Well that was exciting!

Buddy Kenny has already described the testosterone filled fun day on Saturday over at Coffee in the Morning and it was a great day all around with breakfast at Cracker Barrel, a gun show at a new venue by a new promoter and evening fishing at Williard Bay. But he really didn’t mention just how exciting and fun the evening fishing was. Maybe he has caught so many more fish than me that he’s just jaded, but I can tell you I had one of the best fishing trips I have ever had in my not very star studded life.

 

We were fishing for Wipers, a hybrid created by a cross between Stripers and White Bass. Willard Bay is the only place in Utah to have these aggressive and strong fish. Wiper fishing is a major summer activity for many anglers here and the boat launches are typically crowded after dinner every evening from July 1 until mid-September with guys coming out to chase the boil. These Wipers run in schools and like to gang up on schools of shad, chasing them into shallow or protected water and then slaughtering them with wild attacks. These attacks occur near or on the surface and the shad fleeing the Wipers and the big fish chasing them, the surface of the lake really will “boil” where the attacks are taking place. Typically, Wiper fishing involves going about in the late afternoon, trolling about in likely areas and watching for the boils to begin.

 

When that happens, it’s fishing time! You don’t have to get the boat directly into the middle of a boil but just within casting distance and then you can kill the motor and drift. And start casting some kind- most any kind of floating, diving, rattling crankbait out into the area where the fish are evident. I was using a crankbait that runs 3-5 feet deep and is shad silver and green backed in color.

 

On my first cast I hooked into a fish! Seconds later, Kenny was hooked into a fish! These beasts are about 3 pounds in weight but strong and hard pulling so they are quite exciting when hooked into your lure. We had a fishing rodeo going on for 45 minutes with 10 fish boated- my cooler was stacked up like cordwood, multiple times when both of us were hooked up to fish or waiting for the other guy to get his fish out of the net so the other guy could use it. We probably missed another half dozen fish that didn’t make it into the boat. When the boil cooled down in the exact spot we were fishing in at one point, we spotted another not 100 yards away but before we could crank the motor and get all the way over there, the fish closed in on us and it was time to shut it off and get back to fishing. We were surrounded by thrashing fish for several minutes and numerous times I caught fish on consecutive casts!

 

But it got hard dark and 2 fish short of a limit for both of us we headed back to the boat ramp and the cleaning station. If we didn’t have spouses worrying about us back at home, we could have stayed and caught fish until our arms fell off but we headed back to a very crowded ramp with trucks, trailers and boats all waiting their turn to get reconnected. It took quite a long time to get our turn at the ramp and Kenny did an admirable job of getting a very hard to see trailer backed into the water. Once we got the boat on the trailer, I tied everything down, put stuff away and made certain nothing would blow out while Kenny began filleting fish. I helped with that chore and we chatted with several guys that I know from my time working at the old job up the street. It was 10:30 by the time we got back to Wasted Electrons World Headquarters and got the boat tucked into the carport but it was time really well spent.

 

I can’t wait to do it again! I had so much fun and the adrenaline rush of feeling an aggressive fish slashing on the end of the line is exactly the reason I like fishing. It was fast, thrilling and exhilarating and a perfect cap to a hot summer day. This week is going to be a busy one so I don’t know if I can make it back out to the lake before the weekend but I’ve got the bug and can’t wait to get back out there and put more fish scales in the boat!

 

BTW, I really need a rubber netted fish net! The nylon line net I have gets caught up on treble hooks and really slows down the process.