Fished willard today with Bearclaw. caught over 30 wipers and 2 walleye on 1/2oz nickle blue humdingers, 3/8oz Kastmaster and maniac 3" minnows chart/holographic from 7am-1pm. trolled close to 3mph
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Sounds like you had fun.
What I would like to know, is there any crapie in willard anymore?
They used to have some pretty nice ones.
I know they aren't as fun to catch as the wippers, but they sure do taste good.
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Sounds like a fish story to me . We only caught 28 wipers . You should of tried powerbait for trout . [
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[cool][#0000ff]There are still crappies in Willard, but they really have a tough time making a living and staying out of trouble (predators stomachs).[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In the days before gizzard shad, the fertile waters of Willard Bay provided a lot of zooplankton for baby crappies to get up to surviveable size. After that, without minnows in the lake, the crappies slowed down and never got huge. But, there were a lot of them. The walleyes made them their main food source and grew fat on easy to catch crappies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Once the gizzard shad hit the lake, the baby crappies had a tough time finding enough zooplanton and other microscopic tidbits to live on, since that is what gizzard shad eat too. Fewer baby crappies even live to beyond the fry stage. And, once they get big enough to appeal to larger predators, they have to outrun wipers, walleyes, catfish, smallmouth and largemouth. Tough duty.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Now, once again, we also have the low water situation. Crappies need structure in which to spawn successfully. They can't get a good spawn over plain mud or gravel bottoms. The crawdads and the carp eat their eggs as fast as they can lay them. So...poor spawning, poor "recruitment" of fry and heavy predation on young surviving crappies all add up to fewer catchable crappies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The two marinas used to be money in the bank for crappies both during the spring spawning period and again during the fall transition time. Of course they were also good through the ice. But, with the wacky drought situation, followed by a couple of good years, and now the low water drawdown, it is really tough to know where to look for crappies and how to fish them. Anglers catch them once in a while, but mostly by accident. Nobody has been able to count on limiting out more than one trip before conditions change and the fish move.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Best bet for crappies these days is Pineview. The numbers are up and the size is good. Lots of 12"-14" fish around the shoreline stickups. Fish them about 4 feet below a bobber anywhere there is structure. Lots of nice perch in the mix too.[/#0000ff]
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i left the trout for old coot
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Thought I saw you out there today Petty, so you were the one catching all those wipers[
]. Wiperslayer and I only caught three walleye and three wiper and put the smallest wiper back in the pond to grow. Sure was good to see such a big group of guys and gals from BFT out there today. Hope some of you got some pictures, I didn't remember until I got home but here they are.
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fish, what would we do without them. Willard was fun. Fish like these make the reels work hard.
They are eating crawdads and they do have egg sacs in them. Sterile must mean they still try to spawn. Hmmmm. May have to consider that. We let a few go that were under 20 inches. I think most of the crappies end up as food for the swamp swans out there. Watched one trying to get one down. not a very good fit. Willard is not a crappie friendly lake. But with a little water and some buckets of wiper fry it sure raises some fighting fish. Curt thanks again. Dan
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Nice fish Dan, didn't you say something about catching a crappie while you were trolling?
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Congrats on the nice wipers. Petty and Bear Claw had a couple nice ones also. It started out slow for us but had a stong finish. We kept 5 and let go about five. Great day on the water and good to see every one again plus meet a few more BFTers.
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yes up by the light pole. in the corner, lots of hits on sonar, very likely crappies as that was near where the bird was trying to eat one that didnt fit. Funny watching it. It didnt want to give up. Used to catch crappies on rapalas on Brownlee. Trolled til you caught one then went back and jigged the spot to see it they would bite.
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We were seeing a lot of marks about 5 to 7 ft under the surface. I thought it was interferance then but now I'm thinking it was those crappie. We keep seeing those fish ducks trying to eat some kind of round shaped fish and the pelicans keep stealing them. I would bet with the lake being so full the last two years the crappie got a good foot hold and that is what we were marking. It that is the case, there is a lot of crappie in the lake this year. The shad should be spawning now and those small fry that will come later will feed the crappie for a while. This could be the start of a couple of years of boom for that year class of crappie. I hope so but either way, it won't last long unless the water levels rise up into the brush again.
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