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+--- Thread: willard boils? (/showthread.php?tid=676032)
willard boils? - bassassin101 - 07-03-2011
With the weather the way it been how long till we start to see some boils at willard any one have any thoughts on the subject.
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Re: [bassassin101] willard boils? - TubeDude - 07-03-2011
[cool][#0000ff]In most "normal" years the shad spawn by early June and the babies are over an inch long by mid July. The boils start about the time the shad fry are about 1 1/2" long and begin forming large visible schools. This year the spawn for all species was late...with the long cold winter and cold runoff. Don't know when the shad actually spawned or how successful they were. We will have to wait and see when or if the shadlets show up for the wipers to add to their menu.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Boils are typically an August and September thing, with some earlier and some later.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Anybody hitting the marinas in the next couple of weeks should look for bitty minnies swimming close to shore next to the ramps...especially at the south marina. That is usually where I see them first.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]But also watch for the terns (birds) that fly out over the lake looking for the baby shad too. They will dip down and pick up singles here and there and if there is a boil you will see multiple terns divebombing the splashes. Once that starts happening it is ON.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]My best guess this year is late July at the earliest.[/#0000ff]
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Re: [TubeDude] willard boils? - bassassin101 - 07-03-2011
Thanks TD. Your info is always great. i hope they start sooner then later. Can't wait to get to chasing them darn things around.
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Re: [bassassin101] willard boils? - TubeDude - 07-03-2011
[cool][#0000ff]You know me. I take pictures of everything. Here are a couple of pics from the 2009 season. The first if from July 14, 2009. It was a dead baby shad I picked up next to shore at the ramp.[/#0000ff]
[inline "WIPER CHOW.jpg"]
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[#0000ff]The second pic is (a quarter's worth) of freshly chomped shadlet from inside a wiper...taken about a month later...in August. Boils were in full session.[/#0000ff]
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[inline "WIPER CHOW 2.jpg"]
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Re: [TubeDude] willard boils? - chickendude1234 - 07-03-2011
It's going to be late this year. I saw what I assumed were small schools of shad ( they were way too small to tell) in the rocks the other day when I was out there. They were 1/4" to 1/2" in size and barely visible unless you were looking for them. They've got some growing to do before we see some boils.
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Re: [bassassin101] willard boils? - lundfun - 07-05-2011
I saw a couple of terns following some baby shad on Saturday. We tried to get some wipers to take a popper with no luck, but we caught three on Rapalas along with a couple of walleyes. We saw a good wiper caught by a shore angler as well as a couple of walleyes and three or four wipers caught by boat anglers. Can't wait till the boils begin. I hope somebody can educate some of the guys who think they have to run right into a school to catch a fish. Be polite and smart, and we all can catch fish when the boil season begins.
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Re: [lundfun] willard boils? - fishinfool - 07-05-2011
That is great news you saw some I looked from one end of the lake to the other and didn't see a tern diving?
On the note of people being polite around wiper boils. not going to happen, I have asked people many times to please not drive right into them and they tell me there not my fish and do what they want. I have learned to let the main mass of people find the early boils and they flock to them and I find the isolated boils and fish them all by myself letting the fish move where they want and stay just outside the boil and have my fun. If you saw the sixty or more bass boats on the east flat last year! I was not one of them boats I fished north of them near pelican beach and near eagle beach and had a blast with a few considerate fisherman that also didn't want to deal with that mess...[
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