Fishing Forum

I know weekends are not the best times to hit Willard, but right now day of the week don't matter too much cuz the power squadron just about "owns" the water all week.  Figured WB was closest place to put the boat in and make try at collecting up some fresh "eatin" fish.

After an early morning wake up to clear sky yesterday, decided to try and beat the forecast high temp and get on the water. 

 

Got launched just after full sunrise over the mountain.  Already many big boat rigs in the lot. 



Headed out toward the feed lot wall, set up my 2 lines with bait.  But being anchored was just making me a stationary target for the wake makers.  Figured if I was trolling I could avoid some of the big waves or at least get my bow into them to prevent broadsides. 
Set out 2 lines with rat-l-traps and started a slow speed angle north east-ish towards the treeline north of Freeway Bay
Had lines out and running about .75 to 1.3 mph, and right side rod bent over kinda steady more like a bottom snag. Cut the throttle, pulled rod out of the holder, and it tightened up, drag was pulling out without boat even moving. Yay, first cookie cutter kitty boated on a perch colored trap.  



The way my luck has gone recently, I would have been satisfied with that one skunk breaker, and a good meal out of it. But just about an hour later, rod with the Perch colored trap bent over again and was pulling drag out before I could get the motor shifted to neutral.  I had just gotten that rod out of the holder, and was tightening up the drag, when second rod started bouncing and stripping drag on the other side of the boat. Well, it's in a rod holder, so I just tightened up the drag a bit hoping it wouldn't get spooled while I got the first fish boated.  OK, first one on the deck, pulled second pole out of holder, and Kitty #3 on the deck, caught on a Fire tiger trap. Wow !  First successfully boated double, by myself, in about a year.  

  

  Pulled a U turn and went back thru same area first 3 Cats were caught. Repeated same basic speed and shallow S turns, and had a personal first at WB, history repeated itself, almost. Got ANOTHER double hit in just about the same area as the first. But only one of those cats managed to hold on long enough to make it into the net. So now 4 in the live well. 

  

  Made several more loops thru that general area for the next hour. Seemed like the bite had stopped, and the power squadron dummies were getting too many, too close, too much wake action, and too frequently. So I started my last troll back toward the marina. Had a couple false alarms with the traps hitting and momentarily snagging the bottom as I moved toward the south inlet and the water depth changed from 15-18 fow that I had been working, to the 10-12 fow closer in to the rocks. Just outside the buoy markers for the south marina, I throttled back to neutral to reel in my lines. Just as I got first line in and stowed, second line took off again. 
Boated Cat #5, again on the Perch colored trap.   Guess I better try to find 1 or 2 more of those 



Capped off a great day (for me) on the water with a no line, functioning, cleaning station. Got my 5 Cats filleted out and bagged for the ride home in record time. 

  

Nice work.  Love it when things all work out.  Now if we could just eliminate a few of the power squadron.  But I'm guessing that midweek will probably be a bit quieter with school getting back in session.

Also, once it cools a bit and the water temps drop below about 70 we should see some wipers and walleyes starting to show up again.

Great report Forest!  Makes it crazy fun when you have two poles with fish on at once.

That is awesome fish catching!!!! Love them Kittys.

Fish catching like that makes it easier to tolerate the  high horsepower- low I.Q. knuckleheads.
I've never tried  Rat-L-Traps , what speed seems to work best?

Oh heck. I knew I should have gone out yesterday morning. Just proves, "you don't know if you don't go." Looks like tomorrow or Wednesday I'll be back out to try it again. Great job and thanks for the report.

(08-17-2020, 04:31 AM)thatchergreg Wrote: [ -> ]Fish catching like that makes it easier to tolerate the  high horsepower- low I.Q. knuckleheads.
I've never tried  Rat-L-Traps , what speed seems to work best?

  Its Willard, so depends on more things than I can count.  Lots of variables, water temp, water level, time of day, phase of moon, how much wind or lack of wind, how many "knuckleheads"  are out there stirrin up the water, what color trap, how aggressive or lazy the fish are, and maybe even if you hold your mouth right or not.  No matter what worked Saturday, quite likely may not work tomorrow. 
I basically troll with Rat-L-Traps cuz I don't like all the extra gear and hassle of a planer board on my small boat and I do swap out from traps (lip less cranks) to diving crank bails and flicker shads. But with the warmer water temps recently, most of the fish arcs I'm seeing on sonar are pretty much in the lower 1/3 of the water depth, from bottom up.  So I control the depth of my traps by the speed of my boat.  In about 12 to 15 fow, at about .5 to 1.2 mph (GPS) depending which trap I have on the line, they tend to do kind of a steady sink, hit the bottom, bounce back up a foot or so, rinse and repeat.  

All that comes with a strong disclaimer : If it don't work for you, don't blame me. Thats Willard.  

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(08-17-2020, 01:57 PM)FatBiker Wrote: [ -> ]Oh heck. I knew I should have gone out yesterday morning. Just proves,  "you don't know if you don't go." Looks like tomorrow or Wednesday I'll be back out to try it again. Great job and thanks for the report.

  Larry, I was gonna go out today, but had to take truck into body shop to get an estimate on a new rear bumper. By the time I got that done with an appointment for end of the month to get bumper replaced, was too late and getting too hot to start.  Think I will try first thing tomorrow. Might be fewer big boats at least til maybe 11 or 12 when it will probably be too hot to stay out there anyway. 
Good luck if you go, maybe I'll see ya.

Thanks for the advice, if the dealer can get my new Merc running again I'll have to try some traps.

(08-17-2020, 08:49 PM)Tin-Can Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-17-2020, 04:31 AM)thatchergreg Wrote: [ -> ]Fish catching like that makes it easier to tolerate the  high horsepower- low I.Q. knuckleheads.
I've never tried  Rat-L-Traps , what speed seems to work best?

  Its Willard, so depends on more things than I can count.  Lots of variables, water temp, water level, time of day, phase of moon, how much wind or lack of wind, how many "knuckleheads"  are out there stirrin up the water, what color trap, how aggressive or lazy the fish are, and maybe even if you hold your mouth right or not.  No matter what worked Saturday, quite likely may not work tomorrow. 
I basically troll with Rat-L-Traps cuz I don't like all the extra gear and hassle of a planer board on my small boat and I do swap out from traps (lip less cranks) to diving crank bails and flicker shads. But with the warmer water temps recently, most of the fish arcs I'm seeing on sonar are pretty much in the lower 1/3 of the water depth, from bottom up.  So I control the depth of my traps by the speed of my boat.  In about 12 to 15 fow, at about .5 to 1.2 mph (GPS) depending which trap I have on the line, they tend to do kind of a steady sink, hit the bottom, bounce back up a foot or so, rinse and repeat.  

All that comes with a strong disclaimer : If it don't work for you, don't blame me. Thats Willard.  

---

(08-17-2020, 01:57 PM)FatBiker Wrote: [ -> ]Oh heck. I knew I should have gone out yesterday morning. Just proves,  "you don't know if you don't go." Looks like tomorrow or Wednesday I'll be back out to try it again. Great job and thanks for the report.

  Larry, I was gonna go out today, but had to take truck into body shop to get an estimate on a new rear bumper. By the time I got that done with an appointment for end of the month to get bumper replaced, was too late and getting too hot to start.  Think I will try first thing tomorrow. Might be fewer big boats at least til maybe 11 or 12 when it will probably be too hot to stay out there anyway. 
Good luck if you go, maybe I'll see ya.

Found some fish this morning just outside of the north marina. Report on the premium board.