07-01-2019, 05:51 PM
I drive past Willard Bay a frequently. In my commuting years, I drove past Willard Bay twice a day, every day.... for almost a decade. I have bank tangled a couple of times there and caught a couple catfish but never the prized wiper or walleye. I had never fished it from a boat and following fellow BFTer reports, I realized a boat is the best chance of finally hooking up with a wily wiper or walleye. With some convincing I got my dad to agree to a Saturday morning trip and without any convincing at all my oldest two daughters set their alarms and woke up on time to come with us.
We hit the water about 7:45 am and apparently that was our first mistake. We trolled shad raps, flicker shad, Rat-L-Traps, wally divers, Rapalas, crawler harnesses, spinners and spoons with only one light tap in almost four hours. Having other stuff that needed to get done at home, we decided to give up and started back for the boat ramp about 11:45 am. That's when the rod with the rat-l-trap went BENDO! My 10-year-old was the lucky one to pick up the rod. That fish put up quite the fight for her and I knew it had to be a decent one. A few minutes later, with my oldest girl manning the net, the first wiper for our family was brought aboard the boat. A 21" 4-pound fatty!!!
After we got the lines back out, my oldest daughter says "Hey Sis, turn on more of your fish charm." Turn on the fish charm she did, because right after she said "OK" another rod was bouncing. Big Sis reeled in her first wiper.
Shortly after that I was able to cross wiper off of my new species list. The first walleye for the family was brought on board within a short span by Big Sis and she was able to put her first check mark next to walleye.
Little Miss Fish Charm was also able to count catfish on her list of new fish when a 20" cookie cutter cat hit the crawler harness at 3.2 mph.
All in all, we caught 6 wipers, 1 walleye and 1 catfish and a couple missed fish between 11:45 am and 2:00 pm. One fish was caught on the black/chrome Rat-L-Trap; the other 7 fish were all caught on an orange/yellow crawler harness.
I released one of my smaller wiper to get bigger, but the girls were so excited to catch new fish that they didn't want to let any of their fish go. Maybe when we catch them consistently then I can convince them just to keep the bigger ones. We went home and the girls had their first lesson at fillet school. All the wiper, both big and small ended up being absolutely delicious both as fried fish tacos and broiled fillets.
All in all, it was a good day with Captain Grandpa and the Giggly Girl Gang. Next time though, we might sleep in and hitch up the boat about 10:30 am.
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We hit the water about 7:45 am and apparently that was our first mistake. We trolled shad raps, flicker shad, Rat-L-Traps, wally divers, Rapalas, crawler harnesses, spinners and spoons with only one light tap in almost four hours. Having other stuff that needed to get done at home, we decided to give up and started back for the boat ramp about 11:45 am. That's when the rod with the rat-l-trap went BENDO! My 10-year-old was the lucky one to pick up the rod. That fish put up quite the fight for her and I knew it had to be a decent one. A few minutes later, with my oldest girl manning the net, the first wiper for our family was brought aboard the boat. A 21" 4-pound fatty!!!
After we got the lines back out, my oldest daughter says "Hey Sis, turn on more of your fish charm." Turn on the fish charm she did, because right after she said "OK" another rod was bouncing. Big Sis reeled in her first wiper.
Shortly after that I was able to cross wiper off of my new species list. The first walleye for the family was brought on board within a short span by Big Sis and she was able to put her first check mark next to walleye.
Little Miss Fish Charm was also able to count catfish on her list of new fish when a 20" cookie cutter cat hit the crawler harness at 3.2 mph.
All in all, we caught 6 wipers, 1 walleye and 1 catfish and a couple missed fish between 11:45 am and 2:00 pm. One fish was caught on the black/chrome Rat-L-Trap; the other 7 fish were all caught on an orange/yellow crawler harness.
I released one of my smaller wiper to get bigger, but the girls were so excited to catch new fish that they didn't want to let any of their fish go. Maybe when we catch them consistently then I can convince them just to keep the bigger ones. We went home and the girls had their first lesson at fillet school. All the wiper, both big and small ended up being absolutely delicious both as fried fish tacos and broiled fillets.
All in all, it was a good day with Captain Grandpa and the Giggly Girl Gang. Next time though, we might sleep in and hitch up the boat about 10:30 am.
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