03-05-2005, 11:03 PM
I hit Rock Cliffs today. Very nice conditions for angling. Lots of wildlife too. Oh, yeah the fishing. It was fairly standard for Lake X. Probably iced 50-60 perch. Initially, they were all very small, but I moved around and found some better ones. Nothing really great in size though. Ice was fine. It ranged from 8 to 18 inches and solid. Edges were a non issue. There is a bit more open water around the inlet. The ice still extends 200 yds or so past the wakeless bouys. I used the usual stuff, waxies/crawlers. Water depth was 16-18 ft. so easy release of the perch was possible. The key today was to find structure. The water depth had little to do with success, but if you found a submerged bush, the perch were congregated around them. If your hole did not have structure nearby, then probably nothing would be happening. I had a couple of fishless holes and ran into 2 guys that hadn't caught anything. I finally found a "bush" that had a little better sized perch and kept a batch for some "po mans shrimp" (If I can ever find Tube Dudes shrimp bullion) Good luck if you give it a try, it probably has a couple weeks left. I will ice fish the Berry another time or two, but it is probably my last time this year for the hardwater perch. It has been a fun winter.
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