 in main lake late afternoon, it was 55 in north marina poked around a bit for crappie, still a bit early. Saw one caught could not mark any. Heard of a few caught but nothing consistent yet.

wish you guys could catch all of the wipers out of there, so it would leave more forage for the eyes and cats.

I've seen pictures why you said that, man you used to pull in some great stringers of eyes.... If those days would return you might get alot of others to agree with you... I kind of like the wiper fight myself, but I don't eat much fish, so I'm speaking off sport rather than table fare... Later Jeff