2021 Willard Bay Trip # 23 & 24

[Tin-Can]

I tried to post this yesterday after getting home from WB.  My internet (connected thru my apartment complex) was down for some reason. 
Anyway, Trip # 23 on 2 July is one of  those easy one word reports - Skunked. 

Yesterday Trip # 24 was at least no skunk. Some good, some not so good. 
Arrived at WB South about 7:20 a.m. air temp 72 launched and headed out the channel by 7:49, water temp 79 ish.  Water temp up to 84 on 2 p.m. departure.

 Water level is dropping.  1.9 fow at the bottom of center ramp, 3.0 at outside of dock. 4-6 fow in marina area, 6-9 fow out the channel. Depending on location 5-17 fow in main body. 




Had a pretty good breeze going at first, just shy of whitecaps.  My game plan was to go direct to south west corner and troll up the west wall. Didn't quite work out that way. To keep the wave action from broadsiding me, did a sharp zig-zag. Bow into the wind at slight angle to west, then hard turn to put wind on the stern and continue angling west. Took me probably close to an hour, but finally got to west wall.  Wind calmed just as I was getting set up to put out 2 long lines. Rigged up one line with rat-l-trap that has been productive for Cats. Second line I rigged with a fire tiger crank, and about every 30 minutes I swapped out that line with another lure. Over the day, I think I went thru about 75% of the cranks, flicker shads, rat-l-traps, Storm swims, that are in my boat. That line produced No Joy.  
Other line took about 2.5 hours, but hooked up a typical WB kitty.  That one accepted my invite for dinner, so into the box she went.




Set that line back out, and probably lest than 10 minutes in the water it got second hit. This time was a hard slam hit and run. Got the rod out of rod holder while drag was stripping and line was on a express for Brigham City. Lift, tighten drag a bit.........FIGHT ON.  Probably best fight I've had at Willard this year.  That beast did a fast U turn and headed for the boat. I had to reel like crazy, but got tension back on the line. Probably worked that fish for a good 10 minutes. Was getting it to within about 6 feet of the boat, but still too deep to see it. Got my net ready, lifted rod.........SNAP.  My 14 lb. mono broke. Must have been a nick in the line I didn't see.  I never saw the fish, so don't know if it was a Wiper or big Cat.

If anyone catches a fish with this lure and maybe 6 to 8 feet of orange 14 lb. mono hanging out of it's mouth, I would sure like to get that lure back   .




Met 2 gentlemen at launch and again at the cleaning station. One said he reads the BFT posts frequently, but hasn't been able to get back on since the site changed last year.  He never said what his BFT user name was, but I told him how to get help on the forum.  Hopefully he will get back on. 

[FatBiker]

Forest, July 2nd was tough. I worked hard for the three of four kitties I found. Started out at the feedlot, ran up to the north marina, headed over to the light pole and ended up back at the feedlot. Burned a lot of gas with minimal results. Yesterday, was a bit better. Took my kayak to the north marina and found a half dozen stupid ones before it got too hot. Dragging chicken on one rod and TDs infamous BELH chubettes on the other did the trick. While the kitties are still scattered, 5 of 6 FOW seemed productive. Probably be Friday until I try again

[wiperhunter2]

Sorry to hear you lost that big one Forest. From my experience, any time I catch a cat at Willard, it is always smart to retie my line, replacing at least the bottom two ft of line. Those cats love to roll when you catch them and I have lost more than one lure to a fish after having one of the cats nick my line and I forgot to check it before putting it back out. Now, I usually just run my finger nail up the bottom two feet or so of line and replace that section, if I feel any sort of nick. it just isn't worth it to lose a nice fish and a good lure because I did not check my line.

[Tin-Can]

Forest, July 2nd was tough. I worked hard for the three of four kitties I found. Started out at the feedlot, ran up to the north marina, headed over to the light pole and ended up back at the feedlot.  Burned a lot of gas with minimal results.  Yesterday, was a bit better. Took my kayak to the north marina and found a half dozen stupid ones before it got too hot.  Dragging chicken on one rod and TDs infamous BELH chubettes on the other did the trick. While the kitties are still scattered, 5 of 6 FOW seemed productive.  Probably be Friday until I try again

  Yep.  Would like to go back up Friday, but have an appointment to get my truck serviced.  And needs to have wheel bearings checked / maybe changed. Been hearing a high pitched whine from the front end. Starts at about 40 mph, faster I go, louder it gets. Don't matter what type of road surface. Already had the tires checked for uneven or unusual wear. They are good, only 2 years old, and less than 30K miles on  them. 
But since truck is still under extended service contract, dealer gonna do a good front end inspection.  

The 2 guys I met yesterday were both in kayaks and once the wind calmed, they went all the way out to the old coffer damn area past the feed lot tower. Don't know if they had sonar on their yaks, but they each caught 2 Cats in area they could see the bottom.

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Sorry to hear you lost that big one Forest. From my experience, any time I catch a cat at Willard, it is always smart to retie my line, replacing at least the bottom two ft of line. Those cats love to roll when you catch them and I have lost more than one lure to a fish after having one of the cats nick my line and I forgot to check it before putting it back out. Now, I usually just run my finger nail up the bottom two feet or so of line and replace that section, if I feel any sort of nick. it just isn't worth it to lose a nice fish and a good lure because I did not check my line.

   Yeah Curt, I usually do check my last couple feet of line after catching a Cat. And I did after I caught the first one yesterday, but I think the line break was more that 2 or 3 feet up from the lure.  May have been a nick from a previous rock snag. I never saw what I was fighting yesterday, so it had to be more than 4 or 5 feet down.  I'm sure it wasn't a case of knot coming loose cuz the line end wasn't curly like when a knot pulls out. It was a clean break almost like I cut it with a knife or pliers.  I have another of those lures, and I think I can find another at Sportsman's or Cabelas. 

But that's the price of doing the business of fishing    .