Fished Wilhelm yesterday for about 5 hours in the back bay between the main causway and 79...didn't get a single flag!!! and we had awesome bait.  So disappointed in the decline of this once great fishery.  5-6 years ago we used to pound trophy largemouth and musky all winter long, and now I can't even get the smaller ones to bite.  The strange emergence of a thriving gizzard shad population is ruining the lake, if it hasn't ruined it already.  Walking around the ice yesterday I must have seen 300-400 gizzard shad either frozen in the ice, or upside down and dead right below the ice.  I know gizzard shad mortality is common in the winter, but these fish shouldn't even be in there, and there are 1000s of them!!!  There isn't a single game fish in that lake looking for food because they don't need to, they're eating all the dying shad.  Lakes with gizzard shad need Stripers or Hybrids to counter-balance strong reproduction from the Shad population.  A petition was put together by a local bait shop in the area in attempt to stock hybrids, but I don't think the commission had enough funds to implement. Such a shame. 

Preachin' to the choir man! I used to love Wilhelm, I would go there over pymy any day and catch some PIGS and nice crappie. Now you can't buy a bite from the eyes and if you get crappie they're undersized and thin.
 
They did stock additional musky last year to potentially help with the shad problem, however I think you're right the lake needs hybrids to help even more.
 
 

It is ashame.  Hybrids would most definitely help reduce numbers of shad and would also attract more fisherman to that lake.  But there has got to be another viable solution to ridding or decreasing numbers of shad without stocking another non-native species.  Hybrids are sterile and can't reproduce so with time they would die off, so that's not a long-term concern to Ecologists and Fisheries Biologists.
This is just an idea, how effective would drawing the lake down substantially work?  Shad are a fragile fish species and with a low oxygen content and being over crowded, I could see many dying off.  A draw-down would also make it easier for the fish and boat commission to set trap nets intended to trap the shad and remove them.  Problems with that is $$$ and possibly killing other fish.  Idk, just a thought.
Last solution is completely draining the lake, removing all* fish, transporting the desired ones to other local lakes, and starting that lake over from scratch. I think that's the only way to really do it, but I don't think that would fly.  Too many anglers would hate that

Its was my go to lake for GIANT GILLS,but I'm OLD and you young guys never saw it. 9 inch gills all day.

Shad are a fragile fish species and with a low oxygen content and being over crowded, I could see many dying off.  A draw-down would also make it easier for the fish and boat commission to set trap nets i

I thought it was just me! Wilhelm doesn't seem to be the fishery it once was.

Maybe we can try to get a petition started on here to stock hybrids or maybe they can set traps, or even maybe electroshock some areas and net all the shad and throw em on the bank for the eagles!

When the shad are spawning along the banks.  I think you could shock them or net them. You ought to see that lake when there spawning. From the shore 8 to 10 feet out. They are splashing and rolling around as far as you can see up the shore line.  Looks like Millions of them.

gizzard shad eat plankton...they're filter feeders so straw hats wont work....drawdown will only work for a few months then they'll be right back, or more of a slippery slope...they emit a pheromone when there is an overabundance of shad that inhibits the hatching of the eggs of almost all the fish in the area.....once gizzards are there...they're there.....still wanna dump that bait bucket in the lake?
 

pawatergremlin
gizzard shad eat plankton...they're filter feeders so straw hats wont work....drawdown will only work for a few months then they'll be right back, or more of a slippery slope...they emit a pheromone when there is an overabundance of shad that inhibits the hatching of the eggs of almost all the fish in the area.....once gizzards are there...they're there.....still wanna dump that bait bucket in the lake?
 

"Or more of a slippery slope -  Still wanna dump that bait bucket in the lake"? It's also illegal and that's a slippery slope, lol!