Nice. I wanted to go yesterday but it didn’t work out. Next week is looking good. The 18" change is a real conundrum. In the short term, it will suck because it will be difficult, at first, to find many over 18". But a year or so later, we might see more and more 18" fish.
Since Willard is a very shallow lake, I would think released fish wouldn’t suffer a lot of stress from being caught. Talking with Chris Penne about this, I’m leaning towards being in favor of it.
I don’t care much for Salmon so if it happens I am fine but prefer to concentrate on the others.
Especially the Crab!
If I die because of eating too much crab you all can buy all my fishing gear from my wife.
You will get a screamin’deal, because I told her I hardly paid anything for any of it.
I got a good visual of that big white cooler you mentioned.
It is a marine cooler with good hinges and hasps.
I am a scrounge and would have tried for it but that wind would have pushed me in to the rocks and beat up my boat.
I left it for someone else.
Yup. That’s why I left it, too. I retrieved a perfectly good life vest by casting a crankbait and snagging it once. Left it on the “loaner” board. But no way I’m going to put my boat in the rocks and then clamber out to get something only to have the boat drift away.
Still seems counter intuitive to me, would seem if you keep more 16 inchers let the bigger fish go seems like you would have plenty of spawners? Taking more of the 18 plus seems you would have less bigger mature spawners? Also they should close the channel to the snaggers and net the bigger spawners there for the hatchery needs.
I guess that’s why I never see you posting about fishing for salmon but I figured since you would be up in Alaska, you might give it a try, those big salmon up there taste different than the little kokes we have down here but you sure can’t go wrong with the crab and halibut.
Nice mixed bag Pat and a pre stringers wiper? Guess it swam away from the guy that caught it before, that’s crazy but not surprising for a wiper. Is that a tiger shark your holding? Nice photo shop.
I sent a picture of the carp to a buddy, he returned the text with the Shark picture? I guess he must have an AI Program or App to do it. He sent it back in less than 5 minutes! I’m not sure how he does it ?
Well I no longer have ANY desire to go swimming at Willard. 
Ai is crazy!! Buddy makes those pics in minutes !
Makes you wonder what’s real anymore!!
It’s not just photos, I also wonder how many news articles are real
I went out yesterday evening just wanted to report the cooler has been claimed as well as all the other items. There is a bucket a little further down the north side of any one is interested. The fishing was pretty good as well.
I saw several on the 30th. I am not sure why they are showing up, or what they think they are eating, but I was suprised on how “domestic” they acted.
AI is crazy, you don’t know what’s real and what isn’t unless you see some guy holding a 6ft shark. 
Not anymore. I saw the cooler (5/30/26) and went in closer to look. I was sure a boat had gone down because there was teak wood, parts of a swim platform, a red life jacket, two fishing boxes, in general, a debris field.
I went over to the south marina and went up to where one of the boat check stations was and reported it to the young worker. She called her boss and a ranger drove the dike to where I waited for him. It was almost impossible for him to see from above so on the phone I talked him into garbage pick-up and collection. We did not get everything, but with the waves that day there was NO WAY I was getting closer.
Turns out that they responded to a boat that almost sunk on the 25th and the ranger was the one that towed it back. No one was hurt, at least seriously, but no further information was provided.
Now, last night, my wife found an article that a wave runner operator was missing at Willard on Sunday the 31st and a search was ongoing. So… if the operator was not found, keep an eye on your sidefinder sonar. Personally, hooking a body is not on my bucket list. Ugggg
I am glad everyone seems to be doing well this year, but, this is Willard, so one day may be boom and another a bust. On the 21st I fished from 6:00 am to noon without even a hit (except for a kitty cat that wanted to go home with me). Then, from Noon to about 4 it was a fish every few minutes. I released a lot of fish, and still took home a limit of Walleye. The largest one was over 23", with most of the bag over 18".
I decided a little rain and wind would not slow me down on 5/30. Well, so much for me thinking. One walleye to the boat and it took a BB with a carpalet for bait. It just inhaled it and stopped so I thought I had snagged something. It fought good after that, but had just followed along until I tried bringing him in. Another catfish decided to join me at home and he hit a minnow plug. Go figure, the kitty hit a lure and the Walleye hit bait.
The South Marina Cleaning Station was dry when I cleaned my 2 fish, but as I was leaving a boater brought over a net full of I Think 4 good Wipers, maybe 2 to 3 pounds each, a really good Walleye, and a smaller walleye.
So, what did I learn? I learned that I know nothing about Willard! 
Water temp had dropped to low 60s. The waves on the North Side were often a ligit 3’, followed by 1 footers, then back to 3’. When if finally dropped a bit it made no difference for me. It was a muddy mess, so much so that in Freeway Bay I opened the livewell to see how the fish were doing and it looked like I had sucked up the pig stye from stinky point. I am sure that I was NOT fishing in the correct location because I tried so many colors and offerings that it … That is my excuse and I am sticking with it. 
Angling Archer that’s Willard in a nutshell isn’t it!!
I got out on Saturday, fishing from 11:30 am-5 pm after the storm blew over. Weather conditions were very comfortable, breezy with no bugs, and great walleye chop conditions. I fished with Shawn Elayo and his boy. We managed 7 walleye in the box, 4 on purple cranks and 3 on bottom bouncers. Fishing has been a grind this year, averaging 30 minutes per fish, compared to the last several years, where I have averaged about a 10-15minute catch rate. Ive been spending most of my time between the Light Pole working south. I have also caught a few out in the Nothingness north of the Feed Lot and South Marina. Have not found much love on the east side north of the Freeway Bay in several tries. We caught a new species on a bottom bouncer in my boat, I caught three of them last fall, on fligs.
Hey Shawn & Shawn good to see you guys tag teaming up for the eye fest… congrats on the catch even if it’s a little tougher than normal… Thanks for the update on a current trip… Later J
A Yellow Bullhead? That is a rare catch for this county, and the biggest yellow I have seen.
