07-08-2014, 08:17 PM
[#0000FF]Well, both the air temp and water temps were hot. The fishing...not so much.
It has been like forever since I have fished the south marina of Willard. Wasn't overly optimistic...after the big holiday weekend and water temps hitting 80. But today looked like the best potential weather for the next few days so I went for it.
Oh yeah. Sometimes I love it when the weather forecast is wrong. I almost cancelled this morning when the forecast showed winds in the teens all morning. Glassy calm mostly with only a fishing ripple from time to time. I have bailed on too many trips with wind in the forecast only to find out that there was no wind at all. Plenty of the other kind too...with calm forecast and gale force winds.
Water level is almost as low as it got last fall. No good for fisherfolk...at least the boaters. There were still some decent sized boats launching but cautiously. And there was a prop casualty.
Air temp at launch was 63...warming to 91 by noon. Water temp was 77...going to 80 midday. That is out of the preferred comfort zone for most species. At least for all but the kitties.
I launched at 6:30 and was smelling skunky before I caught my first fish a couple of hours later. It was a yearling kitty. Purty little thang. Better than skunk. Took some big S turns and a lot of sonar watching to find any fish. Saw singles here and there but nothing exciting. There were fish at all depths from about 7 feet out to 12 feet...the deepest water I found.
I caught the first little kitty in about 8 feet of water and spent too much time in that range. I finally moved out deeper and when I got into the 10 - 11 foot zone I began to get a few more munches on both my tandem jig rig and on my "hanger shot" tube jigs. But I suspect that a lot of the inquiries were more of the small kitties. They were eager but just couldn't open their little mouths wide enough to get the hooks.
I saw a few sonar marks that looked suspiciously like suspended crappies...with their mouths closed and their middle fins upraised. Also saw some marks that could have been wipers. Same attitude. Lots of carp cruising the surface and tail slapping. And when I turned around to investigate what sounded like either a carp orgy or a wiper boil I witnessed two BIG cats rolling and battling each other right on the surface. I was close enough for a positive id. Tried to get a picture but before I could get the camera out and turned on they had taken it out to the street...or whatever.
Then someone flipped the cookie cutter switch and I got several Willard Bay cookies in short order. Each was on either side of 18 inches and each fought much bigger than they were. Much fun on my light jig sticks. I caught 3 or 4 on white jingle jigs...with a little propeller spinner. Another 3 or 4 slurped the blue/clear sparkle hangershot tube jig.
It was fun while it lasted but it didn't lasted very long. Glad I got to the party before it was over. I talked to three other boaters and two of them had not even had a bite. The other was getting bites but suspected they were some of the little kitties I told him about. They were playful even if nothing else was.
Didn't keep any fish today. TubeBabe is still in Arizona and I don't like or need to freeze fish. We usually enjoy it fresh but only freeze catfish for future smoking subjects. Made it much faster at the cleaning station. Didn't even have to plug in my electric fillet knife.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
It has been like forever since I have fished the south marina of Willard. Wasn't overly optimistic...after the big holiday weekend and water temps hitting 80. But today looked like the best potential weather for the next few days so I went for it.
Oh yeah. Sometimes I love it when the weather forecast is wrong. I almost cancelled this morning when the forecast showed winds in the teens all morning. Glassy calm mostly with only a fishing ripple from time to time. I have bailed on too many trips with wind in the forecast only to find out that there was no wind at all. Plenty of the other kind too...with calm forecast and gale force winds.
Water level is almost as low as it got last fall. No good for fisherfolk...at least the boaters. There were still some decent sized boats launching but cautiously. And there was a prop casualty.
Air temp at launch was 63...warming to 91 by noon. Water temp was 77...going to 80 midday. That is out of the preferred comfort zone for most species. At least for all but the kitties.
I launched at 6:30 and was smelling skunky before I caught my first fish a couple of hours later. It was a yearling kitty. Purty little thang. Better than skunk. Took some big S turns and a lot of sonar watching to find any fish. Saw singles here and there but nothing exciting. There were fish at all depths from about 7 feet out to 12 feet...the deepest water I found.
I caught the first little kitty in about 8 feet of water and spent too much time in that range. I finally moved out deeper and when I got into the 10 - 11 foot zone I began to get a few more munches on both my tandem jig rig and on my "hanger shot" tube jigs. But I suspect that a lot of the inquiries were more of the small kitties. They were eager but just couldn't open their little mouths wide enough to get the hooks.
I saw a few sonar marks that looked suspiciously like suspended crappies...with their mouths closed and their middle fins upraised. Also saw some marks that could have been wipers. Same attitude. Lots of carp cruising the surface and tail slapping. And when I turned around to investigate what sounded like either a carp orgy or a wiper boil I witnessed two BIG cats rolling and battling each other right on the surface. I was close enough for a positive id. Tried to get a picture but before I could get the camera out and turned on they had taken it out to the street...or whatever.
Then someone flipped the cookie cutter switch and I got several Willard Bay cookies in short order. Each was on either side of 18 inches and each fought much bigger than they were. Much fun on my light jig sticks. I caught 3 or 4 on white jingle jigs...with a little propeller spinner. Another 3 or 4 slurped the blue/clear sparkle hangershot tube jig.
It was fun while it lasted but it didn't lasted very long. Glad I got to the party before it was over. I talked to three other boaters and two of them had not even had a bite. The other was getting bites but suspected they were some of the little kitties I told him about. They were playful even if nothing else was.
Didn't keep any fish today. TubeBabe is still in Arizona and I don't like or need to freeze fish. We usually enjoy it fresh but only freeze catfish for future smoking subjects. Made it much faster at the cleaning station. Didn't even have to plug in my electric fillet knife.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
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