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Went out to Willard Sunday afternoon to break in the new boat. Funny, it seems to catch fish the same as the old one, maybe I got that option from the dealer. Any who, it was definitely a nice day to be on the water, not one jet ski and only two water skiers. Started off at some of my favorite early season haunts only to be turned away by ghost fish. Thinking my new sonars must be broke I went hunting and searching to see if I could find any sign of post spawn walleye. Seen some fishy returns, threw a marker buoy, then dropped the bouncers down to see if I was right. 13 walleye and over 20 missed fish later and I can say the graph work just fine. My wife and I got to bend some rods and make the new live well smell fishy. Fish were fat and healthy and gorging on insects. Fish were in 22-24 ft. Pulled harnesses at 0.9-1.1 mph with the top producer being a Kokanee Creek Tackle "Sod Buster" crawler harness. In second place was a KCT "Outlaw". The Walleye were definitely being walleye and feeding them was the only way to get a hook in them. Should have had a 30+ fish day if we were a little more patient and quit yanking the hook out of there mouths. Oh well, they are still there to catch another day...[fishon]
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Nice work! Congrats. However, you made a big mistake in posting a great Willard report and a picture of your beauty boat in the same place. Now everyone will follow you around expecting to duplicate your success. [cool]
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Can you tell us the colors of the spinner blades?
Im soo jealous, for the fish and the boat, and the pretty fisherwoman. Now that's a lucky man.
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Hey Mike great report and nice to see you didn't lose your touch changing rides... Pretty new ride, you could almost be  for a power squadron in that pretty of a boat. Sure don't know anyone that can catch the eyes like you can. Thanks for letting us know it can still be done...Later Jeff
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]Nice ride Mike and great job on the eyes. Might be heading out there myself this afternoon depending on what the weather does. Don't like wet or wind, so we'll see. [  ]
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Bob Hicks, from Utah
I'm 81 years young and going as hard as I can for as long as I can.
"Free men do not ask permission to bear arms."
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I need to get some lessons from you. We fished Willard yesterday dragging worm harnesses from freeway bay to the feed lot from close to shore and back out to 20 plus feet and never had a nibble. On the water about 9 and came off at 4.
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Nice looking rig buddy. You need to post a few more pics of it!
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Sunrise on the water
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Great report Mike, the best I've read so far this year. Sure is nice to hear there are still some walleye left in the lake, it has been a dismal last couple of years with the higher water level. Awesome boat Mike, that is quite an upgrade from your old boat, how big is the main motor?
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Congrats on the nice fish and the nice boat.
fnf[cool]
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Congrats on the new boat. Saturday was tough fishing. Tried everything with only a bass and some powerful hook ups. Worm harnesses worked for the hook ups it hust seemed like a too nice day for Willard with the lake being glassed out for the most part.
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That an awfully long time to get skunked! If I'm really confident in an area I might give it 1-2 hrs before I go elsewhere for fish. Trust your sonars and keep an eye out for the active fish. All the fish I seen were scattered and about a foot and a half off the bottom. I was also seeing the obvious signs of the bug hatch on the graph. The live well was full of larvae when I took the fish out. The bite also lined up with the solar lunar table almost perfectly. Within 20min of the change the bite died down, but we still got some bites. [fishin]
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Thanks Kurt! The motor is a V8 200HP Pro XS. I'm still working on finding the right prop for it. The Pro XS has an insane amount of torque. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I have never felt an outboard throw a boat out of the hole that fast! It puts the old 2stroke and Verados to shame when it comes to hole shot...
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I'll have to put some more on when I do another post. I'm really happy with the layout and handling of this boat. In my opinion its the best floor plan in this class. I was bummed to hear about the DAV, I was looking forward to hosting a couple of vets in her this year.[:/]
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I've actually noticed that the eyes bite better on a calm day with a deep insect hatch. With the tiny size of the larva I believe the fish can see better in those conditions, to where as on a forage fish bite the walleye can use their superior sight to ambush in the wave refraction. Its really just being on the hatch when it happens. [fishin]
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Mike, any chance you could give us a little more details about your set up? I’m mostly interested in were you running bottom bouncers (what weight), Lindy rigs, etc. and how long of a leader to your worm harness (or did you use something besides worms?). I’ve never had luck getting any walleye and want to learn how to get at least a bite. Feel free to PM if you prefer. Thanks!
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Thanks for your search. Tried chartreuse but was not my day.
Got one 20 inch walleye. Nice fish.
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I generally run a 36" to 40" leader. I will shorten it up if I'm running slower or in heavy cover. Rule of thumb for bottom bouncers is 1oz for every 10fow. That being said, I rarely change from 2oz. I was right on the verge of adding another ounce. If you're running store bought bouncers I would shorten up on the leader a little. I almost exclusively use 18" home made bouncers. I run real night crawlers, just look at them in the water and if they look like they're ridiculously long, pinch some off. You don't want your spinner dragging the bottom, so get the longest bouncer possible. [fishon]
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I didn't know I could post links Kurt! [crazy]
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LOL, as long as you are not advertising you can post links, especially if a member ask you a question about what you are using, posting a links is fine. Now if you got on here and said I buy all my walleye tackle at KCT and posted a link, that would not fly. Also if any tackle company wanted to donate prizes for our different contest, like this one: http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gfo...ead#unread
That would be fine too, as long as a Moderator or Admin posted the link.
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