Willard Bay May 11th, 2020
Date / Time: Monday, May 11th, 2020 6:30-11:30am
Location: Willard Bay North Marina
The Characters: Kory
Weather: Partly sunny, SSW Winds to 20mph, 50s warming to 70s
Water Temp: 62 or so on fish finder
Water Level: Around 88% full, didn’t check until week later: 4225.75 feet on May 11: USBR Reservoir Data
Water Clarity/Quality: Bluish, clearer than normal. Mud influence along east shoreline with some mixing.
Moon Phase: Between full and first quarter
Best Flies: Chart/White Clouser
Fishing: Wanted to get back up after week before not catching any and watching videos of the boils on freeway bay. Left house around 5:30 am arrived around 6:30 with not a soul there. Wind was up which I wasn’t expecting and it was SSW. Based on previous week fishing away from wind and then talking to guy fishing where wind blew who did well during that, I went to North Marina where wind was blowing to. I headed out and decided to hit Wiper Cove along west side and head to freeway bay even with the wind, just taking it slow. I figured fish would be pushed along that side. I saw a few pops right outside the marina when I went out, that looked like wipers but hard to tell in the waves. There were some carp breaching, so wasn’t sure if it was those. I made some casts there for naught. Fished Wiper Cove all along the edges where wind was blowing to but didn’t hit anything. Moved to freeway bay, same results. Saw a few pops in some of the waves and there were areas where mud was mixing with clear water and I fished along those edges too. I had one fish follow along the rocks that I think was a smallie but I didn’t hook it. Eventually headed back to the marina and trolled my way back, actually trolled every move I made with no hookups. As I neared the area I saw the pops at the beginning near the mouth to the marina, I decided to stop and make a few last casts. I killed the motor and started stripping the fly in that had been trolling and immediately hooked a fish. It was a good wiper and I was stoked! After that, I noticed some bait marked on the finder and I threw out the anchor and hooked another one and landed another good wiper. The wind was blowing from the SSW so it was creating waves all along the marina inlet and toward the rocks but mostly adjacent and more South. This had the water slightly off color in this area and it was a little rough in the boat but not too bad. The anchor wouldn’t really hold, so I decided to make laps with the driftsock. I would motor up around the area I hooked the first and throw it out and drift back across the marina inlet casting as I went. I hooked 2 or 3 more doing this all through that area and ended up keeping one. Had to get back so left with it still being good. Could probably have hooked fish there for a while. My best Wiper session yet and a great close to the morning! Made fish tacos out of the one I kept and they were incredible! Will be doing that again for sure.
