NBC Day At Willard 10-8-24

[TubeDude]

Launched my tube at the south marina about 7:30 am.  Nice calm morning.  Air temp 45 which warmed to 75 at noon departure.  Water temps only 61 at the ramp but 64 in the main lake…warming only 1 degree by noon.  Next week’s forecast cooldown should see the water temps drop a bit more.
 

Had some requests for some fresh catfish fillets.  Figgered I could handle that easily enough, but also wanted to put in some play time with the wiperettes.  But, Willard being what it is, the wipers seemingly moved out of the area they were in last week.  An hour’s worth of munchless trolling and casting for them.  So I put up the hardware and brung out the foam goodies and minnows.
 

The good news is that the everlovin’ kitties were right where I left them last week and they still wanted to play with my fliggy things.  Still shallow.  In fact, my first fish climbed on in less than 10 feet of water…and turned out to be the largest fish of the day at 25”.
 

Almost all of the fish after that came while I slowly dragged my minnowed fligs in 11 to 12 feet of water.  Amazingly, they weren’t smacking the “pistachio” color today.  My first few came on blue silver.  And when I changed out the pistachio for a pink tiger I got some love on that.
   

Bites came pretty often.  I brought at least 15 cats to net…keeping a limit of 8 to provide a meal for my family and my neighbor next door.  Plus, I had promised some fresh fillets to  another BFTer who has been mostly catless recently and who likes dem fish.
 

I put up the flig rods about 11 and trolled wiper candy all the way back to the ramp…without any interruptions.  Only one boat trailer in the parking lot besides my vehicle.  That should have told me something.  When the fish are IN…so are the fishermen.
 
The fish cleaning station was clean and operable.  I made good use of it and ended up with two big bags of fillets.  Plenty for all my obligations.

[wiperhunter2]

Looks like a great haul Pat and those Willard cats sure are some pretty fish. Strange there were so few folks out on the water, guess a few of them followed us up to Echo, as we saw 9 boats up there. It's a good thing that the wipers moved on, as I was hearing reports of the bucket brigade keeping way more than their limits.

[TubeDude]

Looks like a great haul Pat and those Willard cats sure are some pretty fish. Strange there were so few folks out on the water, guess a few of them followed us up to Echo, as we saw 9 boats up there. It's a good thing that the wipers moved on, as I was hearing reports of the bucket brigade keeping way more than their limits.

Yeah, the "happy harvesters" are usually quick to pass the word among themselves and show up in numbers to do their part to reduce the "over-population" of any species available.  I had a report last week of an encounter at the cleaning station.  Their were two guys with a "bunch" of small wipers.  When confronted, they said there was "no limit on the small ones".  Ya gotta wonder where that stuff gets started...and how anyone can be so stupid as to believe it...without checking the regulations.  

With the abundance of survivors from last year's heavy planting there is reason for hope that at least the next couple of years will be good for bigger fish.  But if enough "bucket bozos" show up in the meantime that will reduce the numbers somewhat.

[wiperhunter2]

Looks like a great haul Pat and those Willard cats sure are some pretty fish. Strange there were so few folks out on the water, guess a few of them followed us up to Echo, as we saw 9 boats up there. It's a good thing that the wipers moved on, as I was hearing reports of the bucket brigade keeping way more than their limits.

Yeah, the "happy harvesters" are usually quick to pass the word among themselves and show up in numbers to do their part to reduce the "over-population" of any species available.  I had a report last week of an encounter at the cleaning station.  Their were two guys with a "bunch" of small wipers.  When confronted, they said there was "no limit on the small ones".  Ya gotta wonder where that stuff gets started...and how anyone can be so stupid as to believe it...without checking the regulations.  

With the abundance of survivors from last year's heavy planting there is reason for hope that at least the next couple of years will be good for bigger fish.  But if enough "bucket bozos" show up in the meantime that will reduce the numbers somewhat.

Agreed, guess we all need to do our part by turning these bucket bozos in.

[TubeDude]

Looks like a great haul Pat and those Willard cats sure are some pretty fish. Strange there were so few folks out on the water, guess a few of them followed us up to Echo, as we saw 9 boats up there. It's a good thing that the wipers moved on, as I was hearing reports of the bucket brigade keeping way more than their limits.

Yeah, the "happy harvesters" are usually quick to pass the word among themselves and show up in numbers to do their part to reduce the "over-population" of any species available.  I had a report last week of an encounter at the cleaning station.  Their were two guys with a "bunch" of small wipers.  When confronted, they said there was "no limit on the small ones".  Ya gotta wonder where that stuff gets started...and how anyone can be so stupid as to believe it...without checking the regulations.  

With the abundance of survivors from last year's heavy planting there is reason for hope that at least the next couple of years will be good for bigger fish.  But if enough "bucket bozos" show up in the meantime that will reduce the numbers somewhat.

Agreed, guess we all need to do our part by turning these bucket bozos iThe big downer...especially this time of year with all of the hunting going on...is that the limited number of DWR COs are spread out and stretched thin.  Virtually impossible for them to cover their assigned areas completely or to be able to respond to poaching calls in a timely manner.  By the time one of them could arrive to check the infraction the perps would be long gone..with no incriminating evidence left behind.  Even taking pictures and a shot of their license plate would likely only result in a dead-end investigation.  

It's a fact that those who persist in overharvest and other violations are well aware of the weaknesses in the DWR field coverage.  And they take full advantage of it to rape the resources.  I have heard from DWR folks that a surprising number of those they do ticket have not even bothered to get a valid fishing or hunting license.

[oldguy]

I am with you guys something has to change it is so bad there they don't even try to hide it anymore. I have called a # of times but seems it never has follow up. Maybe large led signs  that blink would help ?. Thanks for the report pat.