Rock Lake Smack Down!

13.5" Glow Demon w/minnow

4:00-8:00PM Rock Lake My Spot
Conditions: 32-31 degrees, Cloudy, Light W Wind, the water on the ice had frozen up pretty much.

I was not happy that I didn't get out the door until 3:30 or so.  I forgot the maggies at home, so I picked up wax worms along with the minnows at Bear Trax.  I started out by drilling a second hole at all the holes I drilled yesterday.  I then stared at the first holes I did yesterday.  I never moved from that spot.  I sent down a minnow first thing and it was bobber down almost immediately.

10" Glow Demon w/minnow

I caught a couple more quickly then they stopped biting so I put the minnow down in the far hole.

5.5" VMC Fly w/Wax Worm

I then started getting crappies and sunfish on the VMC Fly with Jamei and a wax worm.  I got a this bass on the Demon with minnow.

12" Glow Demon and Minnow

 Two trips two bass.  Never would have guessed that after not catching one out there last winter.

10.5" Glow Demon w/minnow

The crappies started biting the minnow so frequently I only fished one line for about an hour and a half.  At about 6PM it slowed down and I resumed fishing with two lines.  I caught a few more crappies on the minnow.  I got a couple of crappies on the Fly, a couple on the Tubby Jig, and couple sunfish on the Tubby Jig.  This was the biggest sunfish of the night.

7.5" VMC Tubby Jig w/Maki Jamei

 I decided to leave at 8PM

39 Crappies
9 Sunfish
1 Bass

With the one slab being the exception all the crappies were no bigger than 10.5" with most of them being from 9.5-10".  I only got two that were shorter than 9".  The Rock Lake specials are definitely growing.  One more year and I'll have a pretty good crappie lake.

My lower back is really feeling it.  That has never happened from sitting in the Fish Trap before.

First Ice Fishing Trip of 2017

17.5" VMC Fly Jig w/Maki Jamei and maggie

9:00AM-1:30PM Rock Lake My Spot 14'-17'
Conditions: 34 degrees, Cloudy and fog in the morning, light W wind, sloppy and wet on the ice

Sloppy and Wet

With the warm weather we have been having my motivation meter finally started ticking up and so today was the day I put it all together and got out.  There wasn't much going on at Rock Lake and two parties pulled their permanents off of the lake today.  I'm taking that to mean the bite hasn't been very good out there this winter compared to other area lakes.

I had a thought before I started drilling holes that since I didn't have any minnows all I needed was a single hole instead of my usual double.  I found one open hole in the area but that was it.  I didn't really look to hard to see if there were any others.  I think I drilled 6.  I started in the farthest North.  And my first fish for 2017 was a...

1st Fish of 2017

Bluegill on a VMC Tungsten Fly Jig w/white Maki Jamei with a spike

All I got in the first hole was sunfish and they were finicky.  My line on the VMC Fly's rod was getting caught on the spool where I tied to the backing.  I took the time to get the not put at the very bottom of the spool where it is less likely to catch.  Turns out that was a good thing I did that.  

In the second hole I busted the bass first thing after not getting a hit with fish down it on the Rippin' Rap.

17.5" VMC Fly w/Maki Jamei and spike

Not where it was actually hooked

The way the bass ran I thought I had a decent sized pike on.  I was pleasantly surprised it was a bass seeing as how I didn't catch a single one out there last winter.  That fish made my trip.

I also caught some perch.

7.5" Rippin' Rap

This was the only bite I had on the Rippin Rap.

I was satisfied I knocked the rust off and packed up at 1:30PM.  I should have moved around more quickly and drilled a few more holes.

1 Bass
6 Perch
12 Sunfish