Willard Trip # 21

[Tin-Can]

Yesterday, got up to south marina about 8:15 a.m.  Noticed when crossing the bridge over the canal that water was way down from Oct. 1 trip, and at the inlet baffles were dry, and there was a dump truck and other earth moving equipment on top. Not sure what was being moved, but looks like the water level at Willard could start dropping even more. But at least for my trip, water level was quite sufficient.  At the bottom of the center ramp 2 fow, at the south dock 5 fow, marina area 5-7 fow, channel out to the mouth 5-8 fow, past the buoy line 9-12 fow, and deepest I noted from south wall out from feed lot was 15-16 fow. 
Air temp at launch was 44 deg. water temp at the dock was 59.7 but went up to 60-61 outside the marina, and topped out at 66 on departure at 1:30 p.m.  

    

Made my usual right turn out of the buoy line, got out to 14-15 fow where sonar was marking lots of fishy looking arcs, water had just the very slightest ripple from a just almost there breeze that I would guess at no more that 2 mph.  Baited up 1 line and got it out with a very gentle drift in a north-east ish direction.  Baited up second line, released the bail ready to cast, something felt a bit off, like  the line wrapped over the rod tip, looked at it.......nope, all good there. Continued the cast, whooops...........big bird nest at the reel. Hmmmmm.... what the heck did that.  Closer examination revealed the line guide, 4th from the tip had broken off and then tangled in the 3rd guide during attempted cast. 
Well shoot......that was one of my favorite, and oldest rods. Purchased I don't know how many years ago by the wife from a yard sale for about $2.00.  A 7 ft. med-heavy, one piece, Shimano spinning rod.  Got out my heavy side cutters, removed the guide from the line, cleared the bird nest, and got the line out.  
Slow drifted in that direction for over 2 hours, had some very tentative taps every few minutes, and a couple hit and line stripping, drag screaming runs, but no hooks.  
Started getting waves rocking me pretty good. Had not seen any big boats out anywhere near me. But out in the middle of the lake was one large doofus that was doing what looked like figure 8's at almost full throttle sending wake and wave out in all directions. Granted, he was well outside the 150 ft. law, but was putting out waves constant. That nonsense went on for several minutes, so I dropped anchor and rode it out. 

Finally had one cookie cutter Kitty decide to take all the bait and netted my skunk killer.  CPR. 



Had not been all the way down into Freeway bay in awhile, and it was deserted of other boats. Only a couple bank tanglers . Got anchored in about 8 fow almost all the way to where the dike turns north alongside the freeway.  Put lines out with last couple baits, started getting boat pre-sorted for quitting for the day and one rod bent over hard, line stripped out, then just stopped.......nothin, nada, figured it was another bait heist.  Started brining that line in and just as I reeled in some of the slack, BANG, fight on.  I thought for sure I had hooked up a Wiper of good size by the fight and speed this fish was putting out. 
Well, got it to the net and saw it was a Perch. Now that's not a big Wiper, but it was a fat, 13 inch Perch that sure was imitating a Wiper.   
Did a quick remove hook, measure, photo and release.  Called it quits for the day, made a full speed direct return to the marina. Got to the dock, and just as I was tying up, a fellow behind me in a older cabin cruiser, hails me and says he follows BFT posts. Said his BFT handle is Island20.  We chatted a few minutes, and he moved on to test run a new motor, and I continued my recovery and departure.  

[Jig-fisher]

That is a huge perch!  Nice!

[JArner]

Thanks for the report, that perch is fantastic.

[thatchergreg]

I think that perch qualifies as a jumbo. It makes me wonder how many perch are in there.

[TubeDude]

I think that perch qualifies as a jumbo. It makes me wonder how many perch are in there.

Starting about this time of year...at least the past 5 years...a few of us die-hard perch-jerkers do quite well on jumbo perch from Willard.  There is a bigger population than most folks suspect...but not enough to be able to count on limits every trip.  But when the average some days is 12 inches or bigger...well, who needs a limit.

[wiperhunter2]

Nice perch, maybe they are finally starting to bite. We were looking for them when we were out there on Wens. What level has really dropped since the last I was out there two weeks ago.
Was the dump truck on the baffle side of the road or on the side by the pump building?

[Tin-Can]

I think that perch qualifies as a jumbo. It makes me wonder how many perch are in there.

  Could be many. Caught 2 a few years ago that were same size. Wiperhunter2 took a photo of me with them.

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Nice perch, maybe they are finally starting to bite. We were looking for them when we were out there on Wens. What level has really dropped since the last I was out there two weeks ago.
Was the dump truck on the baffle side of the road or on the side by the pump building?

 Trucks were up on top of hill, on south edge of baffles along the canal edge.

[wiperhunter2]

I think that perch qualifies as a jumbo. It makes me wonder how many perch are in there.

  Could be many. Caught 2 a few years ago that were same size. Wiperhunter2 took a photo of me with them.

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Nice perch, maybe they are finally starting to bite. We were looking for them when we were out there on Wens. What level has really dropped since the last I was out there two weeks ago.
Was the dump truck on the baffle side of the road or on the side by the pump building?

 Trucks were up on top of hill, on south edge of baffles along the canal edge.

They were there last year too, I think they are cleaning the silt out of the canal channel.

[Tin-Can]

Curt, 

Coming out of Willard south today, I tried to get a couple photos. And I think you are correct. It looked like they were clearing silt or mud out of the canal cuz today the bucket scoop was further down towards the main road.

    

[wiperhunter2]

Curt, 

Coming out of Willard south today, I tried to get a couple photos. And I think you are correct. It looked like they were clearing silt or mud out of the canal cuz today the bucket scoop was further down towards the main road.

Same thing we saw last year at this time, maybe they do it every year because it builds up in that area so much.