Pre-front Echo - Friday 1/24

[perchinski]

Thought for sure one of several BFTers I met up out from the new state park would post a report since they did better than I, but here goes......Shaved my first ice at 10:30, but by then the morning bite had pretty much dwindled.  One early bird got his limit today, saying he had to go to one rod when they came thru from 8-10, using a Hali/waxworm right off the bottom.  Meanwhile I was swiss-cheezing a fairly big area on that consistent 28' flat, looking for 'em.  Ended up with a dozen fatties, primarily during a 1:30 bite, getting one here, one there, all on eyeballs.  And tho there were still in that nice Rockport keeper range of 10", Echo's perch are heavier.  No comparison.  As I was packing up, a guy came out armed with FFS.  He set up in the same general area a dozen of us had all been fishing, and fan-scoped only one perch, so I didn't feel so bad.  Still, quite a humbling day after getting spoiled by 4 action-packed outings on RP, along with all of our hopes that an approaching front would really turn them on.  Hope to return Sun or Mon.

[Jmorfish]

Thought for sure one of several BFTers I met up out from the new state park would post a report since they did better than I, but here goes......Shaved my first ice at 10:30, but by then the morning bite had pretty much dwindled.  One early bird got his limit today, saying he had to go to one rod when they came thru from 8-10, using a Hali/waxworm right off the bottom.  Meanwhile I was swiss-cheezing a fairly big area on that consistent 28' flat, looking for 'em.  Ended up with a dozen fatties, primarily during a 1:30 bite, getting one here, one there, all on eyeballs.  And tho there were still in that nice Rockport keeper range of 10", Echo's perch are heavier.  No comparison.  As I was packing up, a guy came out armed with FFS.  He set up in the same general area a dozen of us had all been fishing, and fan-scoped only one perch, so I didn't feel so bad.  Still, quite a humbling day after getting spoiled by 4 action-packed outings on RP, along with all of our hopes that an approaching front would really turn them on.  Hope to return Sun or Mon.

Just responded to your PM..hope to see you Mon..glad you guys didn't catch all of them today

[perchinski]

Thought for sure one of several BFTers I met up out from the new state park would post a report since they did better than I, but here goes......Shaved my first ice at 10:30, but by then the morning bite had pretty much dwindled.  One early bird got his limit today, saying he had to go to one rod when they came thru from 8-10, using a Hali/waxworm right off the bottom.  Meanwhile I was swiss-cheezing a fairly big area on that consistent 28' flat, looking for 'em.  Ended up with a dozen fatties, primarily during a 1:30 bite, getting one here, one there, all on eyeballs.  And tho there were still in that nice Rockport keeper range of 10", Echo's perch are heavier.  No comparison.  As I was packing up, a guy came out armed with FFS.  He set up in the same general area a dozen of us had all been fishing, and fan-scoped only one perch, so I didn't feel so bad.  Still, quite a humbling day after getting spoiled by 4 action-packed outings on RP, along with all of our hopes that an approaching front would really turn them on.  Hope to return Sun or Mon.

Just responded to your PM..hope to see you Mon..glad you guys didn't catch all of them today

Forgot to add --- Ice grew from 5+ to 7+, the Ranger who checked our licenses said it was slow all over, even for the dozen groups by the ramp, and if you weren't in a hut today, that north wind made it cold.

[obifishkenobi]

It was good meeting you, it was pretty fast action for us between 7-9 am and then slowed down considerably, I’ll take several dozen 11” perch over the 300+ 6-8” ones we caught Monday at Rockport. I also caught 7 really heathy rainbows on a dead stick through out the morning.