Fishing Forum

[cool][#0000ff]Two straight days of wind, rain and wipers on Willard. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Monday hit the water with TubeBabe about 6:15 AM. Water calm and 76 water temp. No visible wiper activity but TubeBabe scored a 19 incher by 6:20 and I had one about the same size by 6:30. It was still almost dark and the lights were still on in the park facilities. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe picked up another small wiper just before 7 and then it was a long time before we found any more. We filled in the idle hours playing with the kitties. We both caught quite a few and each kept a limit of 8 between 14" and my biggest at 21".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The wind never got strong, but it blew from just about every direction during the morning. We never knew which direction it was going to blow from next. Two or three times we were "treated" to light rain. It was warm and felt good.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]About 10 AM some wipers began chasing shad around the shoreline. TubeBabe and I each landed one more and we each lost a couple of big ones. They either pulled loose or straightened the hooks on the small jigs we were using.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We were off the water just after noon, with a total of five wipers and 16 kitties. Not bad.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Tuesday morning I had agreed to meet Flycasting back up at Willard for some more wiper action (hopefully). I walked out my door in Salt Lake to see lightning, hear thunder and feel wind and rain. Not what a tuber wants to see on a fishing trip.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Left most of the serious weather behind and it was calm and decent when we launched at Willard just after 6 AM. Water temp still about 76. But, the sky was cloudy and you could see lightning in several areas and rain falling from some of the clouds. We joked about becoming "electric anglers".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A stout south wind began blowing almost as soon as we were on the water. Within minutes it had changed to a west wind...and then an east wind...and then a north wind. And, so it went all morning. The wind would blow strongly from a new direction every few minutes. The poor fishies were . We joked that all the shad were probably stacked up in a big vortex out in the middle of the lake.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Nary a bump on plastics for the first hour. No wiper activity and the fish we saw seemed to be suspended and inactive or neutral. So, as usual, we baited up with minnows and played with kitties for awhile.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]At 9:40 FC squawked on the walkie talkie that there were wipers working along one shoreline. I looked over my shoulder to verify and threw up a rooster tail with my fins getting over to the action. When I got there, FC was already casting to the area they had been working, but the fish were down.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I fired my trusty pearl shadlet into the area and went BENDO. First wiper. As soon as it was in the basket I made another cast and WHAM, game on again. That convinced FC that my little shadlets might be the ticket. I got one more in that area while he scored a quick two (after changing).[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Nothing more for a long hour and then I hung another 19 incher. I followed that with my fifth and final wiper...18"...from the same area. Neither of us could get bit any more and there was no more visible activity. We called it a day and headed for the fillet station. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Of course we were laughing about all the gas we had burned running all over the lake, trolling along the dikes in the high winds. Sure, we had been windblown, but not nearly as bad as if we had been on the outside, rather than safely inside the marina. And, no PWC's were injured in the making of this report.[/#0000ff]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][red][size 4] Looks like you guys had a good time on the water. Those Wipers look like they will taste pretty good for Dinner.[/size][/red][/font]
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[cool][#0000ff]BU-U-U-U-U-R-R-R-P![/#0000ff]
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Very fun day! TD is the most persistant jigger I know... He worked really hard for those last 2 or 3 wipers. []
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great report and pictures TD
looks like you put the hurt on some of them wiley wipers.
thanks for sharing [cool]
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[cool][#0000ff]Hey Red, are they keeping you too busy? You need to get out on the water more. Are you going to be up for some fall walleye and cats at Lincoln Beach pretty soon?[/#0000ff]
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i'm hoping for some lax time pretty soon. looking forward for some fall action.
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Even with the weird morning weather, it sounds like you guys smacked them around a little bit! How is the water level holding out up there?
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[cool][#0000ff]It is doing well...not nearly as bad as recent years. I am guessing that it has only dropped about two feet from high water mark. There is still 12 - 13 feet of water in most of the north marina.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Sure is different than August of 2004, when we moved back from Arizona. We had to walk across a hundred yards of sand on the west side before we could launch our tubes. And, the marinas were so low you couldn't get a large boat out of the channel. This year the water is still well up into the rocks along the dike and plenty of water in the marinas. The fishies seem to be loving it. [/#0000ff]
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