Fishing Forum

Wiperslayer and I got up to Willard this morning, nothing too early because of the cold front moving through yesterday, on the water at 8:30am off a little after 2pm. It was slow to start the day, picking up a smallie and a few cats then the big boy hit but it turned out to be a carp[], still put up a good fight, that was 3 fish types, kept moving around and finally started to catch some wipers, 4 fish species. We caught more wipers and more wipers and boy were they fighters, ripping the side planers around like they were puppets on a string[crazy]. The wipers seem to have been on a weight loss plan because they are no longer the fat pigs from a month ago or so but they are lean mean fighting machines. Smallest was 18", largest over 21". Kept moving around and finally picked up a couple of eyes, for a 5 species day at the Bay.[cool] The bad news, the baby shad have started moving out into to open water away from the shore where they have been growing for over a month now. We were marking them at 5 ft deep just about everywhere we fished, if we are lucky we will have another month before they get big enough for the bigger fish to start feeding on them and the catching will slow down. I just hope the numbers of baby shad this year are not as high as last year or the Summer catching will be a repeat of last year[]. No pics on this trip, nothing out of the ordinary, except that 10 lb carp but that wasn't worth a pic.[shocked]
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Sounds like a good day! A five species day is always noteworthy.
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How many total wipers?[fishon]
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Nice report Curt! Sounds like a great day out there...if I can get my mind off the kokanee for awhile - I think I need to start thinking about Willard again....it's all good....anyhow, congrats on your trip there....
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An 18’ fish is small..man I got to leave Utah lake more lol.. great report and good on ya for 5 species
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You got me on that one.[]
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Around 15 total.
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Sounds like you had a most excellent day out there. I was there as well and started trolling about 6. I was amazed that the north gate was open when I got there about 5:40. Didn't do me any good to get there that early I guess. The wind was out of the north and the 2 foot waves made travel difficult in my little 12'--no changing baits for a while. Made it the north dike and right after that the wind died. Trolled east and about half way to the marina made a turn out to the south. BAM, a nice 22" wiper hammered a crawdad painted hot n tot at aprox 2.6 mph. Thought things would pick up after that but no, nada nothing. Got off the lake about 11:30. Was very happy with the really nice wiper--a personal best for size but no pics. Scaled it. filleted it. seasoned one of the filets and with a little olive oil threw it on the grill--OH MAN was it good and fed the 3 of us plus some skin for the dog. Loved by all!
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Good for you on that nice big wiper, you don't see many caught that are 22" or bigger.
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Well done! Sounds like a great day at the bay.
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I wonder if the bank tanglers are going to complain that all the guys who can afford boats are catching too many fish?
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I know, I was pretty excited when I saw that pig come up but knew it was pretty big by the tugs. It was a quality over quantity day for me for sure. It sounds like you had both.
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It was a good day, best so far this year. We could have done even better but we had a tackle malfunction the last 45 mins and by the time we got it straightened out, it was time to go.
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Just getting started on Willard. Can anyone tell me what plugs to use and the size that works best? Thanks for all your help!
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I've been using Berkley Flicker shad in crawfish pattern, also caught fish on a lipless firetiger, I think the size was #4 or 5.
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