Willard N. Marina 10-29-20

[TubeDude]

Big whoop!!!!  Another NBC Willard report.

Heard the water temps were dropping.  Hoped to find some "tiger fish" (perch).  Launched about 7:30.  Still almost dark.  Daylight savings be gone soon.  Good.  Water temp down to 48.  Getting there.  Air temp 29.  Glad I was wearing my Heat Holder socks...and glad I brought gloves and hand warmers.

Saw lots of fishy marks in the channel and just outside the marina.  Mostly shad balls...from small to amazing.  Some of them were so dense they created a false depth reading on the sonar...registering 12 feet deep in 16 feet of water.  Also noted there were quite a few dead shadlets floating on the water...from the temperature drop.  And the terns were out mopping them up in the early light.


Also saw some "perchy" and crappie-looking signals.  But did not bring any of them to net to prove my guesses.  Did get some pecks and rattle-rattle bites that were definitely un-catlike.  But they were either too small or too smart to find the hook point.

After some fruitless plastic prospecting I started dragging flig rigs...tipped with small LHBE chub minnows.  It was almost an hour before getting my first solid munch.  Turned out to be my smallest cat of the day...from about 10 feet of water. 


My usual program is to motor around with the electric until I start seeing enough fishy presence to justify sending down some offerings.  Worked from shallow to deep in big S turns.  When I reached my "Kitty Condo" area I started seeing more shad and also some larger denizens.  Sent out two minnow-baited flig rigs and started catching cats.  Caught about a half dozen or so before I called it early (11 am) to take care of other commitments.

Most of the cats came from about 17 feet of water.  I tried a variety of flig colors.  The favorite among catkind seemed to be the blue-back silver again.  Funny how different days find the fish in different color moods.


There were 3 boats out of the north marina.  One of the boat anglers was a hardcore Willardite who probably catches more walleyes than any other 10 anglers on that lake.  He was also prospecting for perch and had similar observations as I did...perch are just coming in but are not very active yet.  He also left about the same time I did and reported catching about a half dozen kitties too.  We ain't proud.  Sure, we target other species but tugs is tugs and we never turn down a rasslin' match with a catfish.

One of the other boats was manned by the "W &W" team...Wiperhunter and Wiperslayer.  They cruised up to my tube to exchange pleasantries...and to pick up some fligs and jigs.  They headed out much further and I did not get to check with them later to see how they did.  Mayhaps they will post a report...or at least reply to this post.


Gettin' colder.  But when there is little to no breeze...and you dress appropriately...you can still get some enjoys.