Whoops at Willard 6-21-12

Utah Fishing Forum Utah Fishing General
1

:sunglasses:Went fishing for carp at Willard today. Actually, I wanted to catch some walleyes but I read somewhere that most walleyes are caught “on accident”…while fishing for something else. So I figgered carp was as good a target as any.

Launched about 6 am at the north marina. Air temp 50 and water temp a cool 66 after the past couple of cool days and nights. Glassy calm, with a few dimples and swirls here and there.

Headed for the north dike with the motor about half power…dragging a crank bait. Had a momentary interlude with a freight train on my line about halfway there. Came unbuttoned. I was hoping for a carp but it was probably a stupid wiper.

No other interruptions before I reached the rocks. Started dragging a minnow on one rod and pitching plastics on the second. About my third cast in near the rocks I had a bonk and felt life on the rod as I set the hook. Got it almost to the net and it rolled and gave me the jig back. Just as well. It wasn’t a carp…just a stupid walleye.

A couple of casts later I got munched again. Yay. But no carp. A silly cookie cutter kitty on the plastic…on accident. Whoops.

Moved down the dike casting in toward the rocks and also doing some vertical jigging when I saw fish on sonar. Got bites both ways. But, no carp. Just more wacky wallies, some smallies and more cookie cutter kitties. More whoops.

I had rigged with a 2" blue and clear sparkle jig on top of a tandem rig…with a 2" white tube on the bottom…both tipped with worm. Over the course of the morning I caught wallies, kitties and smallies on both colors…almost equally.

I caught about 15 or 16 cats…none over 18". Most came on the plastics but I did catch about 5 on the minnows. No other species on minnows.

Caught maybe a half dozen smallmouth up to 14". Kept a couple of footlongs for the fryer.

Brought 3 walleyes to net…averaging about 16". All on accident, of course. Lost several either right at the tube or on the way in. That open-mouthed head shake and death roll they do works well to dislodge hooks.

Weather stayed nice all morning. Started back to the ramp about noonish when the power squadron began tuning up. Water temp had risen toward 69 by the time I loaded up.

Went to fillet my fish at the cleaning station and really got torqued. It was full of filleted carcasses and was not in working order. Good to see others catching some fish but I wish they would learn how to use that thing without jamming it up all the time. I also wish my annual permit fees entitled me to a cleaning station…and clean restrooms with toilet paper. (TMI)

2

nice mixed bag TD, way better than all my trips combined there. some good eats too!!!

tightlines

3

Glad to see Willard showing the Love.

4

:sunglasses:Yeah. 'Bout time.

Lotsa carp flippin’ me the fin on the surface and a lot of other fishies moonin’ me on sonar. No respect.

5

I’m really sorry to hear you had such a dismal trip. There you are targetting the Glorious Freshwater Tarpon, and you get stuck hooking into all those “other” darned fish. What a disappointing day, eh?
Maybe better luck next time! Did you bring a bow? A club? Some Dyn-O-mite?

Willard can be tough to target fish, for sure. At least you can count on the party-boat crew sleeping in, right? Too bad you didn’t get to enjoy the jetskiiers running circles around your tube, crossing your lines, and generally being SUCH a FUN gang to share the water with!

Welp - what can ya say, but better luck next time.

6

Glad to see those “accidental” Walleye. I was going to warn you about that head shake… But the only way to learn is to do. By the way, I noticed a few times this year, the Walleye fishing improve with the arrival of the wind and power squadron. I usually can’t hack the heat by that time, but 3-5 p.m. has been as magical as 6-8.a.m.. glad to see you getting the toothers now while they are hot. Now if I could just give you a reliable day that I could fish with ya.

7

:sunglasses:Sorry you had to punch in at work. Four letter word. But so is fish.

I have been catching (and losing) walleyes for many years. I am well acquainted with the walleye Houdini tricks. Adds to their mystique.

I tell people there ARE some absolutes.
1. Ya cain’t ketch 'em where they ain’t.
2. Finding 'em ain’t no guarantee you gonna ketch any.
3. Hookin’ ‘em ain’t necessarily ketchin’ 'em. You don’t got 'em until you got 'em.

I prefer early morning fishing…not only to escape the goon squad but to avoid the wind too. Walleyes sometimes bite better later in the day and when there is a bit of a chop on the water but I generally do okay early too.

Really looks like somebody double ordered on the walleyes in Willard. Okay by me. Been a long time since I could count on scoring more than one or two at a time. Still not up to Starvation standards for numbers but the average size is respectable.

8 
 Glad to see those "accidental" Walleye. I was going to warn you about that head shake....  But the only way to learn is to do. By the way, I noticed a few times this year, the Walleye fishing improve with the arrival of the wind and power squadron. I usually can't hack the heat by that time, but 3-5 p.m. has been as magical as 6-8.a.m.. glad to see you getting the toothers now while they are hot. Now if I could just give you a reliable day that I could fish with ya.

P.s. Love the lure selection.

9

If you want to catch big carp just go to bear lake if the water is warming up they are close to shore. Last year i just cast like 10-30 ft from shore and one after another carp. My parents got sick of seeing carps >_< ha ha ha. I just wish from my first bear lake trip this year just wish my line didnt snap huge carp on the end jumped up and it was atleast a nice 3ft carp. You never know how big a carp will be up there I have can from small 1ft-2ft+.

10

I Emailed the State Parks this Spring to complain about the South Marina not being open. I also complained about the condition of the restrooms at the North Marina.

To my surprise, I got a response.
It was mostly excuses but they did open the South Marina soon after.

My point is that I suggest that you email them about your concerns.
The people at the office don’t know that there are problems at Willard, if we don’t tell them.

11

I fished willard last friday and the fish cleaning station was that way then. I let the guy know at the entrance and he said there were other complaints already and the maintenance crew would be right on it. Also half the sprayers are missing in both marines. I accidently hit one of the handles while placing a carcass in the disposal and shot water in the air getting me and two others wet. I guess a price increase will on its way to get into willard. I don’t believe the camera has been fixed yet either.

12

Congratulations on the Willard “oops”.[;)]
I have a question about the shad. Did any turn up in the belles of your catch?
I know it is early for shad but since there were so many last year, I was wondering if there were large schools of mature Threadfin in the lake to keep the bigger fish feed.
I have fished the “spot” on the south side a few times this year with little or no results. Kind of thinking the Wiper and bigger cats would be chasing the early shad.

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:sunglasses:**I do even better. I stopped at the pay booth on the way out and voiced my displeasure. All I got was a surly look. No explanation. No promise to correct the problems. Just turned away to take money from someone newly arriving at the window…and probably expecting clean restrooms. **

In the past I have hunted down a ranger truck…looking to give citations to raise more money. On one occasion I had similar complaints. Filthy rest rooms and inoperable fish cleaning station. A promise to take care of it. Two days later both situations were exactly the same as before…only worse.

Every year it takes longer to even set up the cleaning stations and they are shut down sooner. Of all the trips I made to Willard last year I don’t think I was able to use the cleaning station more than one or two times at most.

I have even gone into the main offices in Salt Lake, while in the building for other reasons. I try to be polite and tactful but their only excuses are that they are in a budget crunch and have had to reduce staff and services. It’s difficult to be understanding when you cannot count on even minimal amenities. Just about at the point where I quit buying my annual permit. If I didn’t get the senior discount it would not be a hard decision.

14

Sounds like a nice trip. I was hoping to fish it today, as the water temp should be high enough for trolling to be effective. The wind today will probably keep me home. Maybe next week.

15

:sunglasses:**I have not received any input from official biologist types, but I have my own observations and opinions. **

Due to the long cold wet spring last year the spawn for shad was on again and off again…and spread out over a longer period. That resulted in young shad that were of different sizes…with some only reaching a little over an inch by the time the water chilled in late fall. They are normally almost 3" long by winter.

I was on the water a couple of times in November when there were massive dieoffs of those tiny late spawn shad. I attributed it to a combination of being cold sensitive and to a loss of plankton in their food chain with the cooling waters. The ones I scooped off the top of the water…before the terns got them…were skinny and almost transparent. Lots of others sank to the bottom and the catfish were full of them.

Apparently some of the littlest ones survived the winter and are now ideal food size…3 to 4 inches. I saw some taking bugs off the water. I also saw some wipers taking a few of the unwary shadlets. Not enough to create boils but enough to provide shad dinners for the predators until the new crop grows large enough.

**The shad should have gotten off a good spawn this year…late May through early June. But their fry are still only tiny right now. Usually they are in the 1" size range by July and begin forming large schools that the predators can see and can eat enough to justify the effort. By the end of July or early August is commonly when the boils start up. **

But last year the ratio of predators to prey was so out of whack that the lower number of wipers did not have to school up to chase schools of shad. All they had to do was swim through the water with their mouths open. Not as many boils last year and probably the same this year.

Bigger walleyes and some wipers are making a living on the late spawn shad from last year. But smaller walleyes, wipers and catfish are in that time of year when they are foraging along the rocks, looking for crawdads and whatever else they can find to stay alive until the baby shad get a bit bigger. Strangely, one of the forage items right now is baby walleyes. Saw a few in the innards of the ones I caught yesterday. But no shad of any size. Did see some small crawdads and a couple of the catfish were stuffed with midge larvae. Gotta get by somehow.

**You asked **[#000000]I was wondering if there were large schools of mature Threadfin in the lake to keep the bigger fish feed.
[/#0000ff]
There are no threadfin shad in Willard. Only gizzard shad. Threadfins are even more temperature sensitive than gizzard shad and do not survive below about 50 degrees.

16

Thanks for the reply and opps of my own I meant Gizzard shad.:blush:
That answers my question and now I will change my tactics a bit this Sunday. I am fishing with Joe in the morning and heading over to the souther banks to bait fish in the rocks. Taking some jiggs along and the other diving lure in hope to see some action of the Wiper kind.
Most likely it will be a Catfish day though but that fine by me.
I was looking through last years pics and found one that was taken in September. The fish I caught had a variety of shad sizes in there bellies. We were getting shad in the rocks last year starting around July. Surface action was early but quick up and gone. Made for some mad dashes. The water will need to warm 5 or 6 more degrees for it to start I am thinking.

17

:sunglasses:Your picture is an excellent illustration of the point I was making. The early hatchlings had plenty of zooplankton in the warm summer waters and grew fast. The late arrivals ran out of groceries before they had put on enough size and weight to survive the winter…after the microorganisms died out in the cold.

Here is a pic I took on November 27 last year…of the size of the shad dieing off and being scarfed by birds and catfish.

[inline “BIRD FOOD.jpg”]

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You guys are walking a thin line - better be careful with those Shad man!

Willard Bay Reservoir, Box Elder County

• Possession of gizzard shad, dead or alive,
is unlawful.

I’m just saying…:sunglasses:[;)]:astonished:

19

Yeah don’t forget to ask those fish if they have been eating shad before you take them home. [;)]

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:sunglasses:Very brief “incidental” possession. After which they were released unharmed…into the garbage disposal. Except for the little floaters. They went back into the local ecology…or a tern belly…or both.

I did see a guy get busted on the north dike a couple of years ago. He was really going for broke. He was netting little shad next to the rocks and then fishing them live, under a bobber. But all he caught was a citation. Probably a biggun.