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Took a co-worker and his kids out to willard this morning to try and get them their first wipers and to break my a.m. jinkx. Well I still have the a.m. shutout going and they didn't get their wipers either. We only ended up with one walleye that had been drug around for who knows how long. We started over by the feed lot, did a couple of laps there, then did a couple around the island. At that point We had 2 long releases for the morning, so we headed for the light pole and trolled to the SW corner and back only getting the one walleye, and one more long release. I tried all my favorite cranks and some plastics with no results. I varied the speed from 2.8 all the way to 4.5 mph and did the lazy S patterns. Nothing was working for me today. We fished from 6:30 till 12:00 (which was in the good time and best time frame accordidng to the solunar charts). The bugs were pretty bad this morning, lots of tiny gnats that would just crawl all over you, not too many buzzing your head though.
I guess I'll have to take tem out again for an afternoon run and get them some fish.
This early out gives me more time to wander at Cabelas though, leaving for the mother land in about an hour.
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Unsolicited shutout-ending hint for the AM:
We're finding the wipers hugging the shoreline in the mornings. Pound the dikes (from about 30-40 yards out) with 3" curlytails on 1/4 oz. jigheads with a "3 fast cranks/drop/3 fast cranks/drop" retrieve. Resembles a speedier version of fishing texas-rigged plastics for LM or SM bass. Simple vertical jigging (a couple ocranks off the bottom) in the same areas, with the same set-up, if there's enough of a breeze to move you along the dike can also be productive.
Juvenile shads in the rocks + Cannibalistic adult shad = Wipers in the shallows. At least that's our theory.
It's been a reliable approach for us during the last month, and a heck of alot more fun than dragging hardware all over the lake. Dike areas are ultra-buggy, though - especially infested with those #$%&*% deerflies.
You're on your own to find the right stretch of shoreline - some things are sacred!!!
W2D
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[cool][#0000ff]Some wipers are also foraging in the rocks for crawdads, along with some smallies. Crawdad cranks and plastics will pick up both at this time.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Here is a pic of the stomach contents of one wiper I filleted Friday.[/#0000ff]
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[cool][#0000ff]Piscatorial post-mortems.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Sorry. I have always been an avid student of what fish eat and how that translates to fishing approaches. It has led to changes in techniques that helped the catch rates.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Guess I should put a warning on my posts: Caution...do not view while eating in front of your computer.[/#0000ff]
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We (my cousin and I) were there also this morning. We started trolling the north dike around 6:30 a.m. in my 14' MirroCraft BIG FISHERMAN boat with BIG FISH stickers on the side... We caught one Walleye, snagged up and lost a lure, then tried the curly tail thing on the north dike with no success. We then trolled the feed lot and hooked up with a 20" Wiper and a 16" Wiper. All three fish came home for dinner. We were using Rapala Deep Divers in Size #8. Stayed till about noon.
Pretty slow day.
Randy
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I used to N.ot have E.nough T.ime O.ff to go fishing. Then I retired. Now I have less time than I had before. Sheesh.
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I was there too this morning. I finally got into the wipers in the northeast corner in about 22-feet of water. I landed 8 before going back to real slow walleye speeds. I was using a hammered silver and holographic chartruese spinner/crawler harness going fairly slow looking for walleyes. I did get three eyes and a whole bunch of cats and bullheads at least I think they were bullheads they had real black markings on their face and head.
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