Good, Bad, and Ugly day at Willard

[thatchergreg]

I called in a sick day Wednesday and went to Willard. Launched at the north marina around 9 a.m. and motored to Eagle Beach. The starting lineup was a silver/ blue and a white wonderbread flig both tipped with fillet-o-perch. After an hour of trying various depths all I had was several long distance releases. Thinking that a change of venue was in order I ran to freeway bay and continued slow trolling.
This is where the day got ugly. Getting the fish to bite wasn't a problem, keeping them hooked up seemed impossible, and these weren't small fish. I checked and double checked hook sharpness, downsized baits, slowed down and sped up but nothing worked. The first 8 fish all quickly unbuckled themselves. I'm not a fan of stinger hooks but desperate times call for action, so I tied on a couple size 4 Owner octopus hooks.
A short time later one rod started doing the fish dance, I pulled it out of the holder, snugged up the drag a bit and then nothing. Nine fish in a row and nothing but a dry net, Some-of-a-beech! I wanted to break something but since I was in my boat it didn't seem like a good idea.
Then something strange(good) happened, I landed the next 6 out of 7, all average size cats, 20 to 23 inches and up to 5 1/4 lbs. And not one of them was hooked with the stinger. Maybe the water warmed up enough for them to become more aggressive, whatever happened it was a good ending to a pleasant day, final score; catfish=9 Greg=6.
This is a fuzzy photo of the winning combo, wonderbread and perch.

[JArner]

Sounds like it ended well. Thanks for the report, hopefully after this front moves through I'll be able to get back on the water.

[TubeDude]

I always enjoy a happy fligging report.  Nice work.

Got a suggestion though.  Try changing the blue in the wonder bread pattern to bright green.  Been doing that for a few years.  I call it my "traffic light"...red, yellow, green.  And Utah fishies like it too.  It really works well on the big perch that wander in during the cold weather.  And adding some glow doesn't hurt either.

[wiperhunter2]

Way to go, glad it worked out for you. That Wonderbread pattern looks different than the ones I've received from TD, did you make that one yourself? 

[thatchergreg]

Way to go, glad it worked out for you. That Wonderbread pattern looks different than the ones I've received from TD, did you make that one yourself? 

 
Yes, I make my own. My fligs look different because I prefer straight eye worm hooks over jig hooks, mainly because I bought a thousand of them for 15 bucks, I love bargain bins!
These are my favorite, most productive patterns from my first year of going fliggin nuts. They racked up some impressive numbers and variety; perch, cats, wiper, rainbows, cutthroat, and one burbot.


Pat, I'll make some traffic light patterns in the next batch. The water temp in your second photo shows 37 degrees, how many cats do you catch in water that cold? B.T.W. the first fish I caught while ice fishing was a cat.
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[TubeDude]

Way to go, glad it worked out for you. That Wonderbread pattern looks different than the ones I've received from TD, did you make that one yourself? 

 
Yes, I make my own. My fligs look different because I prefer straight eye worm hooks over jig hooks, mainly because I bought a thousand of them for 15 bucks, I love bargain bins!
These are my favorite, most productive patterns from my first year of going fliggin nuts. They racked up some impressive numbers and variety; perch, cats, wiper, rainbows, cutthroat, and one burbot.


Pat, I'll make some traffic light patterns in the next batch. The water temp in your second photo shows 37 degrees, how many cats do you catch in water that cold? B.T.W. the first fish I caught while ice fishing was a cat.
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Contrary to a popular misconception, channel cats remain active and feed all year...even under the ice.  Lots of Willard kitties hit the ice along with all the other usual suspects.  And during the cold weeks just prior to iceup...when we are targeting the perch...an average day will also produce at least one and often more cats.  They don't fight hard in the cold water but they pull good...and they are prime eatin'.

Your straight shank models look good.  I also make some fligs with a straight eye design.  And I add wire and blades to a few for additional bling and vibration.  No end to the possibilities once you get the stuff to make them and have a feel for it.  I even make several different kinds of floating crawler harness rigs.
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