Weekend report from Willow / Maskenthine

[BojiHawk]

Willow 2-22-08 (5-8:30 PM) - Fished off southeast ramp straight out to 15' to 21' of water (very sheer breakline).  Caught 2 walleyes (one was a dink) and one was 1/4" short of legal, 5 catfish - 2 were around the 2 pound variety, and 4 beuatiful crappie - largest was over 15" and the smallest was around 13".

Willow 2-23-08 (9 AM til 6:30 PM) - Joke.  Waste of a day.  Same holes in the AM - saw 2 fish on the Vex.  Move in to the bay on the south end between the ramps...nothing.  Drilled 25+ holes and moved from 6' of water to the deepest.  Didn't see anything caught and heard augers all day.  Caught one lousy catfish to save the shut out right before dark.

Maskethine 2-24-08 (9AM til 1 PM)  Fished the southeast end (point near the the handi dock).  Never flashed a fish. Drilled holes all over that lake for 4 hours and missed 2 bites.

*used waxies and minnows.  Walleyes and crappies like the minnows.  Cats on waxies - one crappie on waxies.

[fatjackedd]

how was the ice at willow when you were there?

[BojiHawk]

Thick ice...but kind of spongy on top.  Some dildart drove his truck out to get his ice shack...a whole 250 yards.  What a tool shed...I was hoping to see something at least scary.  20" of ice doesn't mean anything if you can stick a spud bar in it with one stab (which I'm sure you could do to this stuff).  Maskenthine was the same way.  Bottom 8" is good clear stuff - top is spongy white.  Use  caution near points with drifts and trees (as usual).  Some of those will be dangerous by next weekend

[fatjackedd]

thanks for the report thats the same conditions we are seeing here in omaha as well

[BojiHawk]

Willow - 2-28-07

**Crappie and walleye festival.  Old road out from the southeast ramp...15-21' of water.  Atually thought I was over a brush pile from the numbers of fish.  Went through 30 or so minnows - only caught 5 crappies, some dinks, and a couple cats.  Lost some nice fish just below the hole that I never saw.  Set up at 5:30 PM and ran out of minnows in 1.5 hours.  The fish were not in a school...it was more of a cloud at time.  Column of fish starting suspended at 7' all the way to the bottom.  Not voraciously hungry.  For their numbers, I would say kind of finicky and very very hard to hook.  Looking back, I should have done this:  Used 3 poles - 2 with small trebs on the outside 2 holes and put the vex in the center and ripped a chubby darter or rattling spoon up and down in the middle.  As so common for late ice...they loved to charge the jiggin spoon then put on the brakes...drift to the outside of the cone and then ambush my plain minnow.  Loads of fun but I was ill prepared for it unfortunately. 

*use weights to almost sink your floats so the fish feels nothing.  Jiggin seemed almost impossible.  Spring bobber might have helped but...