Willard Wipers - September 24 (WOOOHOO!)

[CBR]

I arrived to Willard around 6:45 AM. The wind was minimal so I started to setup my gear. I got a call from Rick (HCD) saying he was running a little late due to a family obligation that had him up into the late hours of the night. I decided to launch around 7 am.

I started scouting for fish on the finder and trying to find some boils or surface activity and found alot of action inside the marina. I started dragging my lure around in the marina and seemed like I would get hits pretty much any time I trolled in 10-14 feet of water. I had several hit and misses and a few hook ups and losses but successfully landed 3 in about 20 minutes. Just after the third HCD launched so I scooted over to show him the hot lure and give him an extra I brought for him. He put one on and we both started working over the marina.

I hooked up on the east side and then let a nice 3 lb channel cat go then heard Rick yell "Fish On!". I headed over to see what he had because it was giving him one hell of a fight on his fly rod. He ended up landing his first wiper and on a fly rod at that! I snapped a shot and he released this doozie and we started again.



We both seemed to hook up every time we hit certain spots in the marina. We continued to hammer them until about 10:30 AM then we both decided to venture out of the marina to see what we could find elsewhere.

We worked our way north towards the north east end and I hooked up with this nice wiper.





We worked that area over a bit with little success, and only marked minimal shad. We went back and worked some other spots we caught fish regularly and we both had one heck of a time catching until about 12:00 Noon when the wind came up. We decided to call it quits around 1 PM when the wind got so bad we couldnt make our way North anymore, plus my batteries power was depleated.

Overall we had one heck of a day on the water landing around 25-30 wipers between us and Rick successfully added wipers to his list of fish caught. I kept a couple to cook for me and the wife that night but all others were released. Thanks for coming out HCD, great times on the water with great company.




[signature]

[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]A guy lives for those days! Nice report, Craig! I'd like to hit Willard again but I'm afraid it's mack fishing time again![/size][/black][/font]
[signature]

[CBR]

Thanks! Wish I could get up to chase them macks. A friend was up there over the weekend and he had no luck, but then again he was just as clueless as I am with catching Macks.

Let me know how you do. I think I might head up to the Bear in my toon the weekend of the 8th. I can use all the tips I can get at this point.
[signature]

[bassrods]

Great job in a week I mite try a trip to see if my leg can take it, I hope my trip is as good as yours.
[signature]

[CBR]

Make sure your doc gives you a serious anti-inflamitory to take with you if you make it down south. Good to hear from you on the board though, I am off to Jordanelle after work today to chase the smallies. You know, the usual spots.
[signature]

[fairwayphilly]

Awsome day Craig, you're getting pretty good at killing the wipers from a toon. One question though, did you break the tip off of that rod you can see in the third pic with the car door or from a savage hit from a wiper?
[signature]

[CBR]

Hehe, Looks can be decieving. Actually it looks broken, but that is where the photo cuts off. If you select the photo with your mouse like you were going to copy paste it you can see the photo ends there. All my rods are still intact. Well, all the onesI took anyhow.
[signature]

[Fishhound]

Hey CBR - again,

Were you using that make shift down rigger thing you tried to explain to me in the other thread - sorry I'm a little dense and slow on the up-take sometimes. And, how did the test of your new and improved version of that idea work out ? If you already posted about it, I missed it.

P.S. I also was decieved by the photo of your rod - it looked broken to me as well - I'm glad you explained it.
[signature]

[Theekillerbee]

Sounds like a great time up at the bay. Were there many boats launching on Saturday?
[signature]