Hot at Willard 7-30-20

[TubeDude]

Made a solo trip to Willard so. marina this morning.  Air temp 65 and water temp 77 at 6:30 launch.  Only a few boats today.  Probably because the overall fishing has slowed down so much.  The weather was hot today, but the fishing...not so much...unless you count catfish.  They were smokin'.  At least the ones I brought home will be in the smoker soon.

Started out dragging a succession of crankbaits, chatterbaits, spinners, etc.  Had a few no-connect bites but nothing actually hanging on until after 8 am.  Saw quite a few fish on "TV" but none of them wanted to play.  I finally switched it up to a couple of spinner fligs...sweetened with small chub minnows.  Game on.  Went through 2 dozen minnows and only missed a few biters.  All catfish.  All fun.  I got hits in depths from 12' to 18' but the magic kitty zone today seemed to be around 16'.  I even got a couple of doubles.

Didn't see or hear of anyone scoring any larger wipers or walleyes today.  Did see one boater bring in a wiper that was only a few inches long...probably this year's planter.  Another guy came to the cleaning station with 3 wipers about 14-15 inches.  Likely last year's crop.

Ran out of bait and it was getting hot by 11, so I boogied.  Can't wait until fall temps cool the water and heat up the action.

Good job Pat. I had a similar experience Wendsday morning. Kept six or seven for the smoker. For every one kept a couple cookie cutters where sent back to grow up a little. All fish were caught drifting and dragging marinated chicken thighs on a Santee rig. It was plenty warm. Heat didn't drive me off the lake. No bait left sent me home.

Ifn I recall keereckly you also like to fish "kitty city" down near the feedlot.  Seems like no matter how poor the fishing has been for other species...or elsewhere...we can always find a few "whiskery wipers" in that area.

I also released more than a few runts for next year.  But all the cats were healthy.  The ones I filleted all had gobs of visceral fat inside.  They haven't been starving.


upload image