Willard still kicking out some decent perch

[wiperhunter2]

The Slayer and I hit Willard today from 8am to 1:30 pm. Water temp was 41 to 42 degrees. Headed over to Freeway bay and stayed there all day. It started off a little slow but the later in the morning it got, the better the catching got. Pink was again the hot flig with hot pink being the color for the day. Average perch was 12", we also caught 5 cats and 1 carp, threw a small 9.5" perch back because it was tiny compared to most of the keepers. All perch we kept were between 10.5 and 12.5". 8 to 9 FOW was the depth we had our best success in.




Pic below is what we are looking for on our side scan, when we are searching for perch.

[gofish435]

Looks like some good eating ahead for you guys.

[wiperhunter2]

Looks like some good eating ahead for you guys.

At least for me, Ira doesn't eat perch.

[Jig-fisher]

The Slayer and I hit Willard today from 8am to 1:30 pm. Water temp was 41 to 42 degrees. Headed over to Freeway bay and stayed there all day. It started off a little slow but the later in the morning it got, the better the catching got. Pink was again the hot flig with hot pink being the color for the day. Average perch was 12", we also caught 5 cats and 1 carp, threw a small 9.5" perch back because it was tiny compared to most of the keepers. All perch we kept were between 10.5 and 12.5". 8 to 9 FOW was the depth we had our best success in.




Pic below is what we are looking for on our side scan, when we are searching for perch.

Very nice again.  Cool side finder view of the school of perch.

[wiperhunter2]

The Slayer and I hit Willard today from 8am to 1:30 pm. Water temp was 41 to 42 degrees. Headed over to Freeway bay and stayed there all day. It started off a little slow but the later in the morning it got, the better the catching got. Pink was again the hot flig with hot pink being the color for the day. Average perch was 12", we also caught 5 cats and 1 carp, threw a small 9.5" perch back because it was tiny compared to most of the keepers. All perch we kept were between 10.5 and 12.5". 8 to 9 FOW was the depth we had our best success in.

Pic below is what we are looking for on our side scan, when we are searching for perch.

Very nice again.  Cool side finder view of the school of perch.

Thanks, we don't see them like that all the time but we did on this occasion.

[SkunkedAgain]

Once you found the school, did you sit on top of them and jig, or keep circling with the trolled fligs? That's a nice group of fish, how do you recognize them from other fish? Is it size of mark or grouping pattern? I wish I had taken pictures of the indications I was seeing so I could compare... Most of the ones I seen were spaced further apart and pointing mostly in the same direction... Pat helped point out that they were likely carp and so I'm still trying to figure out the best way to know what I'm looking at... It sure is fun to be able to know things are around you though... After fishing Bear Lake for the whitefish, I'm seeing why most of our deep water fishermen don't have much love for side imaging and mega 360, they are best for shallower water fishing I believe... My SI really didn't help much at Bear Lake, the rocks were so big where the whitefish were spawning that I hardly seen any fish on it, even though I caught a few... I guess they were behind the rocks and not showing up, plus the sudden drop offs just turn into dark voids on the screen.. Still good info to have, but not nearly as useful as it is on shallower lakes with more consistent bottoms.. Anyway thanks Curt for posting the SI, I really appreciate that... And great job on another great haul from Willard... Later Jeff

[TubeDude]

It was great sharing the lake with you guys again...even though neither of us knew the other was there.  My trip was a last minute thing.  I had planned to go Monday but had a conflict.  But when the weather for Tuesday looked favorable I jumped on it.   I hit the south marina so there was no way for me to know you guys were there...launching from the north.

I found the same conditions you did.  Very slow with only tentative bites early.  But after the sun broke through the clouds...sometime around 10ish...it picked up a bit and the fish got more aggressive.  I ended up with 5 perch and 2 chunky cats.  No carp...dang it.  Will be posting my report in a few minutes.

[wiperhunter2]

Once you found the school, did you sit on top of them and jig, or keep circling with the trolled fligs? That's a nice group of fish, how do you recognize them from other fish?  Is it size of mark or grouping pattern?  I wish I had taken pictures of the indications I was seeing so I could compare... Most of the ones I seen were spaced further apart and pointing mostly in the same direction... Pat helped point out that they were likely carp and so I'm still trying to figure out the best way to know what I'm looking at... It sure is fun to be able to know things are around you though... After fishing Bear Lake for the whitefish, I'm seeing why most of our deep water fishermen don't have much love for side imaging and mega 360, they are best for shallower water fishing I believe... My SI really didn't help much at Bear Lake, the rocks were so big where the whitefish were spawning that I hardly seen any fish on it, even though I caught a few... I guess they were behind the rocks and not showing up, plus the sudden drop offs just turn into dark voids on the screen.. Still good info to have, but not nearly as useful as it is on shallower lakes with more consistent bottoms.. Anyway thanks Curt for posting the SI, I really appreciate that... And great job on another great haul from Willard... Later Jeff

We rarely jig at Willard, you can cover more area and we think catch more perch while slow trolling fligs, at least most of the time. The way we tell the difference is the shape of the fish and their size, cats and carp usually show up as bigger marks and are longer. We only saw that one big group in the morning and after that they were pretty spread out but we are still looking for that size of marks and once we find an area where they are, we just keep going back a forth. We caught most of those fish yesterday in an area about two to three hundred yards square, when we stopped catching them, we expanded the area but kept coming back to the same central area. Because we fish with Robert so much and have seen his 360 mega in action, I can tell you that you can for sure use it in deeper water and you can see those suspended fish, it just takes practice to know what to do it and learn how to interpret what you are seeing. Keep at it, you will get better and understanding what you are seeing. You might already know this but there are two different marks you will see on the side scan, one image will be the fish, the other image will be the shadow of the fish, you can see it clearly when the fish are close to the bottom but when the fish are suspended that shadow is harder to see.

[wiperhunter2]

It was great sharing the lake with you guys again...even though neither of us knew the other was there.  My trip was a last minute thing.  I had planned to go Monday but had a conflict.  But when the weather for Tuesday looked favorable I jumped on it.   I hit the south marina so there was no way for me to know you guys were there...launching from the north.

I found the same conditions you did.  Very slow with only tentative bites early.  But after the sun broke through the clouds...sometime around 10ish...it picked up a bit and the fish got more aggressive.  I ended up with 5 perch and 2 chunky cats.  No carp...dang it.  Will be posting my report in a few minutes.

I did not mention this in my original post but we started off catching them on Pink tigers along with orange tigers, but when things slowed down for those colors we switched over to straight pink fligs, we caught fish with both tailless pink and pink with tails, they really did like the color pink yesterday but Ira also caught them on one of your black tigers, so that stripe pattern really caught their attention, no matter the color. I talked to Ira about heading over to that spot where you were at last week, if the catching slowed down too much but it never got that slow, so we stayed put. The way the weather is changing, starting tonight, we just did not like the idea of waiting till later in the week, even though the wind speed did not look good until the night before we went. We were pleasantly surprised to see the wind forecast was looking much better yesterday morning.

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks Curt, I appreciated the explanation on fish type and the rest of that... I'll have to learn how to set the 360 a little better in deep water, I know you can get rid of the area under the boat, so you don't see the dark, but I haven't done it enough to know where to go right off to switch that setting... I'll have to watch for the high off the bottom shadows to see how that works... Thanks Jeff

[wiperhunter2]

Thanks Curt, I appreciated the explanation on fish type and the rest of that...  I'll have to learn how to set the 360 a little better in deep water, I know you can get rid of the area under the boat, so you don't see the dark, but I haven't done it enough to know where to go right off to switch that setting... I'll have to watch for the high off the bottom shadows to see how that works... Thanks Jeff

If you can get rid of that dark area under the boat that's news to me, as far as I know, you can only make that area smaller but I don't have a 360, so I guess that is possible. If the freeze up don't happen too quick, I'll try and get some more pics of what we look for when the fish are not bunched up.

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks Curt that would be great, I'll try to look up the setting you can shut off so it only shows the area to the sides of the boat, without the water depth column... I don't remember off hand what it is... seen it on a youtube video where they shut it off... Anyway have a good one and catch up with you later... Jeff