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Finally found myself with some unplanned hours Friday afternoon. What a better way to fill the void than floating at Willard. Stiff winds almost kept me in the parking lot, but I decided to launch anyway. I picked up a well loved project boat several months ago with the intent of having a larger boat to fit the family and handle the rougher waters better than my last boat. Figured this would be a good first run and test. Battled the big rollers and white caps to the NW corner, killed the motor and just bobbed in the waves wherever the wind blew me. Put out a bouncer/ harness rig and was catching fish within 5 min. Walleye and wipers were split pretty evenly. I had a rattling crank on the other rod, but it never got touched. White with red eye harness caught nearly everything until I lost it to a toothy critter. In my rush to put gear in, I forgot to bring any landing gear. No net, pliers, lip grippers or anything useful. It was a real chore trying to get fish a board hanging over the edge with the boat rocking so bad. I felt lucky to land as many as I did before finally losing the lucky lure. Wish I could give details on temp, depth, speed etc, but I was fishing blind. Haven’t installed fish finder yet. Im convinced the walleye chop did it’s job last night. As a side note, when do the wiper finish their spawning habits? One was making a mess of the boat. Wish I had a wiper diaper.
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Sounds like the sea trial on the boat went well and you got fish also. Well done
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(05-16-2021, 12:12 AM)EyLayo Wrote: Finally found myself with some unplanned hours Friday afternoon. What a better way to fill the void than floating at Willard. Stiff winds almost kept me in the parking lot, but I decided to launch anyway. I picked up a well loved project boat several months ago with the intent of having a larger boat to fit the family and handle the rougher waters better than my last boat. Figured this would be a good first run and test. Battled the big rollers and white caps to the NW corner, killed the motor and just bobbed in the waves wherever the wind blew me. Put out a bouncer/ harness rig and was catching fish within 5 min. Walleye and wipers were split pretty evenly. I had a rattling crank on the other rod, but it never got touched. White with red eye harness caught nearly everything until I lost it to a toothy critter. In my rush to put gear in, I forgot to bring any landing gear. No net, pliers, lip grippers or anything useful. It was a real chore trying to get fish a board hanging over the edge with the boat rocking so bad. I felt lucky to land as many as I did before finally losing the lucky lure. Wish I could give details on temp, depth, speed etc, but I was fishing blind. Haven’t installed fish finder yet. Im convinced the walleye chop did it’s job last night. As a side note, when do the wiper finish their spawning habits? One was making a mess of the boat. Wish I had a wiper diaper.
The wiper false spawn is likely about over. I've seen them as shallow as a foot of water on May 1st, that was when the channel use to open and they were right there on the banks, just not sure how early they start though. How big were the wipers you caught?
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Thanks Wh2. I thought it was a little late for them, but guess not. Forgot any measuring device also, but the wipers were all high teeners. Nothing over 20. The walleye were a little shorter on average, only 1 that was as long as the wipers.
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Good to see a report from ya. And a successful one at that. Nice.
Remember: keep the lid on the worms, share your jerky, and stop by to say hi to Cookie and the Cowboy-Pirate crew
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Sounds good Shawn, you catch fish even when the odds are stacked against it... Nice job... Jeff
When things get stressful think I'll go fish'en and worry about it tomorrow!
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Educational post, thanks!
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(05-16-2021, 04:20 PM)EyLayo Wrote: Thanks Wh2. I thought it was a little late for them, but guess not. Forgot any measuring device also, but the wipers were all high teeners. Nothing over 20. The walleye were a little shorter on average, only 1 that was as long as the wipers.
I'm not really sure how early they start their false spawn but I do know, from past experience, that about now the wipers start showing up in bigger numbers for those that are away from shore trolling cranks. By the end of this month we start catching more of them than earlier in this month but those numbers vary from year to year depending on how many they plant and how many survive.
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(05-16-2021, 12:12 AM)EyLayo Wrote: Finally found myself with some unplanned hours Friday afternoon. What a better way to fill the void than floating at Willard. Stiff winds almost kept me in the parking lot, but I decided to launch anyway. I picked up a well loved project boat several months ago with the intent of having a larger boat to fit the family and handle the rougher waters better than my last boat. Figured this would be a good first run and test. Battled the big rollers and white caps to the NW corner, killed the motor and just bobbed in the waves wherever the wind blew me. Put out a bouncer/ harness rig and was catching fish within 5 min. Walleye and wipers were split pretty evenly. I had a rattling crank on the other rod, but it never got touched. White with red eye harness caught nearly everything until I lost it to a toothy critter. In my rush to put gear in, I forgot to bring any landing gear. No net, pliers, lip grippers or anything useful. It was a real chore trying to get fish a board hanging over the edge with the boat rocking so bad. I felt lucky to land as many as I did before finally losing the lucky lure. Wish I could give details on temp, depth, speed etc, but I was fishing blind. Haven’t installed fish finder yet. Im convinced the walleye chop did it’s job last night. As a side note, when do the wiper finish their spawning habits? One was making a mess of the boat. Wish I had a wiper diaper. Great report and glad you broke the new boat in right with some fish slime. Thanks for the report.
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