Willard Wednesday and Thursday

Willard Wednesday and Thursday - Printable Version

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Willard Wednesday and Thursday - Paddler - 06-03-2023

One of my granddaughters has been asking me to take her fishing for awhile now, so we went out Wednesday. I troll cranks behind boards, and initially put out deeper running stuff except for my old reliable SR5 in black/silver. Earlier reports made it sound like the fish were deeper, but our first fish came on the SR5. So we ended up running SR5s and SR7s. We had ~15 fish to the boat and released the under 17" fish for the most part. I figure those 15" fish will be 18" or so in a year, and there's not much meat on the small fish anyway. We also caught a nice perch down about 15' on a Wally Diver. We met Shawn at the cleaning station, nice to meet another member. Smile

Yesterday I took my buddy up, what a difference a day makes. We fished the same area with what we caught them on the day before but struggled. I tried a Thin Fin at 6' down, a Reef Runner at 21",and everything in between without success. Then after switching to a 1/5 ounce Hot N Tot in chartreuse and silver, I had a hit almost immediately. The fish were a better grade, multiple were 19-20". Again we released as many as we kept. We did manage a 24", 5.5# (by my spring scale) wiper, certainly a PR.

We made fish tacos tonight with the wiper, walleye in tempura batter last night. A couple of nice days on the water. Wink

RE: Willard Wednesday and Thursday - wiperhunter2 - 06-03-2023

Great report, you had a couple of great days. Wow, SR5"s in black and silver, I haven't used those lures for years. Good to know they are still working but I haven't caught anything on that size of lure this year and we just started catching them on #7 last week but that means the fish are in the upper water column. A 24" wiper is a great one for Willard, few that size are caught at Willard, congrats on getting your PB. I've never heard of a 1/5 oz hot n tot, in size would you compare it to a #5 lure?

RE: Willard Wednesday and Thursday - obifishkenobi - 06-03-2023

(06-03-2023, 05:52 AM)Paddler Wrote: One of my granddaughters has been asking me to take her fishing for awhile now, so we went out Wednesday. I troll cranks behind boards, and initially put out deeper running stuff except for my old reliable SR5 in black/silver. Earlier reports made it sound like the fish were deeper, but our first fish came on the SR5. So we ended up running SR5s and SR7s. We had ~15 fish to the boat and released the under 17" fish for the most part. I figure those 15" fish will be 18" or so in a year, and there's not much meat on the small fish anyway. We also caught a nice perch down about 15' on a Wally Diver. We met Shawn at the cleaning station, nice to meet another member.

Yesterday I took my buddy up, what a difference a day makes. We fished the same area with what we caught them on the day before but struggled. I tried a Thin Fin at 6' down, a Reef Runner at 21",and everything in between without success. Then after switching to a 1/5 ounce Hot N Tot in chartreuse and silver, I had a hit almost immediately. The fish were a better grade, multiple were 19-20". Again we released as many as we kept. We did manage a 24", 5.5# (by my spring scale) wiper, certainly a PR.

We made fish tacos tonight with the wiper, walleye in tempura batter last night. A couple of nice days on the water.

It was great chatting with you, it definitely was more of a grind Thursday, just curious did you guys get most of your during the 2 hours of Walleye chop between 9-11am on Thursday?

RE: Willard Wednesday and Thursday - Paddler - 06-03-2023

(06-03-2023, 05:27 PM)obifishkenobi Wrote:
(06-03-2023, 05:52 AM)Paddler Wrote: One of my granddaughters has been asking me to take her fishing for awhile now, so we went out Wednesday. I troll cranks behind boards, and initially put out deeper running stuff except for my old reliable SR5 in black/silver. Earlier reports made it sound like the fish were deeper, but our first fish came on the SR5. So we ended up running SR5s and SR7s. We had ~15 fish to the boat and released the under 17" fish for the most part. I figure those 15" fish will be 18" or so in a year, and there's not much meat on the small fish anyway. We also caught a nice perch down about 15' on a Wally Diver. We met Shawn at the cleaning station, nice to meet another member.

Yesterday I took my buddy up, what a difference a day makes. We fished the same area with what we caught them on the day before but struggled. I tried a Thin Fin at 6' down, a Reef Runner at 21",and everything in between without success. Then after switching to a 1/5 ounce Hot N Tot in chartreuse and silver, I had a hit almost immediately. The fish were a better grade, multiple were 19-20". Again we released as many as we kept. We did manage a 24", 5.5# (by my spring scale) wiper, certainly a PR.

We made fish tacos tonight with the wiper, walleye in tempura batter last night. A couple of nice days on the water.

It was great chatting with you, it definitely was more of a grind Thursday, just curious did you guys get most of your during the 2 hours of Walleye chop between 9-11am on Thursday?

Nope, we got all but one when we switched to the small Hot N Tot. Wind and chop didn't matter. After I caught a few my buddy switched to to the Hot N Tot, too, so we were running all 4 rods with them. They vibrate a lot faster than SRs, I think that's the difference.

I bought them many years ago, as in well before I bought my current boat in 2005. I think it was probably about the same time I bought my copy of "Precision Trolling", which is copywrite 1997. I bought it from Angler's Inn in Sugarhouse, and they went out of business in 2003. Interesting that mine aren't marked Hot N Tot, and don't have the metal clasp like those pictured in the book or on their website. The book lists them at 1/4 ounce, not 1/5. I was thinking about the Thin Fins.

RE: Willard Wednesday and Thursday - Trent_S - 06-04-2023

Would you mind telling us what speed worked best for you with the Hot N Tot? Thanks.

RE: Willard Wednesday and Thursday - Paddler - 06-05-2023

(06-04-2023, 11:37 PM)Trent_S Wrote: Would you mind telling us what speed worked best for you with the Hot N Tot? Thanks.

2.8-3.0MPH, which is 700RPM, dead idle, on my Merc 115HP EFI.