Willard beautiful day

[Tin-Can]

Made my 5th trip out to Willard yesterday. Launched from south marina about 0830. Very light breeze, air temp about 52, water temp 60. 
Motored out past the feedlot tower over about 8-9 fow is where there seemed to be the thickest concentration of fish. 




Hit several of my marked areas from last year that were productive for Cats. Had several pop and drops while drifting bait at less than .5 mph. 
After about 2.5 hours decided to get over into freeway bay and start a slow troll with wide S turns back toward the feed lot. 

My son had given me a whole box load of various lures for Christmas and I hadn't tried any yet. So I hooked on one small lipped crank and one #5 Flicker shad.  and about every 15 minutes or so I would swap them out. I kept my speed at 1.15 to 1.50 mph and continued my slow wide turns. At almost 3 hours on the water got what seemed to be a Walleye hit, cuz as I reeled it in, there was almost no fight and it "surfed" along on the top all the way to the net. 
Turned out to be a nice SMB that was just barely lip hooked.  Did a quick photo and released. Swam off no worse for wear. 




Trolled back almost to the south marina entrance. At almost exactly 4 hours on the water the breeze died completely and it didn't  take long for the bugs to start getting thick. 
Since I had fought off another skunk (barely) decided to call it a day.  Pulled out at 1330, air temp 70, water temp 65.6. 

[jjannie]

Nice catch, TC. Anytime time you can leave Willard not wreaking of skunk odor is a great day. Yes, a light breeze really helps with the bugs but it's also so peaceful of a boat ride when the water is calm like that. We always keep our head nets handy when fishing Willard.

[wiperhunter2]

Way to go Forest, beating the skunk off with that SM bass. They seem to be moving out away from the shore, now that the water is pulling away from the rocks. It might help to increase your speed a little, to around 1.5 to 2 mph to get more action out of those lures. What color was the lure that caught the bass?

[Tin-Can]

Way to go Forest, beating the skunk off with that SM bass. They seem to be moving out away from the shore, now that the water is pulling away from the rocks. It might help to increase your speed a little, to around 1.5 to 2 mph to get more action out of those lures. What color was the lure that caught the bass?

  Curt, was first SMB I've caught at WB in several years.  The lure was small no more than 1.5 inches long.  

   

[Mildog]

Made my 5th trip out to Willard yesterday. Launched from south marina about 0830. Very light breeze, air temp about 52, water temp 60. 
Motored out past the feedlot tower over about 8-9 fow is where there seemed to be the thickest concentration of fish. 




Hit several of my marked areas from last year that were productive for Cats. Had several pop and drops while drifting bait at less than .5 mph. 
After about 2.5 hours decided to get over into freeway bay and start a slow troll with wide S turns back toward the feed lot. 

My son had given me a whole box load of various lures for Christmas and I hadn't tried any yet. So I hooked on one small lipped crank and one #5 Flicker shad.  and about every 15 minutes or so I would swap them out. I kept my speed at 1.15 to 1.50 mph and continued my slow wide turns. At almost 3 hours on the water got what seemed to be a Walleye hit, cuz as I reeled it in, there was almost no fight and it "surfed" along on the top all the way to the net. 
Turned out to be a nice SMB that was just barely lip hooked.  Did a quick photo and released. Swam off no worse for wear. 




Trolled back almost to the south marina entrance. At almost exactly 4 hours on the water the breeze died completely and it didn't  take long for the bugs to start getting thick. 
Since I had fought off another skunk (barely) decided to call it a day.  Pulled out at 1330, air temp 70, water temp 65.6. 

Tin Can,Just an FYI you will have much better success if you pick the speed up on those lures 2.0 to 2.2 will get you much better success at Willard.2 trips recently 19 Walleye and 7 wipers (total 6 hours fished). I Had a buddy up one day when we got 8 walleye before we left early he had none.I asked him speed he was trolling he said 1.5. I Told him he needed to speed up. He ended up with 6 Walleye, never changed what he was using just the speed.Good LuckMildog Out

[Tin-Can]

Nice catch, TC. Anytime time you can leave Willard not wreaking of skunk odor is a great day.  Yes, a light breeze really helps with the bugs but it's also so peaceful of a boat ride when the water is calm like that.  We always keep our head nets handy when fishing Willard.

   Yep, I like it calm too. And I have head nets in my boat dry box.  

[Outfishing13]

Thanks for the report. I haven't been to Willard for about a year. Last year we caught a couple of Walleyes with my granddaughter aboard. I am forever known now as "Fishing Grandpa" .

Are you headed there this weekend? The Solunar Forecast says the Saturday between 11am to 1pm should be a good bite.

[Tin-Can]

Thanks for the report. I haven't been to Willard for about a year. Last year we caught a couple of Walleyes with my granddaughter aboard. I am forever known now as "Fishing Grandpa" .

Are you headed there this weekend?  The Solunar Forecast says the Saturday between 11am to 1pm should be a good bite.

  I don't plan to be on Willard this weekend. It's Memorial Day weekend and the holiday always brings out the power squadron.

[Redrebel]

Mildog Thanks for the tip on speed. Today was strike two for me. I was able to get out this afternoon for a few hours and troll the north Dike to the light pole as suggested by some more experienced guys.
No luck.

[SkunkedAgain]

Good job Forest, glad you're still getting out and finding some fish... Thanks for your report... J

[fast_randy]

I got to go out with Allen twonots in his nice boat yesterday. We left the North marina at 7am and did rather good. Dave was with us and with the side planners we had six lines in the water. I think we got 6 catfish, 2 perch, 8 walleye and two big wipers. 4 little wipers and a small perch went back. We caught them on worm rigs, purple jointed flicker shad and a blue gill flicker shad.

[2knots]

I got to go out with Allen twonots in his nice boat yesterday. We left the North marina at 7am and did rather good. Dave was with us and with the side planners we had six lines in the water. I think we got 6 catfish, 2 perch, 8 walleye and two big wipers. 4 little wipers and a small perch went back. We caught them on worm rigs, purple jointed flicker shad and a blue gill flicker shad.

It was a fun day, glad we could get together for the trip, looking forward to more

[Redrebel]

I got to go out with Allen twonots in his nice boat yesterday. We left the North marina at 7am and did rather good. Dave was with us and with the side planners we had six lines in the water. I think we got 6 catfish, 2 perch, 8 walleye and two big wipers. 4 little wipers and a small perch went back. We caught them on worm rigs, purple jointed flicker shad and a blue gill flicker shad.

It was a fun day, glad we could get together for the trip, looking forward to more

Do you mind sharing what size line and set up you use?

[2knots]

I got to go out with Allen twonots in his nice boat yesterday. We left the North marina at 7am and did rather good. Dave was with us and with the side planners we had six lines in the water. I think we got 6 catfish, 2 perch, 8 walleye and two big wipers. 4 little wipers and a small perch went back. We caught them on worm rigs, purple jointed flicker shad and a blue gill flicker shad.

It was a fun day, glad we could get together for the trip, looking forward to more

Do you mind sharing what size line and set up you use?

We were running #5 Flicker shad, running them back 150-160’ (using Okuma low profile line counters), speed was 1.7-1.8 on the gps. My rods For line I’m running maxima ultra soft green 10#. I have the Otter boats for the side planer boats, we probably had them out away from the boat about 50-60’ so we could setup two rods on clips on each side. We were in 12’ of water and marking a bunch of fish

[Redrebel]

Thanks for the help