Another slow day at Willard

[wiperhunter2]

On a good note it was one of the coolest days out there for a while with a nice cool breeze blowing most of the morning. Wiperslayer and I got there a little after 6am to see a fair number of fisherman launching but no power squadron for most of the time we were there. Started off in a place we did good at on Monday but they wanted none of our lures, I went through over 20 different lures looking for the magic one that was going to put fish in the boat only found one that got any love. After much searching and moving we picked up two eyes and one decent wiper for our efforts, what a difference a few days can make. Water temp was 72 when we arrived and got up to 74 degrees by the time we left at 12:30. Water was stained since our Monday trip there but lots of fish on the surface.

[JArner]

20 different lures, that’s some smorgasbord! Congratulations on the catch, at least it wasn’t a skunk.

[fishinfool]

Dang! Tough day going through all those lures and not finding one that they constantly wanted to hit. The shad have gotten big enough now that it's going to be slim picking and boils are going to get you the best catches. Casting to splashing fish in areas you see surface splashes if not seeing boils should produce also. We will be there tomorrow.

Since your report about trolling isn't the best I think we will be casting allot tomorrow.

Thank's for the report.
fnf

[TubeDude]

The only thing consistent about Willard is inconsistency.  Forget what worked last week...or even yesterday.  Seems like every trip requires the "biblical system"...seek and ye shall find...maybe.

We Willardites have acquired and perfected a whole range of potential excuses...for "those days".  Our bummer days were the result of moon phase, water temps, heavy boat traffic, wind or other weather phenomena, spawn cycles, food overabundance, lack of food, wrong lures, wrong depth, holding mouth wrong, etc.  And on some days we can apply just about all of them.

Inquiring minds wanna know.  Were you not finding fish...or were you finding a lot of fish with lockjaw?  Also, the larger fish you could see on sonar...what seemed to be their preferred cruising depth...on or above the bottom...at in what depths of water?

One thing that has seemed to develop in years past is that the fish will typically be more active at one time of day rather than the others.  Not sure if it is a moon phase (tides), weather patterns, light/dark situation, bait (shad) location and activity or what.  But there are some days when it is an early morning bite...and other days when it is midday or late bite.  And those patterns may remain the same for several days...or not.  Those wascally wipers and walleyes pretty much do whatever they want...according to their own schedules.

I have been trying to get back up there to try out some new goodies I have been playing with.  But Mama Nature keeps having hot flashes and/or hissy fits and my float tube prefers calmer and more comfy conditions.  Maybe next week some day.  Maybe.

[albinotrout]

Dang! That is willard for ya...

[fishinfool]

Well said Tube dude.

And as you know I am no stranger to the skunk smell at Willard, but I have an arsenal now of lets go try this and see if it works. LOL.

Last outing nothing really worked very well and the only pattern that was consistent was trolling the rocks. Picked up tons of nice cats and 4 of our walleye doing that. The wipers were far and few between throughout the day and we picked up the two biggest right before dark.

We are going to try to drift fish some mussels tomorrow in an area I think the wipers are holding in. While those are soaking we will cast some crankbaits using different retrieves to see if we can get anything that way.

I like the thrill of the chase and trying to figure out what to do to catch fish. I have caught the biggest wiper out of Willard casting crank baits to the rocks and using a reel and pause retrieve to try to bring it down the rocks in steps without getting hooked in the rocks. I haven't even done that this year so I might as well give it a go first thing in the morning.

To each there own. I will report back Sunday morning if not tomorrow evening.

fnf

[wiperhunter2]

20 different lures, that’s some smorgasbord! Congratulations on the catch, at least it wasn’t a skunk.

That was just the lures I tried, Ira went through at least that many and we did not try the same lures, until we caught the first fish.

[wiperhunter2]

Dang! Tough day going through all those lures and not finding one that they constantly wanted to hit. The shad have gotten big enough now that it's going to be slim picking and boils are going to get you the best catches. Casting to splashing fish in areas you see surface splashes if not seeing boils should produce also. We will be there tomorrow.

Since your report about trolling isn't the best I think we will be casting allot tomorrow.

Thank's for the report.
fnf

When we caught the first fish, we both started using that lure and later, that lure produced our second eye as well. We did not see any boils and almost no surface activity for that matter, including diving birds but it might be another story later in the day. Good luck tomorrow Tony.

[wiperhunter2]

Inquiring minds wanna know.  Were you not finding fish...or were you finding a lot of fish with lockjaw?  Also, the larger fish you could see on sonar...what seemed to be their preferred cruising depth...on or above the bottom...at in what depths of water?

One thing that has seemed to develop in years past is that the fish will typically be more active at one time of day rather than the others.  Not sure if it is a moon phase (tides), weather patterns, light/dark situation, bait (shad) location and activity or what.  But there are some days when it is an early morning bite...and other days when it is midday or late bite.  And those patterns may remain the same for several days...or not.  Those wascally wipers and walleyes pretty much do whatever they want...according to their own schedules.

I have been trying to get back up there to try out some new goodies I have been playing with.  But Mama Nature keeps having hot flashes and/or hissy fits and my float tube prefers calmer and more comfy conditions.  Maybe next week some day.  Maybe.

Yes, we were finding lots of fish, not quite as many as Monday, they for sure they had lockjaw or our lures were running too deep. Early most of the fish were shallow, in the 3 to 10 ft range. We tried pulling shallow running lures, slow, fast and faster but it did not help. As far as the depth the larger fish were cruising, they were all over the place, depending on the location. Early most were shallow, as I said above, later in the morning, we were finding them at mid depth and in one location we found a lot near the bottom or right on the bottom. We fished all depths depending on where we were seeing the fish. We even tried worm harnesses using some of your hand painted blades, in that area where we were marking fish either on or near the bottom but the cats or what ever they were, didn't even seem interested. 
We were thinking the same thing about the morning vs evening bite thing, so maybe the evening bite could be better.
Hopefully you will do better, if you make it up here next week. We think it was just one of those days.

[TubeDude]

Inquiring minds wanna know.  Were you not finding fish...or were you finding a lot of fish with lockjaw?  Also, the larger fish you could see on sonar...what seemed to be their preferred cruising depth...on or above the bottom...at in what depths of water?

One thing that has seemed to develop in years past is that the fish will typically be more active at one time of day rather than the others.  Not sure if it is a moon phase (tides), weather patterns, light/dark situation, bait (shad) location and activity or what.  But there are some days when it is an early morning bite...and other days when it is midday or late bite.  And those patterns may remain the same for several days...or not.  Those wascally wipers and walleyes pretty much do whatever they want...according to their own schedules.

I have been trying to get back up there to try out some new goodies I have been playing with.  But Mama Nature keeps having hot flashes and/or hissy fits and my float tube prefers calmer and more comfy conditions.  Maybe next week some day.  Maybe.

Yes, we were finding lots of fish, not quite as many as Monday, they for sure they had lockjaw or our lures were running too deep. Early most of the fish were shallow, in the 3 to 10 ft range. We tried pulling shallow running lures, slow, fast and faster but it did not help. As far as the depth the larger fish were cruising, they were all over the place, depending on the location. Early most were shallow, as I said above, later in the morning, we were finding them at mid depth and in one location we found a lot near the bottom or right on the bottom. We fished all depths depending on where we were seeing the fish. We even tried worm harnesses using some of your hand painted blades, in that area where we were marking fish either on or near the bottom but the cats or what ever they were, didn't even seem interested. 
We were thinking the same thing about the morning vs evening bite thing, so maybe the evening bite could be better.
Hopefully you will do better, if you make it up here next week. We think it was just one of those days.

Sometimes we have to accept that it was "just one of those days".  Usually there is no single identifiable factor that contributes to either a bananner day or an oh %$#@ day.  Always helps to have a good variety of offerings and to try different presentations...at different speeds and depths.  At the end  of the day you might still not know what worked best...but you dang sure know a whole bunch of things that didn't.

---

Well said Tube dude.

And as you know I am no stranger to the skunk smell at Willard, but I have an arsenal now of lets go try this and see if it works. LOL.

Last outing nothing really worked very well and the only pattern that was consistent was trolling the rocks. Picked up tons of nice cats and 4 of our walleye doing that. The wipers were far and few between throughout the day and we picked up the two biggest right before dark.

We are going to try to drift fish some mussels tomorrow in an area I think the wipers are holding in. While those are soaking we will cast some crankbaits using different retrieves to see if we can get anything that way.

I like the thrill of the chase and trying to figure out what to do to catch fish. I have caught the biggest wiper out of Willard casting crank baits to the rocks and using a reel and pause retrieve to try to bring it down the rocks in steps without getting hooked in the rocks. I haven't even done that this year so I might as well give it a go first thing in the morning.

To each there own. I will report back Sunday morning if not tomorrow evening.

fnf

Looking forward to your report.  With the limitations of my float tube I'm pretty well confined to fishing along the rocks and casting rather than trolling.  Almost always do okay on cats and sometimes I find a few of the other guys.  There are even times when I do better "up close and personal" than the guys dragging cranks at mach 3 all over the lake.  So when the wipers and walleyes are not going for the steady movement of a trolled lure, it can be effective to do some casting...with a varied retrieve.

There is a little trick I discovered while living in Arizona...fishing for white bass and stripers.  If they are suspending at middepth and not hitting anything you throw at them, try making a long cast beyond the fish and letting your sinking lure settle to the bottom.  Once it touches down, start cranking hard and burn it back up through the fish.  After a few of these retrieves you may feel a bump or two, but don't set the hook.  Wait until you have them riled up enough to grab hold and load up the rod.  And once they get agitated it can be fast action.  This works good with lipless cranks and with good action tail plastics.  It really is like a cat and mouse thing.

[dubob]

I got skunked Curt!  Used more than a dozen different lures and speed varied between 1.2 to 2.8 mph.  Steered the boat in 'S' curve pattern all day.  That was the 4th trip in a row to Willard with nary a hit.  I'm not feeling the love. 

[Jig-fisher]

Well that looks like a repeat of my evening trip the other night. Although you put 1 more fish in the boat than I did and definitely tried more lures. In the end, that's our fickle, unpredictable, wonderful, awful, frustrating, and sometimes fantastic Willard. Like Forest Gump said, and I change the verbage just a bit, "Willard is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." At least with a box of chocolates you get a reward, with Willard sometimes someone closes the lid before you get to try one.
Thanks for the report. If you two had struggles putting them in the boat, I feel a bit better about my outing.

[Tin-Can]

I got skunked Curt!  Used more than a dozen different lures and speed varied between 1.2 to 2.8 mph.  Steered the boat in 'S' curve pattern all day.  That was the 4th trip in a row to Willard with nary a hit.  I'm not feeling the love. 

Well Bob, I feel like I'm in pretty good company. My last outing to Willard I had great weather, few bugs, and a light, well behaved (for a change) power squadron.  And no bites at all. 

[wiperhunter2]

I got skunked Curt!  Used more than a dozen different lures and speed varied between 1.2 to 2.8 mph.  Steered the boat in 'S' curve pattern all day.  That was the 4th trip in a row to Willard with nary a hit.  I'm not feeling the love. 

Sorry to hear that, as late as you got there I figured you would have a tough day but how late did you stay? Sometimes if the morning bite isn't on, the evening bite will be better but you have to stay until dark, for your best chance some days.

[wiperhunter2]

Well that looks like a repeat of my evening trip the other night. Although you put 1 more fish in the boat than I did and definitely tried more lures. In the end, that's our fickle, unpredictable, wonderful, awful, frustrating, and sometimes fantastic Willard. Like Forest Gump said, and I change the verbage just a bit, "Willard is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." At least with a box of chocolates you get a reward, with Willard sometimes someone closes the lid before you get to try one.
Thanks for the report. If you two had struggles putting them in the boat, I feel a bit better about my outing.

We figured it was just a bad day and Fri would be better but I talked to at least one member that did not do well on Fri either. It will be interesting to see how fishingfool does today.

[dubob]

I got skunked Curt!  Used more than a dozen different lures and speed varied between 1.2 to 2.8 mph.  Steered the boat in 'S' curve pattern all day.  That was the 4th trip in a row to Willard with nary a hit.  I'm not feeling the love. 

Sorry to hear that, as late as you got there I figured you would have a tough day but how late did you stay? Sometimes if the morning bite isn't on, the evening bite will be better but you have to stay until dark, for your best chance some days.

I stayed until 1:30.  Three and a half hours without a hit was more than enough.

[PACKFAN]

I got skunked Curt!  Used more than a dozen different lures and speed varied between 1.2 to 2.8 mph.  Steered the boat in 'S' curve pattern all day.  That was the 4th trip in a row to Willard with nary a hit.  I'm not feeling the love. 

---

They have slowed down considerable since the 4th my son and I went out this past weds, on the water shortly after 6 off by 12 had 3 hits and landed all 3, they were walleye 17 to 19 inches, two were on cranks and one on a hatchet blade harness. Heading to Deer Creek Monday for 5 days. Haven't had a chance to try the lakes for kokanee been having too much fun with the walleye in the various lakes. bow hunt is just around the corner so my thoughts will turn to a different activity shortly which we enjoy.

[SkunkedAgain]

Well at least you made me feel better that I couldn’t get out there to try. Thanks So how long do you try a lure before you change? I know I always stick with the same lure too long but I can’t imagine trying that many different ones in that short of an outing. I guess if you know the fish are there and just not interested after pulling it past a few groups of fish then you just as well try something different but that’s a lot of lure washing going on. Thanks Jeff

[wiperhunter2]

Well at least you made me feel better that I couldn’t get out there to try. Thanks So how long do you try a lure before you change?  I know I always stick with the same lure too long but I can’t imagine trying that many different ones in that short of an outing. I guess if you know the fish are there and just not interested after pulling it past a few groups of fish then you just as well try something different but that’s a lot of lure washing going on. Thanks Jeff

It varies, if we were marking few fish, we left them on as long as 30 minutes but if were marking a lot of fish and got no bites, I'd switch every 15 minutes. Remember, we each were fishing two rods. When fishing is good and we are catching fish, I will leave a lure on that is catching fish, all day.

[wiperhunter2]

They have slowed down considerable since the 4th my son and I went out this past weds, on the water shortly after 6 off by 12 had 3 hits and landed all 3, they were walleye 17 to 19 inches, two were on cranks and one on a hatchet blade harness. Heading to Deer Creek Monday for 5 days. Haven't had a chance to try the lakes for kokanee been having too much fun with the walleye in the various lakes. bow hunt is just around the corner so my thoughts will turn to a different activity shortly which we enjoy.

Yea, I think the really good catching is over at Willard, not to say on a good day we can't still catch a bunch and if there is a boil, anything is possible but I'm about done with Willard. I see some kokanee fishing trips in my future .  Hey Pete, what is a hatchet blade harness?