Sick of Mantua ice reports?

[CoyoteSpinner]

If you got this far, I'll assume no. Good, me neither.
Saturday morning, tried to keep away from the crowds (as IF!). Met up with CV Fisher and son for some perch-jerking.

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Just passing Time, wasn't long before I got to Mantua, parked, booted up, and packed out. Tom was already icing some chunks as I rolled up. Managed to hook a few before too long. I think I need a bigger pan! We all got into some chunky monkey perch. I negotiated one pucky-bluegill, and a handful of trout. Tom kept telling me to keep them trout over at my hole, but a few found each of us.

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I was dropping some of the same red/green bugs as before. Tom has some unique home-made jig rigs they seemed to like. Just had to chuckle when a fresh-landed perch dropped back down his hole, and he's going after the other bouncing rod, before long realizes his perch had crossed his line, so it wasn't such a mighty bite after all! But it was entertaining watching him go back and forth between the two.

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Saw a couple snowmobiles book across the lake, and good luck prayers. Please don't come too close is all I can ask! Wasn't three turns of the crank to punch a few holes, clear solid ice though.

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Neighbor brought their pooch, and his daughter was having a grand game of Perch-Fetch. Looked like fun for both.

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I think we all agreed, a round of fish-tacos was going to be in order! After a round of fillet practice.

[hookngrinin]

Good report. Sounds like you had great day on the ice. Those are some good sized perch for making fish tacos.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Nice job John, well I got distracted at that phone booth and went the other direction. No perch for me though. Did find lots of trout though. Later J
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[albinotrout]

Nice pile of perch there. Sounds like you had a better day than some.
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[Stickwaver]

Sounds like an awesome day! Great photos!
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[CoyoteSpinner]

1. It's a Police Box, not a phone booth. They come in red, and that's a Superman thing. I hear it's bigger on the inside.

2. It was a pretty good day, not non-stop by any means, but without moving around, the fish came to us in waves. I was the only one with a finder, and when it went dark and cloudy I'd call out a warning, pretty typically the other guys would also start getting hit.

After I took my "trophy" shot, and bagged up my catch, kept dropping a line as I (slowly) packed up my gear. Still had bait, had to go back down! Guess I managed to double my perch take in that time, and more nice ones too. A baker's dozen all told. One scrawny 8 in male, and the rest were fat chunky 9-10" females. Had so many eggs, decided to keep the roe.
Tried it before, mixed with insta taters, then pan fried into patties. Kinda like crab cakes.

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