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Hit Willard today in hopes of lucking into a wiper or two and finding some crappie. No luck on the Crappie but did luck into 2 nice wipers - 5lbs each. First one hit on a clacking crank and the second came on a clacking minnow. I had a feeling that the clacking series would attract some wipers - seemed like it got their attention pretty well.
I launched from my float tube at the North Marina... and both wipers were caught very close to shore. I'll post a pic of them later - don't have the greatest pic of them though and we've all seen wipers!
Will be going back soon...and will report back.
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those clackers have produced some nice wipers and walleye for me over the last 2 or 3 years as well, sounds like you caught some solid fish.
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My buddy and I got up there last weekend on the 25th and did very well. We ended up with 11 Wiper and 4 Walleye. I would have limited out on Wiper but I lost it right at the boat. We went looking for the Crappie as well but the water temp was too high so I think they are deep right now.
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Made it back out there tonight. Planned on doing some night fishing too but the bugs were unreal. Bug bay!
Fished from about 4:00PM till dark. Threw cranks all day and almost went home empty handed. At about 7:00PM I was losing hope. By that time I had only caught one fish, a fifteen lb carp. He nailed a clacking minnow...and he was trying to eat it too - he grabbed it with his mouth. I was zipping the crank around at a good speed too.... carp are more athletic and predatory than most will give them credit for.
Anyhow on my way in to call it a day I finally landed a wiper. Then another in quick order. A 2.5lber and a 3lber. Had to stay till dark now.
Fished the same area (near the dyke - not out in open water) for the rest of the night and ended up with 2 more wipers and a walleye. Biggest wiper was about 4lbs and the eye was a youngin. All fish were caught on either the clackin rap or clackin minnows. Color did not seem important but orange has been a little better than the rest.
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[cool][#0000ff]Nice work. Sounds like you are on to something...or ON something. How much weight did you lose to the aerial squadrons?[/#0000ff]
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Yeah I might be onto something.... or I am just a lucky son of a gun. When I hadn't caught a wiper in over 4-5 hours of pitching cranks I realized why so many have a love hate relationship with Willard Wipers. With that said though, I'd be happy throwing cranks all day for just one Wiper. They are quickly becoming my new favorite species (sorry kitties).
The bugs were not bad at all until the sun went down and then they came out in force. Literally saw a few "clouds" of bugs forming... scary stuff.
That "fish highway" you spoke of is where all the fish came from again. I tried elsewhere throughout the day but couldn't get a bump. I did notice the last hour or so before the sun dipped down seemed to be the hottest action. Seemed like a good # of Wipers hit the shoreline looking for something to snack on... have you seen that before?
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"Seemed like a good # of Wipers hit the shoreline looking for something to snack on... have you seen that before?"
[cool][#0000ff]Pretty common among many species on many waters. It's a combination of the food chain thing and light intensity...and water commotion during the summer. Bugs and crawdads get more active in lower light and cooler temps. That brings in the predators. They always follow the groceries.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]And Willard Bay is a good example of a "summer pattern" for several species. The kitties actually seem to be more active in the morning hours but can often bite better at night...especially the larger fish. Walleyes get progressively less active in the daytime when water temps climb over 75...but move shallower at night to feed. The wipers feed all day and all night but are more out in open water until water traffic subsides and their food supply is easier to find along rocky shoreline. Once the baby shad of this year's spawn get more than an inch long, and school up around the edges, it will become even more pronounced. Boil time.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]You commented in one of your other reports about finding crawdads in your wipers. I suspect that is why the fish come in closer to the rocks in low light conditions. That is when nocturnal crawdads come out to play and are easier to find. I have caught quite a few wipers with crustaceans in their innards...as in the pic below.[/#0000ff]
[inline "DAD IN WIPER.jpg"]
[#0000ff]I have a copy of a report from Craig Schaugaard, a fisheries biologist for Willard. In their net samplings they find that until the shad become a part of the diet each year the Wipers rely heavily on crawdads and other invertebrates. That should clue in more anglers about where to fish and what to use.[/#0000ff]
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Stripers, one of the parent fish of Wipers, prey on crabs, lobsters, and shrimp in the ocean. If they can't find little fishies to eat, they go scrounging in the rocks for little deletable morsels to munch. At Powell, when the shad are scarce, they focus on crawdad almost exclusively, so it is not unreasonable that Wipers will do the same. Even though they can't spawn, they will move up streams in the spring like their other parent, White Bass. I don't fish Willard much, but if I were going to hit it for Wipers, I would troll the main lake with deep divers during the day, then move shallow during the low light periods, until the Shad start to show up. Remember, Gizzard Shad roam the open water most of the time, moving in to cover only to spawn. Wipers follow the shad !!!!!
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I have only caught them on the clackin rap. Seem like a really great lure.
Nice to hear that somone is getting some fish in.
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[cool][#0000ff]You are right about stripers. When I lived in Sacramento my home was right over the levee from the American River. Got to know how opportunistic those stripers were. There were almost always a few in the river but they really swarmed upstream to wait for the annual dumping of steelhead and salmon smolt from the Nimbus hatchery. But while they were waiting they dined well on small sunfish and crawdads in the holes below the hatchery.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]My sons and I liked to put on the mask and fins and gather crawdads in the holes and eddies on the American River. During the day the "bugs" (the smart ones) hid out under the rocks on the bottom and we had to roll the rocks to get at them. The sound of rolling rocks often attracted a big ol' striper or two. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The fish would set up station a yard or so away to wait for "escapees". We had to grab fast for the crawdads or they would squirt out away from us...and the stripers would pounce. What you call a symbiotic relationship. Especially when I would rig up a rod after the crawdaddin' and send a fresh bug back out to the stripers with a hook in it. Had a lot of enjoyable meals munchin' on steamed crawdads while waiting for the fresh striper fillets to finish cooking on the grill.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Once the hatchery dumped their annual production of steelhead and salmon smolts the feeding habits of the stripers switched gears. Then it was time to start flingin' rainbow pattern Rapalas. You think a wiper boil is exciting. Wait until you have a whole river erupting in front of you with stripers over 20 pounds.[/#0000ff]
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