Windy on Willard 8-28-06

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]There have already been a couple of mentions about the wiperless evening on Willard last night. Probably because it was too windy. Oh, the weather was fine. Calm, clear and hot. But, there were a couple of oldtimers out fishing that really produced a lot of hot air. An endless tirade of fishing stories and rememberies...some of them even true.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]GEEZER and I launched his boat in the north Marina about 2:30. We decided to try "inside" first, since I had been fairly successful on morning wipers and kitties in past trips. I scored an 11 inch smallie on my first cast with my little pearl shad. Had him for the camera and sent him back. Two casts later I got a hard whack and a serious bend in my stick. Hoped for a wiper but settled for a plastic munchin' kitty. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]GEEZER was practicing his hooking technique. He hooked his extra rod on the backcast several times and hooked several nice strings of green "salad". He also hooked a nice tree branch and brought it skillfully to the boat. I reminded him that it must be at least a "forkhorn" to be legal.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We soaked minnows on our second rods while continuing to prospect with plastic. We both scored a couple of kitties on the bait, but nothing more wanted to play with the faux shadlets.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We headed over to the north dike area and again dragged minnows as we drifted on the calm lake, casting lures all around. We saw a few tiny shad here and there, and the occasional tern scoring a dive on them, but no visible boils or other excitement.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We did get to meet Leaky (without Sparky). He was walking back up the dike after fishing a long stretch without a single wiper. No married ones either. He had managed a smallie and kitty or two. Good to see him. He and GEEZER exchanged pleasantries and tried to decide which was older. Leaky won. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]After failing to get a poke on either bait or plastic we hauled over to the dike out from the feed lot. We did see an occasional individual wiper chase single shad to the top but never got any real hits...and no wipers. We did score a bunch of kitties on minnows, however, and quickly went through the two bags I had brought. We kept about a dozen between us, releasing several more.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Had one inattentive troller almost run right into our transom while we were anchored about 30 feet off the dike. "Oops...sorry". We also had a dike-running water skier heading right for us. First, they dumped the skier about a hundred yards from us...as they always do...and then when the skier got back up, they continued right for us. I grabbed my camera to take their picture and they made a sudden wide swing out away from us. I guess they were camera shy.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]After not seeing any trollers doing any good, and not seeing much evidence of wiper activity, we moved back inside the marina for another half hour of fruitless casting. Oh yeah, I got one final plastic munchin' kitty and a couple of other doinks from small fish, and that was it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Gave GEEZER a filleting demo with my electric fillet knife at the cleaning station and we headed back down the road. It was a windy ride back to Salt Lake too, as life stories, hero stories and fishing yarns filled the cab of his truck. Good company.[/#0000ff]
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[Flycasting]

Looks like the two of you had a great time. It's odd that you scored a multiple kitties on the shad body... We've made a couple thousand casts in the marina with those things this summer and I don't remember scoring a kittie on one.

Anyway, great report and pics as usual... Thanks for sharing! []
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[ajensen83]

so TubeDude did you see me out there, I am wondering if i was fishing in a good area, somewhere near you ... I was in a blue pontoon boat, I was the only pontoon boat I saw on the lake... I started out by the picnic area and floated to about 100 yards south of that north dike...
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[GEEZER]

One comment. 'At ol' boy is FUN ta fish with & he's pretty well got his "poop in a group". He learnt me a couple things.

Ah, what the hey, second comment. Lookin forward to goin' again & I'm gonna git an electric fillet knife.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]You were fishing in the main lake, right? We fished inside the north marina but that whole shoreline from the marina entrance to the north dike has HAD some good wiper boils in the past week. Two weeks ago, when Flycasting and myself were filleting fish at the cleaning station there was a boil right on the brushy shoreline next to where we were standing. Birds were going crazy.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You were fishing in the "zone". Only problem was that somebody forgot to remind the wipers. And, as you have probably read in other posts, last night was not a stellar night for anyone. Only a couple of short-lived isolated boils. That takes a lot of mobility and a lot of luck to get in on that kinda action.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Over the next month, that whole area will probably be as good as anyplace on the lake for tubers and tooners to get bit. You just gotta time it right and be ready to cast up a storm when you are amongst 'em.[/#0000ff]
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[lunkerhunter2]

Nice to see 2 "geezers" wackin the fish. LOL! Just kidding. When Petty and i fished with geezer this spring, we found out we had alot more in common than we knew. It was wonderful to meet him and he had some very good stories to tell. TD has some good ones too, so i know they had some good chat.[cool]
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[AFDan52]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][red][size 4] Hey TD, your getting to be quite the Photo taker , nice job[/size][/red][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#ff0000][size 4]AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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[leaky]

Actually there were 3 "geezers" there, 2 in a boat and 1 floating and then stumbling and mumbling along the dike. It was unaminously decided he was top "geezer". [sly][sly][sly][sly]
Leaky

[lunkerhunter2]

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