Fishing Forum

Took a buddy out for some much needed wiper catching. Got to the South marina at 6:00 and was the first to launch for the day. I guess we timed it just right with the gates being locked earlier.

First wiper for the day came right out of the marina standing on the ramp, casting a top water popper out to a single tail flip (boil). Kind of fun.

We couldn't buy a wiper on the troll all morning. We were only able to catch wipers out of boils. These boils were VERY short lived ... maybe 15-30 seconds max. Just come and go. Not enough time to bring in lines and head to the boil. The only way we were able to take advantage of the boils were to have our casting rod ready by our side and hope a boil would pop up within casting distance. Which several did.

Later on, we did find a pretty decent hole to troll through out between the island and the light pole. Every pass we would pick up at least a hit and miss or a wiper in the boat.

I'm pretty sure we could have gotten our limits out of that hole if it hadn't been for the wind and big 3-4 foot waves that came up.

Quickly we put on our life vests and headed for the South dike to safety. My boat was catching big air, motor reving high when out of the water, and waves coming in over the bow! My bilge pup going full time to keep up with the water coming in.

Poor Buddy was laying down in the bottom of the boat curled up in the fetal position screaming "Mama, Mama, help me". The poor guy had been wearing a full-torso bug net (over his head, arms, and torso) to keep the bugs off earlier. And because we had put the life vests on so quickly, he hadn't had enough time to remove the net first. So, watching him laying in the bottom of the boat, with water coming in over his head, gasping for air, I thought to my self that that was probably as close to water boarding as I will ever see.[laugh]

As we approached the south dike and the waves subsided, it took quite some coatching to get him out of the bottom of the boat. But before he would come up, he was mumbling something about "... give us this day our daily bread ..."

Anyway, back to the fishing ... we boated 7 very nice wipers before mother nature changed our plans.
[signature]

LOL! That is to funny. thanks for the report.
[signature]

Were you in line at the gate? Were you the one that flashed me down and told me the South Gate was locked?
TS
[signature]

Great story coot!

We headed out there yesterday also, hit the water bout 6:45. Had some friends up from the SLC area and at least i got to show them a good time on willard.

The trolling wasn't working for us either, but out in the middle west of freeway bay we stopped for a boil, short lived but was surprised what i pulled out on the second cast, very nice wally. we stayed there for about an hour and the small boils kept happening all around us, wound up boating a croppie and 3 wipers there and many hits, one lost right next to the boat.
My buddys were blown away by the fight those wipers give ya.

we trolled a bit more picked up another wally and croppie then the wind picked up and that pretty much gave us the clue the day was done.

All in all, was a great day, finally got the willard skunk off for the year and had some fish tacos to boot.
[signature]

Nope TS ... twasn't us. We seen people leaving as we were coming in so we must have hit it just perfect because the gate was open, no one was in line, and we were the first ones there.
[signature]

Too Funny, I want to see pics of this bottom bouncer friend of yours, perhaps you were to busy keeping the boat on top of the white water, to take pics.LOL [laugh][laugh]
think he will do Willard again? []
Hope you have a better time next time. [fishin]
[signature]