Willard

[Bduck]

To add misery to my failed attempt to the 2 trips I made to Bear L last week I stopped by north marina to put in. I checked on launch conditions Feb 26 and it was all open water then. Ice receding back at north but ice was still thick enough for ice fishermen to drill & drop lines close to the docks. I got to float around an area inside the marina along with 2 other boats fishing for perch. After an hour I made my exit with no catch. To my amazement Willard had recapped with ice making it impossible to hit main body. From the mountain road Hi89 it looked like it was open water. 

[elk_talker]

To add misery to my failed attempt to the 2 trips I made to Bear L last week I stopped by north marina to put in. I checked on launch conditions Feb 26 and it was all open water then. Ice receding back at north but ice was still thick enough for ice fishermen to drill & drop lines close to the docks. I got to float around an area inside the marina along with 2 other boats fishing for perch. After an hour I made my exit with no catch. To my amazement Willard had recapped with ice making it impossible to hit main body. From the mountain road Hi89 it looked like it was open water. 

You can launch from the North marina now. We launched and fished around the whole lake yesterday but in the end, it was just a nice boat ride. Didn't get a single bite and really only saw very sporadic marks not the fish finder. Not sure where all of the fish go this time of the year but we sure couldn't find them.

[TubeDude]

I went out the morning of the 27th...in my float tube.  I was expecting open water but found skim ice all the way out the channel.  So I powered out through the skim ice in my tube.  Like yourself, I found very few marks on sonar and I covered a lot of underwater real estate in the greater area to the north of the marina...from 8' out to over 20'.

The real kicker is the water temps.  Until they climb over about 40 degrees, most species are going to be mostly inactive.  The perch are probably spawning and then dispersing throughout the lake...becoming a lot harder to find than when they were schooled up inside the marina.

By the first or second week of March the water will be warm enough to pick up some prespawn walleyes.  Then the spawn gets going around the dikes when water temps reach 45 - 50.  There will be some early crappies showibg up inside the north marina after ice out.  But they won't be very active until water temps get at least 50-55...and the spring fling usually gets underway by mid April...with a peak around Mothers' Day in May.

Wipers will be cruising and looking for food by April and in full spawn mode by May.  That's when they school up and can be caught shallow along the dikes.  Otherwise, you can pick up a few trolling slow with plastics or cranks.  And a lot of them intercept worm harness rigs being dragged for walleyes. 

June is the wide open month.  Both walleyes and wipers are through spawning and are scattered throughout the lake.  If you can find them you can usually catch them.  They are hungry since the shad have barely finished spawning and the young are not yet big enough for them to target.  So they are chomping on anything they can find that looks edible.  I have heard it said that anyone who can't catch walleyes or wipers in June probably can't catch a cold...or coronavirus.  (sorry.  bad joke)

[elk_talker]

 

I went out the morning of the 27th...in my float tube.  I was expecting open water but found skim ice all the way out the channel.  So I powered out through the skim ice in my tube.  Like yourself, I found very few marks on sonar and I covered a lot of underwater real estate in the greater area to the north of the marina...from 8' out to over 20'.

The real kicker is the water temps.  Until they climb over about 40 degrees, most species are going to be mostly inactive.  The perch are probably spawning and then dispersing throughout the lake...becoming a lot harder to find than when they were schooled up inside the marina.

By the first or second week of March the water will be warm enough to pick up some prespawn walleyes.  Then the spawn gets going around the dikes when water temps reach 45 - 50.  There will be some early crappies showibg up inside the north marina after ice out.  But they won't be very active until water temps get at least 50-55...and the spring fling usually gets underway by mid April...with a peak around Mothers' Day in May.

Wipers will be cruising and looking for food by April and in full spawn mode by May.  That's when they school up and can be caught shallow along the dikes.  Otherwise, you can pick up a few trolling slow with plastics or cranks.  And a lot of them intercept worm harness rigs being dragged for walleyes. 

June is the wide open month.  Both walleyes and wipers are through spawning and are scattered throughout the lake.  If you can find them you can usually catch them.  They are hungry since the shad have barely finished spawning and the young are not yet big enough for them to target.  So they are chomping on anything they can find that looks edible.  I have heard it said that anyone who can't catch walleyes or wipers in June probably can't catch a cold...or coronavirus.  (sorry.  bad joke)

Pat, thanks for the info. June is about the only month I feel like I can consistently catch walleye and wipers at Willard. I'll keep trying to figure out the other months.

[Bduck]

If it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all. Here we are into a new week with weather being favorable somewhat. Forecast is for some breezy/windy conditions  later towards end of week. Come on soft water.