07-12-2020, 06:47 PM
We got there later in the morning since of of the boat trailer tires decided to come apart. Not on the freeway doing 75 mph thank goodness. We noticed it yesterday morning and had to wait until the tire shop opened at 8AM. We were on the road by 9AM.
Pulled into the south marina around 10:30 Am got through the Mussel check and on the water by around 11AM.
We started off soaking some mussels in the area we caught the wipers last week. I should have known we wouldn't have any hits when the bottom was clear of any fish but we wanted to see if we could pull some in. after an hour we bailed and headed to the north dike. We trolled the north dike from the first corner to about half way to the light pole without catching anything we did have a few smallies try to ambush the lure a few times but got know love from the catfish or walleye. Reeled up and trolled the last little bit of the north dike and down the west dike without a bite either.
I turned my attention to open water and came across hundreds of mergansers. We trolled the edges of them watching the terns diving in after the trillions of shad now in the water. Then it finally happened my wifes rod started singing that wonderful sound of a big wiper on. I through down a mark on the GPS and turned on tracking we started trolling again and I did a big loop and trolled through the same area and zing number two was on and yes it was the wifes rod again. We trolled the area the rest of the afternoon and after switching to a diver out on a planner board I got hit but it was short lived and the fish got off.
Directly behind the board it created a feeding frenzy for about 30 seconds. I was hoping they would pop back up but they never did.
As I was bringing in my board to reset the wife hurries and drops a mussel to the bottom and as soon as it hit bottom wiper number three starts ripping drag off the wifes reel. She gets that fish in and I am feeling like I am just out there to net fish for the day by now. That's ok. She was netting a bunch of fish for me the week before. Karma I guess or just lucky, She loves to fish as much as I do and it was fun to see here wrestling these fish to the net.
We decided to fish mussels in the area for a bit and we did get plenty of hits for about 45 minutes but they would just take the mussles of leaving us to re-bait many times.
By now the sun is getting low so we decide to troll and look for boils and see how the rest of the day would treat us. Tug goes the wifes pole and a nice 19" inch walleye in the net. Little while longer and my rod loads up another walleye but a 13" walleye is my first fish to the boat for the day. Started trolling again and my rod loads up with a much nicer walleye. I get it right to the boat and that sucker spit the bait right before it hit the net. Looked to be another 18-19" walleye and it sucked to loose it.
The end of the day with 3 big wipers, 2 walleye And oh yeah. A catfish the wife caught earlier right after her big walleye.
Overall a tough day catching we did have quite a few hits that never hooked up and the hits on the bait. So slow yes but searching and staying on the fish once we found some paid off. I only got these few pictures this time.
Lure of choice was #5 black and silver rattlin rapala with 3 oz. snap weight. We don't have line counters so the lure was about 50-75 feet back with a five second count drop on the snap weight. We trolled at 2.2-2.7 mph. 21' of water.
![[Image: IMG-20200711-155314.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/TgW8jpm/IMG-20200711-155314.jpg)
![[Image: IMG-4397.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/tDZg89m/IMG-4397.jpg)
![[Image: IMG-4392.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/7bCp3F8/IMG-4392.jpg)
Pulled into the south marina around 10:30 Am got through the Mussel check and on the water by around 11AM.
We started off soaking some mussels in the area we caught the wipers last week. I should have known we wouldn't have any hits when the bottom was clear of any fish but we wanted to see if we could pull some in. after an hour we bailed and headed to the north dike. We trolled the north dike from the first corner to about half way to the light pole without catching anything we did have a few smallies try to ambush the lure a few times but got know love from the catfish or walleye. Reeled up and trolled the last little bit of the north dike and down the west dike without a bite either.
I turned my attention to open water and came across hundreds of mergansers. We trolled the edges of them watching the terns diving in after the trillions of shad now in the water. Then it finally happened my wifes rod started singing that wonderful sound of a big wiper on. I through down a mark on the GPS and turned on tracking we started trolling again and I did a big loop and trolled through the same area and zing number two was on and yes it was the wifes rod again. We trolled the area the rest of the afternoon and after switching to a diver out on a planner board I got hit but it was short lived and the fish got off.
Directly behind the board it created a feeding frenzy for about 30 seconds. I was hoping they would pop back up but they never did.
As I was bringing in my board to reset the wife hurries and drops a mussel to the bottom and as soon as it hit bottom wiper number three starts ripping drag off the wifes reel. She gets that fish in and I am feeling like I am just out there to net fish for the day by now. That's ok. She was netting a bunch of fish for me the week before. Karma I guess or just lucky, She loves to fish as much as I do and it was fun to see here wrestling these fish to the net.
We decided to fish mussels in the area for a bit and we did get plenty of hits for about 45 minutes but they would just take the mussles of leaving us to re-bait many times.
By now the sun is getting low so we decide to troll and look for boils and see how the rest of the day would treat us. Tug goes the wifes pole and a nice 19" inch walleye in the net. Little while longer and my rod loads up another walleye but a 13" walleye is my first fish to the boat for the day. Started trolling again and my rod loads up with a much nicer walleye. I get it right to the boat and that sucker spit the bait right before it hit the net. Looked to be another 18-19" walleye and it sucked to loose it.
The end of the day with 3 big wipers, 2 walleye And oh yeah. A catfish the wife caught earlier right after her big walleye.
Overall a tough day catching we did have quite a few hits that never hooked up and the hits on the bait. So slow yes but searching and staying on the fish once we found some paid off. I only got these few pictures this time.
Lure of choice was #5 black and silver rattlin rapala with 3 oz. snap weight. We don't have line counters so the lure was about 50-75 feet back with a five second count drop on the snap weight. We trolled at 2.2-2.7 mph. 21' of water.
