Chilly Willard 10-16-20

[TubeDude]

Met up with FatBiker this morning at the north marina.  Still dark at 7 am launch.  Air temp mid 30's and water temp down to 57.  Getting there.  This was supposed to be a perch search but not quite cool enough for their liking.
But the everlovin' kitties came out to play.

Got my first feisty kitty within the first half hour.  Surprised at how frisky it was in the cooling water...as were most of the other volunteers today.  Best offering turned out to be a brightly colored fire tiger flig in those chilly conditions.  And either a whole or half small chub minnow.   Also got quite a few cats on the always popular "chartreuse perch" fligs.  I briefly tried some plastics and worms...hoping for perch or crappies.  Nada, zip, zilch.

FatBiker might be eligible for a new handle.  Seems like he made a deal with Rocky Raab and now fishes from Rocky's former kayak.  Do we call him "Fat Rocky", Rocky Biker or???  I'll settle for Fat Yakker...although he is kinda skinny...at least compared to me.  Anyhooters, he likes being up out of the cold water and he brought a few kitties up to join him.  So the ride is properly broken in for him.

He fished all over the place...depthwise...catching fish in shallower water only a few feet off Eagle Beach...and up to the deeper water I fished most.  I got most of my fish between 15 - 17 feet deep.  And we both caught fish inside the harbor which was only about 8' deep.

Fishing was not blazing hot...but consistent enough to keep me from dozing off in the warming sunshine.  I had caught about 10 cats working off Eagle Beach, when I decided to move back and fish the area right out off the entrance to the north marina.  It can be productive this time of year for multispecies.  Not today.  But the kitties showed up and I quickly released another half dozen whiskery wipers/perch/walleyes.

Not seeing anything encouraging on sonar, I motated back inside the marina...just to see what denizens might be lurking there.  I did recognize a couple of those denizens...CowboyPirate and Cookie.  They had caught a couple of cats bank-tanglin'.  And I caught a couple more eager kitties while cruising around the usual more productive zones inside.  Finally gave up on ABC (anything but cats) about 11ish.  I had kept 3 for a small fish fry.  The rest all got exercise and experience...and still swim in wunnerful Willard.