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Arrived at Willard around 11am and fished until about dark. Went out around the north marina and found some holes in 9 fow. We saw a few on our sonars but we couldn't score a nibble. We then ventured south of the marina near the little island. My buddy got a small perch then it slowed again. Headed towards the middle to find only 7 fow. Noticed an area with several springs bubbling up. I thought this would be money but instead it was nada! Next stop was the north dike. My friend hooked two unknowns. I couldn't buy a bite. Ended at our first spot and got two jumbo perch. Plenty of ice, but very scetchy edges. Tube dude....can you offer any advice? And what do you know about the small island and springs we found?
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Gosh that lake sounds truly like Utah lake if you walking around quite a bit with no different depth. How big were the perlets and any pictures???
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Willard is brutal. I fished it Tuesday for 6 hours and caught one 3lb mister whiskers. I had two other bites and drilled a dozen holes. I fished it Thursday near the light pole. Drilled 30 holes and only saw movement in three of the holes. No bites after 4 hours of fishing. Going to Pineview today.
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Picture for the doubters.
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[#0000FF]Sorry, can't provide any specific info on the bubblers or high spots. All I can offer is that there are little trickles coming into Willard at several places, from either small streams or springs. Not unreasonable to expect some out in the main lake.
The bottom of Willard is a lot more bumpy than most folks would realize. In addition to the trenches and humps left over from the heavy equipment when scooping out soil to build up the dikes there are some actual rock piles in a few places. Some actually protrude above the surface during this extreme low water period. Others can be anywhere from a minor mound to a big underwater plateau.
Last week we found deeper water near the north marina than we did out further. But I have not made a thorough exploration of the whole lake. Tough to do in a float tube. I know most of the inshore areas around both marinas pretty well but anything more than a long kick from the launch points is still a mystery to me.
Sorry you didn't find more fish. I might give it one more try before the ice comes off. I am an eternal optimist/masochist.
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No pics sorry. I didn't really wanna get minnow juice all over my cell phone. All I can say is they were huge!
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It seems like you posted a map of willard sometime back. Do you still have the map and could you post it again?
Thanks
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[#0000FF]I have put together several maps of Willard. Here are a few that should help.
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TD, in the map of the north marina area, there are areas of the photo that appear darker. Are those deeper water areas - or just odd colors in the photo?
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[#0000FF]Google anomalies. Try saying that three times fast.
The Google Earth maps seldom have any kind of visible depth shadings. But I have seen some on very clear shallow waters. That ain't Willard.
Some of their maps have patchwork grids of different colors over the same area. Nasty when you are trying to capture a good useable map.
Oh yeah, they also do not pinpoint the locations of the fish. Bummer.
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That's what I thought -- just sprinkled with magic pixel dust.
It's a shame nobody thought to create a depth contour map of that bowl. Or if they did, that nobody now prints it out as a map. I know it's mostly just a big flat pan, but as you point out, there are some bottom variations that attract fish.
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[#0000FF]There are a few Willard fans who have advanced sonar systems that allow more detailed views of the bottom. Some of them have found a lot of interesting humps, bumps and ridges that often produce fish when there are none to be found elsewhere. Fish that commonly relate to structure tend to hang around those rare spots in an otherwise featureless lake.
Oh yeah, just try to get the GPS numbers from those guys. They will kill you BEFORE they tell you.
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I would never ask...
...but I did just order a GPS for fishing.
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[#0000FF]Ain't teckknowledgy wunnerful?
Here's how some guys Gee Pee Ess their ice fishing spots.
[inline "GEE PEE ESS.jpg"]
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There should be some contour off the south marina since they dredged it last year. The south gate is locked so it would be a trudge unless you have one of those moto scooters as posted in another thread. The north marina currently has 1 to 2 ft of water near the docks. Pineview was much better. I caught 17 crappies and 3 perch between 1000 and 1600. By the way not all the fish are in that picture, it was taken around 2 PM.
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