Fishing Forum

[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 4]After looking at the moon phase calendar (little or no moon today) and the weather forecast (low pressure and storm next 4 days), I decided that today would be a good day to spend some of my vacation leave with my son-in-law (Jacob) out on Willard chasing some wipers.

Jacob is an avid fly fisherman and has done very little boat fishing. And add to that, he had never caught a wiper nor a walleye.

As we pulled into the North Marina parking lot, I didn't see any vehicles and figured that we were going to be the first to launch. But then, down at the bottom of the ramp, low and behold, the great and famous TubeDude. It is ALWAYS good to meet and shake hands with my good friend Pat. [/size][/#800000][/font]

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It didn't take TD long to get out into the Eagle Beach area. [/size][/#800000][/font]

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We decided to give Freeway Bay a try right off the bat so off we headed southbound.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 4]Out in FB, Jacob quickly scored his first-ever walleye. [/size][/#800000][/font]

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Then, we got two small wipers. The sun came peaking over the mountain and for the next 45 minutes, no more bites. So we headed for [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=924964;#924964"][#6000bf]Tournament Alley[/#6000bf][/url] (about a mile north of the Island).

Once we dropped our lines and started trolling, it was consistent "fish-on" for the rest of the morning. We caught three more wipers.
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But most of our fish were walleyes.
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We had our "baker's dozen" by 11:30 ending the day with 5 wipers and 8 walleye. Took home fillets of 7 of the walleye and one of the wipers. [/size][/#800000][/font]

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The best lures for the day were silver Rapala Shad Raps and silver Rapala Tail Dancers. Our firetiger Shad Raps stayed pretty busy too.

Again, we trolled four lines (2 planer boards and 2 straight back) about 2.7 - 2.9 mph (GPS). 3.0 mph or higher seemed to be too fast; no bites.

Since my young relative is such an avid fly fisherman, I didn't want him to feel too much like a "fish out of water" without his fly fishing gear. So I tied a white wolly bugger onto a spin-cast rod and told him to play with that for a few minutes while I put the tackle away for the day. I'll be danged if he didn't catch a nice wiper on that bugger on the second cast! Then we headed for the marina.

I was kind of surprised to not see a single other boat fishing around us out in Tournament Alley all morning long … kind of nice. On our way back in for the day, as we approached the north end of the lake, there must have been 20 boats out there west of the north marina channel. I'm not sure what all the fuss was. I decided to mosey around and see what was going on that made all those boats be there. I didn't see any catching so maybe it was lots of "follow the leader" I guess. I just know that whatever the draw was, I sure didn't "get the memo". Now that I think about it, maybe they seen TubeDude out there and decided that was the only place on the lake to catch fish today.

Water temp was 57.5° when we launched. I forgot to check it at mid-day.

Thanks for the great day of fishing Jacob! Just remember to go easy when your are telling your wife that you have decided to sell all your fly gear and buy a boat. [:p][/size][/#800000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 4]--- Coot ---[/size][/#800000][/font]
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Sorry those Walleye ruined your Wiper day. That must have been terrible!! I'm sure, in time, you'll recover.
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[quote Dog-lover]Sorry those Walleye ruined your Wiper day. That must have been terrible!! I'm sure, in time, you'll recover.[/quote]

LOL !! [laugh]
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Now you got him hooked and he will be wanting more gear.[] Nice to see you at launch.
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Wow Albino, that is a COOL looking trailer you got there. Made me stare at it for a while.
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Thanks! I can haul 2 toons and several tubes with it.
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Wow, great day of fishing. Those fish look great--would like to be at the table when those are eaten. Happy for you both on your success. Thanks for the detailed report and the pics.
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OLD COOT maybe if you watched the outdoors with adam eakle episode where he was fishing with the Willard god ralph you might have learned something and had a better day[cool]
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Well, hello there Jason! Nice to have you stop by occasionally. Look closely as I hold my right hand up (personal joke). LOL ...[:p]
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Good on ya Ralph. I was in your building yesterday getting some software licenses updated. I swung by your desk but you weren't there. Glad to see you using your leave wisely.[]
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Ralph how big were those keepers they look massive. Nice job!! Guess I should have burned a day of leave too. Great report thanks. J
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Very nice! That's what my plan was for yesterday but I broke my stupid fuel line connector for the trolling motor when she went overboard.
Those are some hogs! Good work!
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Skunked, I can not tell a lie ... they weren't as big as that picture makes them out to be. I must admit, I really liked that picture because how it did make them look so big. I only measured the wiper. It was 22 inches and was just a little over 4 lbs. The walleye were about the same length.
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Sorry I missed you Trevor. If I'd known you were coming by, I would have put out my "Gone Fishing" sign.
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[#0000FF]Good to see you again...and to meet Jacob. Nice young man. Of course, everybody is "young" to me.

Glad you were able to put him on some fish. It was a nice day to be on the water. Even nicer when some fish cooperate.
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Nice report way to get on them Walleye!!
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Still very nice fish, good job!!! Later J
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Great Report! Thanks Ralph.

I suspect all the boats just outside the marina were picking up Crappie.

After a day like yesterday, I bet you're glad to be back at work.

Brian
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It was nice meeting and chatting with you guys yesterday at the cleaning station. I ended my day with only one wiper from the beach, using mussels. The day didn't quite go how I had expected. But still a great day to be out on the lake.
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LOL, got to get you when I can Old Ralphy[:p][:p]
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