11-06-2018, 12:35 AM
"How would you locate likely areas in a pond that big? Be fun if we could figure out a way to get onto them. Do you think those rock piles might start attracting them?"
[#0000FF]If I had the ability to answer those questions do you think I would divulge it for free...on a public forum? Or...if I had the magic solutions my reports would be full of pictures of toothy critters...not whiskery ones. I know most of the biology and the theories. But that does not give the the decoder ring to be able to figure out walleyes on every trip.
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[#0000FF]Sorry DWR folks. The fact that you get a few in the nets does not translate into an abundant fishery for anglerkind. In the renowned walleye waters of the midwest there is usually an aggressive annual stocking program and abundant forage species for year round feeding. This produces hundreds of fish for every angler...so if even just a small percentage take your bait or lure you still do well. In Willard there are relatively few fish...widely scattered throughout the whole lake. If you are good...and lucky...you will catch one here and one there. More than two or three in a day and you pat yourself on the back.
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[#0000FF]As with most Utah waters and most Utah species, what you are able to find and catch is largely a matter of the food chain. If you know what the fish are eating, and where it is currently hanging out, you have a better chance of finding your target species. But in some large waters (like Willard), the bait is constantly moving and so do the predators. Where you found fish yesterday (or an hour ago) is likely to be barren on your next trip. It takes some basic knowledge, good sonar, a bit of gas and a lot of luck to find the fish.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Long-time Willardites with good sonar have usually found a few humps and bumps or rare structure on the bottom that often hold fish. But they usually understand that unless there is food or something else to hold the fish there, those spots can be barren most of the time. Oh yeah, the guys I know that have some GPS honey holes don't seem too anxious to post up the numbers for the rest of us.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]If I had the ability to answer those questions do you think I would divulge it for free...on a public forum? Or...if I had the magic solutions my reports would be full of pictures of toothy critters...not whiskery ones. I know most of the biology and the theories. But that does not give the the decoder ring to be able to figure out walleyes on every trip.
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]Sorry DWR folks. The fact that you get a few in the nets does not translate into an abundant fishery for anglerkind. In the renowned walleye waters of the midwest there is usually an aggressive annual stocking program and abundant forage species for year round feeding. This produces hundreds of fish for every angler...so if even just a small percentage take your bait or lure you still do well. In Willard there are relatively few fish...widely scattered throughout the whole lake. If you are good...and lucky...you will catch one here and one there. More than two or three in a day and you pat yourself on the back.
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]As with most Utah waters and most Utah species, what you are able to find and catch is largely a matter of the food chain. If you know what the fish are eating, and where it is currently hanging out, you have a better chance of finding your target species. But in some large waters (like Willard), the bait is constantly moving and so do the predators. Where you found fish yesterday (or an hour ago) is likely to be barren on your next trip. It takes some basic knowledge, good sonar, a bit of gas and a lot of luck to find the fish.[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]Long-time Willardites with good sonar have usually found a few humps and bumps or rare structure on the bottom that often hold fish. But they usually understand that unless there is food or something else to hold the fish there, those spots can be barren most of the time. Oh yeah, the guys I know that have some GPS honey holes don't seem too anxious to post up the numbers for the rest of us.[/#0000FF]
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