Two evening Willard trips kayak trolling

[JArner]

I fished two evenings at Willard 6/26 and 6/29. The 26th was hot and water was around 76 IIRC. I departed out of pelican beach swim area while the Mrs. and her friend went paddle boarding. My plan was to hit freeway bay for walleyes. I had my first on the line before I cleared the trees, but it self released 20’ from me.  Went quite a few minutes and passes before finally getting another walleye on the line, this one made it to the deck and onto the stringer. Had one other on the line that went the way of the first and let go around 20’ away. On a kayak the waves from pleasure boats can get interesting, took quite a bit of water over the bow, but nothing to worrying. 



The 29th was chilly, don’t recall the water temp but air temp was around 60. I got out of the north marina and a line in the water at 8:05pm. A lot later than I did on Friday. The chop was nothing compared to the boat waves, so only concerns were the looking clouds to the north. It took me 40 minutes to troll out to the middle of freeway bay, and no bites. It was getting dark enough that I needed to make the return trip quick. I started my slow turn and my outside rod started jumping. Shut down the motor and focused on getting the fish in, it turned me around and had a good 5-7 minute fight. Pulled up a healthy 20.5” wiper. Time to book it back to the marina. Pulled in the lines and cranked the motor to the number 5 position, made it back with some light to spare.