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Willard wipers slowing? ... 7-2-08 - Printable Version

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Willard wipers slowing? ... 7-2-08 - Old_Coot - 07-03-2008

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]Fished Willard with a neighbor and his grand son this evening. We launched at about 5:00 PM at the South marina and didn’t get off the lake till after sundown:30.

Water temps were 85+. The water is warming so fast that I figured that the wipers might be getting a bit lethargic. And I was right. The fishing had slowed considerably from a week ago when there were reports of 15-20 fish nights. Even though we did manage 5 walleye and 4 wipers, all but one of the wipers were very small. The one good wiper measured just under 22 inches.

[inline Brices-nice-Wiper-444.jpg]

We caught everything trolling 2.5 to 3.5 mph and used standard fare lures like Rattle Traps, Pointers, and Rapalas.

Everyone I talked to at the cleaning station was also saying how the fishing had slowed markedly since just a few nights ago but seemed to turn on a bit around 8:30-9:00 PM. One fellow at the cleaning station was a member of the Rocky Mountain Anglers and was checking stomaches. He sounded frustrated to find nothing in them.

I am of the opinion that right now, the best wiper fishing is in the mornings between 8:00 and 10:00 AM.

There were frequent single wiper tail flips regularly out in the middle but nothing close to what I would call a fishable “boil”. I suspect it will be a while yet before the shad are large enough for the wipers start boiling in earnest. Those tail flips have been going on for about a week now. A couple nights ago I tried some top-water lures for them but to no avail.

Oh, and they now have 4 buoyes out over the island.
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Re: [Old_Coot] Willard wipers slowing? ... 7-2-08 - wiperhunter2 - 07-03-2008

Another nice report Ralph, sounds like you had a good evening on the bay even if it was slow.[Wink] This has got to one of the best walleye catching years in recent memory, not only are there a lot of them but they are big. Thanks for sharing.
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Re: [Old_Coot] Willard wipers slowing? ... 7-2-08 - mactuna - 07-03-2008

Man your aways on Willard and doing good out there.
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Re: [Old_Coot] Willard wipers slowing? ... 7-2-08 - Hellsangler69 - 07-03-2008

Good to hear that they marked the island better . When they had a single buoy it was in 8' of water 100' from the island .
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Re: [mactuna] Willard wipers slowing? ... 7-2-08 - Old_Coot - 07-03-2008

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]True but I am strongly considering cutting way back on my fishing. Fishing has been cutting deeply into my time for many other important things in life.
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Re: [Old_Coot] Willard wipers slowing? ... 7-2-08 - trophyboat - 07-04-2008

we fished willard on the second from 6-12 in the morning and boated 14 wipers and 5 eyes best hour was from 1030 to 1100am
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