08-08-2013, 11:50 AM
"Any tips on speed or depth to pick up those scattered fishies? Did you see any boils at all?"
[#0000FF]Sorry for the lack of details. I am usually a bit more attentive to the particulars.
Depth? The area we fished was 10 - 12 feet...max. Best areas seemed to be about 11 to 11.5 feet. The lake is a big shallow bowl with a fairly flat bottom over much of the lake. With current low water conditions there are not many spots much deeper.
Speed? GPS speeds ranged from about 2.2 to 2.5 mph. Due to some residual murk in the water the visibility was not conducive to sight-feeding fish hitting at higher speeds. Both of our catfish came on slower speeds. The single walleye and all three wipers hit at the higher speeds...in areas of cleaner water.
None of the fish we cleaned had ANY stomach contents. And the wipers were a bit lean. Also, there were no observable shad schools, unlike the huge schools we typically encounter all over the lake at this time of year. No boils, but I did see one "wiperlike" series of surface splashes. Too far away for a positive ID.
We saw a few terns flying over the lake but none diving on baby shad...which are usually in huge swarms by now. We did see a few large groups of grebes in a couple of places but they just seemed to be there for each others' company. None appeared to be diving and fishing.
In short, the long ice cap, low water conditions and other factors seem to have reduced shad numbers. The predators are having to forage for whatever they can find. We were catching fish on larger lures than what usually works best this time of year. We were also catching them on darker colors and bright colors...not the traditional small shad imitators that are necessary to get the attention of fish feeding selectively on abundant baby shad. Both of the fish I landed hit a perch pattern crank...about 4" long. TubeBabe's large wiper came on a pale perch color 3" crankbait. And WH2 has been doing best on crawdad colors and lures with dark backs and bright or light colored lower parts. Even lures with black or purple backs.
The deadly "bait dragon" technique has always worked well for me at Willard. Working a minnow on one rod while kicking along and pitching plastics or cranks has scored a lot of catfish...as well as a goodly number of walleyes and wipers. Recently, with the predators forced to forage, there have been numbers of wipers and walleyes caught by soaking crawlers. They are hungry.
Good luck. PM me if you need more info.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
[#0000FF]Sorry for the lack of details. I am usually a bit more attentive to the particulars.
Depth? The area we fished was 10 - 12 feet...max. Best areas seemed to be about 11 to 11.5 feet. The lake is a big shallow bowl with a fairly flat bottom over much of the lake. With current low water conditions there are not many spots much deeper.
Speed? GPS speeds ranged from about 2.2 to 2.5 mph. Due to some residual murk in the water the visibility was not conducive to sight-feeding fish hitting at higher speeds. Both of our catfish came on slower speeds. The single walleye and all three wipers hit at the higher speeds...in areas of cleaner water.
None of the fish we cleaned had ANY stomach contents. And the wipers were a bit lean. Also, there were no observable shad schools, unlike the huge schools we typically encounter all over the lake at this time of year. No boils, but I did see one "wiperlike" series of surface splashes. Too far away for a positive ID.
We saw a few terns flying over the lake but none diving on baby shad...which are usually in huge swarms by now. We did see a few large groups of grebes in a couple of places but they just seemed to be there for each others' company. None appeared to be diving and fishing.
In short, the long ice cap, low water conditions and other factors seem to have reduced shad numbers. The predators are having to forage for whatever they can find. We were catching fish on larger lures than what usually works best this time of year. We were also catching them on darker colors and bright colors...not the traditional small shad imitators that are necessary to get the attention of fish feeding selectively on abundant baby shad. Both of the fish I landed hit a perch pattern crank...about 4" long. TubeBabe's large wiper came on a pale perch color 3" crankbait. And WH2 has been doing best on crawdad colors and lures with dark backs and bright or light colored lower parts. Even lures with black or purple backs.
The deadly "bait dragon" technique has always worked well for me at Willard. Working a minnow on one rod while kicking along and pitching plastics or cranks has scored a lot of catfish...as well as a goodly number of walleyes and wipers. Recently, with the predators forced to forage, there have been numbers of wipers and walleyes caught by soaking crawlers. They are hungry.
Good luck. PM me if you need more info.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]