i have only ice fished willard once in my life with little success but decided to give it a try as i only had a couple of hours…got out on the south marina about 10am. beautiful day drilled holes all over looking for perch or crappie, didnt mark much on the sonar, with just a few very very light bites, and finally hooked one…a big 4" perch..
anyways it was a perfect day out there and as im jigging watching my sonar i see something big coming for my bait, got ready and set the hook as it bit…thought maybe wiper but as it passed the whole a few times under the ice it wasnt wide enough…then i figured it must be a cat…nope. as it bumped the hole and the hook came out of the fish, it turned and swam away…i would guess about a 15" walleye! that was at about noon on a wax worm, i was pretty surprised to say the least. had a great day but wish i would have been able to get that one out on the ice.
which brings me to another question, is anyone out on willard actually targeting walleye? i would love to give it a try some late evening when the bay is frozen a bit more, but feel like im at such a disadvantage not being able to use minnows in the state of utah…from my experience nightcrawlers are really not the ticket to catch fish in the winter time or even leeches for that matter…guess i could try just artificial lures and hope for the best.
Wow thanks for the report I have never ice fished willard but always wondered about it when I was driving by and saw the ice on the lake. Glad to hear you didnt get skunked and maybe you will get a huge walleye or a wiper next trip out 
So were you that one other guy I saw by the inlet? I gave Willard a try - first time under ice. Started at the bouy by the inlet where I’ve always spotted up fish on the finder. Nothing. Worked out towards the inlet - ice got a bit thinner out there. Still nothing on the camera, and no bites.
Moved into the bay, and worked towards the docks. Still nada - barren wasteland on the bottom. I did get one frisky perch on screen, and he took a couple aggressive runs with my perch-jig, but only grabbed it by the tail, no the hook.
I the back of my mind I’d hoped for an early morning Walleye - actually arriving by 6am, I had high hopes. Definitely nice to have the tent, considering the rainy drizzly weather. Just wish I’d got on more fish. Dissappointing after all the action at Hyrum!
Stopped by the N. Marin for a few. Tried a quick dip by the docks, and the middle of the marina. No bites, no camera to check. I think I’m Newton or Pineview bound for the next outing.
Did look like there was ice across the lake, though I didn’t venture past the mouth of either marina. Don’t know that it’d be ready for snowmachines yet.
if you were out there at 6am on friday, that wasnt me…i got there about 10am and left by 1230pm…one truck pulled in and started fishing just a little before my friend and i left.
yeah it really was a wasteland on the bottom just not marking anything at all…im sure all the bites we had other than that walleye were little perch like the one i caught, and let me tell ya they were some light light nibbles.
going to pineview monday morning, well i guess technically this morning now as long as it isnt raining…but i will definately try willard again in the future
We can use minnows in Wyoming. Plenty of people use them for walleyes.
But I’d say just as many prefer jigging raps, spoons, etc. Tipped with simply a minnow head. It can be just as effective as live bait.
yeah i would like to be able to tip with a fresh minnow head, cant even do that though…usually i like to use a fresh minnow head and hole jump when looking for walleyes to find the active ones and move on…never tried it without the bait.
CoyoteSpinner, Were you there Friday or were you talking about yesterday (Sunday)? If it was Yesterday then that other guy was me. I remember a guy fishing at the buoy when I got there then he packed up asked me how I was doing and headed out towards to main lake part of the marina then was working his way back into the marina when I was leaving.
I fished from about 7:30AM to 10:00AM, but when the rain started coming down harder I had to pack up and head home. I didn’t bring the tent.
I ended up with 2 dink perch and a 16" cat. I was marking lots of fish on the finder where I was sitting but they were biting so light that I question whether or not they were even big enough to get my jig in their mouth. My strike indicators were barely twitching.
Yup - that was me on Sunday. Had thought of asking if you were a BFTer.
Yup - me dragging my black tent. Wasn’t all that cold - never fired up the heater, but was nice not to be in the rain. Coulda offered you a seat inside!
The camera is fun, but a fish-finder paints a broader picture. And since I wasn’t seeing fish, or detecting bites - I kept moving.
That cat sounds nice. I was hoping to get on one of their ‘migration routes’. What did you catch him on? I just have a hard time picturing those dinky little ice flies hooking through a cats thick skull!
I was surprised how aggressive the one perch was - taking the bait and running with it. Not the peck-peck action I got elsewhere. Just couldn’t get him to take a very BIG bite.
Curious to know if folks go all up the inlet. I did see some sled tracks headed out to the main lake. I wonder if more of the fish are dispersed - with the whole lake capped up.
I might try the N. Marina again - spend some more time up there.
As for minnows - you can use minnows, just not live ones. And only certain kinds of minnows are allowed (like - not game fish). Carp, Chub. You can also use strips of carp meat or other fillets. I learned you can even buy cut-bait from places like Sportsman’s Warehouse, and Smith and Eddy’s.
You also might check the “for sale” board. I know TD was having a closeout sale on minnows. He’s pulled a bunch of chunky cats from both Willard and Utah Lake on them pups!
me dragging my black tent. Wasn’t all that cold - never fired up the heater, but was nice not to be in the rain. Coulda offered you a seat inside!
That cat sounds nice. I was hoping to get on one of their ‘migration routes’. What did you catch him on? I just have a hard time picturing those dinky little ice flies hooking through a cats thick skull!
Yeah it definitely wasn’t cold out there, and the rain wasn’t even that bad until about 10 when I decided to leave.
I caught the cat on a ratfinkee tipped with perch meat from the first dink that I had caught. I’ve caught two cats so far this ice season and both were hooked right in the corner of their mouth in the thick part of their main whisker. The other one was caught on a genz worm tipped with a meallie. It’s not the hooking them that’s the problem, it’s the getting the hook back out and being able to use it again. Both times I ended up bending the hook into an unusable position getting it out of there.
Wiperslayer and I fished it on Saturday from 7:30am till 2pm. All the holes you drilled or someone else, were not frozen or barely frozen over and all we did was kick the ice to fish the holes. We started by the bouey(sp?) in the channel and worked our way out to the mouth of the bay, the Slayer caught one nice fat 12" perch but that was it. Had several other bites but no more for the channel. We moved into the marina and got constant bites but no hookups. All bite for the day were very light. I measured the ice in the channel and found it was 8", very clear ice with a few inches of snow on top. We did not go out far into the bay but we could see a pressure ridge about 100 yds from the mouth of the channel into the bay. Hopefully some brave sole will take a chance and check it out further into the bay.
Holy Crap look at that perch! That thing looks like a football, not sure if I have ever seen one with girth like that. AWESOME!!
MM