Anybody catching a Bunch of 10-14 inch walleyes this year at Willard? Seems to me I have seen a lot of the dinks caught this year? Maybe a trend? Maybe the start of a Serious up swing at Willard? I have notice over the years that Yuba, Starvation and Willard seem to have that happen a year or 2 in advance of the really SPECTACULAR Walleye Years.
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I am no pro on the matter but I would say this time of year I always catch a lot more males then females and those smaller fish are mostly males.. Also I have found that worms on bottom bouncers pick up more males the big females that I catch are most often caught with lures like Shad raps and such.... Maybe that's just me.. Also tonight I went out and caught 3 smaller eyes and I was trying for wipers at 4.5 mph I never hooked a wiper all night and lost 5 other eyes at the boat....
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This is my first year fishing in Utah so I am not an expert on the history of willard bay by any means. I have found myself catching alot of 22-25" eyes at willard as well as several in the 12-15" range. I would guess they had a 1-3 bad years but it would seem that they had a successful hatch a couple years ago.
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Just musing, but I have never seen this abundance of small Walleye at willard in my life time. You cannot go fishing there without picking one or 2 of the little spine'rs up. And if you have been targeting the eyes you might have noticed it as well. Same thing happened at Yuba, and to a much larger extent Starvation , in the past. Not by definitive research or something, but by my recollection a precursor of good things to come. Hoping for the best.
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But this could mean the lakes, especially starvation are overrun by a large population of small walleyes. Due to such high competition they may never get a chance to get big.[frown]
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That is what happened up at Holter lake in MT. It got to to the point where all you would catch were 12-14" eyes, I have heard it is getting better this year with some in the 16-18" range and an occasional bigger fish. From what I have seen at willard though I dont think we have to worry about stunting. When a lake is so full that they cant grow anymore you will be catching them by the hundreds (pitching jigs from shore.) Hopefully it is a sign of good things to come, especially with the quantity of "breeders" that we have been seeing this year.
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Boom and bust here in the desert. Hoping more for the boom. We will see though.
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