10-09-2007 Willard Bay

[swedishfish]

[font "Calibri"][size 3]Went to the Willard north marina this morning before work.[/size][/font]

[size 3][font "Calibri"] The weather was beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky and no wind – even though 2 of the 3 weather sites I looked at predicted winds well over 10 mph. Fished from 7:00 to 11:00 and netted two 16”channel cats. Had 3 more play for a little while until they decided to spit out my hook. Water temp was a chilly 48 degrees at the ramp when I launched (my tube) and was 51 degrees out on the lake. All fish and bites came in 9 feet of water.[/font][/size]

[font "Calibri"][size 3]I haven’t followed the stories regarding the dike repairs, so I am not well versed on the timelines involved. But, for what it is worth, I ran into 3 guys from the Bureau of Reclamation out taking pictures and assessing the current water levels. In talking with them, they felt that the work will not be done until 2010, even though they claimed engineers on the project are predicting it will be done sooner.[/size][/font]
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[RILEYFISH]

Man that is news. I hate to think of what will happen to that fishery now[unsure]. Was just getting going really good to.
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[wiperhunter2]

Thanks for posting your report, it's good to hear the kitties are still biting, were you trolling or bait fishing? WH2
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[Theekillerbee]

2010???? Talk about slow progress. They could reconstruct the whole thing by then. Must be government work.
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[icejigginfool]

Hope there will be some wipers that survive this year. Thanks for the report!!



If you know; Talk about it; IF NOT; SHUT UP![shocked]
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[swedishfish]

I was fishing from my float tube. The first cat was caught with a small jig. The other was caught on my 2nd rod with a worm and no weight sitting directly on the bottom.

The action was really slow until I found the deeper water (9 feet). At that point I caught them relatively quickly. I had several other strikes on the jig, but was unable to set the hook. The 3 I lost were on the worm. I was using octopus hooks for the first time, they have an angled eye that makes them look like they should be snelled; but I tied directly to the eye. After losing the 3rd fish, I snelled the hook and caught the 4th. Not sure if that was the difference maker or not
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[wiperhunter2]

Did you see any boats out there? If you came threw the channel from the marina, did touch bottom at the end of the channel?
Do you know what the really thing is about them rebuilding of the dike, they haven't even started yet. With all the low water this year, they could have started months ago. I really wonder if they even have the permits or money approved yet, I would bet not. WH2
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[swedishfish]

No boats, empty parking lot.

The ramp is still in the water, but I didn't look to see how much deeper it goes. The channel going out was 5-6 feet deep; and then yes, I could touch bottom at the end of the channel - about 2 feet deep. It dropped off again after that.
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[wiperhunter2]

The last time I was there, a little island was right below the water line on the outside the channel on the right(North) side, is it above the water now?
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[swedishfish]

Yes, to the north and south there are small exposed islands/rock piles now.

I headed south to begin with and then ended up staight west of the channel about 200 yards in 9ft of water. In the area I was in there is another little island that will show itself if the water drops another couple feet.
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