Willard Inlet Lookee See 2-9-10

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Before hitting Pineview yesterday I took a drive in to the South Marina on Willard. Of course the gate is still locked, and will be until sometime in April. But, I wanted to see if the inlet channel is opening up enough to dunk a float tube. I hit it about the third week of February last year and caught a bunch of chilly kitties.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The channel is still locked tight in over a foot of ice. There is some water coming in over the baffles but it only flows a few feet and then disappears under the thick ice (see pics). In the last picture you can see what looks like tan colored plastic bags wadded up next to the concrete. That is foam that has frozen solid. Pieces of it had blown out across the ice. Looked like someone had added to the other litter.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Surprising how high the lake is already. Not much of the top of the last row of baffles is still exposed. Gonna be another high water year for Willard. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Now bring on the open water. I am more than ready.[/#0000ff]
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[kochanut]

i took my pup up there yesterday after work to take a look, same exactr place you went... he ended up comming back with two 3 liter bottles for me to add to the back of the truck... he had no freaking clue what the water was comming over the baffles so he just sat on the ice staring at it till i called him back.... good thing he came back, otherwise i would have left him out there... i did notice a small "slick" if you will of open water on the north side of the inlet shore, roughly 5 feet wide and about 35 feet long, pressed right up against the bank.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]As soon as they start dumping water down the canal the channel will open up. Just enough current right now to create weak spots or narrow open channels.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In years past Willard has not even frozen over completely and the fishing in the channel can be good all winter.[/#0000ff]
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[Roghet]

I'm not quite ready for ice season to be over, but I am hoping that the wipers have been eating up all the bajillion shad that were so plentiful that you could walk across the lake and not get your feet wet. [angelic]

And, then the well fed bruisers will want to play with me this summer! []
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Biology 101: Shad spawn every year. More new shadlets equals even more food for those wascally wipers. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You simply have to become a more accurate caster so you can hit the wipers in the mouth with your lure when they leap from the water chasing real live shad.[/#0000ff]
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[chickendude1234]

That was my favorite place to fish in the summer when I was in Junior high. My friends and I would ride our bikes out there pretty much daily. We'd catch baby crawdads for bait, and just slay the smallies right there.
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