08-21-2008, 03:11 PM
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][#002850]Since I haven't seen many Willard reports lately, I decided to go get a first-hand account of the fishing conditions out there. My decision to go out was definitely a last minute thing so I ended up going alone.
I launched at the South marina at 6:30 PM into 80-81 degree water. I bee-lined it over to the light pole and fished from there north along the dike. I fished till 8:00 for just a short hour and a half of fishing.
I did pretty decent for such a short time. I boated three very large wipers. Any one of the three fish I caught would have been money fish in a tournament. I was impressed with their size.
The water was still a bit murky but not as bad as I expected.
I only tried two lures and caught fish on both of them. One was a #7 silver with black back Rapala Tail Dancer and the other lure was the old Prism Shad Producer. I haven't caught fish on that lure for a long time.
Even though, around 7:30-8:00 I seen lots of birds dive bombing for shad, I never seen a single fish tail flip … let alone a boil!
I think my boat was the smallest boat on the pond. Guys with larger boats are still launching. Going out the channel the water was 6 feet deep in places but at the end of the channel, it shallows up to 2 feet or less again before it gets back to safe depths. So if you plan to boat Willard, be careful to go strait out the center of the channel and keep going strait for a quarter mile past the entrance to the channel. DON'T VEER LEFT OR RIGHT!
Like has been reported in another post, the island is up out of the water about a foot or so and is covered with pelecans.
The bugs were non-existents out on the lake but boy, when I came back in the mosquitoes bout did me in! I was glad I didn't keep any fish and have to work with them at the cleaning station. I don't think I could have endured the mosquitoes! It was all I could do to hook up the boat and get out of there!
All in all, it was a great quickie and the company[crazy] was great.[/#002850][/size][/font]
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I launched at the South marina at 6:30 PM into 80-81 degree water. I bee-lined it over to the light pole and fished from there north along the dike. I fished till 8:00 for just a short hour and a half of fishing.
I did pretty decent for such a short time. I boated three very large wipers. Any one of the three fish I caught would have been money fish in a tournament. I was impressed with their size.
The water was still a bit murky but not as bad as I expected.
I only tried two lures and caught fish on both of them. One was a #7 silver with black back Rapala Tail Dancer and the other lure was the old Prism Shad Producer. I haven't caught fish on that lure for a long time.
Even though, around 7:30-8:00 I seen lots of birds dive bombing for shad, I never seen a single fish tail flip … let alone a boil!
I think my boat was the smallest boat on the pond. Guys with larger boats are still launching. Going out the channel the water was 6 feet deep in places but at the end of the channel, it shallows up to 2 feet or less again before it gets back to safe depths. So if you plan to boat Willard, be careful to go strait out the center of the channel and keep going strait for a quarter mile past the entrance to the channel. DON'T VEER LEFT OR RIGHT!
Like has been reported in another post, the island is up out of the water about a foot or so and is covered with pelecans.
The bugs were non-existents out on the lake but boy, when I came back in the mosquitoes bout did me in! I was glad I didn't keep any fish and have to work with them at the cleaning station. I don't think I could have endured the mosquitoes! It was all I could do to hook up the boat and get out of there!
All in all, it was a great quickie and the company[crazy] was great.[/#002850][/size][/font]
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]. From what I remember the [font "Comic Sans MS"][#002850]mosquitoes are always worse at the South marina. What was the reason for launching from the South marina? If the wipers were bigger than the tournament, are you say they were all over 21" or 23"? Good to here your changing your evil ways and letting those wipers go[
]. Thanks for posting your report Ralph.[/#002850][/font]