Went fishing on Jan 2nd with “Augerhead” on Deer Creek - Rainbow Bay. We arrived on the ice around 7:30 a.m. We drilled our first holes and Augerhead has a 15-inch walleye before I even get down the hole. The ice was 6 or so inches thick.
The perch were very nice and varied between 9.5 & 10.5 inches. Also caught about 8 rainbows the majority were nuisance 12-incher - did get one nice 16-incher (see attached photo). The perch were found in 40 feet of water and when the schools came through about every 30-40 minutes you could pick up anywhere from 3 to 5 fish.
( I also went to Yuba on 1/1/08, also caught my 10 perch; however, they varied between 3 and 10 inches with the average around 7-inches. If you enjoy perchies, I would go to Deer Creek - they are much nicer fish)
We left the ice at 11:00 a.m. to go to Strawberry - the perch bite was still going on.
Arrived at Strawberry Marina around 1:00 and fished east of the marina. Had to drill many holes to find fish. Final found fish in 30-34 feet of water. I caught 8 to 10 all within the slot, the largest was 20-inches. Augerhead caught 1. Ice was 7-inches thick with some slush pockets. There were many ATV’s on the ice - wish I had taken mine.
I thought that maybe the walleyes were biting early in the a.m. before the sun rises. So I returned to Deer Creek on Jan 3rd & was on the ice at 5:30 a.m. Fish until 10:00 a.m. Fished in a different spot today than yesterday. Caught 5 rainbows - the largest was 20 -inches. Did not catch any perch; however, I was not targeting them. My hands are still hurting from filleting the 17 from the previous day.