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Been hitting Willard hard this week, out 4 times after walleye and have boated 20 'eyes and a few little cats. The 'eyes seem extremely skinny compared to other lakes I have fished and there hasn't been a single bite of food in the gut to show what they have been eating. The magic has been getting the worm harness and bottom bouncer about 3-4 feet off the bottom.
The wipers boiled wild on Monday night but last night I never saw a single boil. The shad are growing fast they are about 2-2.5 inches long, so a small rattlin rapala worked well at landing a few from the boil.
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Same experiences yesterday afternoon (Thurs.), no boils anywhere.
The water was pretty rough with the wind out of the NNW, the wakeboarders/skiers were out in full force with their usual disdain for right-of-way laws, and you can probably walk across the reservoir on the bloated carp carcasses - what's up with that!?!? We were waiting for a skier to do a faceplant on one. Nasty!
Question of the day:
We were graphing a literally tons of baitfish and some larger fish - deep. The surface temp was at 79-80 degrees and all the fish were hanging at EXACTLY 12 feet or deeper like there was a line drawn across the screen. Top half of the lake was totally lifeless while the bottom half was packed with fish (in certain areas). And as I said, ZERO boils.
Is this a thermocline issue with the recent hot weather?
W2D
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I saw the same thing, they were so thick in some places, I can't believe we didn't snag something just passing through. My experience with thermoclines was mainly in deeper water./ I didn't think they affected shallow water lakes like Willard, but I know very little about them.
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Sounds like you guys were looking at the cold water under the thermocline. During the heat of the summer at Willard I've had to turn the sensitivity WAY down at times in order to see the "true" fish down in that colder and more dense water. Turn the fish symbols off and adjust the sensitivity until you can distinguish arches for the medium to larger fish and most of the rest of the noise is eliminated. Sometimes there's a fine sensitivity margin between eliminated the noise and eliminating the arches.
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Hey W2D, That skunk smells bad man. We gotta go drop it off somewhere as soon as possible. Maybe an evening on the Ogden or Weeb flingin' feathers??? Let me know...
P.U. I hate skunks.
laters....
D-mack
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Good possibility, and I'm always open to suggestions. I'll bring the manual next time and try some different settings.
The only thing was si that it seemed fishy, as any piece of structure, albiet rare, was classically stacked with fish. Its just that they almost never showed above 12 feet. You wouls still see areas that were barren, but hit a little ridge or dip and there were the fish - just deep (12 to 22).
W2D
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I have been getting that clutter at 12' also, I figure it is either the thermocline . I would say a lot of the clutter is shad with the bigger fish below them. The shad may be ther dur to light penetration, Willard is nice and clear this year.
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After so many years of low water, I think the high water this year has the bait fish that are still around, scattered. There are so many mouths to feed that the remaining bait fish can't come close to feeding them all. I believe the shad numbers are down after huge numbers of the bait fish were eaten during the low water years. The shad will come back in time but I wonder how the predator fish will fair. From all indications the walleye are the first to show signs of being in trouble. We took a dying carp from the water Friday for bait and when we went to cut the filet from it's side it was so skinny it almost wasn't worth the effort. I'm not sure if all the dying carp are from lack of food or the theory that TubeDude voiced the other day. TD said, the on and off cold weather kept the carp from spawning during their normal season and this stress is what was doing them in. I believe he might be right, when we fileted the carp yesterday we found sperm still in it's gut but not much else. For a carp that should have weighted 7 or 8 lbs there was less the one inch of meat on either side. Along with all the dead carp, now a few catfish are starting to show up, I sure hope this is not a sign of more dead fish to come. WH2
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