Willard Bay...light reading

[TubeDude]

Over the past decade or so I have been privileged to interact with Chris Penne and other DWR personnel connected with managing Willard Bay Reservoir.  During this time I have acquired and shared numerous replies and writeups from DWR about the biology and management of Willard Bay.  Virtually all of that which I have posted up in the past was lost in our website transition and I have had some requests for reposting.  And since we have a lot of new members which probably never saw it before, here are some of the "blasts from the past" that provide a lot of interesting info on one of our fave ponds. 



Sadly, there have been no marking or netting reports issued for the last couple of years...Covid or whatever.  And there have been some changes in personnel and procedures.  Hopefully things will settle down and we can anticipate more information available to the fishing public in the future.
  Willard Biology.pdf (Size: 8.8 KB / Downloads: 21)

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[catchinon]

Thanks once again for all the information. I have a question and a request for you. Question: how does one pronounce Chris's last name? I watched a video the other day where Adam Eakle introduced him but he kinda mumbled his name. Is it "pen" or pen-A" or "pen-E" or what. I just like to get people's names right.

Request: Could you give us a primer on the cycles/rhythms of the fish in the lake? When do they spawn, when's the best time to fish for them with what means, when you might as well cast in the parking lot, etc. If that is in the things you just posted, I apologize because I haven't read it all yet; if that's the case please direct me to the one(s) I need to peruse. You're the best.

[TubeDude]

Thanks once again for all the information. I have a question and a request for you. Question: how does one pronounce Chris's last name? I watched a video the other day where Adam Eakle introduced him but he kinda mumbled his name. Is it "pen" or pen-A" or "pen-E" or what. I just like to get people's names right.

Request: Could you give us a primer on the cycles/rhythms of the fish in the lake? When do they spawn, when's the best time to fish for them with what means, when you might as well cast in the parking lot, etc. If that is in the things you just posted, I apologize because I haven't read it all yet; if that's the case please direct me to the one(s) I need to peruse. You're the best.

Penney will do.  Suggest you read through ALL the material and THEN pose your questions.  A lot of them will be answered in the attachments...even if not all in a sequential and organized manner.  You gotta read the whole assignment to glean out the parts that will be on the test.  However, the one entitled "Timeline" is a good place to start. 

But no matter who you read or what you read there are likely to be differing opinions on some of those subjects...based upon  personal experience and personal opinions and biases.  And a lot of that is influenced by the greatly fluctuating water levels and changes in fish populations over the years.  Howsomever, since you asked, here is a brief rundown from my perspective. 

First, the whole cycle of life in Willard is predicated upon two main factors...the food chain and water levels.  In former times...before shad and wipers...the primary food sources were the abundant crappies and crawdads.  Lots of both and the predator species (mostly walleyes and catfish) were also plentiful and grew to good sizes.  Since the late 1990s gizzard shad have been the primary food source...and wipers, walleyes and catfish have arranged their annual habits to fit the shad cycles. 

Shad can begin spawning as early as April and last into late May...or even into June.  That means that there will be young shad of edible size (1.5 -2") by mid July and shad of many sizes available for the balance of the warmer water months.  By August or September the water is warmer and the food abundant so walleyes slow down and even wipers can be harder to catch. 

Crappies are almost a no-show for the past three or four years.  They move into spawn in areas of aquatic vegetation and/or flooded brush.  Not much of either even in high water years.  In the low water years of the recent past about the only place the crappies have been caught in numbers are inside the marinas...where the happy harvesters rape the dwindling number of spawning fish...sometimes returning several times on the same day to take home another bucket of crappies.  Even though the water levels are very low this year, whatever crappies are left will still show up for the harvest...at least in the north marina.  If they can find suitable spawning habitat they will do the deed in very shallow water...as little as 2 feet or less.  The main spawn starts when water temps reach between 60-65 degrees.  Mothers' Day is the peak of the spawn for crappies most years. 

Walleyes spawn early...when water temps jump over the 45 degree mark and move to 50.  But they often go on a prespawn feed as soon as ice out water temps reach about 42.  Some years that period lasts longer, but few anglers know of it, anticipate it or know how to take advantage of it.  No guarantees but if you can find some fish you can usually catch a few on slowly worked plastics...especially along the rock dikes when the water levels are well up into the rocks.  During low water periods it is more difficult.  During the spawn...in high water years...anglers catch good numbers of small males at several points around the dikes by casting and retrieving lures parallel to the flooded rock cover.  The spawning period usually begins sometime in March and lasts into about mid April. 
The best fishing for walleyes begins in May...during the post spawn feedup period.  At first, anglers do well by dragging crawler harnesses.  But as waters warm, and fish get more active they can be caught by trolling various crank baits at higher speeds and at lesser depths.  This period of plenty lasts until the young of the year shad get big enough to target and water temps get above about 70 degrees.  That is usually around August.  However, the best walleye anglers who know their targets and have the right stuff can usually score a few early or late in the day if they can find the fish.  A second good time for walleye fishermen is the time a month or so before iceup.  The fish often follow in the gathering schools of perch and dine both on dying young shad and perch. 

The timetable for wipers is fairly predictable too.  Rising water temperatures and increasing hours of daylight usually get the wipers schooling up for their annual "false spawn".  They are sterile hybrids but most of them still produce eggs or milt and go through the spawning process.  And while schooled up and "antsy" they hit a wide range of lures.  In recent years there has been a growing contingent of bank tanglers that soak salt water mussels for them...and the wipers really seem to like the mussels.  Probably more wipers removed from Willard within a 2 month period by mussel dunkers than all the rest of the anglers year round using other methods.  And, like the walleye, you can often find some willing wipers in the month or two before iceup in late fall. 

Catfish?  The everlovin' kitties are active and feed all year....even under the ice.  They are almost always ready to chomp your baits or lures.  But they spawn in May through June and fishing them right in the rocks...when the water levels are up...is a good way to have a lot of action.  Contrary to popular opinion, catfish are not only night feeders that eat dead rotten food.  In Willard they have water clear enough to be sight feeding predators and will hit a lot of the same lures you fish for the other species...all through the brightest daylight hours. 

Hope that covers most of your questions.

[Kent]

Enough of the "light reading". When are you going to post the "heavy" stuff?

[TubeDude]

Enough of the "light reading".  When are you going to post the "heavy" stuff?

Not sure what you would consider "heavy".  For some of us anything over a two syllable word or anything too scienterrific qualifies as heavy. 

I only post what I got.  If you want anything heavier you will have to google it.

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks Pat, great post... I had been wondering what had happened to the yearly posts, they were a lot of fun to watch how the numbers fluctuated... Really like you're summary for Craig, it puts it into a pretty nice cliff note format... Kind of miss the days of lots of big crappie... When I first started trolling Willard I used to pick up 13" crappie on the worm harnesses I was using for the eyes... Used to catch four or five species a trip on a regular basis the first couple years... (Cats, eyes, crappie, small mouth, wiper, gills) But that's when the water was high and I was trolling the dikes... was also in May, so it was the best of times.. Later J

[TubeDude]

Thanks Pat, great post...  I had been wondering what had happened to the yearly posts, they were a lot of fun to watch how the numbers fluctuated...  Really like you're summary for Craig, it puts it into a pretty nice cliff note format... Kind of miss the days of lots of big crappie... When I first started trolling Willard I used to pick up 13" crappie on the worm harnesses I was using for the eyes...  Used to catch four or  five species a trip on a regular basis the first couple years... (Cats, eyes, crappie, small mouth, wiper, gills) But that's when the water was high and I was trolling the dikes... was also in May, so it was the best of times.. Later J

Yep.  Willard has had its better days and we all have memories of stellar trips...of multiple species or of wild and crazy action on our targeted species for the day.  It's been a long time since there have been any "wiper boils".  But in former times there was some wide open crazy action on those striped sided demons.  In those days as soon as a boil erupted a dozen boats would rocket toward the commotion.  And everybody would be bendo...until some doofus motored right through the boiling fish.  Learned some new words on those occasions. 

TubeBabe and I had some days when we stayed inside the north marina in our tubes and had wipers boiling all around us off and on all day.  All we had to do was reach out and dunk a white plastic shad in the water in front of us and it was game on...with fish bouncing off our tubes or our legs in the water.  We got "fish rash" on our hands from catching, handling and releasing 20 to 30 wipers each...keeping only two or three for the table.