Workin Willard

[fishinfool]

My brother and I hit the south ramp yesterday at 6:05 am and saw Tube Dude on the ramp preparing for battle.
 The conditions were a little wavy on the south side so we launched the boat and motored towards the north dike for calmer water. 
 Conditions had us expecting better results than we achieved. We finished with 9 walleye (2 smalls released) 3 cats,1crappie and a 4.25 pound wiper.
 Great day with good temps the but the fish had us covering more water and changing colors often. The best color seemed to be blue followed up by black and silver, all in # 5.
 Always good to meet new folks and even though I have read many of his great articles I finally met Wiperhunter in person at the cleaning station and enjoyed the great information he was generous enough to share.

I am blaming yesterday's sun dog for our struggles, that has to be it.

Good meeting you out there yesterday, glad your boat said Farmboat on it or I would have never known it was you. You guys sure had a nice mixed bag, for a 4 species day. Did you say you caught some of them closer to shore?

We started about 100 yards from the north dike but not much luck there. The rest of the day was in open areas on the west side and north of the island. The west area was the best.

I remembered you saying you were fishing closer to the North dike but wasn't sure if you caught any there. We have tried the West side several times but have had little success until yesterday.

Most people that say they are catching smallmouth are trolling close to the dike. It's the only time I have ever caught smallmouth at Willard. Between them and the Cats it's hard to keep the lure closest to the dike in the water if the fish are biting. 

You know it is one of my favorite techniques to use bouncing the inside lure off the rocks is deadly but boat control is critical because of the occasional rock sticking out further from the bank. And the occasional snag.