Ridiculous Willard Cats 6-21-21

[TubeDude]

Hoped to get into a couple of warming up walleyes.  Wasn't in the cards.  But the kitties kept me busy.  Too busy.

Launched about 7ish.  Air temp 69 degrees...warming to 89 at noon.  Water temp 73...warming to about 76 at noon.  Noticed increasingly more shad in the water column.  Some large balls and some small clusters in some areas.
   
   
   
I didn't even drop a rig overboard until I had gotten out to the formerly magic 13-14 foot area.  Then I began making big S turns from shallower to deeper...looking for walleye type marks.  Didn't see many and the ones I did see were never seen on the end of my line.

Fished two Hi-Low rigs with various colors of whirly fligs.  Fished crawlers on the bottom and white whirlies with white Gulp goodies on the top.  Caught those everlovin' kitties on just about everything I served up.  Found out it could be "interesting" to get doubles on two hi-low rigs with a couple of rambunctious cats.  Narrowly avoided disaster several times...getting at least 4 doubles during the morning.
   
   
   

Had constant action until I bagged it at noon.  Pretty much went through a whole 2 dozen crawlers...with every strike a hookup...and catching more than one fish on some crawlers.  Also got several fish on the white whirlies with gulp goodies...up on the top rigs.  Didn't count the casualties but I would guess I molested somewhere in the vicinity of 30 whiskerfish.  And a couple of them molested me...with stickers and with sharp serrated spines.  One got me between the first and second finger on my left hand as I was holding it in the usually safe belly grip.  Ouch.

Shoulda knowed the fishing had slowed down for walleyes.  A lot fewer boats chasing them today and most of those quit before I did.  And when I got to the cleaning station to fillet the 3 cats I kept for the fryer there was no evidence of anyone else recently cleaning fish.  And the grinder worked fine.
   

[FatBiker]

Oh shucks. Should have stuck around.

[Farmboat]

As always great report. You bring back some real poor memories with the catfish wound between the fingers.
Quick question, do you tip the gulp with anything or just use it alone?

[wiperhunter2]

Another great Willard kitty report, sorry the eyes did not come out to play for you Pat. As you processed the cats, did you notice if they had already spawned?

[TubeDude]

As always great report. You bring back some real poor memories with the catfish wound between the fingers.
Quick question, do you tip the gulp with anything or just use it alone?

I didn't "tip" it with anything today.  But I did add a few drops of recharge juice once in a while.  Also doctored my crawlers with it if they had been awhile without attention.

In the past, I have been known to add a 1" piece of crawler on the hook with a Gulp minnow on it.  Caught some walleyes on that too.

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Another great Willard kitty report, sorry the eyes did not come out to play for you Pat. As you processed the cats, did you notice if they had already spawned?

All the cats  I have kept on my last two trips have been spawned out.  That's why they are in their active post spawn feedup program.

And, interestingly, instead of being full of shadlets like we might suspect, they are full of green midge larvae...whole stomachs full.  And all the cats were healthy and had gobs of visceral (internal) fat.  They ain't been starving like the walleyes.  In previous weeks I have kept cats that had one or more whole crawdads in them.  Kitties are just more efficient scroungers than their toothy neighbors.

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Oh shucks. Should have stuck around.

Why.  As close as you live to Willard you can go play there whenever you want.  I can't.  So neener neener.

Hope the LHBE sushi treats you well.

[wiperhunter2]

That is what we noticed last week, with the cats we kept, I just wasn't sure how widespread that was, I was thinking it was just the part of the lake we were at but I guess not.

[Anglinarcher]

Those kitties are just weird.  Two years ago I was checking out the North Marina about this time of year and there was a mayfly hatch happening near the little creek that comes in.  I had my fly rod in the truck so I figured with all of the activity, fish rolling on the mayflies, I could at least catch a crappie or two.  

Before the action had quit, I had caught Catfish on a dry fly, I caught a Walleye on a dry fly, a perch on a dry fly, and .... did not catch a crappie.  LOL

I guess that fish will just take what they find that is most abundant.  Still, catfish and walleye on a dry fly had never happened again, and may never again happen to me.

[TubeDude]

Those kitties are just weird.  Two years ago I was checking out the North Marina about this time of year and there was a mayfly hatch happening near the little creek that comes in.  I had my fly rod in the truck so I figured with all of the activity, fish rolling on the mayflies, I could at least catch a crappie or two.  

Before the action had quit, I had caught Catfish on a dry fly, I caught a Walleye on a dry fly, a perch on a dry fly, and .... did not catch a crappie.  LOL

I guess that fish will just take what they find that is most abundant.  Still, catfish and walleye on a dry fly had never happened again, and may never again happen to me.

Never say never...or always.  Those words do not fit with anglerism.

Over the years I have caught just about all species on flies...and most on "topwater"...or dries.  One of my wildest sessions happened on Utah Lake a lot of years ago.  I was wading and fishing around the edges of  reeds and stickups for the largemouths that were more common in those days.  It was after dark but with bright moonlight.  I was working a deer hair mouse and had picked up a few largies when I noticed some slurping and rolling a few yards down the shoreline.  Trying to be careful not to spook the fish I sloshed down to get into casting range.  Imagine my surprise when the first taker was a walleye.  And the next half dozen as well before I put them down.  Didn't get a good look at what they were feeding on...probably young fry of some species...but they accepted the deer hair mouse okay.

I have caught grundles of cats on topwater.  Best action was on Chatfield Reservoir in Denver.  While float tubing and pitching plastics for smallies along the shore I noticed some big swirls along a weedy stretch of shoreline.  Traded my spinning rod for the fly rod and tied on a hopper pattern.  I had noticed that a hopper blowing off the shore and into the water was quickly snarfed in a big boil.  Those hopper munchers turned out to be big channel cats.  Got several up to about 10 pounds that afternoon.  A lot of work but fun.

[jjannie]

Sorry the eyes didn't come play, this trip. We saw those shad balls as well last time we were out.  We only kept eyes but they didn't have any shad in their bellies. The big wipers we released may have had some though.

[TubeDude]

Sorry the eyes didn't come play, this trip. We saw those shad balls as well last time we were out.  We only kept eyes but they didn't have any shad in their bellies. The big wipers we released may have had some though.

I didn't see any evidence of birds working the shad...or fish either.  Except for a lot of carp that were up slurping on the surface.  But they could well have been sucking in midges too.  They do that.

My experience has been that the shad do not become a big item in the predators' diets until they reach about 1.5".  And that is usually about mid July.  But with the long drawn out shad spawn this year there could be some that size sooner...as well as later.  The only ones I have seen inside the harbors are less than 1" long.

[Anglinarcher]

Ya, I saw tons of bait balls as well today (6.22.21).  I did not see any fish feeding on them either.  My side finder showed lots of fish, some on the bottom, some suspended, but none around the bait balls yet.

The wiper I got today were empty of anything.  The catfish had the midges.