02-02-2025, 05:08 PM
Hit RP yesterday morning at first light and was amazed at all the tents on the ice already when I drove up. Come to find out there was a fishing tournament there (spoke to one angler and apparently Echo is next on the list next weekend if I remember right).
Anyway, decided to try a couple new areas in hopes of a few trout, so drilled holes off Perch Point and another location a couple hundred yds further south. No trout (not even marks) and a few perch in each location. I spoke to a couple other anglers spread out along that line and consensus was that it was super slow for them. I didn’t put up my tent to be more mobile, but by 9:30 or so, it was put up a tent or get soaked.
With nothing happening on the east side, I hiked to the west side and settled about 500 yds north of the last restroom pull off maybe 300 yds from the shoreline. Drilled a hole and immediately the perch were hitting. They were all over the bottom, but mostly 7”ers, so I worked to within about 150 yds of shore trying to find bigger, but the fish were few and no schools, so went back and pitched the tent over my initial hole. It was fast just like Mildog’s post the day before. If it took 15 seconds for a bite, that was a lifetime. Most times, as soon as it hit the bottom (or before) they would hit. Lots of doubles (which I disliked because it was normally two 6-7”ers instead of that one 10”+ fish). It stayed like this for 4 hours with one small slowdown around 1:30. It boiled back up about 1:45, and I left at 2:10. Ended up keeping 30 averaging between 8-9” with 3-4 that were 10”+. Tried and true chartreuse/green Halie with a yellow Rat finke above tipped with eyeball.
Caught one nice bow that was 18” but a little more slender and lost one other that hit right below the ice (twice) and broke my line on the 2nd hit/hookset. As mentioned in a reply to Icerman’s post, I did not have issues getting the non-keeper perch back down. Lost a few likely, but I’d say 95%+ of those 100+ that I threw back made it just fine.
Anyway, decided to try a couple new areas in hopes of a few trout, so drilled holes off Perch Point and another location a couple hundred yds further south. No trout (not even marks) and a few perch in each location. I spoke to a couple other anglers spread out along that line and consensus was that it was super slow for them. I didn’t put up my tent to be more mobile, but by 9:30 or so, it was put up a tent or get soaked.
With nothing happening on the east side, I hiked to the west side and settled about 500 yds north of the last restroom pull off maybe 300 yds from the shoreline. Drilled a hole and immediately the perch were hitting. They were all over the bottom, but mostly 7”ers, so I worked to within about 150 yds of shore trying to find bigger, but the fish were few and no schools, so went back and pitched the tent over my initial hole. It was fast just like Mildog’s post the day before. If it took 15 seconds for a bite, that was a lifetime. Most times, as soon as it hit the bottom (or before) they would hit. Lots of doubles (which I disliked because it was normally two 6-7”ers instead of that one 10”+ fish). It stayed like this for 4 hours with one small slowdown around 1:30. It boiled back up about 1:45, and I left at 2:10. Ended up keeping 30 averaging between 8-9” with 3-4 that were 10”+. Tried and true chartreuse/green Halie with a yellow Rat finke above tipped with eyeball.
Caught one nice bow that was 18” but a little more slender and lost one other that hit right below the ice (twice) and broke my line on the 2nd hit/hookset. As mentioned in a reply to Icerman’s post, I did not have issues getting the non-keeper perch back down. Lost a few likely, but I’d say 95%+ of those 100+ that I threw back made it just fine.