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+--- Thread: Best day at Willard this year!! (/showthread.php?tid=1081593)
Best day at Willard this year!! - wiperhunter2 - 08-22-2019
As far as species caught[
]. Wiperslayer and I launched from the North marina this week at 6:30am and after seeing many fish splashing on the surface, in the marina we started casting right by the boat ramp, we were thinking the wipers were chasing the shad to the surface but after casting for 15 to 20 mins or so we decided they were bugle mouth bass[]. Sure had our hopes up for a while. We trolled out into the Bay and after a few minutes Ira hooked a nice 14" SM bass, I wasn't smart enough to take a pic but it was the start of a 5 species day and almost 6[crazy]. The next species that came to play was willard's ever loving cats, the first of 10 or so we caught. We kept trolling North, picking up several more cats, then a smaller eye decided it wanted in on the action. We head West and picked up more cats, including a nice 24 incher. It had been a calm morning up until then, then the wind came up, blowing from the South with it came 3 ft waves, that was when the big fish of the day hit. I thought I had the bottom, then the bottom moved but fighting the fish and the wind turned out to be an impossible task and after getting it to the surface once and seeing what it was, it decided to part ways with us, taking TD painted blade and worm harness with it[
]. That would have been species number 4 but it wasn't to be. With the wind we moved away from the shore and started heading back to the marina, trolling about 2.3 to 2.5 mph. All of a sudden the wind shifted to blowing from the North and the temp dropped, it almost got chilly and I was afraid the catching would shut off but we kept at it and picked up species number 4, a 10" crappie[crazy]. I was very surprised at that point and thought what if we caught a wiper and before I could speak my thought to Ira, species number 5 came out to play, you guessed it a wiper. It wasn't a big fish but still it made our day. We ended up catching two more wipers, another crappie and another SM bass and more cats. At 12:30 we called it a day, water temp was 76 degrees. We were prepared to flig it, if the catching wasn't good trolling faster but that never happened. I've had 60 fish days a few years back of wipers, walleye and crappie but today was right up there as one of our best days at willard. Willard is alive a well[cool] and the water is very clear.[signature]
Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - Cowboypirate - 08-23-2019
What a great day. Give us wanna be willard dudes some hope
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - muirco - 08-23-2019
Nice you had a great day!
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - jjannie - 08-23-2019
Congrats! Sounds like you two had a really nice, well-earned, day today for sure.
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - BURLEY - 08-23-2019
I was already going to head out there in the morning, so this is encouraging. Good job.
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - a_bow_nut - 08-23-2019
It's always a good day when it turns out better that you expect.
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - Jmorfish - 08-23-2019
Nicely done! I'm thinking any day you can get out on the water, safely of course, it should be a good day...and with a good fishing buddy - better yet....and if you can reel in a few sub-surface finned creatures - way better yet....So it sounds like you and Ira had a ' way better yet ' kind of day....do you think walleyes will be showing up any time soon?
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - EyLayo - 08-23-2019
Wonderful report! Guessing carp for the 6th species since it ended up breaking you off? Part of the reason I'm attracted to Willard is because of it's variety. Seems like I've read about at least 10 species that are a possibility.
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - TubeDude - 08-23-2019
[#0000FF]Mo bettah! Figured it would be improving with shorter days and fewer folks on the water after school starts. By the first or second week of September it will probably be even better. It was right about the end of August a couple of years ago that I got a 29" cat off Eagle Beach...along with several other cats, a wiper and a walleye.
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[#0000FF]What color blade were you using? And how have that last batch been working over all?
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - Kent - 08-23-2019
[quote wiperhunter2]
...I thought I had the bottom, then the bottom moved but fighting the fish and the wind turned out to be an impossible task and after getting it to the surface once and seeing what it was...
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Inquiring minds want to know, was it a carp?
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - Piscophilic - 08-23-2019
Wow, you had some great days this year so this one is really impressive. It sounds like a lot of fun too! Thanks for the report.
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Re: [Piscophilic] Best day at Willard this year!! - wiperhunter2 - 08-24-2019
It has been a pretty decent year at Willard this year, much better than last year for sure, just hope we see some boils this year.
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Re: [kentofnsl] Best day at Willard this year!! - wiperhunter2 - 08-24-2019
Ira got a better look at it and thought it was a crap and it fought like one.
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Re: [TubeDude] Best day at Willard this year!! - wiperhunter2 - 08-24-2019
I was thinking it was either the end of Aug or the first weeks of Sept last year when we got into a boil, so I think you are right, cooler nights are getting them more active. I was using Fire Tiger blade you painted up, don't think I had it on for more than a few minutes, when the big fish hit. I should have used them in the last few week but I did not put out my lead core line. I did try the green with black dots but no luck, so far FT is the only one I've had a fish on. I'll give the other colors a try my next trip out.
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Re: [wiperhunter2] Best day at Willard this year!! - LLOMichalchik - 08-24-2019
Sounds like a good day.
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Re: [EyLayo] Best day at Willard this year!! - wiperhunter2 - 08-24-2019
[quote EyLayo]Wonderful report! Guessing carp for the 6th species since it ended up breaking you off? [/quote] I'm pretty sure you are right about it being a crap. I'm sure there are at least 10 species in Willard and likely more depending on what comes down from pineview. I know there have been Tiger musky and trout caught in there along with LM bass and perch.
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Re: [LLOMichalchik] Best day at Willard this year!! - wiperhunter2 - 08-24-2019
I thought I was going to be able to post about catching that big fish on one of your paddle tail plastics but that big fish took it along with my worm harness[
], even broke my rod.[signature]
Re: [Jmorfish] Best day at Willard this year!! - wiperhunter2 - 08-24-2019
I was pretty surprised to see that walleye yesterday but yes I do think the eyes will start showing up soon, just for the fact there are less shad this year. This was our third trip out there this month and we have only seen one good bunch of shad on the FFer screen and we have covered almost the entire lake now. If the weather continues to cool down, I think all the fish will start turning on.
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Re: [a_bow_nut] Best day at Willard this year!! - wiperhunter2 - 08-24-2019
Totally agree with you on that one, as poor as it was last week, we were hoping a new location would do the trick and we were happy that it did.
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Re: [BURLEY] Best day at Willard this year!! - wiperhunter2 - 08-24-2019
We have been throwing everything at them for weeks now and were happy to find a location and lure that produced this week, they sure are not everywhere right now but there seems to be a good crop of smaller ones out there. Of course the cats don't seem to have an issue of being smaller fish but all the rest were. I think it will only improve in the coming weeks or at least I hope so.
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