Smallmouth at Willard

[BURLEY]

Lately I've struggled to get a limit of walleye. I used about everything mentioned in other posts. After talking to several people at the cleaning station over several days, I put all the info together. I was fishing too fast, too slow, too deep, too shallow, and wrong baits. Monday I went out and bought a #5 flicker shad in dark purple that was recommended (with bonus of being jointed) and prepared to hit the west dike. Yesterday I launched about 6:30 and headed west. I put out the purple flicker and the action was almost instantaneous. Two small walleye and a smb in ten minutes. Trolling south toward the light pole, I dragged the shad as close to the rocks as possible. By 8:10 I had netted 22 fish. 
      The water went still about 8:30 and so did the bite, until about 10:00. I picked up a few more fish before leaving at 10:30. A total of 28 fish came to the net. 20 of them were smallmouth between 5 to 10 inches, and the eyes were 18" and under. Three went home with me. At one point, I was hoping that the small bends in the rod would return to normal and the SMB would self-release. It did work a couple of times. lol. Some were so small that I had to slack the line off to see if something was still attached.
      I was right up against the rocks (20ft) with the boat 2.3-2.5 mph (main motor idle speed) in 8-14 fow.
Both smallies and eyes were spitting up small orange crayfish, as pictured with the smallest smallmouth of the day and the purple #5 fllicker.

[Kent]

"I put all the info together. I was fishing too fast, too slow, too deep, too shallow, and wrong baits."

That just about covers everything. Which did you change to get better results?

[BURLEY]

"I put all the info together. I was fishing too fast, too slow, too deep, too shallow, and wrong baits."

That just about covers everything.  Which did you change to get better results?

I put away the Minnkota and bottom bouncers. Increased speed from 0.9 to 2.4 mph and used a shallow diving lure (5-7 ft.) and fished in shallow water.

[RockyRaab2]

I couldn't find the walleye where I caught them last week, so I motored over to the sunken island area off the south marina. Caught four in the 14-18" range one after the other on a fire tiger trolling spoon with half a crawler behind a 1 oz bouncer @ 1.4 mph. They all hit hard. Quit with four.

[Troutster]

When the trolling bite is slow we have had fun casting 3 in senko’s to the rocks to catch the smallmouth. It’s a little more active than trolling which is fun. Love to feel the tap tap. We have also done well with flicker shad in purple or a shiny gold perch color with a purple back. Thanks for the report.