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Image 1 and 2 are the North marina that is starting to fill.
Image 3 is part of the channel that was just dredged in the north marina, the small ridge is where the dredging stopped.
Image 4 Outside the marina going into the main bay.
Image 5 North dike at the outlet, the outlet is in the front of this photo, 6 or more feet out of the water. WH2
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[cool]thanks for the report wiperhunter2 i must have been typing my post at the same time as you were, your great pictures answered all my questions thanks alot trfishin
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Nice shots of the marina Curt . Glad to see some water getting in there . Thanks for posting .
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Thanks WH2, good to see some water in there. still need lots more for my favorite trolling resevior. What your take on how well the wipers survived with such low water?
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I never got to go to Willard last summer and see how loww the water was, its was alot lower than I imagined.
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Actually I know the fish have survived the ice because last fall a friend of mine with a float tube just before ice in, said that it was 18 feet deep in the main part of the lake, it is just that at the docks the land is higher therefore dried up, with the dredging happening, the water will fill in... if you look carefully in the background, you will see lots of snow up there, that's gonna run off into the willard, so the water will actually get higher with the spring snow run-off. I would estimate to get at least perhaps 2 to 4 feet more of water once the snow run off stopped.
Here's the kicker, there's rain and lots of it in the long range spring forecast. There we go, lots of water coming our way... hey Im being very optimistic.
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Thanks for the Willard update. Nice to see some H20 getting put back into it. I hope the spring is a wet one. We need a bunch of water to fill that place back up.
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Hopefully willard will keep water in it all season long. I am a canidate to catch the new record wiper out of there. With the reduced fishing pressure last year due to the low water, there has got to be some big boys in there. Hopefully the shad did ok over the winter???
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Nice pictures WH2. I stoped by the north marina Monday after work. It still has a long ways to go but the water in the marina is looking good. Any idea how deep the water is where they dredged it?
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thanks for the report, my question is did any fishing happen while you were out there? hope we get some of the lakes filling up this year. i am just about done getting my weekly workout, just to get to the water, lol.
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Thanks for the photos,hope it fills up enough so we can fish for those gorilla fish!
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I guess we will see how the wipers did as soon as the ice is off all the way. I think the wipers will be OK but the shad are another matter, they claim that shad do not survive well when ice is covering a lake for more than one month. If 10% of the shad make it then they can make a come back. The deepest part of the lake got down to 13 feet so that should have been plenty deep enough to keep the fish safe. I guess the ice will be off in a few weeks and we will see if the wipers are in the mood to chase some lures. WH2
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I was ice fishing on the area that was dredged just a few weeks ago and it was 6feet deep plus 10 to 12 inches of ice on top of that. The only problem, is the area that they built the coffer dam at was not dug out when they finished dredging the channel. When we were there a few weeks ago we drilled several holes checking water depth, when we got to the area where the coffer dam was and drilled a hole it went right into mud, so that means it is no more that one foot deep there. As long as the water keeps coming up it shouldn't be a problem though, see you out there soon. WH2
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I've been at Willard four times during the winter and haven't caught one fish, so to answer your question I would have to say no, not one fish was caught by me on the day I took those pictures. WH2
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