Willard - Win some/Lose some 3/27

[jjannie]

Took a friend with us and hit the North marina about 830. Had our lines in the water by 9. Water temp was 51.2. Trolled over to areas that have always been successful. Offered a smorgasbord of lures - but never got bite - only occasionally would we spot a small one down on the bottom. Trolled closer to the west dike, south past the light pole - still nada. It was a great day and we enjoyed the company but this was crazy and unusual - so about 2:00, we pulled everything in decided to try over by Freeway Bay before calling it a day. It was the one place we've never found success in the past but hadn't been near it all day. Once we got close, we slowed and Bingo - started finally marking fish. We each chose what lures we wanted to offer and once again dropped our lines. Jil brought in the first wiper on her selection - a bomber, about 54ft behind the boat. We switched over another line to the same bomber and ran it 54ft behind a planer board. Our friend had a similar lure so he switched to it. We also had a blue/chrome Ratl Trap still out as well. Bing, bang, boom - we had a triple wiper catch - after regrouping from the chaos this causes, we got all the lines back out and continued to troll until we were no longer marking fish - we looped around to run back where we had been. One more triple - 2 wipers and a nice crappie.

Once we found them we ended up catching 7 in 2 hours - save the skunking for another day - we marked this down as a successful day in the end. Our friend got to catch his first wiper as well!

Good weather, good friends and fish for the smoker - cant beat that!
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[SkunkedAgain]

Nice job!!! I heard that was the place to be. Way to go. Later J
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[wiperhunter2]

Nice report Jil, way to show the boys how its done but how come your not in any of the pics? Yea, in most cases getting there early doesn't do much good, thats why I don't hit the water early this time of the year. 11am till 5 pm has been when I've done the best but you got to find the active fish as well and sometimes that takes a while. Glad to read you found them before leaving for the day and some nice fish at that. Did you measure the crappie?
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[albinotrout]

Yowsers, triples...gotta love that.[cool] Way to have an eventful day.
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[jjannie]

Well, someone had to take the pictures ...[] the ones I caught were quickly put into the cooler - no time to stop for pictures would hate to miss the next possible bite, ya know

Yes, the crappie was a nice one @ 14 in, then it was released. The plan for the wipers was to try smoking them so we all felt releasing it was best.
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[ReelMasta]

Right on, nice to hook up triples. I'm heading out right now.
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[PhantomSST]

That must have been the hot spot Fri. We had the same success. Lots of fish on the sonar, and the lines. I went back out Saturday afternoon, but never was able to locate the fish. We tried several different locations and, just about every lure in the box. But only managed 1 walleye.
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[jjannie]

It was fun and fast for just under 2 hours - the rest of time we spent chatting, talking fishing stories and eating lunch.

Yeah, we gave up using bottom bouncers since no eyes even bumped at them. They would have been our preference for sure. All we were doing was drowning the crawlers.[crazy]

Plan to head there again on Tuesday since another front should be passing through mid-to-late week.
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