Willard 7/31

[fishwriter]

Couldn't buy a bite from a wiper or walleye. Where did all the walleye's go? We fished the northeast corner and the island and all I got was a lonely catfish. There was a ton of stuff showing up on the fish finder when the water was 20 feet or more deep. But I assume it was some kind of thermocline or algae bloom or something. I couldn't see a thing on the aquaview, it was too dark and murky. At least it was nice and cool with the wind and the clouds.
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[wades2deep]

Fished WB Sat. 7/29 with Mrs.W2D and did pretty good. Got there early so we could nab our son off of a friend's boat - he was there at 5:30am - and get in some "flatwater" skiing. However, the wind had kicked up a pretty good chop. Time to go fishing!

Started out casting jigs close to the dike. On our last trip, we trolled for a couple of hours (zilch) & then worked the dikes and did well. Anyway, this trip the jigging was a bust, so we started trolling at about 10:00am and got into them immediately - I'm gonna quit trying to figure out a recognizable pattern at this pond. We had a double (aka, three-ring circus) that had us both scrambling with rods and nets being passed back and forth like a hot potato. Also caught a nice walleye on the troll. There was about a quarter-mile square area that was very fishy, but get out of that particular zone and the action came to a screeching halt. Go figure.

The worse part about trolling is treble hooks and landing nets - what a PITA!!!

The fishcop came by just as Mrs. W2D was landing another wiper and asked if the skiers were behaving themselves. We told them that they were sometimes pushing the 150 foot rule but generally playing fair. We couldn't figure out why he was asking us as here we are, trolling along in a ski boat complete with a wakeboard tower! Guess he figured we might actually be somewhat capable of an intelligent assessment of the situation. I asked if he wanted to see our licenses. "Do you have 'em?", he asked. I replied "Of course". So he said, "Then I guess I don't need to see them".

Wiper fillets for dinner last night, mmmmmm....

Entering the south marina to go home, we saw July's "Moron of the Month" in his full glory. A bowrider full of idiots towed a couple of small children on a tube the entire length of the wakeless zone - all the way to the docks!!! Hope those kids grow up smarter than their parents, if they survive long enough.


W2D
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[lunkerhunter2]

It could have been Utahsteelheader out there on patrol.
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[Lunddude]

I was at Willard the 22-26 of this month and the fishing was tough. We had rods in the water every day by 6:30 a.m. but the fish we caught did not come on the bite until 10:00 a.m. We drug bottom bouncers with no luck so our fish came from trolling. We managed 2-3 wipers every time we went out. We also marked a lot of fish in 20 feet or better of water and they were right on the bottom. We had 80 degree surface water in the a.m. and 87 degree in the p.m. I also took my new Aqua Vu DT sieres camera out on an earlier trip this year and could not see a thing with it in Willard so now I don't even bother packing it.[]
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