Tubing Willard 5-11-23

[Wasatch801]

The way the weather has been I gotta really watch the weather forecrash to pick a fishing day.  Thursday looked better than Friday...my original pick...so I went for it.  Hit the south marina and launched right about 7 am.  Air temp a cool low 40s...warming to 68 by noon departure.  Water temp in the marina was only 48, but started out at 54 in the main lake...warming to 58 by noon.  Our 60 degree days are soon to come.


Only a couple of boats out ahead of me, but there were about a dozen trailers in the lot when I came back in.  The boats all went off in different directions.  Saw a couple working the island but didn't stay long.  Musta found what I was finding...a whole lotta nuttin'.  Heading north from the marina I worked big S turns from 10 FOW out to 21 FOW.  It was like a big desert over most of that area.  Wondered if my sonar was broke.  But I did see an occasional single blip...either on the bottom or a few feet above.  But I saw a lot more on TV than on my line.

I worked through bottom bouncers with crawlers, fligs with minnows, casted plastics and Gulp minnows and even tried trolling cranks.  I still hadn't had a sniff after about 2 hours of fishing.  Then my rod with a new "hybrid" lure...a hot shot painted in fire tiger rigged with a 2 hook crawler rig...went bendo.  Thought it might be my customary single catfish day.  But 'twern't.  'Twas a nice wiper. 


But, that was it fishwise for the day.  I fished another 3 hours and had a couple of pop n drops.  But no more bent rods.  Alas.  At least my skunkless year is still intact.

Got to meet and chat with a couple of fellow BFTers at the ramp.  Good to see you guys.  Hope you did better out on the big lake than I did.  The water is still a bit cool and stained near the south marina...with all the runoff still coming in.  I suspect that once the runoff slows and the water clears and warms a bit it's going to be better for everybody.

I rigged up some large salmon size apex lures like your hybrid hot shots. Will try running them with a crawler or power worm for walleye. Will report back if they work out.