Wiper Fishing Turned Adventure

Fishing Time: 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Weather: Breezy, partly cloudy, 70's
Moon Phase: 93% Moon
Location: Willard Bay
Water Temp: 74 degrees
Bait: Kastmasters, curly tailed grubs
Who Went: Rick, Jason Willard, MeWe went to Willard Bay tonight in search of some boiling wipers and hopes that Rick could check them off his species to catch list. Jason Willard from Rocky Mountain Anglers joined us in our pursuit and we were on the water by 4:00 p.m. From the reports we read prior to going, the boils hadn’t been starting until right before sundown and that ended up being accurate. We spent the first 2 hours motoring around the north dike trying to find boils or fish on the finder. There wasn’t much going on anywhere other than two lonesome channel cats that Jason landed dragging a chartreuse jig with a worm.

We cruised out to the island to bounce some jigs over the top hoping for a wiper or walleye, and as we drifted over the edge of the island, the once blank fish finder suddenly went black with fish. There were fish everywhere and so I warned the others. I was the first to yell fish on, but after a quick zing on my line the fish was gone. Next it was Rick’s turn and he had his on for a little longer than I did before it decided to spit the hook. Finally after a long fight, I was able to put one in the boat and it was a nice one and my personal best at just under 5 pounds! We all had a few more hits while the mayhem was going on, but unfortunately no more fish were landed and they eventually moved away from us.It started getting close to dark so we decided to go boil hunting. We trolled the shorelines and found a few wipers surfacing for shad, but never could find a consistent boil to land any fish. It was disappointing as the sun went down and we were left with one fish and a bunch of missed opportunities. Rick will have to make a return trip to get wiper off his species caught list.

This is where the trip went south. Rick has always wanted to try fishing for musky after dark, and due to our failure at Willard he had an itching to prove his night time musky theory right. We made the jaunt up to Newton Reservoir at 10:00 p.m. Once there we threw topwater buzzbaits, spooks, spinnerbaits, but all to no avail. I told Jason that even though we caught nothing and won’t get home until 2:00 a.m., at least Rick can finally give up on this night time musky business and we won’t have to go through this again! To make matters worse, after I dropped Rick off at home, my pathfinder overheated and Jess had to come get me at 2:30 a.m. I had to replace my fan clutch, two belts, and my water pump for $500 bucks! That was one expensive wiper!