Willard 6-16

[Jmorfish]

I guess no use for a new thread on this, as me and a buddy were out there floating around just like everyone else today..Unlike most of you though, this was my boat's first trip here this season, so it pains me to hear you say the best may be over..I guess I should have launched at the So. marina, as that's about where we headed to from the No. marina..so we were fishing by 0730, hooking up about 15 mins later..We did best til about 1000, then 2 larger cats in the NW corner about 1100, then slowly headed back out to the "Openness", and from there and back to the No. marina we had 3 more good hookups...4 average walleyes, 2 large cats, 4 large perch, and 2 smallish wipers were our take..1 very small wiper netted and released, 2 very large walleye missed the net right at the boat..our planer boards worked for 4 fish, but bottom bouncers were best for us, catching 9 and missing a few others...bugs were treacherous, but a very good fishing day...

Glad to read you were able to get out there Joe, after reading Packfan's post below yours, maybe there is still a few more weeks left until the end. Could be location. Where we found them last week, we were in a spot where no one else was fishing and we were not marking any shad, this week there was shad all over, so it could be, if you fish where no one else is fishing, you might till be able to do well, hopefully Pete will answer this post and let us know if he was marking shad in the area he was fishing. By the way, how long is a large cat and a smallish wiper? Totally agree with you on the bugs, they were bad, glad the wind was blowing some, to keep the worst part of them down.

Hey Curtis...my 2 perch were about 12.5", my cat 21" (that's way big enough for me), my 3 walleye 15 to 15.5", my releaser wiper 8", and  the 2 my buddy kept 10 and 12"...I was surprised we didn't stumble into any larger wipers on crank baits, but was especially grateful for the luck we did have...BTW....for any Newbie 'Bottom Bouncers'...I know better, but forgot to cut the large part of the nite crawler's tail off from the last hook of the nite crawler harness...and lost at least 3 good hits with the fish getting a good feeding of crawler, and not the hook...Use a fat, juicy nite crawler, but cut off, and only leave 1" sticking behind that last hook...Way better hookups after that...