Fishing Forum

Executive Summary: Jon and I fished on the east side of Rockport from 7:30 to about 4:30 Saturday 2/15. Fishing was slower a few weeks ago but still, lots of fun. The quality was better, and we ended up with almost 6 pounds of perch fillets. Jigging raps and hooks with bait and bling worked well very close to the bottom with perch eyes, chunks, or crawler pieces. 30 FOW was the most consistent depth for us. We got 2 accidental trout with an 18” brown being the biggest fish of the day.
 
Full Story: Jon and I decided the reports of new ice around the edges were encouraging so we decided to visit Rockport one more time before the ice season ends there. This is the first season either of us have done any ice fishing for a long time and it has been fun! We got to the lake about 7 A.M. and there were already good numbers of people on both sides on the lake.

We went to the East side and started just a bit north of where we fished before the thaw. We drilled 3 or 4 holes going shallow to deeper and hit fish in the 3rd one in about 30 FOW. Not as fast as last time but still, lots of takers and plenty of fun. I had rigged up and old Hook2 I had in my garage, so we had eyes this trip. It was fun to see the groups passing by and they all seemed to have a few willing biters.

Most holes would produce only a few fish, so we kept moving and eventually found a spot that seemed good enough to put up the shelter. Good thing, because the wind was starting to get to us. Like last time they would take crawler pieces but liked perch eyes or pieces better. They liked perch or fire tiger jigging raps, but they also took baited hooks with a little bling. Almost all of them were right on the bottom.
 




 
The morning bite gradually slowed on the finder and on the rods. By about 10 we had 20 something over 8 inches and about a third were 9 to10.5. We were getting more bigger fish and a lot fewer of the ones below 8 than we did last time. Mid-morning Jon got a bow about 13” that hit on the way down. We did see marks down 10-15 feet come through regularly, but we were busy enough with the perch that we left them alone.

About 11 things got pretty slow and we were reminded of the downside of putting up the shelter. The wind had picked up, but I decided to go prospecting. I would walk about 20 yards and drill a hole. Fish  3 to 5 minutes and then move on. Again, on the third hole I had fish going right away.

This is how I could tell the hole was hot:





 
I turned my back to the wind and settled in. When I had half a dozen on the ice I hollered at Jon and he said he was still getting a few. When I had a dozen, I hollered again and told him I thought I had found some. At noon I had 20 on the ice and he poked his head out. “You think we should move the shelter?” he asked. I told him yeah, “I’m getting really cold!”
We found that the fish were plenty willing, but you had to keep hunting. Just as Jon was ready to move the shelter, my new spot dried up too.


Again 3 holes and another hot spot. It seemed that about every 100’ we found another group.
We moved the shelter to the 3rd “hot spot” and saw some groups on the finder that were solid marks for 10’ above the bottom! We spent most of the afternoon getting decent numbers, but not like a few weeks ago. Fortunately, the groups we found had larger fish than last time.

About 3 PM I got a solid hit on my perch-colored jigging rap and had a good battle with an 18" brown, and I won! About the time that spot started to dry up,  the evening bite started and we saw groups coming by regularly and we started catching good numbers again. About 4:30 we thought it was time to count, and we were just short of what the law allowed. We got the last few keepers and took down the shelter and headed back to the parking lot.





 
We were reminded that coming downhill with a sled in the morning is a lot easier than pulling it back uphill to the truck in the evening. The 30 pounds of fish didn’t help, but we were glad we had them. We were also reminded that we aren’t as young as we used to be!
 





We stopped to rest just before we got to the parking area and spotted a rod case lying in the snow ahead of us. My truck was the only one left in the lot, so we loaded it up, brought it home and put a post on the forum about it.
Happily, we were able to get it back to the owners, but you already know about that.
This report is a bit late, but I wanted to get the rod case home before I wrote about where we were at.
 
Here’s a look at the better fish of the day on the cleaning board:

Great report. RP has sure been a great producer this winter

Nice detailed report Jim, thanks for sharing it and the pics with us. Do you actively jig the jigging rap or dead stick it?

(02-22-2025, 05:44 PM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: [ -> ]Nice detailed report Jim, thanks for sharing it and the pics with us. Do you actively jig the jigging rap or dead stick it?

Mostly active jigging, about every 20 seconds or so. I did have some hit it dead sticked because I set the rod down to deal with something else.

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(02-22-2025, 04:53 PM)Cowboypirate Wrote: [ -> ]Great report. RP has sure been a great producer this winter

Thanks! Yes, the lake has produced a lot of perch for a lot of people. I've heard 2 schools of thought about it. One was everyone should keep a limit so they don't get stunted and the other was hoping that it doesn't get overfished. 

Based on what I saw this year, I think the numbers needed to be reduced to delay the "eat themselves out of house and home" population crash. It is always a hard one to call. There were huge numbers of pot bellied females mature enough to spawn this spring!

Do you tip the jigging rapalas with bait? On your comment to Lance, IMO, there is no chance of over fishing of those smaller perch, now when they are all big perch and few of the smaller ones, that is another subject.

(02-23-2025, 12:50 AM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: [ -> ]Do you tip the jigging rapalas with bait? On your comment to Lance, IMO, there is no chance of over fishing of those smaller perch, now when they are all big perch and few of the smaller ones, that is another subject.

Thanks for the insight on the perch. Yes, the little treble in the middle always has an eyeball, or a small piece of perch or crawler. The vast majority of the fish come on that center hook. So much so that I often think the lure itself is more attractor than anything else. At least for perch. Larger predators are often hooked on the nose hook or have the whole thing in their mouth.

I like to use those for vertical jigging mostly because they sink really fast. It's nice that they catch a lot of fish too!

It was fun reading your report and sounded like a fun day. What size jigging rap do you use for perch? Sounds like a fun lure to add to my collection. What colors work best for you? My go to for perch has been a Hali, and they seem to like the chartreuse green / yellow combinations best.

(02-23-2025, 02:40 PM)MWScott72 Wrote: [ -> ]It was fun reading your report and sounded like a fun day.  What size jigging rap do you use for perch?  Sounds like a fun lure to add to my collection.  What colors work best for you? My go to for perch has been a Hali, and they seem to like the chartreuse green / yellow combinations best.

Thanks, it was a fun trip! I use a #5 or #7 in the perch or firetiger colors. I have also used the gold one, but I think the others work a little better.

(02-23-2025, 04:27 AM)Piscophilic Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the insight on the perch. Yes, the little treble in the middle always has an eyeball, or a small piece of perch or crawler. The vast majority of the fish come on that center hook. So much so that I often think the lure itself is more attractor than anything else. At least for perch. Larger predators are often hooked on the nose hook or have the whole thing in their mouth.

I like to use those for vertical jigging mostly because they sink really fast. It's nice that they catch a lot of fish too!

I started using a jigging repala this year and I noticed most bigger fish take it like you described, head first. From what I've read about them, they are suppose to glide down, when jigging them, so it's not a straight drop down but that might be what triggers the hit. I plan to use them more this year but my best luck came on the perch colored one. Do you end up snagging any, while jigging?

(02-23-2025, 09:48 PM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-23-2025, 04:27 AM)Piscophilic Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the insight on the perch. Yes, the little treble in the middle always has an eyeball, or a small piece of perch or crawler. The vast majority of the fish come on that center hook. So much so that I often think the lure itself is more attractor than anything else. At least for perch. Larger predators are often hooked on the nose hook or have the whole thing in their mouth.

I like to use those for vertical jigging mostly because they sink really fast. It's nice that they catch a lot of fish too!

I started using a jigging repala this year and I noticed most bigger fish take it like you described, head first. From what I've read about them, they are suppose to glide down, when jigging them, so it's not a straight drop down but that might be what triggers the hit. I plan to use them more this year but my best luck came on the perch colored one. Do you end up snagging any, while jigging?

Yes, I snagged a few on each outing this year. I usually have a baited hook above the rap and I don't know it they get snagged when they are hitting the upper hook or if is just the darting action when I set the hook and it gets one nearby.

Swedish pimples work as well. Tip them with a perch eye.

(02-24-2025, 12:05 AM)Piscophilic Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-23-2025, 09:48 PM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-23-2025, 04:27 AM)Piscophilic Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the insight on the perch. Yes, the little treble in the middle always has an eyeball, or a small piece of perch or crawler. The vast majority of the fish come on that center hook. So much so that I often think the lure itself is more attractor than anything else. At least for perch. Larger predators are often hooked on the nose hook or have the whole thing in their mouth.

I like to use those for vertical jigging mostly because they sink really fast. It's nice that they catch a lot of fish too!

I started using a jigging repala this year and I noticed most bigger fish take it like you described, head first. From what I've read about them, they are suppose to glide down, when jigging them, so it's not a straight drop down but that might be what triggers the hit. I plan to use them more this year but my best luck came on the perch colored one. Do you end up snagging any, while jigging?

Yes, I snagged a few on each outing this year. I usually have a baited hook above the rap and I don't know it they get snagged when they are hitting the upper hook or if is just the darting action when I set the hook and it gets one nearby.

That has been my experience as well, I think there are fish all around the jig and when you lift up to jig, they are just in the way and get snagged and with all the hocks on those Rapalas, it's not surprising

Thanks, I have used them as well and had good results. I just think the rap gets down faster, which helps in deeper water.