Willard Cats...Past & Present

[TubeDude]

I’ve been interested in the increasing growth of catfish this past two or three years in Willard.  Having played with Willard kitties since about 1977 I have witnessed a few changes over the years.  Thought some of the “Latter Day Willardites” might get a kick out out my look backs and reckymemberings.
 
I moved to Utah from California in 1977 on business.  Willard Bay was new to me, since my college days in Provo in the 1960s.  Untypically of most other Utah Lakes, it din’t have no trout.  So almost nobody fished it.  But it had lots of cats, walleyes, crappies and both bluegills and green sunfish.  I loved it and I was about the only angler on the lake most trips…fishing from my new commercial model float tube.
 
The ecology was well balanced and productive.  Water levels stayed high all year and the rocks were full of tasty and nutritious crawdads.  Catfish ate em by the bushel…along with baby crappies and sunfish.  Average cats were 16 - 20 inches but there were plenty between 24 and 30 inches.  Fish over 30 inches were caught on most serious cattin’ trips.  And dedicated cataholics caught a few over 20#.  My biggest all-time out of Willard was a 33 inch 16# fish in 1981.
 

Crappies were thick all around the lake…of all sizes…from young of the year to footlongs.  Anybody could catch as many as they wanted…limit 50.  During the spring spawn whole families could easily limit out.
 
There was also a great abundance of walleyes.  They averaged good size on an abundant diet of hordes of young crappies and sunfish.  The limit was six…but only 2 over 22 inches.  With the exception of the spring spawn…when young males crowded the shorelines…it was rare to catch walleyes UNDER 22 inches.  So a limit was usually 2 five pounders culled from a catch of 10-20 all over 22 inches.
 
I moved to Arizona for 20 years on business…returning late summer 2004…after a prolonged drought.  I found Willard Bay to be a big mud hole…with water lines far out from the rock dikes. (bye bye crawdads).  Fishing was dismal. Caught only a few footlong catfish.  But the following winter was a doozy and refilled Willard to full.
 
I also found the ecology of the lake had been altered by DWR.  It now had gizzard shad and wipers.   Good for them, but not so much for the other species.  Main food source for wipers were the shad.  But they spawned in early spring, grew quickly and were too large for most predators by late fall.  So wipers had to steal crawdads and baby crappies and sunfish from the other predators until the shad got big enough to eat.
 
The double whammy on the crappies was that the vast schools of newly hatched shad each year mopped up a large amount of the zooplankton needed by baby crappies to grow beyond about 2”.  The inlet channel of the south marina was blanketed with starved baby crappies some summer mornings…but the birds dined well.
 
While crappie were a main food source, walleyes stayed closer to the dikes…where schools of crappies stayed.  But when shad became the main food source,  walleyes scattered around the lake…in all depths…following the wandering shad schools.  Averaged smaller in size too.  They are now easy to catch before the new shad get big enough to eat, but pretty tough most of the year.
 
Catfish have varied in size and numbers according to changes in the ecology.  In high water years…with good forage in the rocks…catfish have good spawns and good feeding.  Cats almost always pull off at least a “replenishing” spawn.  And they are omnivorous enough to eke out a living on whatever food items the wipers and walleyes leave for them.
 
One of the big changes in the past few years is the increasing number of anglers who have “discovered” that catfish are fun to catch and good to eat.  That has helped “thin the herd”…removing smaller better-eating fish and seeing more larger fish showing up each year.  I got a 29” cat a couple of years ago…my biggest for a long time.  And this year several other anglers are reporting their biggest cats in recent years.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see some over 30” fish again.

[Bubman1]

My great grandfather moved here around the same time. I can remember him telling me stories of no people fishing on the bay, some crazy looks when he told folks about eating the catfish. He and my grandma fished out of a 13 ft Boston whaler that he pulled from Tennessee. It was my first boat that my family still owns to this day. My biggest cat out of Willard was about 10 lbs or so.

[Cowboypirate]

While I can remember when the only fished I thought existed in utah were trout. I still love them but enjoy variety in my trips a lot more these days

[Troutster]

That was a fun read TubeDude. It’s certainly interesting to see the results of Fish & Game fiddling. Not necessarily criticizing, wipers are so fun to catch. Water management also complicates things more. I feel lucky to have such a fun fishery 10 min from home.

[Mr. J]

I’ve been interested in the increasing growth of catfish this past two or three years in Willard.  Having played with Willard kitties since about 1977 I have witnessed a few changes over the years.  Thought some of the “Latter Day Willardites” might get a kick out out my look backs and reckymemberings.
 
I moved to Utah from California in 1977 on business.  Willard Bay was new to me, since my college days in Provo in the 1960s.  Untypically of most other Utah Lakes, it din’t have no trout.  So almost nobody fished it.  But it had lots of cats, walleyes, crappies and both bluegills and green sunfish.  I loved it and I was about the only angler on the lake most trips…fishing from my new commercial model float tube.
 
The ecology was well balanced and productive.  Water levels stayed high all year and the rocks were full of tasty and nutritious crawdads.  Catfish ate em by the bushel…along with baby crappies and sunfish.  Average cats were 16 - 20 inches but there were plenty between 24 and 30 inches.  Fish over 30 inches were caught on most serious cattin’ trips.  And dedicated cataholics caught a few over 20#.  My biggest all-time out of Willard was a 33 inch 16# fish in 1981.
 

Crappies were thick all around the lake…of all sizes…from young of the year to footlongs.  Anybody could catch as many as they wanted…limit 50.  During the spring spawn whole families could easily limit out.
 
There was also a great abundance of walleyes.  They averaged good size on an abundant diet of hordes of young crappies and sunfish.  The limit was six…but only 2 over 22 inches.  With the exception of the spring spawn…when young males crowded the shorelines…it was rare to catch walleyes UNDER 22 inches.  So a limit was usually 2 five pounders culled from a catch of 10-20 all over 22 inches.
 
I moved to Arizona for 20 years on business…returning late summer 2004…after a prolonged drought.  I found Willard Bay to be a big mud hole…with water lines far out from the rock dikes. (bye bye crawdads).  Fishing was dismal. Caught only a few footlong catfish.  But the following winter was a doozy and refilled Willard to full.
 
I also found the ecology of the lake had been altered by DWR.  It now had gizzard shad and wipers.   Good for them, but not so much for the other species.  Main food source for wipers were the shad.  But they spawned in early spring, grew quickly and were too large for most predators by late fall.  So wipers had to steal crawdads and baby crappies and sunfish from the other predators until the shad got big enough to eat.
 
The double whammy on the crappies was that the vast schools of newly hatched shad each year mopped up a large amount of the zooplankton needed by baby crappies to grow beyond about 2”.  The inlet channel of the south marina was blanketed with starved baby crappies some summer mornings…but the birds dined well.
 
While crappie were a main food source, walleyes stayed closer to the dikes…where schools of crappies stayed.  But when shad became the main food source,  walleyes scattered around the lake…in all depths…following the wandering shad schools.  Averaged smaller in size too.  They are now easy to catch before the new shad get big enough to eat, but pretty tough most of the year.
 
Catfish have varied in size and numbers according to changes in the ecology.  In high water years…with good forage in the rocks…catfish have good spawns and good feeding.  Cats almost always pull off at least a “replenishing” spawn.  And they are omnivorous enough to eke out a living on whatever food items the wipers and walleyes leave for them.
 
One of the big changes in the past few years is the increasing number of anglers who have “discovered” that catfish are fun to catch and good to eat.  That has helped “thin the herd”…removing smaller better-eating fish and seeing more larger fish showing up each year.  I got a 29” cat a couple of years ago…my biggest for a long time.  And this year several other anglers are reporting their biggest cats in recent years.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see some over 30” fish again.

Pat, I think you and I talked about this very same thing some time ago. Yes, I too remember those times as well, especially the cats and crappies. I would often take my young family out in the evenings fishing crappie. When the kids got tired I would put them to bed in the sleeper of the pickup, then my wife and I would focus on the catfish. We fought the midges and mosquitoes and watched the mice run in and out of the lite of lantern as we waited for the cats to start biting. OH how it would be to turn back the clock, in some cases anyway!

rj

[wiperhunter2]

I moved here to Utah in about the same timeframe 1976. Took me several years to start fishing Willard, after I bought my first boat in 79, started catching some of those big cats, trolling the shore line. When Tom Pettingale(sp?) first got the DWR to start planting wipers it was a total blast, we would catch them in the propwash of the trolling motor, not more than 10 ft behind the boat and the boils were hard to believe, how big they were and how long they went on for. My arms and shoulders would be sore after fishing for them back in those days. Sure a lot of changes since then. Good memories Pat, Thanks for sharing.

[TubeDude]

Just remembered a "GOOD OLD DAYS" writeup I posted last year.  It has similar rememberies on several of my fave Utah waters.  LINK TO PDF

[perchinski]

Just remembered a "GOOD OLD DAYS" writeup I posted last year.  It has similar rememberies on several of my fave Utah waters.  LINK TO PDF

Wonderful post, Pat.  One of the best historical & personal summaries ever on this site.  A fascinating read.  Passing it on to a few of my buddies.

[TubeDude]

Just remembered a "GOOD OLD DAYS" writeup I posted last year.  It has similar rememberies on several of my fave Utah waters.  LINK TO PDF

Wonderful post, Pat.  One of the best historical & personal summaries ever on this site.  A fascinating read.  Passing it on to a few of my buddies.

Thanks.  I appreciate your appreciation.  And I'm enjoying your posts vicariously as you reconnect with your fave ponds.  Been doin' pretty good on the bass and perch.  Hope we keep some water in the lakes for next year.

[MrShane]

Pat,
Thanks for the write-up!
You brought back some excellent memories.
Especially those jumbo Perch at Yuba I miss so much.
Remember back in the day when DC opened to ice fishing how rare it was to see an ice auger!
I have not fished for almost a month due to Elk season but fortunately been blessed with two Elk already.
Thinking of going to get a third but not sure my freezer can handle it!
It is almost Goose season anyway.
Geese are much easier to pack out than Elk are!!
Take care Pat, and thanks for everything you do.
Shane

[obifishkenobi]

Great post, your write ups and wisdom has certainly shortened my learning curve at Willard.

[TubeDude]

Great post, your write ups and wisdom has certainly shortened my learning curve at Willard.

Glad to hear that.  Even better is seeing you "pay it forward" with all of the help you provide to others who are still behind you on that curve.  I know there are a lot of BFTers who credit you with helping them move the next rung up the ladder.  

I have had the great good fortune  to have been able to sample the fishing in a whole lotta places around the USA, Canada, Alaska and Mexico.  Almost everywhere I have gone I have been lucky to find locals who were knowledgeable and willing to help someone new to the area...or that kind of fishing.  As I take my old guy mental trips back through time I vividly recall many specific things I learned from others...and how I was often able to modify and apply those things to the fishing in other places...for other species.  It also helps to be attentive, have a good memory and be creative.

I am happy and proud of the fishing education I have acquired over the years...and humble in the acknowledgement that I owe it all to the patience and generosity of others.  I would be an ungrateful wretch indeed if I played the tight-lipped role a lot of website members seem to adopt...the "Hooray for me and to hell with thee" attitude so common in our world today.

I can honestly say that in my final years of fishing I often got more pleasure from a trip in which I could help others catch more fish than from my own catch.  BS?  Nope.  Don't knock it 'til you've done it.

[MrShane]

I am going to try and head up tomorrow.
My main focus will be trying to catch a white Quantum Accurist on a pole I dropped overboard last May while fishing with Perchinski.
Might as well try looking for it in low water.
I will try to fish a little bit whether the Search and Rescue goes well or not.
Can some success on Cats be had tipping Fligs with small chunk of crawler or do I need to go find some Chub pieces somewhere?
Thanks in advance everybody!

[TubeDude]

I am going to try and head up tomorrow.
My main focus will be trying to catch a white Quantum Accurist on a pole I dropped overboard last May while fishing with Perchinski.
Might as well try looking for it in low water.
I will try to fish a little bit whether the Search and Rescue goes well or not.
Can some success on Cats be had tipping Fligs with small chunk of crawler or do I need to go find some Chub pieces somewhere?
Thanks in advance everybody!

I've caught a  lot of cats on flig/crawler rigs.  Lots of walleyes, wipers and perch too.  But chub meat seems to usually work better.  If you use crawler, take along some extra crawler scent and keep your offering smelly.  And I even rig some fligs with a two hook crawler rig that catches all species.
 

[MrShane]

Spent too much time looking for my pole, you can tell that by my gps track.
I lost it in a very popular area for bb’ing and deep diving crank/jerk baits so most likely already been salvaged.
But I had to try or would haunt me for many years.
Then drug tipped fligs at .5 mph, Freeway Bay Area.
Lost what was most likely a Perch, small Wiper, or small Walleye right at the boat.
Landed one healthy Wiper and one healthy Cat, both fought hard.
Then missed one more solid hit that I’m surprised did not stick.
My buddy in his boat fished same method as I, also in same area, and landed one Cat and lost one other good fighting fish he did not see.
He said it fought much different than his Cat so maybe he lost another Wiper.
Scheels was out of Chub so we only had nightcrawler to tip our jigs with.
Pulled rigs at 12:45 to get home.
I’ve got another Elk to kill to really max out the freezer.
Absolutely beautiful day on the reservoir!