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Hello Everyone, This is my first attempt to post something so bare with me. I have met many of you on the water and at the rainy March Tourney out at pelican Pavilion. I would like to say that I very much appreciate all the information you share on this site. Thank you so much. Now it is time I pitch in as well. If I did this right, my handle is ZUKI_BLUE and that is because I have a mostly BLUE boat with a Suzuki Motor. If you see this on the lakes it is me, as I think I have the only Suzuki Motor in the county if not the state. Anyway come say Hi. My name is Gene.
Monday I took all that valuable information, you all share, and put together a pretty good day for October, I boated 10 wipers and had a double, which is always interesting when solo. Started out about noon, heading out of the south marina. Headed East and began trolling at about the hog farm bldgs. in 10 fow. Trolled back and forth down to about that little red paddle boat that Forest mentioned the other day. That's down in Freeway bay if you missed his post. After trying a few go to lures, to no avail, I put on a black (not blue) chrome Lewis rattle trap of the 2 inch size and shortly after had "fish on" After two more fish I loaded my second rod with another black chrome. Caught all 10 with the same lure trolling 2.5 to 3.0 mph according to my GPS. I was out 150 feet according to my line counters. I was straight out behind the boat, no planers. I have tried to attach pics of the two bigger fish, a 21 and a 18 incher. Hope this helps. See you on the water. ZUKI_BLUE, over and out!
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Hi Gene looks like you had no problem signing up with your new user name. Thanks for the report and pics. Those wipers look like they are eating good. You are doing better than most of us are at Willard, this late in the year. Hopefully the mosquitoes are going away with this colder weather. Did you by chance get the water temp on Monday? I'll have to check out Tin-Cans, aka Forest's post about that paddle boat, makes me wonder what happened to the owner[:/].
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Seems to me My finder registered 58 degrees most of the time. I think it reads a little high compared to yours.
I did take a close look at the paddle boat. It was pretty much intact including peddles and paddles. It was missing the rudder and linkage to the rudder. I just noticed it this past week but judging by bugs and cob webs, it has been there a while. With no missing person reports I never considered a serious mishap. Hope not.
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Wow, that water temp continues to drop there at Willard, I guess thats to be expected this time of the year. Do you think that paddle boat is light enough to carry over the top the dike? I know there is a small parking area there by those big power poles on the South side of the dike but if it was too heavy I can't see someone carrying it up and over the dike.
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Hi Gene and thanks for signing up. Great report.
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Hi Gene! We wondered what happened to you after the Great Shiver Fest in March. Good to know you are still with us.
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Welcome.
I bet you love that Suzuki and I dare say it has been a flawless motor?
I really wanted the white Suzuki 175 four stroke on my new boat but chickened out at the last minute due to zero dealer support in Utah.
Nice fish!
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Sounds like an awesome day at Willard. You said you went out of the south marina. How deep was the water off the ramp and down the channel? Congrats on a great fall fishing day. Sounds like you found what they wanted that day.
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Hi Curt, I flipped it to get water out. It was heavier than I expected and I think there is some water in the hull. I still think it would float and thought about towing it to the north marina but it was too late in the day.It is maybe 1500 feet north of the access point for that parking area. Two people could probably float it and then drag it up and over but what a chore. I think I would try floating/towing to marina first.
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You are right on in both accounts. It has been flawless even though it is 15 years old and I sure hope it doesn't break. The one positive, not widely know, 2000 motor is the same as the Johnson four stroke. Seems that Suzuki built the Johnson back then. I don't know if that is still true today. At least I can buy filters and oil at Wal-Mart. Hope to meet you on the water.
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Hi Rocky, I too am amazed that I haven't run into more of you guys on the lake. I guess it is just much bigger than I would think. Maybe next year we'll run into each other. Hope so.
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Thanks, see you on the water,
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Hi Brent, I always use the closest ramp to the channel. When I finally look at my finder, it reads 2.3 feet until I get to the channel and then it reads about 8.5 feet . Looking at it another way, I have a 3000 lb (like for an 18-foot boat) size boat trailer and I am able to submerge the fenders. My boat floats with about 4 inches of my fenders showing. I know this because when I back in for loading, I go deeper to wet the skids so the boat slides on better.I have never hit anything except in my driveway.(dumb!)
As you probably know, There are things out in front of the docks that will get you. I never go near them. Most of the time, I float my boat off the trailer on a rope and pull it back, beaching it on the ramp. I always seem to have time to park in the old folks spot and walk down, step in and push off. My boat is pretty small , 16 ' lund,so this is pretty easy. It is also pretty old so I don't mind a few scratches on the bow plate. . When I come in, I beach the boat on a little sandy spot next to the ramp and go get the truck. I don't even tie off unless there is an off shore breeze. Learned that the hard way. Sort of funny watching your boat heading out the channel without you.
I'm originally from The Midwest and then Colorado and I am simply amazed at how unused this marina is. I love it. Same goes for the Lake. In the Denver area, you would see 30 boats on a lake like this, right now. We are so lucky! Two other notes of interest., the fish cleaning table is closed and so are the bathrooms. There is an open vault toilet down at the end of the camp ground however. Hope this all helps.See you on the water.
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