Got on the water around 7:30 this morning from the north marina. Not sure if the wipers are boiling in the morning because that was to late. Trolled in freeway bay for about 1 1/2 hours then moved west, to the west dike then to the north dike, trolled the rest of the day there and this was are tally, 12 smallie,7-8 channel cats, 9 wipers with about four that got off. We stead to try for the boils found very small and quick boils with some right by the boat,but they wouldn't hit the lures we where using,the same lures I caught the 9 wipers on? just don't get whats up with the fish in the boils this year. there being finky about what there hitting. we should have had at least 4-8 more fish.if they would have hit. very nice day on the water with family and friends.
water temp was 71 degree
water is a little off color can't see the lure past 2-3ft
fnf[cool]
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Great report Tony, the best I have read in a while. Was there any size to the wipers, cats or smallmouth? Did the catching seem better close to the dike or out a ways?
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No size to them? biggest was 19" smallest 14" on the wipers. smallies where all small but one 16" toad. and all the cats where around 18". lost five lures, one to my buddy opening the bail on the reel when I was at full speed ? don't know what he was thinking? another to a fish he had on and it wasn't a big fish,looked down and the hole spool of line was gone and there went another lure? then three more to smallies that grabed the lure and ran back into the rocks. expensive day but fun.
You know I like to fish the dike when I can find a good fishy section. I caught all the wipers in a section no longer than a football field. and this is the weird part. I was trolling at .8 mph on the gps. the lure was just barley wobbling.but thats the way they wanted it? so I gave it to them.[
] I need to find a lure they like in the boils?
We did very well from what I saw at the fish cleaning station.Most had just caught a couple of fish.
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[quote fishinfool]No size to them? biggest was 19" smallest 14" on the wipers. smallies where all small but one 16" toad. and all the cats where around 18". lost five lures, one to my buddy opening the bail on the reel when I was at full speed ? don't know what he was thinking? another to a fish he had on and it wasn't a big fish,looked down and the hole spool of line was gone and there went another lure? then three more to smallies that grabed the lure and ran back into the rocks. expensive day but fun.
You know I like to fish the dike when I can find a good fishy section. I caught all the wipers in a section no longer than a football field. and this is the weird part. I was trolling at .8 mph on the gps. the lure was just barley wobbling.but thats the way they wanted it? so I gave it to them.[
] I need to find a lure they like in the boils?
We did very well from what I saw at the fish cleaning station.Most had just caught a couple of fish.[/quote]
I'm pretty sure I know where you were.[
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I've been using a popper in the boils and having a blast! I remove the front treble and don't get nearly as many line tangles that way. Another good lure is a blue-backed/ silver floating Rapala, size 5 or 7. Pearl shad plastics are a favorite of some of my boil buds. If you have a fly rod, you can have the time of your life with a blonde wooly bugger.[cool]
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Thanks for the info, I have tried that stuff in the past but have never had any trouble catching the fish with exactly what I was trolling with? been fishing for them for awhile now and it just seems wierd to me that they are being so finky thay usually smash anything you throw in a boil. I will adjust. [
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That is a lot of lures to lose on one trip, I hope they at least offered to buy you some new ones[crazy]. .8 mph, that is as slow as you would troll with bottom bouncers, pretty amazing. A 16' smalley is very good for Willard lately, if the water level stays up for a few years we might see a lot of fish come back to those days of old[
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Tell me about it, I get them on-line and I just ordered another eight, I'm going to get some poppers to. I have the blue back rapala's. and no offers to by me some, or re-spool the line. Oh, well.
Yea, I was thinking about putting bottom bouncers on, but had no worms for the harnesses. It was really different way to fish for them.
It was a damn good smallie for Willard I have been catching them on every trip but nothing that size he was a toad for Willard. I do hope they grow fast to help thin the shad out a bit, I haven't caught a walleye in months and I am betting it's because of all the shad. I'm sure they will come back with the high water, I hope they dumped a bunch more wipers in this year the shad really need to be thinned out, it's like when they first introduced wipers into Willard the catching is terrible in my opinion because there is to much feed again.The balance is way off again.
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CASTMASTER + BOILS = FISH!!! [
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-Rich
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Thanks rich, how fast are you reeling.quick,steady retrieve,letting it fall? I have five or six in the tackle box, I think they have the blue strip on them.
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Tony
Sounds like you had a fun time. My old body just could not get off the old recliner. I thought we could hit it Sunday but oh well. If you are short lures I have plenty.[
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[quote fishinfool]Thanks rich, how fast are you reeling.quick,steady retrieve,letting it fall? I have five or six in the tackle box, I think they have the blue strip on them.[/quote]
Blue stripe or just solid silver, doesn't matter. I always casts past the boil, if possible, and on the retrieve...I use a jerking...pause....jerk....pause...style retrieve. This looks great underwater, just like an injured baitfish. They love to nail it on the pause when it is flutterring down. And, just so you know, the big wipers will hang out below the feeding action to pick up the free left overs. They are smart, and don't want to expend energy if possible to get a meal! So, the pausing action will allow the cast master to flutter down below the action.....where the big ones are lurking. You can vary the speed of this retrieve, depending on what they are wanting. Good luck!!!!
-Rich
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[quote grzbear10]Tony
Sounds like you had a fun time. My old body just could not get off the old recliner. I thought we could hit it Sunday but oh well. If you are short lures I have plenty.[
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Had a great time once I figured out how them damn fish wanted it. It was funny because both the people on my boat where jabbing me with, "thought we where going to catch some wipers" then when they started catching them I would look back at the pole bending in half and say you going to reel that wiper in or should I.[
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I need to get with you and talk about them lures!
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