Yup, another Rockport Trip...Wed. 2-28

[Jmorfish]

We knew we were having a couple REALLY cold nites at RP, and this morning when we arrived it was 8*..finger numbing weather..MWScott and I met at 0730, headed down, found solid edges and safe enough ice conditions..our initial drilling found about 40 FOW, but mostly just dink perch, so we moved out to about 45 FOW, closer to the middle...seeing more fish, getting bites, still extremely cold, so tents went up..Here I stayed 'til 1230, MW had to leave earlier..many short periods of a 'hot' bite, many short periods of 'no' bite, and longer periods of a slow, but consistent bite is what I experienced today..fresh eyeball and flavored cut perch meat pcs best again, and red spikes provided very fast hits from the smaller perch..Nice meeting Mildog out there today..he came out later and set up further South, but we met up at the end of our fishing day..I know he and MW also did really good on these mostly 8 to 9.5" average perch..I did have one 10"er, all others kept were in that average range..30 was my limit....Guluk if you're still hitting the ice..MW and I still walked with ice probes, and wore our life jackets...never assume it's safe..

[MWScott72]

It was fun to get out on the ice again with you Joe!  Not much more to add except that I was much less selective and will pay for it at the cleaning table.  I was in 47 FOW too.  Ended up keeping 47…most 8”+ but a few that were stretching for 7”.  Probably threw back another 15 or so that were up and coming.  Had a tangle with my upper jig, so just cut it off and used the Hali tipped with perch eye.  No perch eye, no bite.

Hoping for another day out there before things go south for good.  Maybe we’ll get lucky. ??

[Mildog]

Always good to meet fellow BF tackle anglers!
Joe, hope we can meet up on the  water again sometime. Ice was solid right to the edges and a bit thicker overall than previous trips. I was fishing about 27 feet depth. I marked and got a fish on first drop at about. 9am, then nothing moved 50 feet. 10 drops 10 fish fast, then nothing and nothing on finder. Walked over to talk to some other anglers for a few minutes. I Came back to the last hole and fish on finder screen dropped down fish on! From that point on fish virtually as fast as I could drop till I left. I was culling a bit but most were filletable and only planned to keep 30 before I knew it even when letting a bunch go I had 44 so figured I might as well fillet 50 so I did. Another angler came out and I noticed he was not having any luck 75 feet from me. I told him come over here, I drilled him two holes, was onto fish from then till we left, fish were still on the screen and hitting at around 1pm.  50 Perch filleted 41 minutes
Today and for a couple more days it’s warming a fair amount with temps above freezing at night. Snow cover hopefully will shield the ice from melting. Edges would be first concern . I’m thinking they hold up and then another cold snap should solidify it again. ALWAYS check for yourself don’t assume! Be safe. Good luck if you try.
PS  Perch eye was consistent for me entire time first fish was on mealworm after that perch eye. If it slowed at all new perch eye helped the fish “see” that they hit my
Lure! Couldn’t resist pun intended!

[wiperhunter2]

Great reports guys, sounds like you three had such a great trip. 
Mildog are you saying you were able to fillet 50 perch in 41 minutes?

[Mildog]

Yes, 50 perch in 41 minutes, and I wasn't really racing. I even took a couple quick breaks to toss the frisbee for my busy body dog that wouldn't leave me alone! While I was cleaning the Perch. I use Electric Fillet Knife and gloves, never take the right hand off the knife the entire time and use gloved left hand for the fish. Slab them skin them and trim rib bones!!
I was Solo, went by myself last trip.
I posted fillet video earlier in previous post.
From a previous trip a few days ago, my buddy and I tag teamed a bucket of Perch. I slabbed and skinned with electric knife and he deboned them with sharp std. fillet knife.
We did 54 perch in 19 Minutes.
If I have a knife savvy partner that's the way I like to do it. Makes short work of a pile of fish.
I have to add, I have filleted countless fish over several decades. Have used electric since starting with a electric carving Knife "borrowed" from Mom several decades ago, before much was available for electric fish filleting knives. There's many years and thousands of fish filleted for practice and experience in getting good/fast at it.

[icerman]

Thanks for the reports!  Glad you were safe.  I sure would like another round at the perch before hanging it up for the ice season!

[MWScott72]

I’m not as talented as Mildog at the filetting table. Took me exactly 1 hour to fillet and the cut out the rib cages on my 47 fish. Took me another 20-25 minutes to clean up the mess and make the kitchen serviceable again for my wife. Got a total of 3 pounds of fillets on the money for my efforts, so not bad considering their sizes. My daughter walked by while I was working on the fish and said “when are we having tacos dad”? I love those kinds of leading questions!!

[Mildog]

Awesome MW Scott
Making air fried coconut perch for neighbor get together this evening as I text this.
Ended up
With about 3.5 lbs of fillets vac packed 5 nice bags of fillets after the bowl I set aside for tonight’s get together! Wonder what this warm
Wind had done to ice colder temps coming soon , hopefully it turns for a few more trips! It was good to meet Joe hopefully meet up on the water someday . Need to run and get fish in air fryer, yumm !!
Mildog out

[MWScott72]

That sounds yummy!! I’ll have to give that a try someday. Coconut anything in my book is usually worthwhile.

[Mildog]

Neighbors gave it a big thumbs up. I did over 50 plus fillets
Only 3 peices left! I thought I would have some leftovers.
?