I sure hope that most of you were able to get out this weekend and wet a line, for I was not able too! The weather on Saturday was not too bad, considering that we were supposed to get rain and wind. We did have the wind out of the N.E. at 10 to 15 mph, but the rain held off until around 8:00pm. Sunday was a beautiful day to be on the water but everyone left early on Sunday for Mothers Day and the Resort was empty by 11:00 am. That gave Patti and me a chance to get things cleaned up and we were out of here by 2:00pm. We had the rest of the day to enjoy our kids and the beautiful weather out on the front deck. The bite was ok on Saturday with quite a few big fish being caught, but the slot fish were hard to come by. This brings me to the conclusion that the netting is taking a toll on the slot fish, especially in the areas that they are netting over and over.
Now, I do not want to start anything with these facts, but it is a fact that netting an area year after year after year, will take a toll on not just the fish population as a whole. But the smaller fish really take a hit because of the mesh size. Nets are designed towards catching and killing smaller fish. It is a proven fact, that if you net an area out of most of its young fish, you will have it show up in the size of fish that are left to catch. Which in our case, is the smaller slots are not there to catch anymore and the larger 20 plus inch fish being left, which would be fine if we could keep them. It is a sad thing to watch, as I have had to do over the past 4 years of them netting right out in front of my house. But as I have said in the past it is what it is and we will deal with it. Now, getting back to the bite this weekend. There were enough fish being caught in the 11ft to 16 ft range to tell me that the fish have been done spawning for at least two weeks and they should be feeding very heavy over the next 2 weeks. We should see the bite picking up over the next few days as we get the warmer water temps, which are at 48 to 50 degrees right now.
There were just too many big fish being caught by the fisherman this weekend. I talked to over 100 people this weekend that had the same thing to say about the size of the fish that they were catching. All of them were too big and normally you would think that most would be happy that they caught anything at all let alone big fish. But there are still a lot of people out there that just want to take a few fish home, or at least catch enough keepers to have a fish fry during their stay at the lake. I do not think that there was one person that I spoke to, that had more than a couple of fish that they caught that were in the slot. I think that if we just could open up the slot to 22 inches, there would be a lot more people fishing on Mille Lacs this summer and well into the future and we could weed out some of these bigger fish, but I do not think that is going to happen anytime soon. I do think that the walleyes are very healthy and that the Fishery as a whole is in very good shape, so with that being said; come on up to the Big Lake and see us!
We really do need your patronage more than ever this year, with everything and I mean everything being in the toilet right now. I will do everything in my power, by any means necessary, to get through and overcome this crisis. Patti and I have always been survivors and with your help we will survive this depression too. We will also do our part to give you the deals where and when we can. If we work together, it can be done and you will always have a place to call home at Rocky Reef and so will we! We should have a very good bite this year even with the small perch population that is still out there and in abundance. I am going to wet a line for the first time this season off of the main dock. There is always a walleye or 10 waiting to be rocked by the Rockman in the spring. For most of you that will be reading this report, probably tonight at about 7:30 pm. I will be fishing on the dock waiting to catch the first of hopefully many walleyes this season.
So just think about that! I will update the Report on Wednesday with the dock fishing; let us just call it The Dock Report for now. I should be able to get enough done on shore and get on the water by next weekend. I hate this time of year getting everything fired back up and taking care of all of the damages from Mother Natures Wrath from the hard winter season we just had, it killed off a lot of trees and shrubs, not to mention the frost was over 7 ft deep and is taking its sweet time coming out of the ground. Do not get me wrong, I love what I do, but at this time of the year, all that I really want to do, is GO FISHING!
We will see ya
When we see ya
The Rockman
Check Out Our Forum Tab!
Topic: Rockman Report/Rocky Reef (Read 1698 times)
