Fished Willard this morning out of the tube with some good results. Started fishing around 7am and finished up at 11am after the wind blew me off the water. Fished the NE corner and put 5 Wipers in the basket. All fish came on white Maniac curly tailed grubs.
Attached is a pic of the 3 bigger ones.
Nice catch
Wow, those are some fat wipers. Did they have any minnows in their stomaches? WH2
All of the Wipers had nothing in their guts.
Very very nice indeed! Glad you had a good time.
Nice catch !
We caught a few our selves at Maniac Custom Lures tournement.
someone ask what was in the wipers stomach?? I jut cleaned a couple and there was like a green algae. Now I do not know if that is what it was or if it was somthing other then algae. any ideas
Who is that good looking lady in the photo MGB, she looks familiar. Nice string of fish too.
haha
cc
someone ask what was in the wipers stomach?? I jut cleaned a couple and there was like a green algae. Now I do not know if that is what it was or if it was somthing other then algae. any ideas
The gizzard shad have probably just about finished spawning. Too early for wipers to be eating a lot of young shadlets.
Right now it is slim pickin’s for wipers. They will eat about anything they can put in their stomachs. That is one reason why fishing is better right now. They are hungry.
My guess is that the gooey stuff in the wipers’ stomach could be partially digested midge larvae. If the fish find a cloud of them in the water they will slurp them up just like trout…when they are hungry. On the other hand, it COULD be algae. Wipers love crawdads and if they miss their target and get a mouthful of bottom gunk…well…
The cooler weather may have delayed the shad spawn and it might be three or four weeks before the shad fry are big enough for the wipers to target as a food source. Once they reach at least an inch in size then we will start seeing the boils.
Tube Dude, what is going on with the walleye up there? I was talking to another fisherman out in the SW corner night before last, and he told me that a guy from the DWR said they were struggling in WB. I read reports of folks catching them, but havn’t caught a single one in several trips. I’m just trolling cranks off boards, but I still would expect to catch a couple walleye when the water temp is 70F.
The walleye fishing in Willard right now is a “good news - bad news” situation. There are not as many walleye as in previous years, but the average size seems to have increased and there are more bigguns being landed…by a chosen few…and by some guys with a lot of dumb luck.
**The BIG DRAIN three years ago in late fall, after they discovered the leak in the dike, was the beginning of the current situation. Walleyes are drawn to current and the water being sucked out through the outflow pipe vacuumed a lot of walleyes out and down into the canal below. Lots of wipers and catfish too. But there were a bunch of the “happy harvesters” who lined up down there and snagged truckloads of stacked up walleyes. **
That reduced the total biomass of walleyes in Willard, but it wasn’t all bad. The next two spawning seasons were not good for the walleyes because the water did not reach up into the rocks. A lot of walleyes used the rocks for spawning, but during low water they had to use the inlet channel. Not all bad because they were protected from all but a handful of poachers.
In short, there were plenty of walleye that survived the BIG SUCK. Enough to repopulate Willard Bay within the next 3 to 5 years…especially with the high water being back up into the rocks. The survivors have had more food and more space in the customary walleye hangouts. They are healthier and bigger now than they have been for a long time.
But, you have not been catching them with the same success rate as in years past. Hey, they are still walleye and they will bite when and where they want…for who they want. They are always tough for most folks, but when their numbers are down that makes it even worse.
One of my favorite fishing sayings is “You can’t ketch 'em where they ain’t.” With walleyes, in Willard, there is a lot more water where they ain’t than where they is. It takes a combination of lots of experience, good sonar, current reports from “insiders”, presenting the right offering at the right speed and the right depth…for any given day…and a lot of luck.
On a daily basis some first time wiper troller will come back into the ramp with several walleyes in the livewell, asking “What are these things?”. And, the dedicated (demented) walleye chasers come back in cursing their luck because all they could get on their fancy custom made bottom bouncers and worm harnesses were wipers and catfish. Go figure.
I once witnessed a tin boat full of drunks trolling a big silver spoon at mach 3 along the dike outside the south marina. They only had one rod and kept trading off, after one guy caught a fish. I saw them crank in several walleyes in a row…all big ones…while throwing their empties over the side to “GPS” the best spots. To a “knowledgeable” walleye fisherman, they were doing EVERYTHING wrong. But, to them, they had it knocked. They were the world’s best walleye fishermen. Who can argue the logic?
**Bottom line. Like gold, walleyes are where you find them. But, finding them is no guarantee you will catch them. They may chow down at night on a school of shad, and then belly down in the mud during the following day. Or, if you get lucky, their dinner bell might sound at 2 o’clock in the afternoon and you will start picking them up at all depths and all speeds on whatever you are dragging. **
**They can make you talk to yourself. But, they sure are fun and they sure are tasty. **
My partner and I also fished the tourney at Willard yesterday and tied for 2nd place out of 24 teams, we boated 7 good wipers and lost one. There was only one walleye turned in for big walleye yesterday and I don’t know for sure if it was over 20 inches or not. It was over all a good day on the bay with a couple small showers and one wind storm that lasted for maybe an hour or so, much better than the weather man was predicting.
Thanks, TD. I heard the draw down killed a bunch. Also, my current boat makes bottom bouncing nearly impossible. Think I’ll give jigs a try.
**Hey, there are a lot of walleyes caught in Willard on Jigs. That’s how I catch most of mine while fishing from a tube. I either cast them and slow retrieve them just off the bottom, or hang one over the side of my tube, with a piece of worm on it, and let it drift just off the bottom while I am casting another jig or crankbait. **
When there is a light breeze you can just drift a couple of jigs…with or without “sweetener”. Keep checking them to make sure they are close to the bottom. The faster the drift, the heavier the jig heads you need to use to keep them about vertical. But, even dragging them on the bottom will get action too…although sometimes from the “whiskery walleyes”.
Maniac minnows in white, pearl or chartreuse all work well at times. Ditto for 2" to 3" tubes in the same colors. I also make some sexy marabou jigs that walleyes and wipers kinda fancy at Willard. White seems to work best, except early and late in the year when the water is colder. Then chartreuse catches more.
Go with the lightest heads you can get by with. A lot of times I fish 1/16 oz. heads to get a slow sink and to be able to retrieve slowly just above bottom without snagging. But, I also fish 1/8 oz for faster retrieves and in deeper water…or for faster drifts. I seldom go to 1/4 oz. heads except when I am casting long distance for wipers and then burning it back through the fish up through the water column.
There have been several reports this year of people catching both wipers and walleyes by trolling plastics. Always worth a try. Just remember, it is better to be fishing slightly above the fish than below them. Fish that are cruising and feeding are usually looking up for food. They will move up to hit a lure, but are not likely to move down to get something that is being trolled much below them. When fish are in the top part of the water column a lot of guys are trolling too deep. Watch the sonar and keep varying speed and depth until you go bendo. Then keep on doing what worked.
Congratulations on the tournament. You beat us by 1/2 pound, I knew we needed one more good sized fish. We ended up in a tie for fourth with fishnfool and lunkerhunter2.
Alot off ties yesterday, we’ll have to figure out a way to break them next time, I vote for the age thing with the oldest nimrod winning any ties.[:p]