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Headed to Willard early 10/30 - hit the water at 7:15. Thought I would see if we could scare up a walleye and headed to the NE corner and fished a few of the humps. Was just a wee bit brisk out there to say the least - I felt as though I was back in MN fishing the walleye opener! Water temp was 48 - warmed to 51 by the time I left at 2:00. Marked a few fish on the edges of the humps and started dragging crawler harnesses, and minnows on jigs. Had a couple of hits, but they didn't seem to want to do anything other than bump and drop. I had noticed a few fish on the finder between the humps I was fishing hanging out at about 10-12 feet over 19 feet, so we threw on some diving Rapalas and first pass through had a nice 21" wiper. Next pass, a double header - two 19 inchers. Needless to say, the walleyes were forgotten - it was wiper time! Two more passes, two more fish. Then, the wind switched from NE to NW and we were pretty much done catching for the day... sure was glad I had hit it early or I would have missed out on the wipers we did catch. I did hook one more.....?????? at the mouth of the harbor - not sure what it was when I landed it and did not have my camera. It looked like what we used to call "skipjacks" in North Dakota - goldeye I think is their real name. Are these in Willard???
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[black][size 3]Hey sk8heaven,[/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]I don't think there are officially any skipjack herring(aka golden shad) in Willard(if that is what it was). [/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]But that said, we all know about the bucket brigade and how liberally they can sow their seeds without notice. [/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]Who knows, maybe there is another species to expect on your hook nowadays.[/size][/black]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Are you sure it wasn't a Gizzard Shad? A Gizzard Shad can easily get 14" long. [/size][/black][/font]
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I looked up gizzard shad and I don't think it was that. This is the picture I went by - could swear it was this - same anal fin, coloration, shape. I could still be wrong, but after this picture I was convinced it was a goldeye.
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Yea, thats what I would call a [font "Comic Sans MS"]Gizzard Shad, just like BLM said, at least in my opinion. Thanks for the report, its good to know that those wipers can be caught early in the day, most of the reports I've read where wipers were caught, they were fishing the afternoon/evening. WH2[/font]
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Ok, after being so sure of myself, I had to do a little more research and learned that the Gizzard shad will lose it's spot on the side as it grows bigger and the fins can pick up some reddish coloration also. Unfortunately, I do not remember where the fin on its back was located so I now have to agree with BLM that it most likely was a gizzard shad [blush] ..... just another reason I am part of this board .... to learn from the masters [cool].
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