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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2]Fished Willard last night from 5 PM to 7:30 PM. Launched at the South marina. Didn't catch a thing in those 2 ½ hours. Heck, I can't even say we got any bites. Actually, my partner did get one bite and that is all. We trolled 3 - 3.5 mph (gps). Trolled the south side, south-west side, west side, around the light pole, up through the middle, and around the East side north of the stink silos. I talked to five boats. Only one caught fish (3 wipers). The boat that had fish said they got them "way north". The other four boats, like us, never even got bites. We didn't even mark very many fish at all. In fact, I would get excited when I even marked one or two! Water temps varied a lot. The east 2/3 of the lake was 60-65. The west third was 55-60. Lots of water plants growing in the s-e area. We trolled different colors of grubs, a variety of crank baits, some spoons, and even some Jakes. Also tried some slow walleye divers bouncing on the bottom. [/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2]I figured that with the water temps warming up and the past 4 days of high pressure, I thought the wipers would have been a bit more active. Maybe they were but just not where we were fishing.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2]I didn't fish the silo area. Maybe it would have been better there.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2]Then again, maybe the Fish Gods are just waiting for me to pay BLM the $50 I owe him before they will allow me to catch anything ... anywhere![/size][/font]
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I was wondering if those water plants that are sprouting up are one of the envasive species that I think I read willard had. I can't remember what it was called but I think that I read it was bad stuff if its the stuff I,m thinking of. I also noticed it at the end of last year from shore.
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Nice report Old_Coot. Too bad the fishin was so stinking slow. Hope your luck improves on your next trip out.
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hey have you heard of them planting wipers in willard this year? we hooked one about 5 inches. either they beat the system and learned how to spawn or they planted it.
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[  ][font "Arial Black"][red][size 2] Well hello there Old Coot buddy. How have you been Long time no see. I was out to Willard this past saturday with my new ride, for a check out run. No takers on anything I tried out there and I was all over that water.[/size][/red][/font]
[font "Arial Black"][#ff0000][size 2] AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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Hey Old Coot, I think the full moon had somthing to do with it being so slow this weekend and the weather change on thursday. I was there on sunday and only caught 1 14in. catfish. the guys fishing the walleye tourny only caught 3 fish on saturday and I didn't see anything caught on sunday. almost all of the guys were setting on the west bank about 3oo yards south from the north dike. It would have been better to fish at night this weekend. later chuck
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Thanks for the report Old_Coot, it seems like a normal spring so far. The catching has been slow like this for the last three years but it will pick up soon. It usually picks up as soon as the shad start hatching. With the early warm weather, the hatch could happen any day now but in the last couple of years it is usually the end of May. WH2
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Hey Xman. I don't know about the planting right now. But my son and myself was out there last fall and we were catching small wiper on roostertails. They were from about 3 inches to 5 inches. We caught at least 20 of them in a couple of hours time apiece.
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I got into those little ones last year in the north marina fishing for carp and bass. i was throwing a popR, with 2ft of 6lb test tied on to the back hook, and a bead head prince nymph teid on to that,( usually i will catch one or two bass on the popR and crappie, bluegill, and carp on the fly) i ended up catching probably 50 of those little suckers! it was really fun but got bored after about 2 hours. but i did get some huge bluegill that day as well.
JOe
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sorry to hear it is still slow, I was gonna go out tonight if you caught a bunch.
I hope it picks up soon, cya on the lake!
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I caught two this year that I opened up to find tiny orange eggs inside, I wasn't sure if they were supposed to be sterile or not being a hybrid, it did surprise me, thought they might be the eggs they ate but it didn't look that way at all. Has anyone else experienced this?
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I ONE ARTICLE I READ ON WIPERS SAID THEY ARE STERILE AS IN BEARING YOUNG THAT ARE OF THE SAME SPECIES THEY REVERT BACK TO THAT EVER THE ORIGINAL MOTHER WAS. I BELEIVE THE MOTHERS A WHITE BASS AND THE FATHERS ARE STRIPERS SO THEREFORE THEY WHOULD HAVE WHITE BASS OFFSPRING. SO IF THIS IS TRUE THERE WILL BE WHITE BASS TO ADD TO THE MIX. WILLARD BAY THE CORNICOPIA OF ALL LAKES.
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I read that a striper was the mother and the father was a white bass. Since Stripers produce more eggs. And as in any hybrids, while most all males are sterile, some females can reproduce, but mortality rates among the young produced are a very high.
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hey, those wipers can spawn and the eggs and milt are viable. However, biologists don't think the spawn can successfully hatch because of habitat limitations. Old studies show that striper eggs need to be suspended in flowing water until hatching or they die. They think that the inlet is too short and the eggs will find their way into still water, sink to the bottom and perish. However, the biologists thought the same thing about lake powell. Later studies show that most of the stripers in Powell are not spawning in the river inlet but are spawning successfully in the main lake without current. There is now an overpopulation of stripers at Powell, so therefore this shows that current is not absolutely necessary for sucessful spawning. Since white bass, the other side of the wiper mix consistently spawns in mid-lake rock locations without current, the potential for wiper eggs to survive successfully without current is probably much higher than the DWR personnell think. Further, every wiper I've cleaned in the spring had well developed eggs and milt. I would say no, they're definitely not sterile.
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i guess there is one way to find out. ask the dwr if they planted. im curious where the little guys are coming from.
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I think we're all missing the point here. Sterile fish will still produce eggs, and probably males will produce milt too. The problem is that those eggs are not viable. In most cases they cannot be fertilized because of deformities or genetic problems due to DNS from 2 different species. I'm sure that Tiger Muskys, Tiger trout, splake, etc, all produce eggs as well. The eggs just cannot hatch into fry.
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I AM GOING ON A HUNT TO FIND THE COMPLETE TRUTH ON THIS MATTER. I AM REALLY CURIOUS NOW. THANKS LIKE I DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO DO [  ]
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This is what I found anyway:Spawning Habits
Unlike most hybrid fish species, wipers can reproduce in the wild, but only when backcrossing, which is spawning with one of its two parent species. Fishery managers have learned that they can eliminate a wiper’s presence in a lake by simply ceasing to stock them.
Wipers spawn in the spring, between March and May, normally when the water temperatures reach the mid to upper 50s. Spawning begins by females and males making runs to the mouths of a lake’s tributaries, where current can help disperse the eggs on the lake floor.
The females are approached by multiple males and forced to the surface where the eggs are released and rapidly fertilized by the males. The sticky eggs will then drift to the bottom and remain there for only two to threes days before hatching. Eggs are not protected by either parent, as both male and female wipers migrate back to open water as soon as spawning activity ceases. Due to natural mortality, caused mainly by small fish that consume the eggs and fry, the majority of the young will not live beyond their first year.
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Old Coot: Glad to see your out hunting Wippers!! Too bad they (Wippers) wouldn't give you guy's a fighting chance. Warm high pressure & all you'd think the action would be a bit better. Oh-Well better luck down the road.[ ]
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A couple of years ago I saw two wipers in the inlet channel, near the baffels, spawning or at least that is what it looked like. They were close to shore in a foot of water in an area that had gravel but wouldn't take anything I had to offer. I figured it was a false spawn but this conversation has got me thinking, it will be interesting to find out if the DWR planted them last year or can they spawn!!!!
Have you found out anything Xman? WH2
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