Global Moderator Bluebasser86 Posted June 22, 2014 Global Moderator Posted June 22, 2014 With both of our odd schedules, my dad and I rarely have the chance to get on the water together. I was thinking about that a few weeks ago so I called and asked when his next Friday off was going to be. Plans were made and he picked me up at 5am to head to the lake. My dad is a walleye fisherman first (unfortunate for him since we have terrible walleye fishing lakes), so we had selected the lake that gave us the best shot at catching some walleye while having plenty of fish to fall back on if they weren't playing. Dad has been out several times this year by himself or with friends and just has had a terrible go at it. He made it very clear he really just wanted to catch some fish and not have to work real hard at it. We got to the lake, got checked in at the guard shack, and headed towards a spot that I'd received some info might be holding some walleyes. On the way to that spot I noticed some birds diving and then saw the water frothing. We spent the next half hour catching whites and wipers at will on walking baits and grubs. Once that died down we got back on track and made it to the area I had suggested. Started marking fish pretty quickly and wasn't long before I boated a couple short walleye (they have to be 21" to keep on this lake). Continued fishing the area and picked up a few more short walleye, a couple smallmouth, a channel and blue catfish, a nice largemouth, some whites, and a big crappie. Once the sun burned the thin clouds off it started to get hot fast! We worked our way back over to the end of the rock dyke we'd started at so I started casting a power minnow towards the end of it in hopes of finding some smallmouth. I was done with my cast and was burning it back in when a striped rocket shot off the bottom and engulfed it and started screaming off 6lb test from my light spinning rod. Several more runs followed before I got a lip lock on her. Shortly after that I was in the middle of a cast with the power minnow when my rod in the rod holder folded over. Cranking like crazy to get my other rod in so it wouldn't snag up while I was fighting the other fish, didn't get it back to the boat before it got slammed too! Dad gave me a hand in fighting one of them and I was able to get them both in the net. All the wipers on this point, I thought maybe I could get a topwater fish. I did, but it wasn't the kind I was expecting, not at all disappointed though. The wipers were just loaded onto this point and we caught 20-25 of them before we decided to get back to our hunt for walleye. The decision was made to try covering more water and going a little more aggressive for the walleye since we were catching a decent number of them, but they seemed to be spread out. Turns out they were everywhere in a spot the size of a football field, we just hadn't given them what they wanted. Dad suggest spinner rigs on bottom bouncers and boy did they want those! By the end of the day we'd gone through 5-6 dozen nightcrawlers and boated 30-35 walleye. Right before we left, Dad set into one that was decidedly different. Staying down hard with lots of big, heavy headshakes. I was just hoping it wasn't going to be a big drum, so when I saw the flash of gold and the big marble eyes it was a big sigh of relief. Dad worked her closer and she went into the net nicely. Dad's big smile made it obvious that he'd enjoyed himself and was looking forward to a fresh walleye dinner in the near future! We burned through our last dozen crawlers and the bite was slowing down so we headed back for the ramp. Made Dad pose for a picture with his dinner before we hit the road home. Was a great day on the water with my dad, don't get to do it often enough. Won't be too long before my son will be out there enjoying it with us too 1 Quote
Super User Dwight Hottle Posted June 22, 2014 Super User Posted June 22, 2014 Great outing. I noticed that the wipers all have slack bellies. Inadequate food supply? Quote
Global Moderator Bluebasser86 Posted June 23, 2014 Author Global Moderator Posted June 23, 2014 Great outing. I noticed that the wipers all have slack bellies. Inadequate food supply? This is a power plant lake that they try to keep as many fish as possible in the lake to keep the shad population down so they don't clog the intake screens. By this time of year, a vast majority of the shad that are small enough to be eaten have been eaten. Once the YOY shad start to get bigger everything starts to fatten back up. 1 Quote
Super User Bankbeater Posted June 23, 2014 Super User Posted June 23, 2014 Way to go, sounds like you had a great day! Quote
Super User Catch and Grease Posted June 23, 2014 Super User Posted June 23, 2014 Awesome fish and pictures man, I would love to catch some wipers one day! Quote
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