Except for few fish, could not have been a better day. Sun out, neglible wind, no slush, ramp plowed, a parking spot down low, a dash of snow atop ice, and plenty of fellow anglers to comiserate with. Very few perch iced for the number of people out there.
Talked to folks from the ramp, from the westside pullouts, and from the dam. All the same, sad story, and they’re sticking to it. Bad day at The Rock. Think I’ll go back to Jordanelle tomorrow.
How deep of water were you in? It is later in the season, they are at the bottom off the edges in schools. Anywhere between 30-65 feet of water depednnig on where you are fishing.
We were in 29-48’, and so was everyone else.
Fished Rockport also from 9-12a.m. Went out from the west highway (3rd pulloff) to the middle of the lake between the marina. Party of 8 caught around 40 fish. A few nice rainbows and the remaining perch. The perch were the smallest I have ever seen. A few were 8 inches and nice. The other groups on the lake did not have the success because they stayed in closer to shore. Caught most of the fish on perch eyeballs and waxworms. Used a flasher with a pink ratfink beneath. Beautiful day on the ice. Go out further on the lake. It will produce better results as indicated this time of winter.
My son in law and I were also on the west side today. We started at around 6:30 AM out from the first restrooms south from the dam. We were in about 45 feet of water. We caught some nice rainbows and perch. The biggest perch was 11 inches long next smaller one was 10 inches long the rainbows were anywhere from 8 -15 inches. We had good activity until around 10 AM when it slowed down a bunch we also went out a bit deeper but everything we caught out deeper was small. I’m going to fry up the big perch for dinner.
ALSO AT ROCKPORT TODAY,200 YARDS OFF RAMP .GOT THERE ABOUT 10:00 AM .FISHED IN 42 FT DEEP. VERY SLOW DAY FISHING.NO PERCH AT ALL,LOTS OF PEOPLE.WE CAUGHT 6 RAINBOW. BEAUTIFUL DAY.WE DID NOT EVEN SEE FISH ON BOTTOM WITH FISH FINDER.WHERE ARE THE PERCH???
Perch hang on the bottom and often are not detected with a fish finder until you coax then up by jigging your rod a little.
I will normally see a flat bottom on my finder, but once in a while the bottom will hump up a bit. This is usually perch that are so close to the bottom that they just look like a dirt mound on the finder.
I marked a lot of perch at Rockport today, but the bite was very light and I only got one hit and they were gone. I think that they were mostly smaller perch though.
The perch and trout that I did catch today were all caught on Maniac Gizzy Bugs.