[cool]Yes 'tis (alive, that is...)! The fishing was pretty good for the perchies, but unfortunitely after fumbling with the damn ice tent in the 20 mph gusts, I noticed that all three of my ice rods were all tangled up with each other (kinda like the bank tanglers in the Spring time at Strawberry tangling each others lines with their powerbait on treble hooks...) damnit!!!!! So, while I'm fumbling with my rods getting the lines all untagled, Mike proceeds to pull about 7 or 8 perchies onto the ice before I even got my rig in the water (at least I was a good guide and got him to where the fishies were after the 2nd drill or so). After getting the mess straitened out, I pulled out a quick two fish and then the bite was over for a bit. After about an hour of REAL slowness, I decided to get my butt in gear and take the new sonar and auger and go find another good school to get into. Well, twenty minutes later I radio'd to Mike and Bryce to get their butts in gear and hurry the crap over, 'cause I found an awesome school. The fishing was so good there that we never left the rest of the time we were there, and Hellsangler69 came over from his previous close location and joined us. Had a good time, even if it was colder than a witches... out there!!
The perchies are STILL there, ladies and gentlemen. That's two weeks in a row I got my limit. Last week I was fortunite enough to learn how to hunt for them from one of the best (thanks Randy) and tried to remember what I observed. After that (and now armed with a great sonar) I'm pretty confident I can find the perchies at the Rock. Getting them to bite can sometimes be another story, but the perch are usually co-operative if you can find the hungry little buggers. Perhaps there aren't quite as many perch as last year, but there certainly isn't a "big dieoff last Spring" like was previously reported on this board. Right now we are still about 2-3 weeks EARLIER than when it had safe ice last year, so things are different for that and maybe other reasons as well.
You just have to make sure you're in about 45 feet of water and keep moving around and you'll eventually find them. If you don't have a good fish finder, then you might not find them. If you sit on your can and B.S. with your pals all day you might have a good time, but most likely you won't be landing many fish. You have to get up and go look for the active and big schools of them. The second and last place we were at the fish were so thick right there that from the bottom up to about 4 feet off of it was thick with the perchies and some trout too. They would come in for about 5 minutes then sometimes go for about 5-10 minutes, but they'd always be back. Be patient, and move around a bit, and you'll get into 'em!
As usual, it was great fishing with BassAckward, even if the first hour sucked fighting with the ice shelter in the wind
] He usually seems to have the hot stick with those Rockport perchies, and today was no exception. There were times when he'd have a double hookup (one fish on each jig). I think the bastard did that two or three times. Lucky bugger. One thing that he did differently than me was rig his to jigs about two-three feet apart. Mine were only about 10 inches apart, and I caught fish, but never a double. Next trip I'm gonna try that out.
As far as the ice conditions goes, I'm a little worried as the forcrash calls for a little rain tomorrow and warm temps the rest of this week into next Tuesday getting into the 40's. Not good for ice making (or even ice sustaining, for that matter). People will have to take planks in a week or so (maybe less).[pirate] Sorry for the novel, but hope this info helps some out who haven't been as successful at the Rock this year.
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