12-12-2018, 01:14 PM
[#0000ff]Hadda have another tube trip. Intel said Willard was still tubeable. So I hit the north marina. Air temp was a balmy 30 at 8 am launch. Better than the 14 on my last Willard assault. Water temp not much warmer...at 36. The marina was about half iced over...but the ice was thin. It will take some more colder nights to make it hospitable to ice fishing. Okay with me.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Calm but cloudy...with an occasional light breeze that challenged my layers. Definitely glad I was wearing my Heat Holder socks and that I had a couple of hand warmers in my pockets. Masochistic fun at it's finest.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A few minutes after I got outside the marina the only boat of the day launched. It was a camo painted high powered duck boat that roared off toward the west side. Quacker blaster. Saw occasional groups of waterfowl flying fast and low. Heard a few shots from across the lake. Later saw that boat move up against the north dike and heard a few more shots. He was still out when Ieft about 1.
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[#0000ff]I didn't see much on sonar as I fished my way out of the channel. I have caught a few nice fish that way during past early winter sessions. But didn't see or feel anything yesterday until a ways out of the harbor. Then I began to see what looked like bait balls near the bottom...and a few bigger marks that I hoped would wanna play.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fligs have been treating me well on Willard this past year...including my last couple of cold water trips. So one rod had a flig and minnow and the other was rigged with tandem small tube jigs...tipped with worm. That has also worked well in the past. And both rods saw some action.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I missed the first couple of hits...one on a flig and the other on plastic. The fish were biting, but not very aggressive. By 9 am the sun was trying to fight it's way over the mountain and through the clouds. It got lighter and brighter but never did get sunny. And it didn' warm up past about 35 degrees even by the time I left around 1.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Just after 9 am I felt a "rubber band" resistance on my slowly worked tube jigs. Instinctively I gave a quick wrist-snap hook set and was in to my first fish. It turned out to be one of the several 13 inch perch for the day. Lovely. I had just seen some "perchy looking" marks on the bottom...on sonar. So when I had the fish safely netted I tossed over a marker buoy. Pretty much fished in that general area the rest of the day. Sorry I didn't include a picture of the marker buoy. Don't wanna give up my honey hole on a public forum.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The first customer took my old deadly "RC Killer". That is a red glitter and chatreuse 1 1/2 inch tube jig fished on a red glitter 1/16 oz. head. I later caught another nice perch on the tandem jigs...orange glitter and chartreuse. The rest of the hits I had came on fligs (floating jigs) fished on 12" leaders and rigged with 1/4 oz. sliding sinkers. I tipped the fligs with 2" chub minnows...about the same size as all the baby shad I found in the perch innards when I filleted them later. Best flig colors were fire tiger, silver/blue back and a new perch color. See pics.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The action was never fast and furious, but bites came often enough that it kept me awake and fighting off hypothermia. A lot of the perch bites on the flig rigs were really light...just a barely noticeable twitch on the end of the rod. I had to pick up the rod, reel down slowly and if I felt weight I would set the hook. I missed a few and a couple of times I brought in my unmolested rod to find the bait had been stolen.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There was one exception to that routine. On one occasion there was no rod tip wiggle. The rod just dived down and went bendo. The one and only catfish of the day. Guess it didn't read the little sign I put on my line...NO CATFISH TODAY. But it fought amazingly well in the 36 degree water. I took a picture of the two footer and put him back for a return bout next year...maybe.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The slow but steady perch bite slowed way down after about 11. I was heading back toward the marina around noon when my flig rod nodded at me. I set the hook and brought in number 8 for the day...another nice footlong perch. That got me to waste/invest another hour in fruitless fligging. But it was over and I was outta there at 1.
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[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Calm but cloudy...with an occasional light breeze that challenged my layers. Definitely glad I was wearing my Heat Holder socks and that I had a couple of hand warmers in my pockets. Masochistic fun at it's finest.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]A few minutes after I got outside the marina the only boat of the day launched. It was a camo painted high powered duck boat that roared off toward the west side. Quacker blaster. Saw occasional groups of waterfowl flying fast and low. Heard a few shots from across the lake. Later saw that boat move up against the north dike and heard a few more shots. He was still out when Ieft about 1.
[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I didn't see much on sonar as I fished my way out of the channel. I have caught a few nice fish that way during past early winter sessions. But didn't see or feel anything yesterday until a ways out of the harbor. Then I began to see what looked like bait balls near the bottom...and a few bigger marks that I hoped would wanna play.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Fligs have been treating me well on Willard this past year...including my last couple of cold water trips. So one rod had a flig and minnow and the other was rigged with tandem small tube jigs...tipped with worm. That has also worked well in the past. And both rods saw some action.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I missed the first couple of hits...one on a flig and the other on plastic. The fish were biting, but not very aggressive. By 9 am the sun was trying to fight it's way over the mountain and through the clouds. It got lighter and brighter but never did get sunny. And it didn' warm up past about 35 degrees even by the time I left around 1.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Just after 9 am I felt a "rubber band" resistance on my slowly worked tube jigs. Instinctively I gave a quick wrist-snap hook set and was in to my first fish. It turned out to be one of the several 13 inch perch for the day. Lovely. I had just seen some "perchy looking" marks on the bottom...on sonar. So when I had the fish safely netted I tossed over a marker buoy. Pretty much fished in that general area the rest of the day. Sorry I didn't include a picture of the marker buoy. Don't wanna give up my honey hole on a public forum.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The first customer took my old deadly "RC Killer". That is a red glitter and chatreuse 1 1/2 inch tube jig fished on a red glitter 1/16 oz. head. I later caught another nice perch on the tandem jigs...orange glitter and chartreuse. The rest of the hits I had came on fligs (floating jigs) fished on 12" leaders and rigged with 1/4 oz. sliding sinkers. I tipped the fligs with 2" chub minnows...about the same size as all the baby shad I found in the perch innards when I filleted them later. Best flig colors were fire tiger, silver/blue back and a new perch color. See pics.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The action was never fast and furious, but bites came often enough that it kept me awake and fighting off hypothermia. A lot of the perch bites on the flig rigs were really light...just a barely noticeable twitch on the end of the rod. I had to pick up the rod, reel down slowly and if I felt weight I would set the hook. I missed a few and a couple of times I brought in my unmolested rod to find the bait had been stolen.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]There was one exception to that routine. On one occasion there was no rod tip wiggle. The rod just dived down and went bendo. The one and only catfish of the day. Guess it didn't read the little sign I put on my line...NO CATFISH TODAY. But it fought amazingly well in the 36 degree water. I took a picture of the two footer and put him back for a return bout next year...maybe.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The slow but steady perch bite slowed way down after about 11. I was heading back toward the marina around noon when my flig rod nodded at me. I set the hook and brought in number 8 for the day...another nice footlong perch. That got me to waste/invest another hour in fruitless fligging. But it was over and I was outta there at 1.
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