Willard N. Marina 4-25-22

[TubeDude]

Another one of those sneak in trips between “weather events”.  Picked a great day for fishing.  Calm and clear.  And fishing was great…even if the catching was not.
 
Launched my tube about 7:20 am.  Chatted briefly with a couple of tooners who were heading toward the docks to dunk for crappie.  They said they had been down a couple of times in the last week but had not scored anything yet.  Also said the water depth at the east end was less than knee deep.  But if there are any crappies left in Willard they will show up there to spawn when water temps get right.  Crappies will spawn in water only a couple of feet deep if that is where they can find some brush or vegetation.
 
Water temp at launch was 49 degrees.  Stayed that temp until about 9 am and then warmed up about 1 degree an hour…reaching just over 51 degrees when I ramped by noon.  Water is coming in strong at the inlet baffles and the level is rising a bit.  Still a long way to go before hitting the upper bathtub ring.

Was just getting started dragging some fligs when the “Deadly Duo” showed up (WH2 and wiperslayer1).  I handed over some new trinkets they had ordered and they blasted off for their day of fishing elsewhere.  I understand they only got 1 cat all day, so maybe I didn’t do so badly after all…with only 3 cats for my efforts.
 
I don’t remember ever working so hard or covering so much water for such a meager reward.  Didn’t get my first bite for over an hour.  Had a total of 4 bites all day and brought in 3 cats…all about an hour apart and in different areas and different depths.  And saw very little on sonar to give me encouragement.  Tough day…but at least I killed the skunk and backed it up with a couple more.
 
From the north marina I made S turns and fished all the way over to the north dike.  And then I worked up the north dike…fishing in and out from about 4’ out to as much as 13’.  As mentioned, almost nothing on sonar.  There was a large contingent of bank tanglers about 1/4 mile out on the north dike.  They looked serious…with several large wheeled carts on the dike above where they all had their chairs along the remaining sandy beach of the low water.  Didn’t see them catch anything but heard one of them say to another that they had caught “2” the day before.  No mention of species but I am guessing wipers.  That group of mussel dunkers shows up at a couple of spots around the lake every year and usually harvests quite a few wipers when they are in.
 
I did make one great catch just off the dike…a “12 point” snag.  I seldom snag with the fligs but this one came up tight and it looked like I was going to “donate to the fish gods”.  But wonder of wonders, when I moved over the top of it and gave a mighty pull it came up from the depths.  Biggest one I’ve caught there.  But I released it unharmed.

Only a handful of boats headed out of the n. marina.  And all of them headed across the lake to parts unknown.  None of them came back in for me to get a report before I left at noon.  Beautiful day, with flat glass calm most of the time.  Again, fishing was a lot better than the catching.