Rockport Sat. 1-14

[Jmorfish]

My depth this day was 44/45'.....Curtis, I don't know, just a habit I think...and once in a while when I/we want to play with the rainbows, I'm a lot closer to that shallower South end of the res.....Hope you all don't mind me giving a tip....This is mainly for some of you that may be new to perch fishing (or crappie)..I grew up in central Wisconsin A LOT of years ago, and my Dad would take us boys out on the ice, but we never had any shelter for fishing..once in a while he'd take the old Hudson out on the ice, but the holes in the floor weren't quite big enough to fish through! Most days it was Really cold, and sometimes Really windy, making it hard to concentrate on fishing, much less noticing a possible bite...Playing on the ice was fun, sliding or ice skating was fun, even fighting with my brothers was sorta fun...the ice fishing was not fun...too cold or windy, no shelter...no fish...This is what I was thinking on Saturday, in my red shelter, as I was able to detect the slightest movement of my spring bobber, and at least have a chance of catching something...that perch (or crappie) bite is usually SO slight, it's nearly impossible to detect in the wind, and in the very cold temps, you (or your kids) will have hands in coat pockets or gloves on, and you just can't react fast enough to hook them...believe me, that was me also here in Utah, 'til about 15 years ago getting my first shelter...The Huge Majority out on the ice Saturday, kids included,were out in the open, and certainly that can be okay for awhile, but not for catching perch, or crappie...kids want to catch fish, and so do I....My high recommendation is to get some type of shelter, used off the internet if necessary..You will see your fishing success go up, kids (and you) less sun/wind burn, and maybe stay out on the ice a little longer....Guluk..

Good advice Joe, on the shelter part. As far as getting to the South end to catch bows, you can do the same thing on the State parks side, there are camp grounds straight across from those pull offs on the main road. Just a few years ago Ira and I use to walk out from the camp grounds and it's about the same walking distance to the good spots and the hill is not as steep going back up but I hear you on going to a certain spot just being a habit.

Hey Curtis...Many years ago, when we just started ice fishing at RP, those camp grounds were our entry point, as we were just targeting the rainbows...didn't know much about the perch here then...several years after that, we 'discovered' the perch out in the middle with grandkids and their dad..that was probably 15 years ago..then buddies and I'd fish the trout, sometimes the perch, then later perch and sometimes trout..now I'm targeting the perch in Winter (learned my lesson) and once in awhile trolling for the 'bows in Summer/Fall...So now I don't have much reason to come in from the camp ground areas..at least 'til I can no longer traverse the steeper West side points of entry...which does get harder each year!....TIP #2....(again, for perch newbies) If you're going to fish perch with 2 rods, have them close enough so you can reach either one when you get that tiny bite..Yesterday (Wed.) during a lull in the late morning action here at RP, I got out of my shelter for a little stretch, and walked over to a guy not too far from me, standing out in the open between his 2 rods, which were about 10 ft apart..Nice guy (not a BFTer) we chatted a little, said he liked to stand, had also been there a couple hours, hadn't been doing any good..his shelter tent was still in his sled, said he and his buddy (a ways off) liked to move around to find the fish..while we chatted, one of his poles had one of those tiny taps - 5 ft away - and of course it didn't hit again when he got to it...it was cold, he had hands in his pockets...An hour later, taking another break, I hollered to see how he was doing..he happily hollered back that he'd caught 1 of those jumbos, while back in my tent, I'd caught 4 more of those, with 2 rods and handles close enough that I could concentrate on either one watching the screen, and looking at spring bobber for that tiny movement..And Maybe..just use 1 rod if you can't react fast enough watching 2 rods....Guluk...