Hit Willard early, launched at the north marina, headed for the west dike, sonar showed very few fish, so went to the south west dike,started marking fish, so we ran out the side planer, kinda slow start but we started picking up a few, we kept the only walleye we boated, and two of the wipers one around 3 lbs and one around 2 lbs that was hooked bad,we boated 16 fish, one catfish one eye and 14 wipers had the most success on a clown jointed shad rap trolling at just under 3 mph. The coast guard auxiliary was cruising around, glad to see them out , they do a great job educating boaters without the fear of a citation, I had my marine radio on and from what I could gather some unfortunate boater sunk a tow rig at the south ramp, anyone have the 411 on that? That has always been a fear of mine, bad way to end a vacation, [fishon]
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Wow you guys did alot better than I did.
I took my family out on the bay today. I didn't really plan on alot of fishing but we fished and then went to the beach for my four year old to have some fun in the sand. She threw her new fishing pole in within the first 20 mins of being out on the water. I I got in on the south marina around 1330 and went to freeway bay. Not a damn thing. So we went and hit the beach for a few before heading home.
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my buddy snapped this picture ,looks like a bad bad day.
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HOLY CRAP!! That guy may as well just let his wife leave him now or accept that fishing as a hobby, past time or sport is freakin done forever.
I guarantee the words "well, at least we still have boat and our gear" were uttered at some point.
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Was this pic taken at willard and when. Just wow ummmmm I can just imagined that phone call to his wife. Yes baby I got dinner but I think we need to talk about something else. Lol
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If that's Willard, it's the clearest I have EVER seen the water.
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I was thinking the same about how clear the water was, I did notici while fishing, that I could see my lures a lot further than usual, maybe so much inflow has helped
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That wasn't taken at Willard. The tow rig that needed extraction Monday was a silver SUV...Toyota maybe.
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my bad my friend sent it to me on fb and he was at Willard that day I just assumed that was where it happed .[blush]
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Hit the bay again this afternoon, got on the water around 2:30, went back to the south dike, we put on four different shad raps and each one caught a fish, kinda makes it hard to tell what they want, wife caught two 20 inch Walleye, we kept those, lost count on the wipers, probably close to 15, all around the same two pound size, I did have something slam a lure and break off befor I could react, took lure and all, we had about equal success on clown jointed shad raps, and jointed fire tigers, both walleye were caught in the fire tigers, off the water by 6:30 water temp was 71 degrees, [fishon]
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[quote retch_sweeney]That wasn't taken at Willard. The tow rig that needed extraction Monday was a silver SUV...Toyota maybe.[/quote]
It was a silver dodge Durango, Ill try to upload the picture I got of it.
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[quote TRUBBS][quote retch_sweeney]That wasn't taken at Willard. The tow rig that needed extraction Monday was a silver SUV...Toyota maybe.[/quote]
It was a silver dodge Durango, Ill try to upload the picture I got of it.[/quote]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000]That really sucks![/#800000][/font]
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[quote Tjet] I did have something slam a lure and break off befor I could react, took lure and all [/quote]
Not trying to criticize anyone's fishing techniques here, so please don't take anything personal..just some advice.
Invest in a decent reel with smooth drag and keep it lose enough to be able to pull it off the reel with your hand. The only time you should ever have a break off is if its intentional due to a snag or because you get spooled and hit the end of the line. 6lb mono is plenty strong enough for any fish in this state unless maybe catfishing or lmb fishing in the sticks.
in the pic, 6 lb mono with no leader...
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I always leave my drag set loose, guess I better stop fishing until I can afford better reels, NOT! However I will stop posting anything on this board. [fishon]
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I think you might have misunderstood hd7000 remarks. I don't think he was trying to offend you at all, trust me, there are some one this site that will offend and you will know it, but I don't think that is what happened here. I think HD7000 was just trying to be helpful.
I am fairly new to fishing Willard, in fact I have only been there twice since I bought my boat. My fist time taking my boat out I knew absolutely nothing about trolling, nothing at all. I didnt even know how to get the boat off the trailer until "mistercompletely" met me at a marina and helped me.
I didn't realize the need for level wind reels when I started and I didn't understand the need to set the ticking sound thingamajigger. In fact I bought my first trolling reel and didn't even know how to set the drag. All my life I was fishing rivers and the occasional shore.
Hd7000 was a huge help to me when I went to Willard for my first time. I pulled in wipers and crappie and the kids had a blast because he gave me some pointers. Had I lost a few because of the drag or any other issue I would have appreciated someone who was more experienced than me to tell me to lighten up my drag to prevent that in the future. In fact I would HOPE that someone would tell me instead of reading my post and just thinking..."newbie, doesn't know what he is doing." In fact I almost expect it. That is why I come to this site over and over and over. I am trying to learn because I really enjoy fishing, but I'm not that great at it.
Maybe you had the drag set right and maybe you didn't, but ether way, I read the post and I see an experienced fisherman (HD7000) trying to help someone who MIGHT be new to fishing. (I say might be new to fishing because well you only have 8 posts, but who knows, you might be very experienced, and just new to posting on this site).
So to everyone else who will read this, please continue to help by sharing your knowledge with the rest of us, I know I will appreciate it. If I do something wrong, please tell me, I'll try to not be offended. If I'm out on my boat and I don't notice that my son has taken off his life jacket and I post the picture here of this mistake please bring it to my attention. (Thank you again Ratnest). If I pull in a fish from Willard and have no idea what I have caught please help me by telling me that it's a crappie. (Skidmarximuss88) If I have caught fish that I have never caught before and now I need to know the best way to eat it, please give me a recipe (thanks tubedude)
And to you TJet welcome to bigfishtackle, I truly hope you stay around so you can help the rest of us, and perhaps learn a thing or two also.
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[quote HD7000][quote Tjet] I did have something slam a lure and break off befor I could react, took lure and all [/quote]
Not trying to criticize anyone's fishing techniques here, so please don't take anything personal..just some advice.
Invest in a decent reel with smooth drag and keep it lose enough to be able to pull it off the reel with your hand. The only time you should ever have a break off is if its intentional due to a snag or because you get spooled and hit the end of the line. 6lb mono is plenty strong enough for any fish in this state unless maybe catfishing or lmb fishing in the sticks.
in the pic, 6 lb mono with no leader...[/quote]
All criticism starts out with "not trying to criticize" which apparently you did, break offs happen, and not just for the reasons that YOU think.
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A little pretentious to think that someone may not be an experienced fisherperson because of their BFT post count. Just reading the guys post shows me that he knows how to fish and what he is doing.
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Woah guys, I really didn't mean for anyone to get offended by my comment.
If I were an expert fisherman that didn't need any tips or to be pointed in the right direction from time to time, I wouldn't need this forum. Isn't that why people go on here, to get good info?
I don't know you and am not criticizing your fishing techniques, but I have seen plenty of guys crank down their drag and wonder why they broke off. If this does not apply to you, skip the comment because it wasn't meant for you. The only purpose of my comment is that it may help someone who reads it and it may save them a few bucks by losing less $8+ lures.
Sorry
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Opppps....................bad day
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