Last RP on ice?..Tues. Mar. 7

[Jmorfish]

Might be my last Rockport trip/report, as slush layer will get nasty during and after this weekend's warm weather..Yesterday-Tues.- I headed out A.M. again, as I hadn't done so well later afternoon the last couple times..the other reason for earlier arrival was that I'd hoped the slush layer would be frozen from cold nites, and it was...to my great relief...My 'older' body is having a harder time when busting thru slush almost each step for 300 or more yards - one way....so this day was amazing...No one else on the entire res. when I got out to a deeper spot than the 20FOW I was at the last 3 or 4 times..Last Thurs. afternoon, with MWScott, we were in about 20 FOW, not doing too good, and we agreed maybe we should have been deeper...This day I was deeper, and it paid off, one of my best perch days of the season..a good 2 dozen dinks released, including several 8"ers...4 kept at 8.5 to 9", 7 at 9.5 to 10", and 4 at 10.5 to 11"...and 1 rainbow off the bottom on an eyeball...Good quality fish...Here's the lesson I learned....for several seasons now I've been using Tube Dudes 1.5" glo flashers about 3 or 4" above my hook/lure/bait...this day I decided to try one of his larger trout lures up higher, about 17'... glo white, about 1", 'wonderbread pattern', with #6 hook?..and powerbait...could be a nice 'bow would hit it...NOPE...twice one of those jumbo perch raced up off the bottom and just slammed it...I was amazed...I'll for sure try something like that again next time, but maybe not 'til next year...Guluk...

[wiperhunter2]

Might be my last Rockport trip/report, as slush layer will get nasty during and after this weekend's warm weather..Yesterday-Tues.- I headed out A.M. again, as I hadn't done so well later afternoon the last couple times..the other reason for earlier arrival was that I'd hoped the slush layer would be frozen from cold nites, and it was...to my great relief...My 'older' body is having a harder time when busting thru slush almost each step for 300 or more yards - one way....so this day was amazing...No one else on the entire res. when I got out to a deeper spot than the 20FOW I was at the last 3 or 4 times..Last Thurs. afternoon, with MWScott, we were in about 20 FOW, not doing too good, and we agreed maybe we should have been deeper...This day I was deeper, and it paid off, one of my best perch days of the season..a good 2 dozen dinks released, including several 8"ers...4 kept at 8.5 to 9", 7 at 9.5 to 10", and 4 at 10.5 to 11"...and 1 rainbow off the bottom on an eyeball...Good quality fish...Here's the lesson I learned....for several seasons now I've been using Tube Dudes 1.5" glo flashers about 3 or 4" above my hook/lure/bait...this day I decided to try one of his larger trout lures up higher, about 17'... glo white, about 1", 'wonderbread pattern', with #6 hook?..and powerbait...could be a nice 'bow would hit it...NOPE...twice one of those jumbo perch raced up off the bottom and just slammed it...I was amazed...I'll for sure try something like that again next time, but maybe not 'til next year...Guluk...

Great report Joe, glad to read you you were able to get out one more time before the warm weather hits and things really start changing. Wish we could have found conditions like you did when we got out there last week. So you walked out 300 plus yards onto the ice plus the 300 yds from the parking area down to the ice, is that about right? So total you walked close to 1/4 to 1/2 miles out to the spot you fished from your truck? Were the edges still pretty good?

[jjannie]

Joe,

Sounds like a fun way to end your RP ice fishing year! Thanks for sharing the info. We agree about the warmer rainy stuff that's coming in, it will likely make mess of the ice fishing opportunities.

[MWScott72]

Glad to hear that you hammered some good fish Joe. I’m curious how much lower that water is going to be when I get out there next…hopefully tomorrow, but again, I am relegated to the afternoon. Hoping you left a few big ones down there after your banner outing!

Wiper hunter-
I know roughly where Joe was at, and I don’t think it’s more than 500 yds total. Still not an “easy” walk back, but doable. Funny how the walk out is fairly easy, but that walk out is definitely tougher!

[Jmorfish]

Tks JJ, Curt....So my 'counting' just starts at the ice edge..kinda using that count as a way to get back to a spot if I want to..I don't have a way to measure distance from truck to ice edge, or back, ice edge to truck, so that distance would be extra...long hike, yes..glad I can still do it..Yesterday I followed a snowdog track a long ways out toward where I was heading, and his packed trail helped freeze the slush for me...so he departed from that West side like I usually do...ice edge solid, with water level dropping..

[stan55]

I did the same hike Sunday from west side. It wasn't bad going out or back. Just had to pay attention to avoid slushy spots. Big perch are still out there. Perch eyes were the ticket for the bigger perch.
I watched the snowdog zip around Sunday with no trouble. Made a nice path to get back as well.