NBC Day at Willard 5-25-23

[TubeDude]

Took another run at Willard today.  Well, took a tube trip anyway.  Launched at the south marina about 7ish.  Air Temp 54...warming to about 73 by noon departure.  Water temps rose slightly from 64 to 66.  Gettin' there.  The lake is FULL.  And there were only light breezes all morning.  Just enough to keep the midges under control.


Started out trying for walleyes...with my tried and true whirly flig crawler rigs...bottom bouncing.  Started in about 15 FOW and worked out to over 21 FOW.  Saw very little on sonar and less on my line.  Finally found one area with some fishy marks and got a few hits...pop and drops.  Couldn't get hooked up.  Did have a couple of small walleyes almost to the tube before they let me have my lures back.


After a couple of hours of lookin' but not catchin' I decided to try shallower...thinking that maybe the warming water might have some kitties moving closer to the rocks.  Good move.  Got 4 cats the last two hours before I bagged it.  Although I tried some chub sweetened offerings, I caught all 4 cats on the crawler rigs.  They hit 3 different colors...chartreuse with 3 red spots, fire tiger and "wall-lime"...lime with black spots.  They all hit hard and fought well in the warming water.  Would have liked to take home some walleye fillets but 4 cats is MUCH better than a skunk.