Ice Fishing at Willard 11-10-22 (Video Added)

[TubeDude]

LINK TO VIDEO

Okay.  There ain't no ice on Willard yet.  But let me tell my story...my own way.  Okay?

Decided to hit the north marina at Willard on Thursday instead of Friday.  Thursday was supposed to be a bit cloudy...and perch like sunshine better...but Friday was supposed to be about 10 degrees colder in the morning.  And this old body don't like colder.  I fish for enjoyment...not endurance.  It was still plenty cold...at 30 degrees air temp at 7:30 am launch...warming to only 38 by early afternoon departure.  And the water temps have dropped to only 39 at launch and rising a whole degree to 40 by afternoon.  It's gonna get colder.  Ice can't be too far off.


There was a light breeze at launch...contributing to numb finger tips in my cutoff gloves.  But a little heater pack in each glove helped a bit.  I had enough layers...both above and in my waders...that I was almost comfy otherwise.  Almost.  Also, the water clarity wasn't as bad as I expected...after all the wind the previous days.

I started out fishing what had worked for me on my last trip...on Halloween.  That was small fligs with minnows, fished on short leaders and moved slow.  Also tried some worms.  Nada.  Saw plenty of fish life on sonar but all the local residents had closed mouths and upraised middle fins.  I worked a large area out from the north marina until a little after 10 am.  Only had a couple of weak pop and drops and one fish lost halfway to the tube.  I was beginning to smell the striped kitty and began thinking up excuses for a skunk report.  Then the sun finally broke through the clouds and I entertained hope that the perch might become more active.

Now for the ice fishing part.  I knew that most perch were being caught while anchored and fishing vertically.  In the uncharacteristically murky conditions of low water, the perch have been hugging bottom and not moving very far or very fast to hit baited lures.  So, for this trip I brung a couple of my 42" ice rods.  I have used them in the past for vertical jigging from my tube.  They are very sensitive for detecting light bites.


I had also brought along some new "dropper jigs".  These are takeoffs on the Hali jigs and the Johnson Snare Spoons...with the little chains between the main lure and the hook.  Only I make them with light wire instead of the flimsy chains.  The fish don't notice the difference and they lose fewer fish to teeth and rolling.  So I made up some new models in the currently fave colors on Willard...orange tiger, pink tiger and silver chartreuse.

So I stowed the longer rods and brought out the two ice sticks.  Then I sonared around until I found some perchy looking marks on the bottom and sent down my first offering.  Wasn't long before I had an inquiry and brought up my first footlong perch.  Over the next hour I added several more perch.  The biggest was 13" and one "small" one at 10 inches.  Small for Willard.


For a while I tried fishing with both rods...one in each hand.  But after a couple of botched hooksets and some tangled lines I decided to finesse fish with only one rod at a time and my catch rate went up.  I alternated rods, using the different colors of dropper jigs I had brought.  All of them caught fish, but the orange tiger seemed to work best...catching not only several perch but a couple of other species too.


The good news is that I only got one catfish today...a chunky 23 incher I invited home for dinner...along with seven perch...AND A WIPER...all on those wimpy ice rods and ice jigs.


Somebody flipped the switch about 11 am and the perch moved out.  Kept searching for them and told myself that if I didn't get any more love by 11:30 I would bag it and boogie.  AND THEN...a couple of minutes before cutoff time I felt another munch.  But when I set the hook 'twern't another perch.  This fish had shoulders and attitude.  Line zinged off the drag and the little ice rod developed a serious bend.  Carp?  I hoped not.  I was demazed when the fish finally came close enough to the surface that I could see it was a wiper...a very fat 21" wiper.  And it had taken the same orange tiger dropper jig so favored by most of the other fish.
 

Being a fisherman of the first order, I decided to stay and fish a bit longer.  But after another hour of fishless jigging I finally hit the ramp and was done for the day about 1ish.  For the past two hours the lake had been like glass...absolutely calm.  But it was still only 38 degrees at 1 pm.  I had had a good day and was glad I decided to hit it Thursday instead of a forecast colder Friday.  Best early ice fishing trip I've had since I quit ice fishing.
 

[jjannie]

What a nice basket of good eating! That wiper on an ice rod had to be a fun one hope you caught that one with camera rolling,  looking forward to the video!

[Elk]

Nice fish, we might be ice fishing soon as cold as it is.

[joatmon]

Looks like an excellent day! May need to invest in some of your goodies.

I use ice rods year round from my canoe, as the vertical jigging seems to produce anytime. Hoping Willard is ice fishable this year.

[TubeDude]

What a nice basket of good eating! That wiper on an ice rod had to be a fun one hope you caught that one with camera rolling,  looking forward to the video!

Got some good video.  Will have it up sometime this afternoon.  In the meantime, here are a couple more pics.

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Looks like an excellent day!  May need to invest in some of your goodies.

I use ice rods year round from my canoe, as the vertical jigging seems to produce anytime.  Hoping Willard is ice fishable this year.

I am in the process of putting together one of my writeups on "dropper jigs".  I became a fan of the Hali jigs a long time ago, and started making my own from hammered lead spinner bodies...with or without glow.  And since I was not a big fan of the flimsy chain connectors to the hooks, I used light stainless wire.  And I made longer droppers...up to about 6" long.  Absolutely killed the perch, trout, crappies and other ice species.  Also caught them vertical jigging during open water time.  Here are some pics of my older model "Holy Jigs"...and some of my newer takeoffs on the Johnson's Snare Spoons.  If you wanna try some, let me know your fave colors.  As you know from visiting my playroom, I have just about every color paint and glitter available.  Got that super glow stuff too.

[b]Afterthought:  Even better is if I show you how to make your own.  You seem to be coming along pretty well in crafting your own stuff.  And the big trick with these lures is working with wire.  The good news is that you don't have to spend a lot of money on a fancy wire bending tool.  Simple round nose pliers and some good nippers and you are ready to rumble.  In the writeup I'm doing I am including a section on "Working With Wire".  Here's a pic I put together a long time ago.[/b]

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[wiperhunter2]

Another great report, video and pics Pat. Very cool catching that nice wiper, not many of those showing up this time of the year. Since ice season is coming we figured we need to get use to those colder temps, so we decided to get out there on Fri but it was sure nice when that sun came out. Were there many folks out there on Thurs? Our best colors were chartreuse and silver and one of your silver flutter spoons, I think they are called. Also caught a few on blue and silver snare spoons. Not sure how much time we have left until ice blocks our launch. A couple of members are talking about a ice fishing trip this weekend on the Idaho board.

[TubeDude]

Another great report, video and pics Pat. Very cool catching that nice wiper, not many of those showing up this time of the year. Since ice season is coming we figured we need to get use to those colder temps, so we decided to get out there on Fri but it was sure nice when that sun came out. Were there many folks out there on Thurs? Our best colors were chartreuse and silver and one of your silver flutter spoons, I think they are called. Also caught a few on blue and silver snare spoons. Not sure how much time we have left until ice blocks our launch. A couple of members are talking about a ice fishing trip this weekend on the Idaho board.

I didn't do nearly as well as you guys.  But I only worked the vertical stuff for about an hour.  While the fish were there...and active...I got enough bites to keep me busy.  As I posted, I got more attention on the tiger patterns...both orange and pink.  But I did get a couple on the silver and chartreuse.  Didn't try blue and silver but should have.  Might have got another wiper. 

Ice usually starts forming pretty quickly once the nightime temps get down in the teens.  Still in the 20's...but not much above the teens.  Most "normal" years sees Willard getting skimmed over around the first or second week of December.

A note on that wiper.  He had a really big gut and I suspected he was full of baby shad.  Not so.  Hardly anything in the stomach.  But there were two huge gobs of visceral fat.  He has been dining well and storing up some fat to carry him through the winter.  Too bad he didn't live to make that happen.  He became a part of my "surf n surf" dinner last night...fillets topped with pieces of shrimp and oven broiled.  Good stuff.

By the way, I have been playing around with adding some wire droppers to some other base lures too.  Gonna give them a try sometime next week.  Here are some pics.






 

[jjannie]

Another great video, Pat. Like that you showed the water depth around the ramp too. Those are decent sized perch and glad you got the wiper in on that ice rod! Our yard pond has frozen over about an inch thick so it won't be very long before larger bodies of water start icing over. Noticed the Weber River is quite shallow in many places even with all the rain and snow melting we've getting.

[TubeDude]

Another great video, Pat. Like that you showed the water depth around the ramp too. Those are decent sized perch and glad you got the wiper in on that ice rod! Our yard pond has frozen over about an inch thick so it won't be very long before larger bodies of water start icing over. Noticed the Weber River is quite shallow in many places even with all the rain and snow melting we've getting.

Thanks.  Glad you liked it. 

Looks like an early winter and a hard winter.  My next door neighbor has been cutting and stacking a lot of firewood.  But he does that every winter even though he gets very few legal burn days.  I might get in one or two more perchin' trips before the hard deck shuts down my tubing.

[SkunkedAgain]

Hey Pat sounds like a great day... I really like the ice rods over the sides this time of year... Good prep for what's to come... And it's coming fast, the ice has been holding on the back sloughs so I'm thinking as the heavy cold comes in later this week, we may get to the safe point, but it's only about an inch so far, so needs a couple inches to be safe for me... Anyway Friday I put the boat in and dragged your fire tiger orange whirly around and caught my best cat of the year... It was only 27.5", but that's the best I've been able to find this year and it was a great fight, it didn't pay attention to the temperature and do the rolly polly fight, it tore drag and took a run under the boat that would have been hard to stop on my lighter rods, but it luckily took my rig that I usually use for catfish, so I was able to handle it okay, but it probably would have gotten away on my other rods... I told you last year about the fish banking up in big groups this time of year, well I'll have to post my side imaging pics from this trip, it looked like ocean schools of fish in the one area... nothing anywhere else, but this one spot was loaded... Probably all carp, but looked cool anyway... Thanks for a fun report... Later J

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Hey Pat sounds like a great day... I really like the ice rods over the sides this time of year... Good prep for what's to come...  And it's coming fast, the ice has been holding on the back sloughs so I'm thinking as the heavy cold comes in later this week, we may get to the safe point, but it's only about an inch so far, so needs a couple inches to be safe for me...  Anyway Friday I put the boat in and dragged your fire tiger orange whirly around and caught my best cat of the year... It was only 27.5", but that's the best I've been able to find this year and it was a great fight, it didn't pay attention to the temperature and do the rolly polly fight, it tore drag and took a run under the boat that would have been hard to stop on my lighter rods, but it luckily took my rig that I usually use for catfish, so I was able to handle it okay, but it probably would have gotten away on my other rods... I told you last year about the fish banking up in big groups this time of year, well I'll have to post my side imaging pics from this trip, it looked like ocean schools of fish in the one area... nothing anywhere else, but this one spot was loaded... Probably all carp, but looked cool anyway... Thanks for a fun report... Later J

[doitall5000]

I find this very interesting. That is a big bunch of fish and they are only in 5 feet of water. I would think they would be in deeper water. Is the surface water, or shallow warmer than to deep water. Where will they winter at?

[SkunkedAgain]

I find this very interesting.  That is a big bunch of fish and they are only in 5 feet of water.  I would think they would be in deeper water. Is the surface water, or shallow  warmer than to deep water. Where will they winter at?

Have to recalibrate to shallow water Cutler... The main lake is 2-3' deep, so this spot is actually a deeper area for this lake... I did check the really deep area that is about 14-16' deep and it was a desert with nothing in site... This area has a current that flows slowly through it so it stays fresh with new water all the time... and they seem to winter fine here, but it's a tough spot to find fish during the winter.. I try this area but the current keeps it open unless it gets really cold, and then the fish never seem to be too interested, probably because they are mostly carp...  The thing I really thought was interesting was the fish were like this for about 200-300 yards all along this one bank so there were a lot more fish than the picture shows... It was really amazing, but other than that one cat, I didn't get a nibble... Fun to think I might get into some fish though... Later J

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Hey Pat, Loved the video... Sure seemed like you caught more fish than what you kept.... Really makes me want to go out and give it a try, thanks for the fun... Oh, can you bring some of those lures (dropper jigs) to the get together?  I'd like to get a couple, plus any smaller whirly flig lures would be great... The ones I have are a little large for perch, so I'd like a smaller version in the pink and orange tiger if you have some... Thanks Jeff

[TubeDude]

Hey Pat, Loved the video... Sure seemed like you caught more fish than what you kept.... Really makes me want to go out and give it a try, thanks for the fun... Oh, can you bring some of those lures (dropper jigs) to the get together?  I'd like to get a couple, plus any smaller whirly flig lures would be great... The ones I have are a little large for perch, so I'd like a smaller version in the pink and orange tiger if you have some... Thanks Jeff

The main run is probably about over for this year.  I'll be posting a report.  Curt and I both hit it yesterday and the shad dieoff is done and the perch are scattered and scarce.  Maybe next year. 

Yes, I will bring some trinkets to the get-together.  Don't have a lot of the new dropper jigs made up yet but will bring enough for you to put together a starter kit.  Also, got lots of whirlies in the smaller sizes.  They have been working well for me. 

We are looking forward to seeing everyone again.  Stupid Covid.

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks Pat, that sounds great... going to have to do something about my priorities before next year... Even now I got everyone telling me stories of Henry's ice fishing that I'd love to go do, but can't get away till after Thanksgiving weekend... Guess they are catching them quick yesterday... Most are 20"ers, so nice, but not big for Henry's... Seems like this time of year can sure be some good fishing, I need to make sure my calendar stays clear this time of year.... Guess those family things are kind of important though... See you tomorrow Jeff