02-24-2009, 01:54 PM
[cool][#0000ff]Sorry you were not rewarded for your efforts. Fishing from shore at Willard is always iffy. I cover a lot of area in my tube, dragging my bait over a lot of bottom. Sometimes I go a long ways between bites, but when I find a good spot I catch fish on every cast.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]My first cat the other day came right in the middle of the channel, not far from the buoy. Then, nothing more until I got about halfway down between the two dikes...then about five or six in a row as soon as the bait settled to the bottom.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I put up my bait rig for about a hundred yards of casting only with plastics and crankbaits. The channel has an edge that drops quickly from about six feet down to 9-10 feet, and that is often a good place to find wipers and walleyes...when they are in and active. Not much going on in 38 degree water.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Yes, the walleyes do run up that channel, and it is closed to fishing from the buoy up to the inlet from March 1 to the last Saturday in April. But, it can be good fishing for walleyes from the buoy out into the lake. I have taken a lot of them in April, both on minnows and plastics.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Better to keep your casts either in the middle of the channel or near the breakline. The brushy area off the points will be good for crappies starting in late April through most of May. But, with all of the new shoreline brush being flooded around the lake, that bit of cover near the points probably won't have any special attraction.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You may have had success with chicken livers in the past, on the waters you fished, but I have never done well on them at Willard...compared with more "natural" baits. The perch meat should work if you can find the fish. Fish flesh has always been a top producer at Willard...sucker meat, carp meat, minnows, etc. Of course good old crawlers work well too...especially for walleyes when bottom bouncing. One "sleeper" bait seldom used by anglers on Willard is hot dogs. Wienies have caught a lot of kitties on that lake, and a few wipers too.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have fished Willard from my float tube going clear back to the 1970's. Before the wipers and smallies...and gizzard shad...the lake was full of crappies, had gazillions of big walleyes and routinely kicked out catfish between 15 and 20 pounds...with lots of 5# plus cats. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I dearly love the wipers but I sometimes miss the old days of plenty.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As the lake comes back up to the high water mark, it should be great fishing for the trolling crowd again. The water will stay cleaner at the higher levels, so the wipers can cruise and hunt using their vision and not have to rely on vibration alone in the murky water of low-water conditions. The shad will bring off a great spawn with all of the new cover and that will provide fantastic BOIL fishing later in the summer. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Dragging the bottom will be a problem in many areas. Lots of new tamarisk seedlings growing up that will be flooded...and they will not break down for years. Likely to be some purty new decorations on the bottom growth from trollers who cross the brushy humps while washing lures.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Bring it on.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]My first cat the other day came right in the middle of the channel, not far from the buoy. Then, nothing more until I got about halfway down between the two dikes...then about five or six in a row as soon as the bait settled to the bottom.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I put up my bait rig for about a hundred yards of casting only with plastics and crankbaits. The channel has an edge that drops quickly from about six feet down to 9-10 feet, and that is often a good place to find wipers and walleyes...when they are in and active. Not much going on in 38 degree water.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Yes, the walleyes do run up that channel, and it is closed to fishing from the buoy up to the inlet from March 1 to the last Saturday in April. But, it can be good fishing for walleyes from the buoy out into the lake. I have taken a lot of them in April, both on minnows and plastics.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Better to keep your casts either in the middle of the channel or near the breakline. The brushy area off the points will be good for crappies starting in late April through most of May. But, with all of the new shoreline brush being flooded around the lake, that bit of cover near the points probably won't have any special attraction.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]You may have had success with chicken livers in the past, on the waters you fished, but I have never done well on them at Willard...compared with more "natural" baits. The perch meat should work if you can find the fish. Fish flesh has always been a top producer at Willard...sucker meat, carp meat, minnows, etc. Of course good old crawlers work well too...especially for walleyes when bottom bouncing. One "sleeper" bait seldom used by anglers on Willard is hot dogs. Wienies have caught a lot of kitties on that lake, and a few wipers too.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I have fished Willard from my float tube going clear back to the 1970's. Before the wipers and smallies...and gizzard shad...the lake was full of crappies, had gazillions of big walleyes and routinely kicked out catfish between 15 and 20 pounds...with lots of 5# plus cats. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I dearly love the wipers but I sometimes miss the old days of plenty.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]As the lake comes back up to the high water mark, it should be great fishing for the trolling crowd again. The water will stay cleaner at the higher levels, so the wipers can cruise and hunt using their vision and not have to rely on vibration alone in the murky water of low-water conditions. The shad will bring off a great spawn with all of the new cover and that will provide fantastic BOIL fishing later in the summer. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Dragging the bottom will be a problem in many areas. Lots of new tamarisk seedlings growing up that will be flooded...and they will not break down for years. Likely to be some purty new decorations on the bottom growth from trollers who cross the brushy humps while washing lures.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Bring it on.[/#0000ff]
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