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Hit willard saturday by myself. It wasnt a bad day but not great either. Fish were slow at first but warmed up later in the afternoon. I wound up with 8 walleye and 5 wiper in the boat. Lost about a dozen walleye and 2 wipers (short biters early in the day). Fish came off blades and cranks. Firetiger blade early then silver frenzy stick bait later. I kept a few for dinner and let the rest go. One walleye was 14" and the reast were between 20 and 23". Didnt measure the wipers.
I have had some requests to post some structure scan screen shots of some of the structure at willard. I wont disclose the location but its all over the lake. I have 2 displays on my dash so the pics were taken at the same time but on 2 units. I have the down scan overlayed with regular sonar on the down scan pics, so you can see what it looks like with down and side scan at the same time.
rampss... center ramp at the s marina
southmarinass... the rocky area on the east side of the marina
tree.... some of the christmas trees
roads.... some of the submerged construction roads
ridges..... natural ridges (where most of my fish came from)
(notice on ridgess, all the fish in the bottom on the right, got 4 walleye out of that pod)
wipers.... a school of wiper (caught 2 out of it)
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You got to love the new lowrance graffs worth every penny Great job nice nice fish
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Wow, a guy can learn a lot from reviewing those picutures. Thanks for taking the time to post and share with us. Man, fish just aint got a chance any more!
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Nice report - nice fish, sounds like you got into them pretty good.
It's cool to see all those imaging shots. Thanks for sharing, just wish I knew better how to interpret them. The colored ones - I can see it - the downscan have me a bit  . I've seen some images in magazines that "looked" like trees and such detail. But I don't know that I "get it".
I have heard tell about those "roads" "ridges" and "xmas trees". That's probably where I lose my bottom bouncers!
Passed by on the way back from Granmas - looked like the N. Dike had a number of bank tanglers lined up. Couldn't see much going on in the N. Marina from the freeway.
Sure with I could learn to chase down them Walleye like you do - very nice! Thanks for the post.
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One of these times i'll post a side by side of regular 200kz sonar and down image instead of the overlay. That gives a good idea of what the screen is showing. Although fish arent as impressive on the down scan, no big pretty arches, just blobs. I had some of last year where you can actually make out the fish shape with fins and all, but i deleted it. The target seperation on the down scan is amazing though, I will have to get one showing what looks like a rock with normal sonar is actually a fish laying an inch off the bottom. The best way to imagine the sidescan is think of the sonar beams as flashlights, thats why you get shadows behind objects and lighter images facing the boat. In a couple of the tree down pics you can see a couple of branchs left on them. Alot depends on the speed you go over stuff to, it images its best at about 3 mph.
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Way to go son [cool] Wish I was in the boat with you as I haven't got the Ranger wet yet. I'm leaving for Boysen this coming Thursday for a weeks pre fishing before the tourney. I'll get you a report ASP.
Good job! Dad
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That is the cats azz! I would have never thought all that stuff was in there? Looks like I need to follow you around. LOL!
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Nice catch Mike, you're my hero, anybody that can turn walleye back and keep a couple wipers to eat in their place is # 1 in my book. That is something I can't do, If it wasn't for some of my wife's friends who are Oriental and love to eat wipers I wouldn't keep a wiper they would all go back. I love to catch them for the fight though. [fishin].
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Nice job Mike!!![cool] Hoping we'll get my boat back in a couple more weeks so I can actually start doing some fishing. [pirate]
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Good luck buddy. I hope the weather is better for you this year than it was for us last year.[cool]
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Its the girlfriend that likes the wipers, not me. She cooks up both at the same time and I eat the wallees[  ]. Just off the fish in the pic we got 5 dinner size bags of fillets, thats half a month worth for us. Let em go to make babies next year, more little dinners for years to come[fishin].
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I know that's your story and you're sticking to it[  ]
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Haven't seen you or Mike's name on the list for our get together at Willard on June 11th, are you guys not going to join us this year? Money has to be in by April 30th or you will drop off the original list.
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[cool]I am curious as to how you know rather the fish are wipers or walleye or cats or whatever. I have always wonder when I'm out there what the fish are that I'm marking because there are so many different species in the res.. I have kinda just used my fishing knowledge to try and determine what they are. Walleye are generally on the bottom or close to it, wipers can be anywhere but are usually in bigger schools and so on. You tend to just get a feel for what is what with the knowledge of the fishes habits. Is this how you know what they are or is there something your seeing on your finder to tell you this. Just hoping to gain some more knowledge from one of the willard kings, love your posts.
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Great pictures I love my graft too, only had mine on the water two times but WOW they sure work great..
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Short answer.... catch em and find out. That particular school i knew were wipers because two of em made it in the live well[ ]. The wipers I have found tend to be more loosely schooled than say, a pod of carp. You can see from the pic how far apart each fish is, rather than almost touching each other. Not to say I havent found em schooled up tight, but they tend not to. The pod of walleye in the ridgess pic on the right I knew were walleye when I pulled 5 of em out of it. I cant tell you how many time Ive marked a bunch of fish right on the bottom and thought, oh goody walleees! Only to find out Im over a bunch of catfish[crazy]. Thats not to say though I dont frequently find walleye and catfish hanging out together. I think the cats in willard eat so many live fish that they tend to be where the food is, right along side the walleye.
It does tend to get a little more complicated later in the year when the cats, walleye, and wiper are all suspended chasing shad schools around. Thats why alot of people catch the walleye in the summer, drag cranks around enough and they will eventually eat em. Watch your sonar and see what its telling you. Suspending walleye will usually hold a specific depth, say 11 feet, to where the wipers will be schooled between 8-13 feet on the same day (not saying that were they are at, just an example). If your targeting wiper, drag right through the middle of the school. If your targeting walleye, Try and hold right above em. If theyre at 11ft run your crank at 9-10ft. The catfish.... You'll have to get with tubedude on that, all of mine I catch on accident[cool]. Hope this helps ya. [fishin]
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[ ]Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate you taking the time to give me some insight on your tactics and knowledge. It seems that all I need is one of those fancy side scanners now, don't think that's happening anytime soon. I do understand what your talking about and this comes from a lot experience and time on the water, thanks again.
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Nice seeing you on Saturday. I was stating to fish'n partner when we were there if you were crankems son. Guessed right on that one. Yep that was fish'n partner that had that Wiper slam the setup you saw jump from the seat. I'm sure we'll see ya gain. We're slowly get'n them Eyes figured out while practicing the 3Ps. Our problem is we get target fixated on an area and we don't move soon enough to another area if the fishie aren't interested in our offerings...that will change from now on as we have a few ideas up our learning sleeves. Thanks for the kind words over on the other site...[ ][ ]
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[quote k2muskie]. . . while practicing the 3Ps. . . . have a few ideas up our learning sleeves. Thanks for the kind words over on the other site...[ ][ ][/quote]
Duoh! You mentioned the "other" site? Ah, at least you didn't link to it! (har har)
Have to bite - what are the 3ps?
Poke em, Prod em, Pull em?
Man - if it'd stop snowing - I'd make a run down there! Hell - the spawn almost over now! At least according to the calendar. Not sure what the FISH have in mind...
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[quote CoyoteSpinner]have to bite - what are the 3ps?
[/quote]
3Ps = Passion, Persistence, Patience (and with the last ' P' I ran through that line except when fish'n)
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