Willard night fishing fee/free

[Vivid-Dawn]

I decided just to ask directly about this, as myself and a few other people have wondered about the technicalities of it.

My inquiry:

I would like to do night fishing at Willard Bay, until about Midnight or 1 A.M., which is after park closing hours (at 10 P.M.). However, since I will be leaving and not camping at all (no fire, no tent), will I have to pay the $16 camping/"overnight" fee for only staying a couple hours past closing?

I do already have a park pass for the regular daytime use.

Thank you for clarification.

Julia Despain



The reply:

The park closes at 10:00 pm. This means that all day passes are no longer valid after 10:00pm. The gates to the park also close after 10:00 p.m.. I understand there are a number of people that like to stay on the water throughout the night. They are charged the primitive camping fee of 16 dollars. The only way to avoid this camping fee is to use the entrance on the north end along the dirt road that leads out to the dike. Your pass will cover the cost for this entrance and you can stay there until you are done fishing. The night fishing tends to be pretty good in this area as well. The gates and the 10pm closure is for the security of the park and to benefit of the park patrons that are camping so that they don't have the midnight wanderers coming though their sites or around their boat slips at all hours of the night.

I apologize for any inconvenience that this might cause. Hopefully the solution that I offered will work for you.
Thanks for supporting your state parks,

Wayne Monroe
Park Manager
Willard Bay State Park
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[tlspyder13]

Thanks for taking the time to ask and posting what you learned.
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[CoyoteSpinner]

Thanks for checking on that. I assume there is not a boat launch, boat access along that north road. Might work for Tubers - or if I had extra hands to portage my little flat-bottom.
Haven't been out there - but I presume if it's a dirt road, there probably isn't access for trailers. Is that the last right before you get to gate entrance? I thought I saw a "service road" sign.
Might have to try some 'bank tangling' some night.

And by the way - if you have a season park-pass, it gets you day use, and should also get you a $2 discount on camping fees. I'd presume that should apply to the the $16 primitive fee.

Quite frankly - if I'm camping, and have the family - I'd just as well have the gate actually locked at night.
Been camping in the South (Mississippi) and had the pleasure of 11pm, midnight, 2am visits from some of the local yocals. Driving BIG pickups, with their gunracks - they brought their good friend Jack, last name Daniels. We had bagged off to sleep by midnight, and I recall being a big worried at the 2am visit as they flicked a lighter inside our tent to see, and try to wake us up to visit Jack some more with them.
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[4thekids]

Very Interesting!!!!!!! I was just there last night. We arrived at about 7pm. I asked the same question at the South marina gate shack. My question was, I would like to fish from the docks for catfish but the park closes at 10pm. Can I still fish past 10pm? The response from the lady at the shack was, If you pay the $10 fee, you can go into the marina and fish as long as you want. The 10pm closer time just means the entrance gate closes at 10pm but you can leave anytime after that as the exit gate has a censor which activates the gate, opens it and allows you to leave. It seems as though this is a typical government operation in which none of the employees are given the same information to work from. I think someone higher up the food chain needs to get involved to get some clarification on this matter.

By the way, we caught two catfish, one 17 1/2 and one 18 1/2 inches. Had several other bites but couldn't hook em. In recent years my annual Willard catfish trip has allowed me to catch many fish in the mud in the South marina, but this year there was nothing in the mud but rather they were in closer were the rocks met the mud. I am guessing because of the long spring and cooler water temps.
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