12-19-2016, 01:40 PM
[#0000FF]Willard ices up SOME winters. And there is almost always ice inside the marinas. If water levels are high enough the marinas draw in good numbers of crappies, perch and catfish. But walleyes and wipers are always a possibility.
In the years when the whole lake caps there are several good areas to drill and chill. The area outside the north marina...along the humps and bumps and along the channel edges...can hold fish. But they usually move around so you will do better if you can find a spot along a "fish highway".
When the ice is good it is good to work around the NW corner...the "light pole" area...and over the deeper spots along the west side. That is where a lot of the shad congregate in the winter so that is where the predators go too.
I'm attaching an excerpt from my more complete writeup on Willard Bay that should give you some more info on ice fishing it.
As others have suggested, it is not a prime spot for catching large numbers of any species through the ice. You can have good days but more often you will smell like skunk...or only slightly fishy.
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In the years when the whole lake caps there are several good areas to drill and chill. The area outside the north marina...along the humps and bumps and along the channel edges...can hold fish. But they usually move around so you will do better if you can find a spot along a "fish highway".
When the ice is good it is good to work around the NW corner...the "light pole" area...and over the deeper spots along the west side. That is where a lot of the shad congregate in the winter so that is where the predators go too.
I'm attaching an excerpt from my more complete writeup on Willard Bay that should give you some more info on ice fishing it.
As others have suggested, it is not a prime spot for catching large numbers of any species through the ice. You can have good days but more often you will smell like skunk...or only slightly fishy.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]