2021 Willard Bay Trip # 35

[Tin-Can]

Thursday 9 Sep.  
Chanced another trip to WB South. Arrived at 0715, got launched at 0730. Was only rig in the lot, and only boat on the water for a few hours.  


   [/b]

Water depth in south marina still at minimums but OK for small boats that are careful. 
[b]Weather was nice, light breeze, light ripple on the water which about 1100 died off to almost dead calm.

[b]


Since I had the water to myself for as far as I could see, decided to run some lures out toward the west wall north of the island.  Just above the island and trolling at 1.1 to 1.5 mph bouncing a Fire Tiger on one line and a Chrome and Black on the other, had a few hard hit, run, releases. But one Cat hooked up long enough to make it into the net for a quick CPR. 




Continued  random turning troll between wall and island about half way to the south west corner.  No more action.  Brought in lines and headed back east to area out from feed lot tower. Set up 2 lines with bait, opened and deployed my sun shade top, kicked back with fresh cup of coffee. Went into a very slow south-west drift.  Picked up the next 4 Cats on an average of  1 every 50 to 55 minutes, all CPR.  
Called it a day about 1245.  

Got back to the dock and only one other rig in the lot.  Departed by 1330. 

        



 

[FatBiker]

Willard has been pretty hit and miss for me the last few weeks. Did you see big bait balls? Seems like the days I see lots of bait are much better than those without spotting much. If the wind isn't blowing much, I'll be headed to the north marina in the
morning. It's rather pleasant to sit out there and get lonely.

[Tin-Can]

Willard has been pretty hit and miss for me the last few weeks. Did you see big bait balls?  Seems like the days I see lots of bait are much better than those without spotting much. If the wind isn't blowing much, I'll be headed to the north marina in the
morning.  It's rather pleasant to sit out there and get lonely.

  Larry,  I didn't notice any large bait balls.  A couple areas where I caught Cats as I was drifting, I didn't even see many fish at all. But with Cats feeding closer to the bottom usually, they don't show up on my sonar.  
It was nice to have the lake practically to myself 

[rive801]

So do people just not catch wiper or walleye anymore at Willard this year? Seems like quite possibly the worst year ever there...

[RockyRaab2]

The fish cops have been planting more walleye than wipers there lately. Walleye catching was pretty good this Spring for many anglers. Few wipers caught, but there were some real whoppers. Willard seems to be a state of constant transition with species. The only ones that always blossom are the shad and catfish, it seems. Crappie, wipers, and smallmouth seem to run in cycles of a few years each. Right now, they all seem to be on a down curve with no real improvement in sight due to changed stocking and poor spawning conditions.

In DWR's defense, Willard is a really hard waterbody to manage for fish.

[wiperhunter2]

So do people just not catch wiper or walleye anymore at Willard this year? Seems like quite possibly the worst year ever there...

First of all, welcome to the site. A little history about Willard in recent years. About four years ago the DWR started stocking less wipers and they started stocking walleye. They are still stocking wipers and they are still being caught but there numbers are so low and the food(shad) in such high numbers that wipers and walleye and not being caught much, at this time of the year. This year was a great year for walleye with more limits being caught than anytime in the past 7 or 8 years, wipers not so good but again their numbers are way down. The best time to catch wipers or walleye is in the Spring, up till July or the end of June when the shad get big enough that they are what are on the menu.