Shad make an appearance at Willard

[wiperhunter2]

        This is what we saw out there today.
   

We got out there today with Reelfast, fished the North run of the Openness. Started off with a quick triple, putting a nice wiper and two eyes in the box, then it died. We started moving around and finally found another group of decent fish and were able to pic up 4 more eyes before we gave up and called it a day. Water temps got up to 67 degrees today before we left at 1:30 pm.

[2knots]

Looks like the wipers or eyes found them also, how was the bite. Lake was flat calm when I went by about 3:45pm

[wiperhunter2]

Looks like the wipers or eyes found them also, how was the bite. Lake was flat calm when I went by about 3:45pm

I was trying a new method for adding pics, so I posted the rest of the story after adding the other pics.

[2knots]

Looks like the wipers or eyes found them also, how was the bite. Lake was flat calm when I went by about 3:45pm

I was trying a new method for adding pics, so I posted the rest of the story after adding the other pics.

Very nice, good to see some bigger wipers coming in, were you bottom bouncing or on the troll

[wiperhunter2]

Looks like the wipers or eyes found them also, how was the bite. Lake was flat calm when I went by about 3:45pm

I was trying a new method for adding pics, so I posted the rest of the story after adding the other pics.

Very nice, good to see some bigger wipers coming in, were you bottom bouncing or on the troll

We trolled the entire time between 2.3 and 2.7 mph.

[Paddler]

We noticed some shad fry on Monday, just under the birds.  Go figure.

[SkunkedAgain]

So does that mean it will get a whole lot harder to catch at Willard soon? Seems like it usually slows way down after May, is that why? Later Jeff

[wiperhunter2]

So does that mean it will get a whole lot harder to catch at Willard soon?  Seems like it usually slows way down after May, is that why? Later Jeff

Yes, that is exactly what it means but it won't happen for several weeks, until those baby shad get bigger. In most years it does not slow down until the 15th of June, some years it can be decent all the way to July.

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks Curt, catch them while you can then... I've been seeing some tiny fish that the cats are chasing boiling out of the water in front of the hunting cats.. They are so small, it's got to take a ton to make much of a meal at this size... Maybe they are just chasing for fun now, can't be worth the effort to feed them... Fun to see the fish coming to my bait though... Later Jeff

[Anglinarcher]

Thanks Curt, catch them while you can then... I've been seeing some tiny fish that the cats are chasing boiling out of the water in front of the hunting cats.. They are so small, it's got to take a ton to make much of a meal at this size... Maybe they are just chasing for fun now, can't be worth the effort to feed them... Fun to see the fish coming to my bait though... Later Jeff

It seems to me, and my timing may be off, but the Shad spawn was a little late this year.  That bodes well for a longer fishing period, but bodes poor for the small shad making it to survival age this fall.  Also, with the lower water, and probably lower spawn success......

May get some boils this fall....

[TubeDude]

Thanks Curt, catch them while you can then... I've been seeing some tiny fish that the cats are chasing boiling out of the water in front of the hunting cats.. They are so small, it's got to take a ton to make much of a meal at this size... Maybe they are just chasing for fun now, can't be worth the effort to feed them... Fun to see the fish coming to my bait though... Later Jeff

It seems to me, and my timing may be off, but the Shad spawn was a little late this year.  That bodes well for a longer fishing period, but bodes poor for the small shad making it to survival age this fall.  Also, with the lower water, and probably lower spawn success......

May get some boils this fall....

Only if there are enough wipers left in the lake to form a school.  Been kinda sparse.

[Anglinarcher]

Thanks Curt, catch them while you can then... I've been seeing some tiny fish that the cats are chasing boiling out of the water in front of the hunting cats.. They are so small, it's got to take a ton to make much of a meal at this size... Maybe they are just chasing for fun now, can't be worth the effort to feed them... Fun to see the fish coming to my bait though... Later Jeff

It seems to me, and my timing may be off, but the Shad spawn was a little late this year.  That bodes well for a longer fishing period, but bodes poor for the small shad making it to survival age this fall.  Also, with the lower water, and probably lower spawn success......

May get some boils this fall....

Only if there are enough wipers left in the lake to form a school.  Been kinda sparse.

Ya, and they only put 3600 9" in this year so far.  I saw the truck, they come from a private hatchery that raised them for the State near New Castle.  If they survived the crappie seekers in the North Marina, they should grow well.

[fishskibum]

How each of us chooses to conduct ourselves on the water is akin to religion.  I allow everybody else to do whatever makes them happy...but anybody who tries to tell me that I should only do what they do is asking for some serious backlash.

You are 100% keerect on the stunting thing.  A good example is the Provo River below Deer Creek.  I first started fishing it in the 1960s.  Hit it almost every evening through the summer.  Most trips produced 20 or more trout.  Most were browns, with only a few rainbows and a few whitefish.  It was rare to catch many browns under about 14 to 16 inches.  A high percentage were 18 to 20 inchers...with over 20s being caught on most trips.  I do like trout so I often kept a couple in the middle range for broiling.

My fishing buddy and myself fished mostly flies...sometimes on flyrods...sometimes on a bottom bouncing rig with a spinning rod.  We also used spinners and small cranks like Rapalas.  But the river was also open to bait fishing and there were always plenty of guys chucking worms or Velveeta cheese.  And they caught and kept a bunch of fish of all sizes.  There was a good amount of harvest but the stream was healthy and could feed a lot of fish.  In those days there were still abundant stone flies in the river.

I lived in Arizona for about 20 years and returned to Utah in 2004...after the current regulations went into effect.  Couldn't wait to get back to my old fave Provo River.  But a couple of trips then have kept me away since.  First of all, the average size of the fish was much smaller...and the fish a bit skinnier.  Second, when I tried to bottom bounce flies using my 9 foot (converted fly rod) spinning rod the Orvis dorks started frothing at the mouth that I would inflict such sacrilege on their precious stream.  Plus, they lined all of my fave spots so I had to be content with a few less productive spots.  And don't get me started on the flotilla of weirdos bobbing merrily through my fishing spots in their inner tubes and other floaties. 

I love to eat most species of fish and almost always keep something for the table.  But only if it is a sustainable fishery with good natural reproduction and adequate food resources to maintain good numbers and good growth rates.  I have trips when I keep nothing.  And other trips I keep a limit of the available species.  And nothing goes to waste.  That's my religion.  Hallelujah!  

Thanks Curt, catch them while you can then... I've been seeing some tiny fish that the cats are chasing boiling out of the water in front of the hunting cats.. They are so small, it's got to take a ton to make much of a meal at this size... Maybe they are just chasing for fun now, can't be worth the effort to feed them... Fun to see the fish coming to my bait though... Later Jeff

It seems to me, and my timing may be off, but the Shad spawn was a little late this year.  That bodes well for a longer fishing period, but bodes poor for the small shad making it to survival age this fall.  Also, with the lower water, and probably lower spawn success......

May get some boils this fall....

Only if there are enough wipers left in the lake to form a school.  Been kinda sparse.

Ya, and they only put 3600 9" in this year so far.  I saw the truck, they come from a private hatchery that raised them for the State near New Castle.  If they survived the crappie seekers in the North Marina, they should grow well.

fish tacos dont boil

[TubeDude]

Here is a writeup I put together on Willard Bay's gizzard shad.  Thanks a bunch to Chris Penne of DWR for providing a couple of papers he had put together on these shad.  Most of the info presented is based on real biology so it should be pretty accurate.

[Mildog]

Nice work Pat, interesting info !
Mildog