Willard 6-5-09 Short but Sweet

[Old_Coot]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][#002850]Fished Willard this morning for a couple hours with my neighbors Mike and Tyler Wilson. We launched at 7:00 and caught our last fish by 8:30. The wind and it's 2-3 foot waves pushed us off the lake at 11:00.

First hit was the biggest ... triples ... 4 lb wiper, 3 lb wiper, and a 1 lb wiper.
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Last fish were doubles ... small walleye and medium wiper.

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I was curious as to what lures were catching what but I couldn't tell because every fish was caught on a different lure; grub, Rapallas, Prism Shad, and Lucky Craft. [/#002850][/size][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][#002850]Tyler's big wiper fileted out some very nice steaks.


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I suspect that there will be some fantastic wiper catching once this up and down pressure system ends.

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We were trolling 3.0 mph GPS and the water temp was 70 degrees.
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[mactuna]

Nice catch
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[goosebuster_ut]

great catch, that one is a hawg. this is the first year Ive been fishing willard, and I've been told the evenings are best, but it looks like your morning is a heck of alot better than my evening.
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[FishNCoach]

Way to Go-Coot, I am sure the two with you had a blast.[]
Yes I beleave the fishing will get better as the weather and pressure improves, how ever looks like a week of bad weather, my Radio station shows that the pressure will not improve for about 7 days, still at 31 inches and level. (fishing improves around 28 Inches and falling) Thanks for the post. See you out there.[fishin]
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[HammerFamily]

Got a couple of questions
for you that maybe will help me figure out what I may be doing wrong. I have been using bottom bouncers in 1/2 ounce and in 1 1/2 ounce but never feel them on the bottom when I am in 21' to 25' of water using both worm harnesses and deep diving Rapalas. I've tried trolling at 1.8 to 3.8 miles per hour and can not figure out why I am not getting down deep. I think maybe I need to let out more line ? how much line are you letting out behind the boat ? Thanks, Hammerfamily.
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[DKStroutfitter]

Let some more line out and drop your speed down to 1mph or even .8mph.
Bottom bouncers work best for Walleye at these speeds at Willard for me.
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[submoa]

I've had best results speed wise at .5 mph with the bouncers. Your trolling faster then I troll crank baits. With that being said I very speed to find what the fish like. The other day it was 1.26 mph, when I was going that speed I was catching walleye, when I wasn't not a bite. They are picky little buggers.
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[Old_Coot]

First of all, I wann't using bounsers. I was targeting wiper by trolling long-line lures.

For bottom bounsers, you have to go about 0.5 mph or just fast enough to get the blade to turn. Any faster than that and your line will lift your bounser up off the bottom. The line to your bottom bounser needs to be at about a 45 degree angle and your bounser should just tick, tick, tick the bottom.

My gig on Willard is just wipers and I'll take a walleye when I can get one by accident. Even if I target walleyes, I don't bottom bounce. Rather, I long line Rapalla tail dancers with three colors of led line out and 150 feet of fire line out behind the lead core to the lure.
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