Fishing Forum

Finally got back out on to Echo again. This time from the main state park. My daughter in law went with me. Arrived at 7, a little snow on the ramp and parking lot made for easy access. About 5 ft soft edge, but used the sled as a bridge, did not get wet.

Walked out quite a ways south, trying 2 areas, but only caught a couple of small perch. Relocated again about 200 yards south and found the nicer perch. We took home 44, a few small bait ones, but mostly 9.5 to 11 inches. Most caught on chub, the bigger fish wanted it over perch eyes.  Also 3 nice trout, 18.5 was the biggest.

Bite really slowed at 11, and by 12 we were packing up. Getting off was the same, used the sled as a bridge, did not get wet.

(02-17-2025, 09:42 PM)Jig-fisher Wrote: [ -> ]Finally got back out on to Echo again. This time from the main state park. My daughter in law went with me. Arrived at 7, a little snow on the ramp and parking lot made for easy access. About 5 ft soft edge, but used the sled as a bridge, did not get wet.

Walked out quite a ways south, trying 2 areas, but only caught a couple of small perch. Relocated again about 200 yards south and found the nicer perch. We took home 44, a few small bait ones, but mostly 9.5 to 11 inches. Most caught on chub, the bigger fish wanted it over perch eyes.  Also 3 nice trout, 18.5 was the biggest.

Bite really slowed at 11, and by 12 we were packing up. Getting off was the same, used the sled as a bridge, did not get wet.

Sounds like you and your DIL did good Paul and compared to RP, the average sized perch are bigger. I'm guessing the bows were suspended? Were you marking a lot of them or just a few?

(02-17-2025, 10:45 PM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-17-2025, 09:42 PM)Jig-fisher Wrote: [ -> ]Finally got back out on to Echo again. This time from the main state park. My daughter in law went with me. Arrived at 7, a little snow on the ramp and parking lot made for easy access. About 5 ft soft edge, but used the sled as a bridge, did not get wet.

Walked out quite a ways south, trying 2 areas, but only caught a couple of small perch. Relocated again about 200 yards south and found the nicer perch. We took home 44, a few small bait ones, but mostly 9.5 to 11 inches. Most caught on chub, the bigger fish wanted it over perch eyes.  Also 3 nice trout, 18.5 was the biggest.

Bite really slowed at 11, and by 12 we were packing up. Getting off was the same, used the sled as a bridge, did not get wet.

Sounds like you and your DIL did good Paul and compared to RP, the average sized perch are bigger. I'm guessing the bows were suspended? Were you marking a lot of them or just a few?

They were suspended, but we didn't mark very many. We put the trout rods out of the cone area as we were both using my vex for the perch. We missed another 3 trout bites. I don't know how because they were nearly dragging the poles down off the buckets, but that's fishing.

What a blessing you have that your DIL goes fishing with you!

Thanks for the report Paul, sounds very similar to how we did today. I took my neighbor kid Corbin and met up with MWscott72 this morning on the south end, off of the Dry Hollow Campground at 6:30am. The edges there look a lot worse than they are. We walked across 10' of slushy ankle deep water then onto solid ice and walked north several hundred yards and spent the day bouncing around holes in 32' of water. Fishing was never fast but it was pretty steady until about 11am then slowed considerably, we caught close to 50 solid fat perch, 14 Rainbows and 1 Brown trout. The perch and brown where caught on eyeballs on a 1/32oz.  Chartreuse Gizzy Bug under a !/8oz Kastmaster. The Rainbows where caught dead sticking white with red flake 1/8oz. Gizzillas, tipped with salted chub, suspended between 8-20' deep. We also met up with Jon Deyoung and his crew but they where in a large tent and not fishing right next to Mike, Corbin and I, but I know they caught fish as well. I was surprised that we where the only ones on that end of the lake, we had the place to our selves on a holiday no less. I'll post some pictures when the add photo button comes back.

Sounds like you had a good day too Shawn. We would have liked to catch a few more trout, but still fun.

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(02-17-2025, 11:24 PM)Kent Wrote: [ -> ]What a blessing you have that your DIL goes fishing with you!

I have 5 kids and they are busy with their own lives and/or just don't have interest to go. My DIL on the other hand will go every time I ask. She loves it.

(02-17-2025, 11:24 PM)obifishkenobi Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the report Paul, sounds very similar to how we did today. I took my neighbor kid Corbin and met up with MWscott72 this morning on the south end, off of the Dry Gulch campground at 6:30am. The edges there look a lot worse than they are. We walked across 10' of slushy ankle deep water then onto solid ice and walked north several hundred yards and spent the day bouncing around holes in 32' of water. Fishing was never fast but it was pretty steady until about 11am then slowed considerably, we caught close to 50 solid fat perch, 14 Rainbows and 1 Brown trout. The perch and brown where caught on eyeballs on a 1/32oz.  Chartreuse Gizzy Bug under a !/8oz Kastmaster. The Rainbows where caught dead sticking white with red flake 1/8oz. Gizzillas, tipped with salted chub, suspended between 8-20' deep. We also met up with Jon Deyoung and his crew but they where in a large tent and not fishing right next to Mike, Corbin and I, but I know they caught fish as well. I was surprised that we where the only ones on that end of the lake, we had the place to our selves on a holiday no less. I'll post some pictures when the add photo button comes back.

It was a great day on the ice! It was strange not seeing many on the ice on a holiday. We all caught fish in our tent. We bounced around at the beginning and the popped up the tent where we seemed to be catching more perch. I had two new to ice fishing that only casting a couple. My son, and nephew caught a fair share of good sized perch. We were catching them on wax worms, meal worms, perch eyes, and chub meat. Thanks again for the invite Shawn!

Shawn and John said most of what I would say, so I’ll just add a couple notes. Most of my perch were caught on a Swedish pimple or the gizzy bug Shawn mentioned. For whatever reason, the didn’t really like my Halie’s which are usually my go to for perch. All were tipped with eyeballs, wax worms or meal worms, but eyeballs always produce more…and don’t cost almost $4 like the little tubs of waxies or meal worms!

I only caught two trout and broke another off on the hook set. Two were on the setup Shawn mentioned, the 3rd actually took the Halie and was right off the bottom (it was my perch rig at the time). After 11, the bite really died and so did the perch size. Most after 11 were of the smaller 5-7” variety. The egg laying hens must have a “girls location” scoped out there somewhere that they retreat to. If u find it, I’m sure the fishing would be off the charts. I cleaned 41 fish with only 2-3 being males.

Also after 11, the fish that did show on the graph got much more picky. Both trout and perch would approach the bait, suspend, and then go back down or disappear. They clearly weren’t all that interested in feeding. I had quite a few trout do that between 11-3:30 when I got off the ice. Morning is definitely the time to be out there.

(02-18-2025, 11:03 PM)MWScott72 Wrote: [ -> ]Shawn and John said most of what I would say, so I’ll just add a couple notes.  Most of my perch were caught on a Swedish pimple or the gizzy bug Shawn mentioned.  For whatever reason, the didn’t really like my Halie’s which are usually my go to for perch.  All were tipped with eyeballs, wax worms or meal worms, but eyeballs always produce more…and don’t cost almost $4 like the little tubs of waxies or meal worms!

I only caught two trout and broke another off on the hook set. Two were on the setup Shawn mentioned, the 3rd actually took the Halie and was right off the bottom (it was my perch rig at the time).  After 11, the bite really died and so did the perch size.  Most after 11 were of the smaller 5-7” variety.  The egg laying hens must have a “girls location” scoped out there somewhere that they retreat to.  If u find it, I’m sure the fishing would be off the charts.  I cleaned 41 fish with only 2-3 being males.

Also after 11, the fish that did show on the graph got much more picky.  Both trout and perch would approach the bait, suspend, and then go back down or disappear.  They clearly weren’t all that interested in feeding.  I had quite a few trout do that between 11-3:30 when I got off the ice.  Morning is definitely the time to be out there.

@jigfisher and MWScott72 do you mind mentioning what depth you were finding the perch? Do you ever catch perch bigger than 11" at Echo?

(02-19-2025, 05:20 AM)gznokes Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-18-2025, 11:03 PM)MWScott72 Wrote: [ -> ]Shawn and John said most of what I would say, so I’ll just add a couple notes.  Most of my perch were caught on a Swedish pimple or the gizzy bug Shawn mentioned.  For whatever reason, the didn’t really like my Halie’s which are usually my go to for perch.  All were tipped with eyeballs, wax worms or meal worms, but eyeballs always produce more…and don’t cost almost $4 like the little tubs of waxies or meal worms!

I only caught two trout and broke another off on the hook set. Two were on the setup Shawn mentioned, the 3rd actually took the Halie and was right off the bottom (it was my perch rig at the time).  After 11, the bite really died and so did the perch size.  Most after 11 were of the smaller 5-7” variety.  The egg laying hens must have a “girls location” scoped out there somewhere that they retreat to.  If u find it, I’m sure the fishing would be off the charts.  I cleaned 41 fish with only 2-3 being males.

Also after 11, the fish that did show on the graph got much more picky.  Both trout and perch would approach the bait, suspend, and then go back down or disappear.  They clearly weren’t all that interested in feeding.  I had quite a few trout do that between 11-3:30 when I got off the ice.  Morning is definitely the time to be out there.

@jigfisher and MWScott72 do you mind mentioning what depth you were finding the perch? Do you ever catch perch bigger than 11" at Echo?

I can’t speak for Paul Jigfisher but Mike MWScott72 was with me we were in 32’ of water the whole time, the area we were fishing is a big flat.

(02-19-2025, 03:13 PM)obifishkenobi Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-19-2025, 05:20 AM)gznokes Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-18-2025, 11:03 PM)MWScott72 Wrote: [ -> ]Shawn and John said most of what I would say, so I’ll just add a couple notes.  Most of my perch were caught on a Swedish pimple or the gizzy bug Shawn mentioned.  For whatever reason, the didn’t really like my Halie’s which are usually my go to for perch.  All were tipped with eyeballs, wax worms or meal worms, but eyeballs always produce more…and don’t cost almost $4 like the little tubs of waxies or meal worms!

I only caught two trout and broke another off on the hook set. Two were on the setup Shawn mentioned, the 3rd actually took the Halie and was right off the bottom (it was my perch rig at the time).  After 11, the bite really died and so did the perch size.  Most after 11 were of the smaller 5-7” variety.  The egg laying hens must have a “girls location” scoped out there somewhere that they retreat to.  If u find it, I’m sure the fishing would be off the charts.  I cleaned 41 fish with only 2-3 being males.

Also after 11, the fish that did show on the graph got much more picky.  Both trout and perch would approach the bait, suspend, and then go back down or disappear.  They clearly weren’t all that interested in feeding.  I had quite a few trout do that between 11-3:30 when I got off the ice.  Morning is definitely the time to be out there.

@jigfisher and MWScott72 do you mind mentioning what depth you were finding the perch? Do you ever catch perch bigger than 11" at Echo?

I can’t speak for Paul Jigfisher but Mike MWScott72 was with me we were in 32’ of water the whole time, the area we were fishing is a big flat.

We started in 48', then found them at 42' where we stayed until leaving. Nothing bigger than 11".

(02-19-2025, 05:20 AM)gznokes Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-18-2025, 11:03 PM)MWScott72 Wrote: [ -> ]Shawn and John said most of what I would say, so I’ll just add a couple notes.  Most of my perch were caught on a Swedish pimple or the gizzy bug Shawn mentioned.  For whatever reason, the didn’t really like my Halie’s which are usually my go to for perch.  All were tipped with eyeballs, wax worms or meal worms, but eyeballs always produce more…and don’t cost almost $4 like the little tubs of waxies or meal worms!

I only caught two trout and broke another off on the hook set. Two were on the setup Shawn mentioned, the 3rd actually took the Halie and was right off the bottom (it was my perch rig at the time).  After 11, the bite really died and so did the perch size.  Most after 11 were of the smaller 5-7” variety.  The egg laying hens must have a “girls location” scoped out there somewhere that they retreat to.  If u find it, I’m sure the fishing would be off the charts.  I cleaned 41 fish with only 2-3 being males.

Also after 11, the fish that did show on the graph got much more picky.  Both trout and perch would approach the bait, suspend, and then go back down or disappear.  They clearly weren’t all that interested in feeding.  I had quite a few trout do that between 11-3:30 when I got off the ice.  Morning is definitely the time to be out there.

@jigfisher and MWScott72 do you mind mentioning what depth you were finding the perch? Do you ever catch perch bigger than 11" at Echo?

Perch seem to Be where you find them.  We were off the new campground at Echo (Dry Hollow….can’t remember the name.  As Obi says, that whole area to the west of the campground is one big flat.  2 weeks ago, it was 27 feet.  Now it’s 32 feet, so water level Has been rising.  Generally, at Rockport I don’t fish deeper than 40 feet, but perch have been caught at 15-20 feet there this year.  Look where the tents are at and start there.  Don’t drill on top of folks, but drilling at a distance is fine.  If you’re not finding fish in 10-20 minutes, move.  Sometimes only 20 feet makes a big difference.  Once you find them camp on them, but if action slows, drill holes in different directions and see if you can pick them back up.  Over time doing this, you can get a good feel for the direction the school of fish is heading.