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A smart man once asked me if I knew the difference between a fairy tale and a BS story. Fairy tale starts once upon a time and a BS story starts, no shit this really happened.
No shit this really happened. Today may have been my best day ever at Willard. It was a thirty to forty fish day. Guessing twenty to twenty five kitties, with the two biggest I've caught this year, seven or eight big crappies and about the same number of smallies plus three pretty decent bluegills. All were caught within twenty feet of the west dike fishing with my flyrod from my tube. Three times I changed my fly because of bent hooks. An incredible four or five hours of fishing.
Larry
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Nice report Larry, sounds like you really slayed them, so glad someone has found out whats working. No wipers? That's strange. How long was that shad in your pic?
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Probably two inches. Several cats puked them up. Never caught a wiper.
Larry
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Wow Larry I'm blow-en away by your success. I know No one has worked harder than you to learn how to get-un. and Boy you got-un. Nice job, so I went down stairs and dug out my fathers old, I do mean old, box of streamers from the old days of fishing on the snake river in Wyoming. These belonged to my father and I haven't had that box out for 25 years. But there they are beautiful 2 inch streamers made with strands of glitter. I can't wait to tie one on.. thanks for sharing the bugger.
I'll see ya on the big bay.
doitall
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One of those days. Right place at the right time. Here's a better picture of what's been working for me. Also, I can't give enough credit to Tube Dude. Pat has been kind enough to share some of his knowledge. Time spent with him significantly shortens your learning curve
Larry
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My buggers look the same but, no eyes, what do ya think? I will try to use them on a drop shot and on the fly. Got two young-lings with me.
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Wow great crappie and nice cats too!!! Thanks for a great report, love to hear of a good day. Thanks J
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Should work. Get them close to the rocks and the cats will eat them.
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[quote wiperhunter2] How long was that shad in your pic?[/quote]
[#0000FF]That was not a shad. It appears to be one of the two species of minnows stocked by DWR a long time ago. They never flourished but do maintain a small population and...as evidenced...do contribute to the food base.
See attached enlargement.
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TD, when I saw it, I thought it was a baby SMB. As stated earlier, several cats puked them up. By the way, it was a great day for a sushi board.
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Time to draw some vertical bars on a few paddle-tail swim bodies...
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Interesting, so they were stocked before the shad? I never took a close look at it until you mentioned it but for sure, that is no shad and since Larry said there were several fish up chucking them, maybe they are making a come back. Do they get much bigger than that Pat?
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[#0000FF]While I was putting together my CD/book on Willard I was able to get some input from Chris Penne...DWR. One of the things he provided was background info on some of the past efforts to provide a good forage base...before gizzard shad. Here is a copy and paste from the intro and ecology section of my book.
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One thing that has been a prominent feature of the Willard fishing evolution is the ongoing efforts of DWR to introduce and establish sustainable populations of various forage species…as food for the predators. During the 70’s and 80’s DWR periodically secured quantities of several kinds of minnows and dumped them into Willard…and then conducted netting surveys to determine how well the new transplants had fared. Most of their experiments never showed up in future samplings.
Two of those introduced forage species were the spottail shiner and logperch. Both were planted in 1981. Unlike all those that disappeared, DWR still sees these two species in their seine surveys each year. They are at least present along the beaches near the north marina and the southwest corner of the lake. They will likely never provide enough forage to compensate for the low cycles of gizzard shad but they do contribute to the survival of wipers and walleyes during lean times.
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PS. I suspect that the minnow in Larry's pic was a logperch. [url "https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?SpeciesID=821"]WEBSITE INFO[/url]
[inline "LOG PERCH.jpg"]
In the website link above it mentions that they were put into Willard Bay in 1983.
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[#0000FF]Hey Larry, great day and great report. Glad you are finding plenty to keep you off the streets and out of trouble. Well, mostly.
Look for my red ride up there a lot after the first of September.
Thought I recognized the sushi board. How is the "Chubby Kitty" (Fat Cat) working for you?
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[#0000FF]Most of those Willard predators will hit a wide range of feathery and synthetic materials...flies. You don't have to sacrifice your treasured inheritance of nice streamers to the likes of silly cats...and other species. I'm sure they will all work, but no need to serve up filet mignon to the starving masses.
I first started catching cats, crappies and walleyes on flies along Willards dike rocks back in the late 1970s. In those days I mostly used black patterns...Silver Hiltons, black wooly worms and large black nymphs and streamers. But it really didn't seem to matter. I also did well on whites, greens, browns, yellows, chartreuses and even hot orange.
I do believe in putting eyes on my larger flies. I learned from a large brown trout specialist in California that predators often focus on the eyes of their prey. And that a piece of something floating by is much more likely to get noticed if it has eyes.
That was one of the reasons I developed my "hot head" flies...with an enlarged weightless head that I can paint and put eyes on. I make the heads with hot melt glue. They cast as easily as other flies of the same size...without those heads. But the hot head really changes the profile and allows the use of eyes. (see pics attached)
As FB will attest, first finding a "holding area" where the fish are congregating and feeding is a biggie. Then being able to get your flies the right distance out from the rocks and reaching the right depths, without getting a piece of the rock, is next. After that you just need to work out the right stripping speed and cadence and hang on. Seldom any "nibbles". They crash it.
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Thanks for the info Pat, can't say I have ever caught any of those in the pic but years ago, while ice fishing in the South marina channel we did catch what I think was a spottail shiner. If I remember correctly, at the time I took a pic of it or made a post about it and you or another member replied saying that was likely what it was.
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[#0000FF]I copied a picture from Larry's post and sent it to Chris Penne...of DWR. Waiting for his confirmation.
I remember at one time DWR was all optimistic about emerald shiners. They planted a bunch but none of them ever turned up again.
The fact that Willard is a "dead end" ecological system with outlets only to Salt Lake makes it easier to get approval for introducing new species. Gizzard shad would never have been authorized in almost any other Utah water. But we have them (and DWR) to thank for the wiper fishery Willard provides today.
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Wow, thats a good day of fishing.
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