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Wiperslayer and I fished Willard this afternoon from 4:30 to 9:30. Water temp was 80* when we launched at the north marina. Few boats were out this afternoon, so we did not have any waiting to launch. The water was still 6 foot in the channel but as you go into the bay the water drops to 2 feet before you get to the deeper water. The island on the south side is out of the water but we had no problem once we got into the deeper water. We trolled the north dike and saw hundreds for diving birds, pelicans and snowy egrets, they were all eating shad that were around two inches long.
We were using producers and caught 9 wipers, the smallest was 17 inches but most were 19 inches like the one I'm holding in the attachment. We don't have long before season is over for Willard. WH2
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Did you catch them trolling or did you try casting under the birds? Nice to see someone is getting into the wipers [url "javascript: addTag('  ')"][ ][/url]
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We were trolling but next time I'm taking my electric motor so I can do some casting. I was also marking a lot of fish on the bottom, I'm sure they were walleye, so I'll also take some crawlers and try for them too.
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Thanks for the info! Good Luck!!!
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Sorry for the late report WH2,
I have been haveing problems posting at home,We fished friday from 9:00AM until 3:30PM.Man was it HOT,and I dont mean the fishing,dead calm and bugs all over ya,really sucks.
We did catch 12 fish and had some on that got off.
We caught all are fish near the light pole in 14Ft of water on the white producer and the prism shad.
And I marked at the first bouy out of the north marina at 1.8 ft,man it not gonna be long tell the tubers have it all to them selfs.
later,FNF[url "javascript: addTag('cool')"][img]../../images/gforum/cool.gif[/img][/url]
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what do you mean over? you mean for you boater folks hehe. now for the tubers and shore walkers like me im just getting ready for the big hoopla. hehe thanks for the info wiper. was it wipers herding the shad or just shallow shad the birds were feeding on?
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I wonder if the wiper fishing gets better without so many boaters on the Lake. [url "javascript: addTag(' ')"][ ][/url]
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I know when we fish Hyrum we like boats to pass by now and then. One year we had a guy that would troll by us and after he had be passed us for 30 seconds to a minute and a half we would get a fish. He was good luck.
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It's good to have a lucky charm when your out on the water. This guy wasn't short dressing in green and following a rainbow by any chance? [url "javascript: addTag('sly')"][sly][/url]
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I guess I should have added, "it is about over except for tubers". Just as it was getting dark the splashes from the wipers were getting closer to shore but we never saw them pushing the shad all the way to the shore line. I think the pelican were mainly feeding on shallow shad but the terns were out in deeper water, several hundred yards from shore. WH2
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i know i was just teasing in the over season part. it looks like they are getting started a bit early for some reason. i wonder if this trend of humidity has anything to do with it. it does this when fall is coming also. i wonder if they are pushing earlier because of it. at least fom my memory i dont remember them pushing shad shallow until about august but not in july.
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I hit Willard today with my son Joseph. He caught his first wiper. Hooray. It was slow for us though. We did see a bunch of terms feasting on shad along the north dike and tried trolling through the school, but I think we just spooked all the fish and didn't get a hit. We should have anchored and cast into the birds and jigged instead. I am still trying to figure these wipers out. Acey
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What time did you get there and what time did you leave? The casting idea is a good one, thats what I'm going to try the next time out. I think the wipers are shallow because thats where the shad are and by shallow I mean 2 to 3 ft under the surface. In the areas we were seeing the terns diving we were marking few fish, I think that is because they were right near the surface and when the boat went by, they just moved aside. I hope you have better luck next time. WH2
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It sounds like it is time to try it from shore again. I haven't been out there for a few weeks. If I make it tonight I will post a report.
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If you made it out tonight I hope you did good. The only area we saw wipers anywhere near shore was along the north dike, about halfway between the light pole ang the outlet.
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Thanks for the up date. I didn't make it out last night.
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We started fishing Tuesday at 7 a.m. and trolled west to the dike and then south towards the light pole. We marked lots of fish but they wouldn't hit any of the rattle traps or shad raps we used. The only one Joe caught was on a red spinner, go figure. We bagged it at ten a.m. and went to Mantua and fished there till noon and then got out of the sun. Do the wipers seem to be more active in the evenings? I wondered how much the storm front the day before influenced the fish.
It was still nice to get out and enjoy time with my son. Acey
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thanks for the report Acey, petty4life and I went out in the morning on friday and only caught two, so I would have say it has been slow in the morning. The last three times I've been out in the evening have been better, so I would say that would be the best time to hit Willard. As far as the storms having any effect on the fishing, I would say it might but if it does, it isn't much. You might have left too early on tuesday because we did not catch our first wiper until 11am on friday. How did you do at Mantua? WH2
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We fished Mantua until noon so were only there for 2 hours. We caught a few bluegills out of the weedless pockets, but didn't really get into any big schools of them. I couldn't find any over by the inlet on the south, only lots of thick ugly weeds that were hanging onto my motor and making me  . We tried several bass baits without any hits on them. Acey
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Fishaddict1 and i hit Willard bay Saturday morning we got there before sun up and never had a hit, we had to leave around 9 am. We saw shad jumping out of the water around us and birds diving and pelicans but we did not catch any fish. A truck with a licence plate that said HV2FISH passed me just before i got to he willard exit. I thought he would have pulled off to go to willard put must have gone to another water. That must have been one of you.
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