Willard Full Boat...Ten-Four

[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