Crawdad Feast

Fishing Time: 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM

Weather: Sunny, clear, breezy, T-90s

Moon Phase: 41% Moon

Location: Strawberry Reservoir

Best Bait: String tied to chicken leg

Who Went: Devin, Dayton, Dunc

My Wife and daughter joined the other females in the family for a “women’s getaway” to the Homestead this weekend, so while the girls were away the boys went and played.  I mentioned to them that it was the right time of year to catch crawdads from the docks at Strawberry and they responded by screaming and jumping around the house.  I took that as a yes, they wanted to go.

 

We left the rods at home to keep it simple.  This is something I have learned as a dad that keeps the boys happy and me out of the looney bin.  Too many options does not work with an 8 and 6 year old.  We stopped at the Heber supermarket on the drive up to buy some chicken (crawdad bait) and get some breakfast, and Devin picked out the biggest donut I have ever seen.  

We arrived to “Da Berry” at about 10:30 AM and first went to the docks by the marina where the boats launch, only to find It’s now posted “no crawdad fishing”.  We walked over to the private docks and sure enough, we found crawdads everywhere. 

I tied some string to a couple chicken legs, handed them to the boys, gave them a bucket and a net, and they were all set!  I pulled out my lawn chair, turned on Pandora, and kicked back while the boys filled the bucket with crawdads.  

After about an hour I noticed the bucket was getting full.  I had the boys bring the bucket over and I took the tails off the crawdads and put them on ice.  Then the boys went back at it for round two.  After another hour, we had more tails on ice.  

We hit the marina store to wash up and get a snack for the ride home.  On our way, we called Papa to let him know we were bringing home a crawdad feast!  As Papa usually does, he told us he would buy some more yummy fixings to go with the crawdads and see us at the house.

 
 Nothing like a good ole fashion Louisiana fish boil.  Ingredients included; crawdads, shrimp, onions, lemon, red potatoes, corn on the cob, and spicy sausage.  All of it boiled up using Zataran’s crawdad, shrimp, and crab boil with some Louisiana hot sauce to season it up just right.  Made for a spicy treat that the whole neighborhood enjoyed!

Boiling Wipers at Willard Bay

Fishing Time: 6:30 to 11:00 AM

Weather:  Hot, calm, clear, T-100

Moon Phase: 50% Moon

Location: Willard Bay

Best Bait: chartreuse/pink/silver crankbaits

Who Went: Bobber John, Dunc

The scorching summer temperatures are in full effect and this year has been well above average on the heat scale.  With temperatures forecasted to reach 100 degrees, we knew we had to get on the lake as early as possible to beat the heat.  The gates at Willard Bay open at 6 AM and a few minutes after Bobber John launched his boat into calm conditions while I parked his Jeep in the lonesome parking lot.

We motored over to the northeast corner of the reservoir and immediately noticed some surface action.  I told Bobber I thought it could possibly be wipers boiling, but was unsure.  We motored over to check it out and sure enough, it was a group of wipers chasing shad on the surface.  We hurried to tie on the first crankbait we found in our tackle box and quickly began casting and hooking up with some hard fighting, good sized wipers.  One boil would submerge and another would pop up a hundred feet away.  We chased these boils for close to an hour and caught quite a few wipers before it all died off and the surface went calm for good.  It was a blast while it lasted. 

We transitioned into trolling but unfortunately were unsuccessful.  After 2 hours of trolling with no hits, no wind, and a hot sun beating down on us, we called it quits for the day and headed to the fish cleaning station to fillet some wipers and head for home.  Wipers are so fun to catch, but trolling Willard can be aggravating, boring, bug infested, and brutally hot.  Luckily, we were able to find some wiper boils early to make the trip a success.