BFT Willard Bay Floatilla on Friday the 13th (With Video)

[TubeDude]

LINK TO VIDEO

Friday the 13th was looking good...weatherwise...even after the recent cold front storms.  So several of us ganged up to see if we could molest some of Willard's denizens.  Obifish showed up early to raid my flig stash and then blasted off to the south with a boatload of family.  Doitall launched just before I did...as did the jjannie crew.  Air temp was a brisk 41...warming to only 60 by noonish.  And the water temp was 57 in the harbor and 58 outside...only warming to a bit over 59 in the calm and sunny but cool conditions.

I thought it was gonna be a bananner day for perch...after catching a nice 13 incher on my first drop outside the marina.  But nooooooo.  That was my first, last and only perch.  Lost a couple of others during the day but didn't see a lot of perchy marks on TV either.


Continued to work the usually productive spots near the marina for awhile...along with J&J and Doitall.  I managed to pick up a couple of small cats, but no more perch.  Nothing going on for the other two BFT boaters so they both wandered off in different directions.  I let them chime in with their own reports if they choose to do so.
 

I was trying some new fligs and some new rigs.  From past experience and current intel I figured that fishing would be better with small, low and slow.  So I rigged with some new tailless fligs and some micro whirlies...in my fave Willard colors...chartreuse, pink tiger and orange tiger.  I caught the first and only perch on a chartreuse micro whirly with a piece of worm...and one catfish later on the chartreuse tailless flig with worm.  But those were the only fish on chartreuse.


I was actually using a new "high-low" tandem rig...fishing a tailless flig only a few inches off the bottom, a sliding sinker on a 24" leader above the swivel connecting the tailless flig and a micro whirly flig coming off a swivel at the top of the sliding sinker leader.  I caught cats on both the bottom fligs and the whirlies...but I probably caught the most on a pink tiger tailless flig...sweetened with chub minnow.
 

Forgot to mention, I was also playing with some new vertical jigging lures.  Only fished them briefly since I was not seeing any concentrations of perch upon which to ply them.  But while briefly dunking a pink perch "Perch Tear" I had a silly catfish munch it.


Actually, I didn't do too badly for Friday the 13'th.  I only caught  1 perch but got maybe 9 or 10 everlovin' kitties.  I kept six and released some smaller ones.


It really was a lovely day...at least for me.  I don't think my fellow north marina area reprobates did as well.  They can chime in if they want.  I'm sure that Obi will have a decent report.  He usually manages to scratch out a few.  One of the things that amazed me was the jumble of concrete barriers that had been placed along the parking lot road above the lake to the south of the marina entrance.  They were all jumbled.  I had heard there were some scary big waves hitting them from a windstorm a few weeks ago but had not seen the result until this trip.

[jjannie]

We enjoyed the outing although all we managed to catch were 6" and smaller wipers like crazy, we tried a little vertical jigging, nada, but we'll keep trying while the water is still soft, anyway. It turned out to be such a nice (weatherwise) Friday the 13th.

Bad day of fishing is still better than good of working!

Practice, practice, practice, maybe one of these days we'll get it figured out better. LOL

[obifishkenobi]

LINK TO VIDEO

Friday the 13th was looking good...weatherwise...even after the recent cold front storms.  So several of us ganged up to see if we could molest some of Willard's denizens.  Obifish showed up early to raid my flig stash and then blasted off to the south with a boatload of family.  Doitall launched just before I did...as did the jjannie crew.  Air temp was a brisk 41...warming to only 60 by noonish.  And the water temp was 57 in the harbor and 58 outside...only warming to a bit over 59 in the calm and sunny but cool conditions.

I thought it was gonna be a bananner day for perch...after catching a nice 13 incher on my first drop outside the marina.  But nooooooo.  That was my first, last and only perch.  Lost a couple of others during the day but didn't see a lot of perchy marks on TV either.


Continued to work the usually productive spots near the marina for awhile...along with J&J and Doitall.  I managed to pick up a couple of small cats, but no more perch.  Nothing going on for the other two BFT boaters so they both wandered off in different directions.  I let them chime in with their own reports if they choose to do so.
 

I was trying some new fligs and some new rigs.  From past experience and current intel I figured that fishing would be better with small, low and slow.  So I rigged with some new tailless fligs and some micro whirlies...in my fave Willard colors...chartreuse, pink tiger and orange tiger.  I caught the first and only perch on a chartreuse micro whirly with a piece of worm...and one catfish later on the chartreuse tailless flig with worm.  But those were the only fish on chartreuse.


I was actually using a new "high-low" tandem rig...fishing a tailless flig only a few inches off the bottom, a sliding sinker on a 24" leader above the swivel connecting the tailless flig and a micro whirly flig coming off a swivel at the top of the sliding sinker leader.  I caught cats on both the bottom fligs and the whirlies...but I probably caught the most on a pink tiger tailless flig...sweetened with chub minnow.
 

Forgot to mention, I was also playing with some new vertical jigging lures.  Only fished them briefly since I was not seeing any concentrations of perch upon which to ply them.  But while briefly dunking a pink perch "Perch Tear" I had a silly catfish munch it.


Actually, I didn't do too badly for Friday the 13'th.  I only caught  1 perch but got maybe 9 or 10 everlovin' kitties.  I kept six and released some smaller ones.


It really was a lovely day...at least for me.  I don't think my fellow north marina area reprobates did as well.  They can chime in if they want.  I'm sure that Obi will have a decent report.  He usually manages to scratch out a few.  One of the things that amazed me was the jumble of concrete barriers that had been placed along the parking lot road above the lake to the south of the marina entrance.  They were all jumbled.  I had heard there were some scary big waves hitting them from a windstorm a few weeks ago but had not seen the result until this trip.

Thanks for the goodies pat I’ll give them a go and see what I can do with them. It was a tough day for us we only put 6 cats in the box.

[TubeDude]

Thanks for the goodies pat I’ll give them a go and see what I can do with them. It was a tough day for us we only put 6 cats in the box.

Sorry you didn't do better.  Did you try the shallow areas?  I got most of my bites in less than 13'.  One thing I found was that I had to shorten the leader between the sinker and the flig...to less than 1 foot.  And I was only moving at about .3 mph...even stopping at times.  It's different in a float tube but I have done the same from a boat...letting it drift in a light breeze.

The water temp is dropping and after it gets towards 50 we will see the shad dieoff...and more fish moving shallower for the annual glut.  I am making up some more "SLS" lures (small, low, slow).  I'll make sure you get some of the new stuff to try...and I hope to be able to post supporting pics in a week or two.

[doitall5000]

It was a beautiful day, wish I could have stayed longer.
I did get one small cat and two unknown teasers, that were testing my offerings.
I could see the perch were not ready for game day. I moved to the willows and phragmities looking for crappie, testing my side finder. Found no fish.
Had to move on but I'LL BE BACK..

[TubeDude]

It was a beautiful day, wish I could have stayed longer.
I did get one small cat and two unknown teasers, that were testing my  offerings.
I could see the perch were not ready for game day. I moved to the willows and phragmities looking for crappie, testing my side  finder. Found no fish.
Had to move on but I'LL BE BACK..

It was good to see you on the water again...even if the fish were hiding out.  I did see a few perchy marks when I first came out of the harbor...and that's when I caught my perch.  But they went away and never came back.  Only a few "possible" single or double blips after that.  Hopefully things will stabilize soon.k  I'm ready for some serious perch jerkin'.

[wiperhunter2]

Sounds like a great Fri the 13th. Looks like you were out there with good company and a 13" perch is a good one for sure, now if the water temps would just cool down. If you don't mind me asking, what area were you finding the most cats or were they spread out?

[EyLayo]

Hey Pat, ever made your own version of the 'perch talker'? I found a homemade creation at Willard and wondered if I lucked into one of your secret prototypes you've been working on.

[TubeDude]

Sounds like a great Fri the 13th. Looks like you were out there with good company and a 13" perch is a good one for sure, now if the water temps would just cool down. If you don't mind me asking, what area were you finding the most cats or were they spread out?

Two areas I got the most bites.  1. on the south side of the channel (and the red buoy) but in water less than 14'.  2. The outer edges of Eagle Beach.  Again, I just kept working my way in from about 16 feet to only 12-13 feet.   Didn't see much on sonar but did get some fish there.  The week before I was finding them in about the same depths out off the feed lot and along the dike between the feed lot and the marina. 

Same old story.  Absolutely nothing for long periods then finding an area with several active fish.  Biblical system.  Seek and ye shall find...maybe.  The key seemed to be keeping the baited flig closer to the bottom with shorter leaders...and moving slow...only about .3 - .5 mph.

---

Hey Pat, ever made your own version of the 'perch talker'? I found a homemade creation at Willard and wondered if I lucked into one of your secret prototypes you've been working on.

Nope.  Haven't knocked off the "perch talker".  But I have been making and (successfully) using what I call "dropper jigs" for several years.  Did very well on them...for the perch...last year and hoping to duplicate it this year.

[doitall5000]

If you need perch willard is not ready, I think best to try Rockport. You still need to hunt..