NBC Day At Willard 10-8-24

[TubeDude]

Launched my tube at the south marina about 7:30 am.  Nice calm morning.  Air temp 45 which warmed to 75 at noon departure.  Water temps only 61 at the ramp but 64 in the main lake…warming only 1 degree by noon.  Next week’s forecast cooldown should see the water temps drop a bit more.
 

Had some requests for some fresh catfish fillets.  Figgered I could handle that easily enough, but also wanted to put in some play time with the wiperettes.  But, Willard being what it is, the wipers seemingly moved out of the area they were in last week.  An hour’s worth of munchless trolling and casting for them.  So I put up the hardware and brung out the foam goodies and minnows.
 

The good news is that the everlovin’ kitties were right where I left them last week and they still wanted to play with my fliggy things.  Still shallow.  In fact, my first fish climbed on in less than 10 feet of water…and turned out to be the largest fish of the day at 25”.
 

Almost all of the fish after that came while I slowly dragged my minnowed fligs in 11 to 12 feet of water.  Amazingly, they weren’t smacking the “pistachio” color today.  My first few came on blue silver.  And when I changed out the pistachio for a pink tiger I got some love on that.
   

Bites came pretty often.  I brought at least 15 cats to net…keeping a limit of 8 to provide a meal for my family and my neighbor next door.  Plus, I had promised some fresh fillets to  another BFTer who has been mostly catless recently and who likes dem fish.
 

I put up the flig rods about 11 and trolled wiper candy all the way back to the ramp…without any interruptions.  Only one boat trailer in the parking lot besides my vehicle.  That should have told me something.  When the fish are IN…so are the fishermen.
 
The fish cleaning station was clean and operable.  I made good use of it and ended up with two big bags of fillets.  Plenty for all my obligations.