The shad are out in full force at Willard

The shad are out in full force at Willard - Printable Version

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The shad are out in full force at Willard - wiperhunter2 - 06-28-2022

Some of you are not seeing the shad out there but Reelfast has a 5,000 watt fish finder that really shows them well and we saw more out there today than we have in over a month.

We caught two eyes right off the bat with our trusty Apex lures, then that went dead. We trolled for hours after that and nothing, finally we started seeing terns diving and shad jumping out of the water, being chased from some predator from below. Hard to see them but if you click on this pic you should be able to spot the terns.

We trolled toward them and quickly picked up three eyes, one so small we had to let it go.

We also caught a crappie and a cat but that was it for the day and we went in a little after 1 pm. Here are the fish we kept today.

Meet a member at the cleaning station that did better than we did, so hopefully he will reply to this post, in case you are having problems getting on site, send me an email at bigfishtackle@yahoo.com and I can help you get back on the site. Good meeting you today. Also saw Goose716 out there today.
By the way, we went over the island today and it was less than 2 ft deep and the buoys are no longer on it, so be very careful, if you don't have it marked with your GPS.

RE: The shad are out in full force at Willard - PACKFAN - 06-28-2022

(06-28-2022, 03:06 AM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: Some of you are not seeing the shad out there but Reelfast has a 5,000 watt fish finder that really shows them well and we saw more out there today than we have in over a month.

We caught two eyes right off the bat with our trusty Apex lures, then that went dead. We trolled for hours after that and nothing, finally we started seeing terns diving and shad jumping out of the water, being chased from some predator from below. Hard to see them but if you click on this pic you should be able to spot the terns.

We trolled toward them and quickly picked up three eyes, one so small we had to let it go.

We also caught a crappie and a cat but that was it for the day and we went in a little after 1 pm. Here are the fish we kept today.

Meet a member at the cleaning station that did better than we did, so hopefully he will reply to this post, in case you are having problems getting on site, send me an email at bigfishtackle@yahoo.com and I can help you get back on the site. Good meeting you today. Also saw Goose716 out there today.
By the way, we went over the island today and it was less than 2 ft deep and the buoys are no longer on it, so be very careful, if you don't have it marked with your GPS.

Heading out in the A.M. havn't been out since last week, my weekly trip will probably be coming to an end pretty soon due to water level dropping.

RE: The shad are out in full force at Willard - wiperhunter2 - 06-29-2022

Good luck out there tomorrow Pete. Water level in the South marina has dropped about a foot but the North marina should be good for a while. still.

RE: The shad are out in full force at Willard - PACKFAN - 06-30-2022

(06-29-2022, 01:17 AM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: Good luck out there tomorrow Pete. Water level in the South marina has dropped about a foot but the North marina should be good for a while. still.

We got on the water fishing about 8:30 and fished until about 1, terrible day for us all we could catch was wipers, I think we ended up boating 6 and one eye about 17 inches, all were returned. We had a few drive bys but that was it. The wipers were nice from 21- 24 1/2 inches. I took a picture of my buddy Terry with one of his wipers. Nice day and the bugs weren't bad. Caught all of the fish once again on my favorite Flicker shad baits.

[Image: Terry-Willard-Bay-29-June-2022.jpg]

RE: The shad are out in full force at Willard - wiperhunter2 - 06-30-2022

(06-30-2022, 01:18 PM)PACKFAN Wrote:
(06-29-2022, 01:17 AM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: Good luck out there tomorrow Pete. Water level in the South marina has dropped about a foot but the North marina should be good for a while. still.

We got on the water fishing about 8:30 and fished until about 1, terrible day for us all we could catch was wipers, I think we ended up boating 6 and one eye about 17 inches, all were returned. We had a few drive bys but that was it. The wipers were nice from 21- 24 1/2 inches. I took a picture of my buddy Terry with one of his wipers. Nice day and the bugs weren't bad. Caught all of the fish once again on my favorite Flicker shad baits.

At least we were in good company if you are having problems getting eyes too. Good to hear there are still a few of those bigger wipers in there, a 24 incher is really a good one any more. How far were you putting your lures behind your planer boards?

RE: The shad are out in full force at Willard - 2knots - 06-30-2022

Curt thought you might find this interesting after our discussion, possible wiper fry

[Image: D7-E26611-C145-4-A73-A1-FF-5-B382-C565-A34.png]

RE: The shad are out in full force at Willard - wiperhunter2 - 07-01-2022

(06-30-2022, 11:18 PM)2knots Wrote: Curt thought you might find this interesting after our discussion, possible wiper fry

I thought maybe they were stocking them bigger than 1/4 inch but only putting in 174,000 wipers is small numbers compared to the million they use to stock. It is good news that they finally have the wiper program up and running, it has taken them a long time to get to this point.

RE: The shad are out in full force at Willard - PACKFAN - 07-01-2022

(06-30-2022, 01:30 PM)wiperhunter2 Wrote:
(06-30-2022, 01:18 PM)PACKFAN Wrote:
(06-29-2022, 01:17 AM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: Good luck out there tomorrow Pete. Water level in the South marina has dropped about a foot but the North marina should be good for a while. still.

We got on the water fishing about 8:30 and fished until about 1, terrible day for us all we could catch was wipers, I think we ended up boating 6 and one eye about 17 inches, all were returned. We had a few drive bys but that was it. The wipers were nice from 21- 24 1/2 inches. I took a picture of my buddy Terry with one of his wipers. Nice day and the bugs weren't bad. Caught all of the fish once again on my favorite Flicker shad baits.

At least we were in good company if you are having problems getting eyes too. Good to hear there are still a few of those bigger wipers in there, a 24 incher is really a good one any more. How far were you putting your lures behind your planer boards?

One at 50 feet, the other at 75 ft. our two long lines were 100 ft. Speed 2.5 MPH. Hint....trolling planer boards near the terns helps.