06-25-2014, 04:24 PM
[#0000FF]I have fished Willard long enough to have a fair knowledge of the cycles it goes through in an average year. Howsomever, there really ain't anything like "average" since every year seems to be different in terms of water levels, fish populations, feeding patterns, etc. But, there are a very few things that I have sorta established as "constants"...like rigs, colors and favored hangouts...even during fluctuations in water levels. Usually my first trip on Willard each year...and maybe one later in the summer...I experience the "straight rod syndrome"...with no stretched string. Pain.
If it is any consolation, I talked to an old timer (another one) at the ramp. He was just coming back in after a no-fish morning and he was fuming. Claimed that he had fished Willard for 55 years and he had never been skunked before...but has had two such trips in the last week. I listened but didn't offer any refutes to his claims of mismanagement by DWR, pelicans eating all the shad, etc.
Bottom line is that yes, the front coming through last week ushered in a change. But that change seems to happen every year about this time. The predators are suddenly surrounded by clouds of baby shad (as we saw on sonar) and while they are not productively feeding on them it seems to mess up their dining activity.
Very shortly the shad will grow to over an inch in length and wipers and walleyes will start to include them in their menus...and the boils MAY get underway. Never a guarantee.
But longtime savvy anglers on Willard begin downsizing their lures...trolling the smallest versions of the Rattlin' Raps and other tiny lures that more closely match the size of the shadlets. And that is when my small plastics get a lot more attention too. I have lots of pics in my files of smiling wipers wearing those little plastic lip ornaments.
By September the shad have usually grown to a size that is closer to the regular Rattlin' Rap or other similar lipless cranks. I do well on them then by throwing 3" pearl holo Maniac Minnows or shad bodies on 1/8 oz. heads.
The last couple of years there has not been nearly the topwater "boil" action of years past. It is a predator/prey population equation. More food and fewer predators makes the living easy for the wipers and they don't have to herd the shad into meat balls and blast them on the surface. All they have to do is swim around with their mouths open. That kinda cuts down on the success rate of trollers too. And it can really be a timing thing. Sometimes the active bite is early. Other times it is right before dark. And still other times it can be wide open in the middle of the day. Fish operate on their schedule...not ours.
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If it is any consolation, I talked to an old timer (another one) at the ramp. He was just coming back in after a no-fish morning and he was fuming. Claimed that he had fished Willard for 55 years and he had never been skunked before...but has had two such trips in the last week. I listened but didn't offer any refutes to his claims of mismanagement by DWR, pelicans eating all the shad, etc.
Bottom line is that yes, the front coming through last week ushered in a change. But that change seems to happen every year about this time. The predators are suddenly surrounded by clouds of baby shad (as we saw on sonar) and while they are not productively feeding on them it seems to mess up their dining activity.
Very shortly the shad will grow to over an inch in length and wipers and walleyes will start to include them in their menus...and the boils MAY get underway. Never a guarantee.
But longtime savvy anglers on Willard begin downsizing their lures...trolling the smallest versions of the Rattlin' Raps and other tiny lures that more closely match the size of the shadlets. And that is when my small plastics get a lot more attention too. I have lots of pics in my files of smiling wipers wearing those little plastic lip ornaments.
By September the shad have usually grown to a size that is closer to the regular Rattlin' Rap or other similar lipless cranks. I do well on them then by throwing 3" pearl holo Maniac Minnows or shad bodies on 1/8 oz. heads.
The last couple of years there has not been nearly the topwater "boil" action of years past. It is a predator/prey population equation. More food and fewer predators makes the living easy for the wipers and they don't have to herd the shad into meat balls and blast them on the surface. All they have to do is swim around with their mouths open. That kinda cuts down on the success rate of trollers too. And it can really be a timing thing. Sometimes the active bite is early. Other times it is right before dark. And still other times it can be wide open in the middle of the day. Fish operate on their schedule...not ours.
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