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Willard Bay Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The Great Salt Lake's freshwater neighbor: a diked bay of wipers, walleye and gizzard shad chaos on Utah's improbable west side.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
55 / 55 F
Wind
SW 12 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Willard Bay feels the season turning: shorter days, grouping fish. Today brings cloud cover, wind SW around 12 mph, steady pressure near 1015 hPa and a high of 55. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 10:06 AM-12:06 PM and 10:36 PM-12:36 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

WalleyeGood

Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Northern pikeGood

The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

White bassFair

The spring run happens in this band: tributaries, shoals and the upper ends of reservoirs as the water reaches about 55Β°F.

CrappieFair

Pre-spawn fish move toward shallow coves, and Iowa DNR points to wading as an effective way to reach them in spring; minnows or small jigs under a float.

Tomorrow: Similar at 57 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Utah requires a fishing licence from age 12, from $40.00 for residents. What a Utah licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing walleye here? Check the size and bag limits with UDWR before you keep anything. The season dates for Utah, read off the agency, are on the Utah seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp55 F
High / Low55 / 45 F
WindSW 12-15 mph
Pressure1015.3 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain90% cloud, 95%
Sunrise / Sunset07:49 / 18:35
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Willard Bay this week

Today is the pick of the week on Willard Bay, at 3 out of 5.

Best day this week: today, Oct 23 β€” fair at 3/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
10:06 AM-12:06 PM and 10:36 PM-12:36 AM
Minor period
4:31 AM-5:31 AM
Sun
07:49 to 18:35
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Rain, 19 mph
Rain chance
95%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Willard Bay: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

White bass illustration

White bass

Best: the spring run up the tributaries, then summer surface schools

A silvery temperate bass of rivers and large reservoirs, also called sand bass, that schools in open water after shad and runs up tributaries to spawn in early spring. The spring run happens in this band: tributaries, shoals and the upper ends of reservoirs as the water reaches about 55Β°F.

Northern pike illustration

Northern pike

Best: cool water, from ice-out through spring, in fall and under the ice

A long, duck-billed predator of weedy lakes, slow rivers and backwaters that ambushes fish from vegetation. Wisconsin DNR points out that, unlike most of the state's common game fish, pike do their best feeding in cool water. The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Pre-spawn fish move toward shallow coves, and Iowa DNR points to wading as an effective way to reach them in spring; minnows or small jigs under a float.

When to come: the Willard Bay calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Walleye
White bass
Northern pike
Crappie
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Willard Bay today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 66 F, wind to 16 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 73 F, wind to 15 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 72 F, wind to 9 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Utah requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Utah license. Wiper/walleye limits: check DWR. State-park entry; ANS certification required.

Access

Willard Bay SP north and south marinas: dike access along the loops.

About this water

9,900 diked acres beside the Great Salt Lake, Box Elder County, UT. The wiper bay.

Fishing Willard Bay: the full guide

The freshwater dike

Willard Bay walls 9,900 freshwater acres off the Great Salt Lake's flood plain: an engineered anomaly that became northern Utah's warm-water flagship: wipers (the state's best), walleye, crappie and enough gizzard shad to keep everything violent. Minutes off I-15, the bay fishes bigger than its profile.

Wiper riots

The hybrid stripers made Willard famous: summer boils erupt when wolfpacks push shad (run-and-gun with pencil poppers and spoons: the state's most exciting freshwater minutes), while trollers pull cranks along the dikes between shows. The 8-12-pound class arrives every few years by cycle: the bay's signature fish.

Walleye and the spring wall

April stacks walleye along the rock dikes (jigs and cranks parallel to the walls at dusk: the bay's classic bite), summer spreads them across the shallow bowl (harnesses over 10-18 ft), and the fall shad migrations re-concentrate everything at the outlets and corners. Crappie fill the marinas' brush each spring: the north marina's slips are the community hole.

Bay practicalities

State-park marinas anchor both ends (north's the fishing hub): the shallow bowl builds wind chop fast: dike lees save days: and summer's beach crowds stay south: anglers own the north. Winter freezes bring a cautious ice culture (wipers through the ice: rare and prized): follow local reports: the bay's springs keep edges thin.

Common questions

When do wipers boil at Willard Bay?

June-September when shad ball: watch for bird sprays along the dikes and run carefully. A rigged popper rod is bay law all summer.

Is Willard Bay saltwater?

No: the dikes wall Great Salt Lake's flood plain into a freshwater reservoir. The name confuses: the wipers clarify.

Is fishing good at Willard Bay right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Ogden River13 miPineview Reservoir16 miLogan River33 miWeber River48 miBear Lake57 miJordanelle Reservoir63 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 41.3600, -112.1000 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.