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Hi all. I'm new to the board. I've been impressed with the quality and maturity of anglers on this site.
On to my first report...
Fished Willard Tuesday from 6:30AM until Noon. Launched from the South marina and hit the island. Fished with a bottom bouncer with a worm harness. I was getting hits but could never hook the fish. They just kept stealing by crawler. I switched to a leaded Jig/spinner combo with a nightcrawler and started nailing the catfish. Caught over 20 fish between 1 and 2 LBS. Kept enough to eat and threw the rest of them back.
My father did the same on kitties and also caught a 16 inch walleye. While we were trolling back to the marina my father caught a huge perch (12" plus) on a mister twister.
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Welcome finhunter
You have just entered the fish zone.
Later,FNF.
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Welcome finhunter. The perch out at Willard are few and far between, but they can be quite big...and tasty! Thanks for the report.
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Welcome aboard. That's a great first post. Keep 'em coming.
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Welcome to the site Finhunter and thanks for the post. Were you targeting catfish or walleye? Did you try trolling any crankbaits? Lately we have done good trolling shad colored cranks for walleye and wipers but not in the number that you did for the cats. WH2
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WH2:
We were targeting the walleye. I would have moved around more, maybe to the feedlot or the south west dike if the catfish hadn't been bitting so well. I had to be off the lake by noon so just threw up the white flag on the walleye after a while. I don't know if the walleye just were not there or if it was a matter of finding the right lure. But the catfish sure looooved the spinner/nightcrawler combo.
I have tried using bottom bouncers but I don't think I know what I'm doing. either I'm always snaging the bottom or going to fast and not reaching the bottom. Or when I do get a bit, The fish seemed to just remove the crawler without ever getting hooked.
I have a variety of shad rapps but haven't even had a bite on one yet. I've fished any where from 5 to 10 feet down trolling them behind lead of different weights (1/2 oz to 2 oz). I've tried different trolling speeds (GPS) 1.5 to 3.5 miles an hour. Seems to be what others on this site are doing but I can't get the walleye to cooperate. I did catch a wiper on a 3" plastic shad immitation back in May.
Any tips on using bottom bouncers and shad rapps would be greatly appreciated.
Dave
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BTW, "finhunter" is a very cool name.
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Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome!
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[font "Arial Black"][red][size 3] Hi there finhunter, welcome to the BFT boards. There are a lot of good folks here and a library of information to be had.[/size][/red][/font]
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[font "Arial Black"][#ff0000][size 3] AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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