Willard Cats

[bearnk82]

Hey everyone! I went up to Willard early this morning and hooked into a couple nice cats and lost just as many. We got there at about midnight and fished until around 5:00 am. We fished the South Marina which is a change from where we usually fish on that lake. We were working along the north side of the inlet from the second set of baffles all the way to the boat dock area. We used shallow diving crawfish lures and cut bait with liver. We'd cast the crawdad lures along the shoreline with a slow retrieve. We also used 4/0 salmon hooks and tied two on, one with liver and the other with cut bait. We caught many cats on the bait ranging from 12 inches up to 20 inches or so. The big cats came on the lures. They would hit the lure and run so we had to have our tensions a little loose. It felt like we hit a rock or snag but then our poles would bend over and line would start ripping out. The fishing was fairly fast with moments of slow periods which lasted about 30-45 minutes.

I ran into a guy about a month ago that was launching his boat around 9:00 pm while I was packing up to leave. I chatted with him for a while and he was telling me about the 10-12 pounders he would catch consistently by trolling some rattling crawdad lures along the dikes in the middle of the night. We decided to give it a try in the lightening and slight rain. It worked really well. I never landed cats this size except in the spring in that lake.

I think I will be going up again in the next couple of days so will post again on how I do.

[gettingthereok]

pretty fish, willard has some healthy fish with all the food.
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[WyomingMoose]

Pretty neat. Good job.
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[Troll]

Those are good fighting weight cats.
Good job. If I get insomnia I know where to go now.
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[catfish-logic]

Thats cool that there are some nice cats at Willard.

I hope to go at night. I had plans all summer but the darn wind and I can't stand fishing off the bank.

I guess the shad keep them well fed.
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[wiperhunter2]

Great report and very nice looking cats. You are the second guy this year that has posted a report with pictures of big cats coming from a shore fisherman at Willard. The other guy(it wasn't you was it?) had caught them on the north dike, early in the spring. One was a 21lber.
I have heard stories, from years ago, that reported guys catching big cats up to 10 lbs trolling at night along the dike but it has been a long time since I have seen any proof. Thanks for sharing.
WH2
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[bearnk82]

Yeah that was my post earlier this spring. I went again last night and had pretty good luck. Once I upload the pics I will make another post.

[catfish-logic]

Hey how was the wind? Its been windy almost every week here in West Valley.

Did you get any big cats this time?

I want to hit Willard this weekend but I'm afraid of the wind.
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[bearnk82]

The wind was hit or miss. There were short gusts that would last ten or fifteen minutes but then would get really calm. We fished a different are and caught four good cats and many many small ones. Nothing over ten pounds this time. It might be a little more windy today. But there are so many places on willard you can fish that you can probably find a place more shielded from it.