Willard...Good News & Bad News (With Video)

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Couldn’t stay away Monday with the super weather forecast.  Launched from the south marina about 7…after taking a picture of the setting “blood moon” over the marina.  Air temp 58 and a tie score with the water temp also at 58.  Air was up to 82 by the time I left at noonish.  Water temp had warmed to 65 and the carp were getting frisky all over the place.  (See pics at bottom)
  
The good news…the fish cleaning station is open.  The bad news…I didn’t get any walleye or wipers to put it to use.  The good news is that there were a lot of playful kitties to stretch my string and bend my stick.  And the weather was delightful.
 
Met up with Fatbiker at the ramp.  But he stayed closer to the marina and he was gone by the time I got back in so I don’t know how he did.  I motored under power…making big S turns…down to the area of the feed lot.  Didn’t see much on TV.  Saw even less on the end of my line.  Finally worked my way back out to where I found some on my last trip…in just over 12 feet of water.  There were still some kitties home…even if no wipers or walleyes.

First cat came on an orange tiger whirly flig with a crawler setup.  After that it was a fish about every 10 to 15 minutes for the next couple of hours.  And they hit a variety of fligs, most tipped with chub meat.  The first on crawler was the only one that wanted a worm.
 

A little after 10 am the water temp had climbed a few degrees and the carp started getting frisky along the rocks and even out away from shore a ways.  At first I thought it might be some wipers so I moved in to shallower water and rigged up with some of my new “buzz fligs”…with buzz bait blades for spinners.  They really move in the water even at low speed.  Had an orange one on one rod and a blue-silver one on the other rod.  Had a couple of doinks on the blue silver but no hookups.
 
Then the rod with the orange model took a sudden dive and line started peeling off the reel.  I just knew it was a wiper so I brought in the second rod and got ready for a battle.  The fish did the usual wiper stuff…making big circles and turning me around in my tube a couple of times one way…then the other.  After a prolonged slugfest I coaxed it up off the bottom toward my net…and saw it…A CATFISH!   Hardest fighting cat I have caught out of Willard in like forever.  But at least I got something on my new lures.
 
The carp were really going crazy as I rounded the corner coming back into the marina.  They were rolling and splashing everywhere.  And as I was finishing loading up my gear in my car a gang of them came noisily across the ramp I had just used.  I reached down for the landing net laying at my feet and made a scoop.  Got two big nasty carp in the net.  One of them levered its way out but I flopped the other one on the bank long enough to get it to pose for a picture.  Then it splashed its way back out to the orgy.  I didn't even stomp it before releasing it unharmed.
 
Talked to several boaters returning from the open lake.  A few small walleye reported.  No bigguns and no limits.  And no wipers.  Guess I can be happy with the catfish exercise.  I know the others will come.  I caught lots of them the past couple of years once they were in the same area as the kitties.