Wipers at Willard with a fly

[flygoddess]

Be thankful that not all fish need these:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http...CGIQ9QEwBA

I ain't never seen these bugs...LOL
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[Jmaze]

Done it 5 times on 2 trips. A fly rod and reel are great fun. Trolling is cheating with a fly rod in my opinion though. Great fun none the less. Bloody WIpers strip you to the backing almost all the time and I have smoked a cheapy Wal-mart fly reel on the second fish of my first day trying. The reel never worked again after a 5 pounder.
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[gstott]

I haven't had the chance to fish Willard (though it's on my list), but I caught a 27" walleye on a fly at Deer Creek, and I used to knock the crap out of the white bass at Utah Lake on the fly. Seeing as the wipers are half white bass, I don't see too big of a difference.
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[WyomingMoose]

How many on here have caught a catfish on a fly?

It can be done, usually with leech patterns. To me this sounds much more difficult than catching wipers on a fly.
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[Fin-S-Fish]

LMAO!!!
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[TubeDude]

[quote WyomingMoose]How many on here have caught a catfish on a fly?

It can be done, usually with leech patterns. To me this sounds much more difficult than catching wipers on a fly.[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]When I used to wave the fairy wand more I caught plenty of all species on it...including grundles of kitties. At Willard Bay I would work down the dikes throwing tandem fly rigs for crappies...and the occasional walleyes...back in the pre-wiper days. It was easy to catch over 100 crappies a day on flies...limit was 50. Walleyes were always in eating crappies...limit was 6 with only 2 over 20 inches...and tough to find any UNDER 20 inches. Limit on cats was 8 and I often caught 20 or more in a day down the dike.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I used a large "silver hilton" or black bugger on the end and a chartreuse and silver small streamer on a dropper about 18" up. Doubles on crappie were common and doubles of mixed species were not rare. When the fish were really in I rarely fished more than a hundred yards to the north of the channel entrance at the south marina.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I won a couple of bets from naysayers who put up money that I could not catch cats on flies. After I had brought in the first half dozen or so...on as many casts...they tried to call off the bet.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Here's a pic of a triple limit (hate dead fish pictures) all caught on flies within about 3 hours early in June one year.[/#0000ff]
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[inline "WILLARD TRIPLE HEADER.jpg"]
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[#0000ff]Oh yeah, I have also caught LOTS of cats...and big walleyes at Utah Lake on flies. They love big black marabou creations that imitate baby bullheads...and big white streamers when the young whities are schooling around the reeds.[/#0000ff]
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[DKStroutfitter]

I have caught Catfish and also Carp with a fly rod.
It's not that hard to catch fish with a fly rod.
Just use a pattern that imitates something that the fish eats.
Get down to where the fish are located.
Present it to look like something the fish will eat. Simple!
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[flygoddess]

Fly fishing is just a style....it is not the cool thing to do, just a style, but it does require SOME training.

It is knowing what are in the waters, how to match that with size, color, and movement. NO SMELL.... that is the challenge.
Get these down and you can catch ANYTHING on a fly rod.

I have caught Cat, Mack, White Bass, Small Mouth, Perch, Crappie, Bluegill, Carp, Chub, Trout, Char..etc.......but I ONLY fly fish, so how else am I going to catch them...LOL

But, sorry, I don't see Fly Fishing as any different than any other fishing, EXCEPT, you can hit the dries easier[]

You guys want a challenge, switch to lighter gear maybe (assuming you keep your catch, as playing them too long isn't a good thing)

Now my question, how many have caught a Wiper on a fly and now want to try hardware or bait?[laugh][laugh][laugh]
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[WIPERFLY]

[quote WyomingMoose]How many on here have caught a catfish on a fly?[/quote]

I have had days at Willard when I could not keep the cats off long enough to catch the wipers.
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[Springbuck]

WOW! Most of you are so far ahead of me it's embarrassing, ..wow..

But I often "mooch" for panfish, with either flies (like rabbit hair leeches), lightly weighted, or unweighted plastics for panfish, and used to catch a LOT of Crappies in PV that way: doodling vertically in the brush and then dragging them behind the tube.... fine technique..

And occasionally I'd pick up bullheads that way.

The way you guys describe wipers sometimes, it seems like any idiot could catch one..... I've bought 8 or 10 lures just for wipers and taken a bunch of trips over the last 5 years (probably 16-18) and never caught a wiper. So what does that make me....[crazy][shocked]???

Come to think of it, I've not caught a walleye or crappie there either,in that time. My last of either was probably 15 years ago...
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[WyomingMoose]

Hehe. I think fly fishing has evolved to where you can catch any species... some are more challenging than others though. I think in general if trout are focused on a specific hatch... a dedicated fly angler who knows the hatch and a fly to match - will out perform non flyfisherman.

Willard might be the best place to catch a cat on a fly, since there are so many of them and they seem to be more inclined to be sight feeders. I think in some bodies of water catching a cat on a fly could be extremely challenging. Especially if the water is muddy.

Tonight at Willard I saw a guy fishing for wipers with his fly rod. He said he had 2 good hits, and lost two of them at the boat. I was fishing the same area and landed 4. Seems like getting them to hit a fly is one thing - keeping them on a single hook is the harder part.
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