Rockport Perch..Good and Bad

[MrShane]

[quote pid="1160071" dateline="1737840046"]
Bottom line is that a healthy perch pond should have plenty of nutrients and lots of zooplankton to maintain the bottom part of the food chain.  After that, there needs to be good spawning and recruitment to keep the bigger perch well fed and capable of big spawns.  The circle of life.

Pat, since we did not make our Willard date come to fruition we better be at RP at ice off to help some 11” Perch complete their ‘Circle of life’….in to my death well.

Prolly not the best time for heavy harvesting.  The perch will be spawning about ice-out and my experience is that they are usually not too active for anglers until summer warms the water back op to over 60.  Best wide-open warm water perch bite is after the young of the year hatchlings get over about 1" long and form those big schools around the shoreline.  July through iceup has always been pretty reliable.  

I fondly reckymember a couple of good days we shared a spot at Echo during that glut period.
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Yes, I hold those memories of Echo close to my heart!
But, my favorite memory I have of our trips is you and I at Starvy the day after Thanksgiving, and I am sure you remember VERY well.
We had found a good pile of Walleye and jumbo Perch so I spot-locked us over them.
We had caught like 35 something Walleye, a good pile of jumbos, and a few Steelies to boot when a boat started heading our way.
That other boat drove straight over to us and anchored like 30’ away.
I was so surprised I was speechless.
I kind of remember you asking them if they wanted to hop in my boat with us and I remember them telling us we were in their spot!
Not so funny then but hilarious now!
I love you Pat!