Took a couple of my friends out on Willard today to see if we could score some big wipers. The fishing was pretty good. Unlike last week, the fish were kind of spread out ... not nearly as concentrated. Found most of them out west of the pig farm. We caught 6 wiper, 6 walleye, and snagged a big carp (3rd snagged carp this year). All but one of our wipers was medium or small today. We caught fish on a wide variety of lures. The best lures were Rapala Shad Rap shaped. Could not get a single bite on the old dependable Rattle Trap. Our trolling speed was 2.9 give or take. Talked to a couple of boaters who didn't catch anything and one boat only caught 1. So we felt pretty good with our dozen. Left at 1:00 pm.
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And the roller coaster ride continues...[
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Very nice! Thanks for the report. Sounds like the walleyes may be picking up. Thats great news. [fishon]
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When trolling for wipers do you run on down riggers or on plainer boards? i plan on going tomorrow morning.
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lilfish, In my opinion, Willard isn't deep enough for down riggers to be of much good, but then I haven't caught any Wiper yet this year. Planer boards, now some guys will swear by them. Me, I tend to just swear AT them [sly] Willard is and will always be one of the most obnoxious places to fish I have ever been. But I been going back there for 11 years, and it's been different every year. Listen to any and all advice you get on here, use what you think may work the best for ya, and have a good day. Good luck tomorrow. Take pics of whatever you catch, and if you get nothing, I have a cute little Peppy LePew skunk I'll loan ya......................... just joking, have a great day [fishin]
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[quote lilfish]When trolling for wipers do you run on down riggers or on plainer boards? i plan on going tomorrow morning.[/quote]
I run 4 rods: 2 planers and 2 straight back.
I'v heard of guys using down riggers but I use lead core line in combination with braided. I tie 80 feet of 20 lb braided fire line onto the end of my lead core line. Let out all of the braided and then about 2 or 3 colors of lead core. It is a simple way to put shallow diving lures down near the bottom and back a fair distance..
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I've tried catching them with down riggers for two years straight...I got some great advice from you guys and stopped using them. Finally started catching fish!
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Lil-Fish I was there in the crowd today too... We did use a down rigger and leadcore on a rod each. We also used two rods with long lines... We caught fish on all methods.. and on multiple different lures... Nothing too big, our best was a pair of 17" wiper, but they were dang fun... Anyway I use the LC and DR to get some lines out of the way so I don't tie them all in a knot when the fish takes it... It worked okay... I tried my planer board, but my toe line had rotted out so it broke on me twice so I decided it was time to give up on that.. Anyway good luck, we both caught a limit of wiper today, but some were small so we didn't keep them all.. We didn't find the walleye or anything else and it took us about an hour a fish... We did miss a fair number of hits that the silly things couldn't figure out how to hold on, so that kept us interested until we would hook one.. Have fun... J
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In my opinion, leave your downriggers at home. It is too shallow. Go planer boards all the way. I would go 4 planers if I could deal with the rookies on my boat easier. Its too hard to steer, let out lines, reel fish in, net fish, and un-hook all at the same time. I do 3 planers. Lol.
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I fish on my own most of the time so I run one pole on my downrigger set to keep my offering 1' off the bottom and the other pole I run 100' behind a planer board.
Have fun.
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Were the Walleye spawned out like the few I caught last week? The fish I caught were finished with the spawn, maybe they were just early breeders. Both were males.
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What planer board are you using?[bobhappy]
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Tell me what a planer board is and then I will tell you what kind I use!
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I like to use a Day Planer board most days
Humpy
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A planer board helps a fisherman cover more area and is especially great for trolling!
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Fishlady, you passed the test!
I use Offshore Tackle mini boards with size 5 shad raps and size 7 original Rapalas.
The real advantage of using a planer is to put your lure/bait in front of fish off to the side of your boat, hopefully unsuspecting fish that are not spooked by your boat.
You see, a planer board 'planes' out and away from your boat.
I'm surprised you didn't know that.
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