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Finally kicked that stinky skunk off the boat at Willard for the year! Ended up with a small, medium, and a large wiper to fill my limit.
I'm calling it...spring is here! Was sweating my brains out on the water at 4pm. Water was 60 degrees. If I had brought my trunks, I woulda probably taken a dip!
The two bigger wipers were full of unfertile eggs, wont be long til the crappie kicks in!
I trolled for about an hour at 2 mph and felt the skunk swimming up so I sped up to 3.2 mph and immediately out ran the black and white varmint... Hook up! Had my limit in 45 minutes.
First fish N chips of the year, lets hope its a good one!
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Nice job! I need to try and figure these fish out next!
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Very nice. It was a great day to get out.
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Congrats and thanks for the tips you hit on what I expected was my problem last trip. I think I was going too slow. Thanks. J
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Interesting on the water temps. Just a day or two ago it was only 47°. And today 60°? Wow, what a few days of warm air will do to a sallow body of water like Willard.
Thanks for the report.
Where bouts on the lake did you catch them?
--- Coot ---
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Well, 58.9 was the warmest spot I found... I was on the shallower side today too, never saw deeper than 11.5'.
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I fished Willard this afternoon with my two sons.
It was the first trip on the water after taking the boat up to Lee's Marine for a tune-up.
We put in at the South Marina about noon o'clock and motored over to the South side of the bay.
Water temps were about 48* at noon and hit 55* for the high.
Never made it North of the South Marina until we towed in a stranded boater back in, at about 5:30 pm.
Took him back to the North Marina and then motored back to the South Marina to call it a day.
We boated 14 Wiper trolling at 2.2 to 2.5 mph, using J-7 Rapalas.
Most Wiper were under 16" but a couple were bigger. All went back for another day.
A good day on the water with great company.
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I was there also. Fished the south east corner. 2 of us landed 11 wiper. Caught most on fire tiger rap and lipless crank pattern but blue and silver shad rap worked also. fish were 14-18" and caught at all depths.
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You guys are making it awfully hard to go to work in the morning. If I didn't want a bigger boat I might just give it up. Instead of going fishing, I walked out the driveway this morning on my way to work only to find that my dogs had ripped the wires on my trailer to shreds![crazy] Gotta get that fixed ASAP. Good work on the wipers and thanks for the inspirational reports.
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[quote Wiperholic]I walked out the driveway this morning on my way to work only to find that my dogs had ripped the wires on my trailer to shreds![crazy] s.[/quote]
Si what did you do to piss the dogs off to make them retaliate?
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Awesome info! Just curious, I always hear that planer boards are a must out there. Those on this thread that caught wipers, were you using them? In the past I never bothered and seemed to do fine, but if my odd would go up, I better start fussing with them.
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I hate dealing with planer boards! Most my wipers are straight back. But I have been kicking around the idea of making up some outriggers! Not that I'm so worried about getting the lure away from the boat, but so I can run more than 3 lines at once without resulting in a giant rats nest!
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I had assumed the south marina was totally unlaunchable. How shallow is it putting in and getting out?
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South Marina is very shallow.
Two feet deep at the ramps.
Use your fish finder to watch the depths and stay in the middle of the channel going out.
Once outside the Marina you will still be in shallow water so keep an eye on depth as you go out.
Keep your motor trimmed higher than the bottom of your boat as you crawl out.
The Island is not exposed but very close to the surface.
Use caution at all times.
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Went out the north today with no problem! Marked 6' at the ramp and 8' all through the channel as Lon as you stay in the middle.
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I've marked (1.9) less than 2 ft leaving the mouth of the south marina when entering the lake and centered with the channel behind you. Strange I have seen it 3 time leaving and not noticed it returning. The point is it is shallow around the entrance to both marinas not just the ramps area, so be careful.
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HD - We've used planer boards and like what was mentioned - its really nice to keep your lines spread farther apart. And given the trolling speeds for Willard, it's really worth whatever inconvenience there may be. We've even used them when bottom bouncing as well
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Had 4 people on board trolling on Tuesday without planet boards and had no problems... The feeling of a wiper smacking your lure and start ripping line off your reel is why I fish em! The planet boards seem to dampen the whole experience for me...
Ended up with 4 limits. We threw back as many as we kept!
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