Fishing Wilhelm 2016

Congrats BTDT. Sounds like it was a great day on the water

I've only ever fished it from the shore a few times, and that was quite a few years ago. Might have to make a trip or 2 down if I can tear myself away from pymy and conneaut this year.

I think you found your lake !
Seen some hog Walleyes pics from there in the Outdoor Journal's April- May issue so they must be in there .  I've only fished it a handful of times, lots of Bass & Perch years ago . 

BTDT,
 
What happened to Wilhelm that gave it the reputation of the dead sea?  When were the days of its glory, what is the time line?  I really don't know, except that I have heard nothing but "stay away" from that place.  I am always happy to hear that a fishery is doing better.

Tippe I fished Wilhelm, I guess you could say almost religiously, from the time she was opened right through the late nineties.  At that time my fish of choice was the Large Mouth Bass for sport with Crappie/gills and a occasional (lucky catch) Walleye for dinning.
 
All three fish were abundant in addition to Wilhelm's fair share of Musky, Northern, Perch and, Cats; giving the average Angler a range of good fishing.
 
As with any fishing, we saw good years and we would see some not so good years with quantity and quality of fish but, you would always find many boats and shore Anglers fishing Wilhelm.
 
I'm going to say, it was the mid nineties when I began to see a big difference with the vegetation control in Wilhelm in that "all" weeds were eliminated across the entire lake.  There was always weed control to an extent however, it just seemed finding vegetation anywhere of any sort was impossible as compared to earlier years.
 
Bass fishing remained strong but the quantity/quality of pan fish became significantly  different and the old "honey holes" began drying up with the need to find structure in deeper water if one wished to catch quality pan fish.  You can usually find this area where walleye were once caught.
 
Structure really never existed in Wilhelm as you see with Pymie or Shenango in that Wilhelm's construction is more "bowl shaped" leaving little if any humps, ledges, drop offs, etc.  At best you will find a few old road beds and maybe the old stream channels of Sandy Creek (once 1 to 2 feet deep) that snake their way through the area.  Hell, I think most of the structure was produced by the "ice fisherman" and their bundles of Christmas Trees being drug out on the ice.  Of course that stopped when the ice fishing slowed to a crawl, for lack of quality pan fish, and over the years those "brush piles" have all but wasted away.
 
I can remember, searching for "gills" by sight, looking for the "plate sized" dusted areas in the sandy areas and/or by smell.  Remember those days, "gills" so plentiful in "size eatable" that you could smell them?  Well don't count on that today because they ain't "gills" your smelling all over Wilhelm, and they ain't eatable fish either!!  blehhhhhh
 
I think, last year, it was announced that more toothy critters were being stocked in Wilhelm(*1) that will help control the overpopulation of Shad.  Strange, so many years I fished Lake Wilhelm and never saw  schools of shad both in numbers and size.  Then presto;  her waters are polluted with the fish sometimes, schools so large, the smell is overwhelming but how could that be, with the stocking of sufficient "toothy critters" over the years, should not the Shad population been held in check?
 
I've continued fishing Wilhelm over the past ten years, more for past memories than catching fish and I can tell you, she isn't the family fun fishing lake she once was and until one day this year I have had little success fishing, like the good ole days.  
 
But then again maybe I should fish Wilhelm for bass.
 
 
*1.  Needed to put the fish from draining Tamarack somewhere.

The bass fishing season that was the most memorable was the year they lowered the water level for work on the dam. The weeds really took off that year and alot of big bass were caught especially on top water. I do believe the year after that is when I first started seeing the shad.

Took the new to me boat out tonight for a shakedown run. Hammered the gills for an hour and had an enjoyable evening boat ride with the Mrs.. There were quite a few boaters out. I talked to one older fellow who said he did well on the crappies.
Mike

BDTD,
The new to me ride is a 16' Crestliner Angler powered by a 20 horse Yamaha.
Mike

My oldest son and I spent an entire day on Wilhelm last October, and it was one tough day of fishin'! 2 largemouths on the far shore from the launch by drifting, then we went down by the dam, did some trolling, but no takers. We then headed up lake toward the shallows and used controlled drifts all the way back to the launch in the deeper water of the creek channel. We had some very light hits, but we could not boat a fish. After the wind and light rain all day, it was good to trailer the boat and head home. I haven't given up on Wilhelm yet, but I prefer fall fishing and live only a mile from the Allegheny near Freeport, so that's where I spend most of my time.

Took my daughter to Wilhelm yesterday. The first couple hours we spent in the stumps pestering gills in bedding areas. Non stop action, not much in terms of keeper size. She wanted to eat her lunch on the way out which gave me the opportunity to bass fish a little. I managed one bass on my fifth or sixth flip, and it was a good one. Easily 5 pounds and obviously post spawn. She was probably over 6 prior to the spawn. Of particular note, saw one giant musky while heading to the stumps, (between the boom and first large island), plus had one chase my bass jig back to the boat while flipping on the way out. 
 
We then headed down lake. Ran down to an area I call the narrows. Finding colonies of gills was easy and we absolutely hammered them. Simple technique, casting 1" white grubs, 1/32 oz heads, tipped with maggots. It was every cast. 
 
Gills are obviously on beds everywhere. Bass are done by the looks of what I saw. 
 
One thing I noticed, water clarity. I can't recall seeing the water so clear this time of year. When the sun was high I could easily see down 5-6 feet. Had there not been a slight wind, and pollen on the surface, it would have been 7-8 feet easily. 
 
May head back over today, will depend on forecasted storms. The lake was busy, as is to be expected on a holiday weekend. 

Thanks for the update ...ready2fish , sounds like a fun day you had and always great to spend it with your kids...I was up last Monday and did pretty good with the crappie's brought 12 home caught 25 from 4-8 pm wife doesn't eat the fish so 12 makes me a good meal ...lol Probably hit again this week depending on the weather , figured it would be a good idea to stay away over the Holiday weekend...maybe do some trolling with hot n tots to see what happens ... Good luck to you ......

MY WILHELM ADVENTURES by BTDT................
 
 
         Beautiful day..
 
 
How could one, not call off sick, from work on a day like today?    A near perfect wind from the West giving those who desired, a fantastic drift.
 
I chose to put to use my trolling gear, pulling Flicker Shads and Shadow Raps beginning at launch four, doing circles, zig zags, and straight lining until ending just East of launch one.   Once again, I found numbers of hungry Crappie, Perch, and Blue Gills but sadly, nothing worth putting in the box.
 

 
These guys were certainly hungry, chasing a sizable bait at 1.8 to 2 MPH then getting, the entire treble stuck in their face. 
 
I spent the last hour of a seven hour day tossing red and white foam ant's I hand tied [he said gloating] along with red and white buck tails in the 1/32 oz range.  But as my luck has it, once again nothing big enough to invite home, for dinner.
 
Reports from a few other boats boasted Crappie and Perch with one fair Walleye but I didn't hear or see size.
 
I should also mention just how fortunate I am to have such an understanding wife.  She never questioned the message I left on her voice mail as to why I was calling off sick, and I would not be able to get to her honeydew list today.
 
Tight lines and good times.

I am glad to hear you guys are having some success up there.  Any chance the weeds will come back?  Were/are they still doing winter draw downs to kill the weeds?  Cool to hear there are some musky in there.  Maybe(doubtfully hopeful) they will have an impact on the shad situation.

Always seems to be decent weed beds back in the stumps. I just hope we don't get a nasty algae bloom again this year. It killed the fishing when it turned to pea soup last year.

Today I went, I plotted, I trolled, I caught and I lost........  my favorite lure  [awwww] on a stupid piece of rope that was probably still tied to the anchor, on a sunken boat or sumpthin.  
 
My retriever had the lure and I could see everything attached to a rope as I pulled both fishing and retriever line toward the surface but I couldn't get the mess close enough, to the surface, to get a hand on any of it.  I thought,  re-position the boat and maybe, I could muster that little bit more of needed slack to reach my lure and that's when, the knot on my fishing line broke and for reasons unknown, my retriever let go too. [a little sympathy; if you please]
 
However, it was a beautiful evening with a few dozen kayaks coming and going, along with several pontoons loaded with tourist enjoying their tour of the lake.
 
As for the fishing, nothing to brag about even though, me catching any fish is news.
 
Now if you will excuse me, I need to place an order with FishUSA, I'm hoping they will have another (dozen)  of my favorite fishing lure.
 
Tight lines and good times, this 4th of July.