06-08-2019, 04:48 AM
I don’t know what it is about Willard. No matter how many times I go home empty handed or manage to get a “pitty fish”. I just can’t stop trying to figure that place out. Today it finally paid off.
Been spending way to much time at work, so the boss told me to take the day off. I decided I’m a glutton for punishment so why not try Willard again. Talked my girls into going out with me so we didn’t get as early as a start as I would have liked. Got on the water about 8am and put out 2 bottom bouncers and 2 cranks. There was a boat where we were planing on starting so we decided to try out about 100yards from the rocks. About 30 minutes into our first loop one of the bottom bouncers went off. Our first wiper of the year, they do exist. A few minutes later the other bouncer took off, another wiper. We switched out the cranks for 2 more bouncers and spent the next 3 hours making up for all the slow Willard days I’ve grown accustom to. By 10:30 we had caught 21 wipers, 8 walleye, a catfish, and a crappie.
We had to get a friend back to the dock so he could make it back to work. With the cold front blowing in and knowing it would probably shut the fishing down for a few days. The girls twisted my arm and we headed back out again. I couldn’t even get the line clipped into the planner board before it was fish on again. In 10 minutes we were already up to 12 fish. Twice we fish on all 4 poles. The wind picked up and controlling the boat became much more difficult. We ended up shutting the trolling motor off and drifted with the wind back towards the marina. We picked up a few more and decided to call it a night. We ended up catching 49 fish in about 6 hours. It was a day i will not soon forget and may never be able to duplicate again. I’m glad my girls were there to share in the fun. Can’t wait to try it again!
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Been spending way to much time at work, so the boss told me to take the day off. I decided I’m a glutton for punishment so why not try Willard again. Talked my girls into going out with me so we didn’t get as early as a start as I would have liked. Got on the water about 8am and put out 2 bottom bouncers and 2 cranks. There was a boat where we were planing on starting so we decided to try out about 100yards from the rocks. About 30 minutes into our first loop one of the bottom bouncers went off. Our first wiper of the year, they do exist. A few minutes later the other bouncer took off, another wiper. We switched out the cranks for 2 more bouncers and spent the next 3 hours making up for all the slow Willard days I’ve grown accustom to. By 10:30 we had caught 21 wipers, 8 walleye, a catfish, and a crappie.
We had to get a friend back to the dock so he could make it back to work. With the cold front blowing in and knowing it would probably shut the fishing down for a few days. The girls twisted my arm and we headed back out again. I couldn’t even get the line clipped into the planner board before it was fish on again. In 10 minutes we were already up to 12 fish. Twice we fish on all 4 poles. The wind picked up and controlling the boat became much more difficult. We ended up shutting the trolling motor off and drifted with the wind back towards the marina. We picked up a few more and decided to call it a night. We ended up catching 49 fish in about 6 hours. It was a day i will not soon forget and may never be able to duplicate again. I’m glad my girls were there to share in the fun. Can’t wait to try it again!
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