Rockman's Report/Rocky Reef

[rockman]

It was another very cold weekend on the tundra. The snow came and with it came the wind. I know we had 35 mph sustained winds on Saturday, with 45 mph gusts. Most of Saturday was a white out on the lake and we were just barely able to keep a path for traffic open on the roads. I sure am glad that there were not a lot of people out and about from the rentals. The drifts on Saturday were over 4 ft in spots, especially around the houses.

The roads were drifting on the corners and at any of the crossing points where there was a wind row. I spent all of Saturday and part of Sunday plowing and digging out. There was a mad exodus of people on Sunday morning, I can tell you that. There were some nice perch caught out of #13 and #14 this weekend, they are out in 28 to 29 ft just as the rock transitions out into the silt. I will be moving all of the houses out into the bug beds. With the low water, I am going off of bottom content, not depth.

You can not find 30 ft of water out here in front of my resort with the water being down 2 to 3 ft. The bugs are stating to move around now, so with that said, the perch will be there to feed on them soon. I have a new bait for you to try out; I know some of you will say what? You must be joking, but here it is. If I had not seen it for myself, I would say the same thing. I stopped to check on a couple of guys that I had sent out earlier in the morning to the bug beds, off of the Second Reef.

To my delight, they had over 30 really nice perch in the bucket and this is where the story takes a turn on the bait that they were using. I see one of them reach down into a bag of shrimp. Regular old shrimp that you can by at any grocery store. It must be the uncooked kind, not the ready to eat stuff. He takes his knife and cuts off a small piece and puts it on his jigging spoon. After about 30 to 40 seconds, bang he has a 12 inch perch on. As he brings up the perch and takes it off, I asked if I could see the shrimp in the water. I will be dammed; it looked just like mayfly larva.

The guy says that he always uses shrimp for perch. His grandfather was the one who let him in on the shrimp secret. I asked him if I could post it on my report and he says sure, no one will believe you anyway. As the shrimp absorb the water they get like little hairs that move around as you move the lure and they stay on the hooked very nicely unlike wax worms. I was amazed at, how they look so much like the mayfly larva. Well as I always say, if it is not working, try something else. But shrimp, that is a new one on me. So I am going to run to the store and get a bag and try it. What do I have to lose but five or six dollars? If they do not work, which I do not think it was a fluke, I will eat the shrimp. Heck, wax worms are eleven dollars for 500 count.

The city is going to be on the move again this week. I am moving everything out to the bug beds for the last two weeks of the season. They will be there and feeding, I can feel it. The walleyes on the other hand are so tight lipped that I am not going to waste my energy on them any more this season. We might as well get to hunting down those big perch that will sooner or later start to feed heavy on the bugs. We will be there to greet them with our hooks and a frying pan.

I do have some of the foam houses available for this coming weekend. Give us a call if you would like to get onto some really nice perch.

Have a great week

We will see ya

When we see ya

The Rockman

[tom fellegy]

john,
thanks for the tip. we got 2 walleyes on the south side before i talked to you. we got 8 perch over by 13 and 14. they were spitting up worms when they hit the ice. thanks again.............tom fellegy