Got out to Willard at about 3PM yesterday. We were fishing from the shore on the backside of the lake and it started out slow. One of us had a two pole permit so we dropped a worm in for the cats and we threw everything else at the wipers.
I’m trying curly tail grubs, rapalas, lipless cranks, large castmasters, 2" curly tail minnows and a lot of other things but we’re getting no love on the wiper pitching. Finally the cat fish pole goes off. 2 medium to small sized cats and I’m thinking about packing it in. I decide to give it a few minutes and change my rod over to catfish. Just running worms, nothing special. Then all heck broke loose.
Wipers began gobbling those worms faster than we could put 'em on and between them and the cats it became a real nice haul. I didn’t even know you could catch a wiper on a worm but we caught 10 to prove it. 18 fish total and the biggest wiper was over 18" with pic below. I might give shore fishin a few more tries.
I’ve caught them on worms before when drifting for eyes. They are meat eating machines, and if they are around, they will put the hurt on a chunk of meat.
What time did it pick up and you started catching?
Yesterday they picked up at 5pm and it was hectic 'til the sun went down between wipes and the cats. Went today though and had the same spot, same bait and same time of day to find nothing at all. No cats, wipers, bass or wallies. Nothing at all. It was miserable.
The wind drove us off at 8pm but all I had at that point was 5 small bites and no fish. I thought surely the cats would be back. I was wrong. The weak bites we were getting were a stark contrast from the day before. Saturday everything was biting with a lot more haste and aggressiveness.
I was just starting to think that wipers were as easy from the shore as in the boat. Needless to say that I’m taking the boat when I go back.
Nice report Jason, glad to see you joined BFT. Dan and I were out there today also, what area were you fishing today? We saw a bunch of guys in the S/W corner but we never went all the way to the corner before we turned East and headed back toward the marina.