Willard 10-16-21

[TubeDude]

Gotta love those kitties.  Even when the "other guys" are being difficult the cats come  out to play.

From the looks of the belly on the cat in your first pic, they have been doing their part in cleaning up the shad buffet.

Might be headed up that way late next week.

All the bigger cats had a good gut on them, those above 21" but below that length were just average for this time of the year but you are right plenty of dead or dying shad to eat. We even saw a few of those shad that were dying get taken from some fish from below in a surface swirl, made we think either wiper or walleye and I did consider trying some surface bait maybe just below a bobber but I rarely have any luck doing that but one never knows, maybe next time. Water temps were 49 to 52 degrees, still too warm for the perch I think.

I have caught a few stray perch during other times of the year, but the active schools seem to move in after the water temps stay below about 45.  And in the accompanying sonar pics you can see that most of the ones I catch from my tube are in chilly water in the upper 30 degree range.   That usually happens from about the first of November to iceup.