Willard Full Boat...Ten-Four

[TubeDude]

Nope.  This ain’t nothin’ to do with poker…or CB chatter.  Obi invited 3 of us fellow fishing reprobates to join him in his fine boat…making it “cozy”.  And we launched at the south marina on Willard on Friday the 4th of October.  10-4, good buddy.
 

Original plans were for FastRandy to come down from Idaho and join Obi and myself on this trip.  But Eylayo also got a late invite to complete a foursome.   All good friends and lots of ongoing chatter.  Even got in some fishing.
 
Started out playing with the bumper crop of young wipers…both trolling and casting.  Birds working over a large area with occasional dives but no real “boils”.  But there were a lot of fish around us.  Everybody caught some before it slowed down and we started fliggin’ for cats.  There were also several other boats in the area and we witnessed a few fish being caught by them.  We released all our fish except for one 18 incher I kept for tempura.  But back at the cleaning station there were lots of footlong wipers being processed by others.
 

The catfish bite was slow and sporadic.  One here and one there…with more than a few pop and drops.  Inexperienced fish that didn’t know how to hang on.  Send ‘em back to school.  Even the area I had done so well in on Tuesday produced nothing.  Fish are fickle.  Here today...gone tomorrow.  That’s fishing…especially on Willard.

 
At least we all caught fish and had a good get-together.  Thanks, Obi.  It was great fishing with you guys.  And you ordered really nice weather too.  I probably caught the fewest fish of everybody.  The other guys probably didn’t buy it that I was shaking them off so they could catch more…or that I had clipped off the hook points on my fligs to avoid hooking too many fish.  Anyways, I was still wore out from battling all those cats from my float tube last Tuesday.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  


Oh yeah.  One last thing.  My exit from the boat was a lot more graceful than last time.  No triple klutz.

[wiperhunter2]

Great report Pat, sounds like fun was had by all. Good to see a bigger wiper showing up in the mix too. What color fig, did the best for the cats?

[oldguy]

Thanks pat I have been waiting for this report ever since you guys set the date. Glad every one had a great time .

[TubeDude]

Great report Pat, sounds like fun was had by all. Good to see a bigger wiper showing up in the mix too. What color fig, did the best for the cats?

Most were caught on the "pistachio" and the blue-silver.  But I also had hits on orange tiger and pink silver.  But for some reason the cats were a lot more tentative...and a lot of them did not get stuck on the strike.  Unusual.  Usually a very high percentage hookup rate of strikes to hookups.   

Couldn't have been all the noise the four rowdies in the boat were making.  But, on Tuesday...when I was fishing in "stealth mode" from my float tube...almost every "inquiry" turned into a hooked fish.

[obifishkenobi]

It was a great morning of storytelling mixed in with some fishing.Had we stuck with the birds we could have caught a bunch more wipers the largest was Pats 18” and we caught several 14-15” and a bunch of 12-13”. Blue and chrome lipless cranks did most the damage. There where a number of other boats getting in on the wiper action casting , trolling and on anchor with bait under bobbers just outside the South Marina. Thanks guys so much for joining me for a great morning.

[oldguy]

I was a great morning of storytelling mixed in with some fishing.Had we stuck with the birds we could have caught a bunch more wipers the largest was Pats 18” and we caught several 14-15” and a bunchof 12-13”. Blue and chrome lipless cranks did most the damage. There where a number of other boats getting in on the wiper action casting , trolling and on anchor with bait under bobbers just outside the South Marina. Thanks guys so much for joining me for a great morning.

Thanks for the report Shawn we will be out tomorrow again.

[Freakyfisherman]

Nope.  This ain’t nothin’ to do with poker…or CB chatter.  Obi invited 3 of us fellow fishing reprobates to join him in his fine boat…making it “cozy”.  And we launched at the south marina on Willard on Friday the 4th of October.  10-4, good buddy.
 

Original plans were for FastRandy to come down from Idaho and join Obi and myself on this trip.  But Eylayo also got a late invite to complete a foursome.   All good friends and lots of ongoing chatter.  Even got in some fishing.
 
Started out playing with the bumper crop of young wipers…both trolling and casting.  Birds working over a large area with occasional dives but no real “boils”.  But there were a lot of fish around us.  Everybody caught some before it slowed down and we started fliggin’ for cats.  There were also several other boats in the area and we witnessed a few fish being caught by them.  We released all our fish except for one 18 incher I kept for tempura.  But back at the cleaning station there were lots of footlong wipers being processed by others.
 

The catfish bite was slow and sporadic.  One here and one there…with more than a few pop and drops.  Inexperienced fish that didn’t know how to hang on.  Send ‘em back to school.  Even the area I had done so well in on Tuesday produced nothing.  Fish are fickle.  Here today...gone tomorrow.  That’s fishing…especially on Willard.

 
At least we all caught fish and had a good get-together.  Thanks, Obi.  It was great fishing with you guys.  And you ordered really nice weather too.  I probably caught the fewest fish of everybody.  The other guys probably didn’t buy it that I was shaking them off so they could catch more…or that I had clipped off the hook points on my fligs to avoid hooking too many fish.  Anyways, I was still wore out from battling all those cats from my float tube last Tuesday.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  


Oh yeah.  One last thing.  My exit from the boat was a lot more graceful than last time.  No triple klutz.

Pat,
 I think I saw your suv in the parking lot. I went by the south marina on Friday to see if I could catch a cat or two from the bank. I had and hour and a half to try. No luck. Did you guy try looking for perch? I might get out tomorrow in my tube on Willard. 
Gabe

[TubeDude]

Pat,
 I think I saw your suv in the parking lot. I went by the south marina on Friday to see if I could catch a cat or two from the bank. I had and hour and a half to try. No luck. Did you guy try looking for perch? I might get out tomorrow in my tube on Willard. 
Gabe

We didn't try for perch on that trip...but I did the Tuesday before.  I saw a few marks on sonar that looked perchy but didn't get any to open their mouths.  When the perch are "in" and active, you catch them on the same stuff you fish for other species...crawler rigs, Gulp, jig and worm, plastics, small crankbaits, etc.  But they don't really come in in any numbers...or get very active...until water temps drop below about 55 - 50 degrees.  That's when the smallest baby shad start dieing off and the perch swarm in to munch them.  Probably going to be close to the end of October before many show up on anglers' lines.

If you wanna give it a shot, try fishing right around the mouth of the marina...as the channel starts going out...and in only 12 - 15 feet of water.  That was a good area for perch last year and I saw quite a few smaller fish hanging around there on Tuesday.  They could have been small wipers but also possible they were perch.

I'm codgertatin' about tubing it again on either Tuesday or Wednesday.  If nothing else I think I can score some more of those junior wipers.  They hit hard and pull good.  And there are some larger ones mixed in if you can get trough the small ones.  I did get an 18" one on Friday.  White Gulp Minnows have always worked well for me on those wipers too.  Cast out, let sink to the bottom and then burn the retrieve back up through the water column.  Wipers just can't ignore something edible dissing them on the way by.  But on Friday we were scoring mostly on blue/silver lipless crankbaits...and rattling silver spinners.

[oldguy]

I have fished Willard  for the last 3 weeks and it seems the wipers are getting  larger
 We caught most of ours on the racy shad flicker shad and the solid silver flicker shad size4 and 5. Although we did not take any home I have seen a lot of 12 to 14 inch fish being cleaned.No perch at all. Can't wait for the cool down.

[MWScott72]

Sounds like the fish were even more finicky than last week up there, but glad to hear that everyone caught some fish. Good story telling goes a long ways too!