04-07-2015, 04:24 AM
Lots of reports on Willard and I don't have a lot of new information to add. But I fished from my kayak so I thought I would throw out a report. Went to the bay on Easter. The weather report called for high winds and unfortunately they were right. Well at least in the morning. I actually almost decided not to go out because of the wind, but since I haven't made it out to Willard yet this year, I decided I would give it a go. Got on the water at 7 am and was greeted with some nasty wind and waves. Fortunately the wind died down a couple hours later, it actually got flat calm for part of the day.
I trolled toward freeway bay and then out towards the island. It took a while for that section of my trip as I was fighting the wind and waves in the morning. But I came up empty. Talked to a few other boats on the way, and nobody reported having any luck. Only two boats at the island and the one I talked to hadn't caught anything. I headed back toward the marina and hooked up with my first fish, a walleye. I probably should have fished along the north dike based on another report, but I headed back toward freeway bay, but didn't get another fish until I got almost all the way back. Fortunately for me it was another walleye. After another short bit, I got another walleye, a larger one that came unbuttoned right at the last moment. I trolled back towards the marina and a little ways out I hooked my only wiper, but it was a nice size one. Overall not a bad for the kayak. A lot easier to get to different parts of the lake in a boat, but at least in my kayak, I always have a line in the water when I move from spot to spot.
I caught all of the fish on one lure, a diving rapala estimated to go 1-4 feet deep, but I went through lots of lures on the other rod with not a single bite. I wish I would have brought the crawler harnesses since I was trolling fairly slow in the morning with the waves and bet I would have had better success than what I was using.
I also installed a kayak lift, and I finally got to try out loading and unloading the kayak. Sure makes it easy to just pull up and lower the kayak and back in and lift the kayak at the end of the day.
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I trolled toward freeway bay and then out towards the island. It took a while for that section of my trip as I was fighting the wind and waves in the morning. But I came up empty. Talked to a few other boats on the way, and nobody reported having any luck. Only two boats at the island and the one I talked to hadn't caught anything. I headed back toward the marina and hooked up with my first fish, a walleye. I probably should have fished along the north dike based on another report, but I headed back toward freeway bay, but didn't get another fish until I got almost all the way back. Fortunately for me it was another walleye. After another short bit, I got another walleye, a larger one that came unbuttoned right at the last moment. I trolled back towards the marina and a little ways out I hooked my only wiper, but it was a nice size one. Overall not a bad for the kayak. A lot easier to get to different parts of the lake in a boat, but at least in my kayak, I always have a line in the water when I move from spot to spot.
I caught all of the fish on one lure, a diving rapala estimated to go 1-4 feet deep, but I went through lots of lures on the other rod with not a single bite. I wish I would have brought the crawler harnesses since I was trolling fairly slow in the morning with the waves and bet I would have had better success than what I was using.
I also installed a kayak lift, and I finally got to try out loading and unloading the kayak. Sure makes it easy to just pull up and lower the kayak and back in and lift the kayak at the end of the day.
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