Hot at Willard 7-30-20

[TubeDude]

Looks like a nice haul Pat, good to see you out there today. No love from any wipers or eyes today. We picked up two cats trolling, then the last hour and a half we did some fligging and picked up 5 or 6 more cats, nothing above 20" or so. Nice cool chop on the water the first thing in the morning and that kept the bugs down. Saw Kent D out there the first thing after we launched, then later, when we moved, we saw him on his secret crappie spot.

Good to see you guys too.  Looks like a whole lotta fliggin' until the W & W fishies settle back into a feeding groove.  That's kinda how it was last year at this time too.  

Those chatterbaits I showed you really wiggle the end of the rod.  I got several hard whacks on them, but no hookups.  I think they were probably just aggravated cats that didn't know enough about them to bite them right.

Well that's too bad, would have thought they would do better, maybe later this year. How often do you have cats break you off, where you suspect they cut your line with their Pectoral fin, like what happened to Forest on his last trip out there? Got a real good one on before we called it a day, it was pulling out line like a wiper but right when we got it right below the boat, it broke off. My thoughts were that it was a cat and it cut the line with it's fin but we never saw it, so who knows.

No doubt about it.  Those serrated edges on the pectoral fins ain't line friendly...or fisherman tissue friendly neither.  I read TinCan's post...and just shook my head...again.  Fish don't break lines...fishermen do.  With poor quality line, undersized line, poor knots, improper fighting techniques, etc.

I have lost a lot of fish to "factors" over the years.  But since I started using Silver Thread Excalibur for leaders I can honestly say I have never had a fish break off or bite off.  It is super abrasion resistant.  I have even landed northerns, walleyes and tiger muskies with the hooks well inside their mouths on 6 and 8# Excalibur. 

In Willard, I use 14# Excalibur for leaders.  And today I probably brought in at least 10 cats on one of the rigs I had tied up with that stuff...with the fish rolling up in the line often.  I always check for abrasion or nicks after each fish, but just don't find those problems with this line.

Silver Thread no longer makes the Excalibur but they do make "Super Silver Thread" which seems to have the same abrasion resistant properties.  But if you (or Forest) would like to try some of my Excalibur, I have a large spool of it left that I use almost exclusively for leaders.  I would be happy to provide a few coils for you to try.  And by the way, I use 25# in Utah Lake.  There are bigger fish and more rocks there.  I have never broken off a fish on either one...or on the 8 or 10 pound I occasionally use on reels that I don't have spooled with Nanofil.

By the way, about that fish you lost.  It can be whatever you want it to be...as long as nobody else actually saw it and can challenge your claim.  (TD's rule #3)