Happy Halloween on Willard 10-31-22

[TubeDude]

LINK TO VIDEO

[b]With the forecast for more “weather” the next few days, I figured I’d better hit the water on Halloween if I wanted to get in some fishing this week.  And I had a few new tricks I wanted to try…to try to get more “treats”.  And it worked.[/b]
 
Launched all alone at the south marina about 8 am.  Air temp a chilly 32…warming to 55 by 2 pm departure.  Water temp down to 46 at launch…and up to 48 by 1 pm.  I was prepared to have to wade a ways before being able to plunk down my electric motor and get moving.  Thankfully,  there was just enough depth to set up my motor within a few yards of the water line.  But the bottom of my motor dragged in the mud a few times and my sonar kept blinking at 1.1 foot of water.


Target species for this trip were perch.  So I took only light or medium light rods…and 6 or 8 pound line and leaders.  And I rigged so that the baited offerings would stay near the bottom…on shorter leaders of 10 – 12”.  But the silly kitties didn’t read the instructions and they attacked my perch gear with gusto.  Got the first cat within 15 minutes of flinging out the first rod…on a pink tiger no-tail flig with a small minnow.  I probably got 2/3 of the cats I got all day on that rig…with a short sliding sinker setup.



A few minutes after bringing in my first cat, I got my first and biggest perch…on an orange tiger flig.  Black and orange…good Halloween colors.  That rig also got my second and final perch later…along with several silly kitties.

 

I had a couple of rods rigged for vertical jigging…including one with a dropshot flig rig.  I made up some pink tiger fligs on ring eye hooks and tied one directly to the line…with about 6-8 inches of leader down to a 1/8 oz. hook.  Didn’t get any perch on it but a couple of everlovin’ kitties liked it just fine.

 
Couldn’t ever find any kind of concentration of perch like there seems to be at the north marina.  Found a bunch in previous years off the south marina but with the weird conditions of low water and stained water this year is different.  Still, I did spend some time with vertical presentations…with no results on the perch.

After deciding that the south marina area was not going to fill my Halloween basket with treats, I found some 7-8 foot depth and followed it down to a couple of areas I like to the north.  Found my second perch about halfway to the feedlot…along with a bunch more kitties. 

Lots of fishy activity on TV out from the feedlot.  Lots of shad…and catfish.  Didn’t get any doubles but had several climb on as soon as I pitched out a freshly baited flig after removing it from the kisser of another kitty.  Got a couple of 2-footers and a small footlong...along with multiples in the over 20 inch class...on three different no-tail fligs.  Colors for the day were pink tiger, orange tiger and blue/silver.


[b]I had maintained a count and figured I had about 16 cats by 11:30…my usual wrapup time.  So I brought in my lines and roostertailed back down to the channel to try for more perch in the channel out from the south marina.  No perch, but several more cats in quick [b]succession.  Headed back in and hit the ramp about 1ish.  Guesstimated I had caught somewhere between 20 – 25 cats.  I used up a whole package of small minnows…which usually have between 30-35 minnows.  Only missed a couple of strikes so most of the minnows scored either perch or catfish.
[/b][/b]
[b][b]A beautiful day on the water…with only a few light breezes.  But cool enough that I kept my gloves on all day.  Just an old wimp, I guess.  Only saw a couple of boats.  One was the “Deadly Duo”…early in the day.  The other was another boat that had launched from the north marina.  They worked over the channel area for a brief time and then headed for the southwest corner.  Since they did not stay long near the south marina I suspect they were fishing for perch and didn’t find any.[/b][/b]