04-09-2018, 08:13 PM
[#0000FF]Saw a short weather window. Tossed a coin for either Willard or Utah Lake. Willard won. It was tough, but I passed up fishing at the inlet for walleyes and continued on to the north marina.
Launched a little after 7. Air temp 40 and water temp still only 48. Need some more warm. But water levels were way up since my last visit. Water clarity was much better than Utah Lake but still a bit murky for Willard.
My car was the only one in the parking lot for over an hour. When I left there were 4 others.
Made my usual start...dragging a minnow on one rod and pitching plastics on the second. Had a couple of bumps on plastic on the way out of the harbor but nothing else all day on plastics.
Worked all my usual early season spots. Higher water and cold water seems to have sent the fish elsewhere. Was seeing zippo on sonar. Worked into the shallow far eastern edge of Eagle beach and then out to deeper water. Nothing on "TV" and nothing on the end of my line.
I reasoned that with all of the recent ups and downs in weather that the fish might be hunkered down in deeper water. So I worked out past the 20 foot mark. Just after seeing 21' on the depth gauge I got an inquiry on my fire tiger flig. Aggressive strike and the chunky little cookie cutter kitty hooked himself. One in the basket.
I stayed in the 21' depth zone for a while, without any further fishy love. So I worked still deeper. At 23' I went bendo again. For the next three hours I got lots of tugs and stretched my string on some nice healthy whiskery walleyes.
I hadn't gotten any hits on plain minnows, dragged along the bottom. That is usually money...for all species. Today...not so much. But as soon as I put on a fire tiger flig (floating jig) with a LHBE minnow I was a very popular guy among the kitty crowd.
I rotated through different colors of fligs. I caught most of my cats on variations of the fire tiger color, in different styles and sizes. No bites on white or blue/silver. But I did get a couple on chartreuse with a hot red eye. I really love fishing with those things. The fish hit hard...even in cold water. And with those sharp Matzuo hooks they almost always hook themselves on the strike. Only missed a couple all day today.
I probably caught about a dozen cats...keeping 7 for some "catfish wings". I didn't catch any other species today but I didn't see much on sonar and only had a couple of bites that may have been something other than a catfish.
After Utah Lake treated me so badly last week it was good to get back on the water and get some tugs.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
Launched a little after 7. Air temp 40 and water temp still only 48. Need some more warm. But water levels were way up since my last visit. Water clarity was much better than Utah Lake but still a bit murky for Willard.
My car was the only one in the parking lot for over an hour. When I left there were 4 others.
Made my usual start...dragging a minnow on one rod and pitching plastics on the second. Had a couple of bumps on plastic on the way out of the harbor but nothing else all day on plastics.
Worked all my usual early season spots. Higher water and cold water seems to have sent the fish elsewhere. Was seeing zippo on sonar. Worked into the shallow far eastern edge of Eagle beach and then out to deeper water. Nothing on "TV" and nothing on the end of my line.
I reasoned that with all of the recent ups and downs in weather that the fish might be hunkered down in deeper water. So I worked out past the 20 foot mark. Just after seeing 21' on the depth gauge I got an inquiry on my fire tiger flig. Aggressive strike and the chunky little cookie cutter kitty hooked himself. One in the basket.
I stayed in the 21' depth zone for a while, without any further fishy love. So I worked still deeper. At 23' I went bendo again. For the next three hours I got lots of tugs and stretched my string on some nice healthy whiskery walleyes.
I hadn't gotten any hits on plain minnows, dragged along the bottom. That is usually money...for all species. Today...not so much. But as soon as I put on a fire tiger flig (floating jig) with a LHBE minnow I was a very popular guy among the kitty crowd.
I rotated through different colors of fligs. I caught most of my cats on variations of the fire tiger color, in different styles and sizes. No bites on white or blue/silver. But I did get a couple on chartreuse with a hot red eye. I really love fishing with those things. The fish hit hard...even in cold water. And with those sharp Matzuo hooks they almost always hook themselves on the strike. Only missed a couple all day today.
I probably caught about a dozen cats...keeping 7 for some "catfish wings". I didn't catch any other species today but I didn't see much on sonar and only had a couple of bites that may have been something other than a catfish.
After Utah Lake treated me so badly last week it was good to get back on the water and get some tugs.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]