Smoky Willard 10-8-20

[TubeDude]

Met up with CP (CowboyPirate) and Cookie this morning at the north marina.  Downloaded my old portable fillet table to go with his new Bubba Blade cordless fillet knife.  They then hit the docks and I went outside to flig around a bit.  Air temp at launch (7:30 am) 48.  Water temp 62...raising a degree or so before 11 am quitting time.  Water clarity good and only a light ripple on the water a few times.  Glassy most of the morning.  Worser times a comin'.

Barely got outside the harbor and started getting hard whacks...but no hookups on minnow and flig.  Tried cutting the small minnows in half.  That was it.  Hooked most fish that hit thereafter...mainly catfish.  No perch, crappie or walleyes were harmed on this trip.  Did have a "temporary" hookup on a freight-train wiper that ran off about 10 yards of line before I could grab the rod.  Then he flipped me off and released my flig unharmed.

I tried some plastics and several colors of fligs.  Caught one small cat on a white plastic tube...tipped with worm.  Most others hit a half minnow on a chartreuse perch flig.  Got a couple on the silver-blue flig.  Got hits in water as shallow as 12 feet but most came from 14 to 16 feet.

Saw lots of shad balls...from as shallow as about 10 feet out to 17 feet.  And the fish I kept to fillet were all well fed.  Most years when the water temp drops below about 55 there is a shad dieoff and the kitties really glut.  The water has stayed warmer longer this year.

Probably caught somewhere over a dozen cats...keeping 8 to be ate.  When I got back to the ramp, CP & Cookie drove up to let me know they had got a few kitties inside...on a Santee rig.  We adjourned to the fillet station for a knife wielding session.  As usual, the sucker was clogged and inoperable.  So I still filleted the fish but put the parts in a big plastic bag for disposal in the dumpster.

[wiperhunter2]

Sounds like you found them at the same depth as we did a week ago and the water temp is still about the same. I'll have to look at my journal to see when we started catching the perch last year but it seems like it was later in Oct if not Nov for us last year. We did see a lot of dead or dying baby shad last week, maybe the first wave of those that will soon be dying with the coming cold front. I did talk to the Willard park manager a week ago, about that clogging fish cleaning station, he said they had just replaced the one at the North marina a year or so before they replaced the one at the South end. I guess from what he said, they came out with the new and improved model they put in at the South marina the year after they replaced the one on the North end. That means they have to wait for a number of years now, before they request a new one.   As you can imagine, he said the problem is with those folks not smart enough to turn on the grinder, before they stuff fish remains into it. He said they even put signs up telling people to turn it on first but few people paid any attention. I was mainly calling him to ask about the new pond at the North end, they plan on letting it fill this Winter, then stocking it with pan fish in the early Spring, hopefully before the fish spawn. There will even be a place to launch your PWC, if that is of any interest to you.

[doitall5000]

It seems that no one is putting much effort into the toothy fish at willard. Cats are fun to battle but they are just so easy to catch now, we get distracted.
I would like to run to the west side and put in some time . This calm weather really isn't going to last much longer.
I've been watching some great YouTube videos about jig and minnow presentations i just got to try. Tom Boley makes some great videos.

[Cowboypirate]

Pat it was sure good to see you again. Make sure you let us know when you wander up North again as Cookie and I enjoy saying hi and chatting fish talk. We will do our best to keep that fillet table bloody.

I will post a report about kittys sometime this week when I get the video processed.

[TubeDude]

It seems that no one is putting much effort into the toothy fish at willard.  Cats are fun to battle but they are just so easy to catch now, we get distracted.
I would like to run to the west side and put in some time . This calm weather really isn't going to last much longer.
I've been  watching some great YouTube videos about jig and minnow presentations i just got to try. Tom Boley makes some great videos.

The cooling waters of autumn can be a good time to fish for the wallies.  But they are notorious for being tough to catch if they have plenty of natural food...like right now.  All they have to do is yawn and they are fed.  No need to chase down the silly stuff us angler types show them.  After the November shad dieoff it sometimes gets better.  I have caught a lot of walleyes in November from Willard.

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Pat it was sure good to see you again. Make sure you let us know when you wander up North again as Cookie and I enjoy saying hi and chatting fish talk. We will do our best to keep that fillet table bloody.

I will post a report about kittys sometime this week when I get the video processed.

Always a pleasure to see you and Cookie.  You are good people.  Happy you are giving my lonesome fish cleaning station a good home.  Haven't used it for a long time.

Looking forward to your report and video.  And I WILL give you a heads up when I am pointing in that direction again.