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Got there about 5:45 am and launched. Started trolling my over to a spot I know that has bass on occasion. Got two rainbows right off the bat - 14 and 16 inches - the 16 was a fatty. Tossed for some bass for a while and got a few small ones. Drifted with the wind close in to shore and started getting some real fast perch action so I anchored and stayed for an hour or so pulling perch out.
The big fish of the day was a 4.5 pound sucker that fought like a lion for 30 seconds - then it was like a log.
The morning water was 69 degrees and by noon it was 72. I got one trout at about 20 feet on a perch rapala and the other at the surface on a long lined rainbow pattern needle fish. The bass and the sucker were caught on a speed trap, and the perch hit on a number of things I threw - jigs, spinners and crankbaits.
Side note: Fisherman 1 - 2 PWC riders 2 tickets.
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Sounds like you caught some good catfish bait. Ok I'll bite, please explain:
[size 1]"Side note: Fisherman 1 - 2 PWC riders 2 tickets."[/size]
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Well, you see, I was just fishing. Alone in my boat. Minding my own business and attending to it rightfully. I was drifting and casting to the shore in hopes that some bass would be hanging in this off shore structure I found then anchored. I was maybe 150 feet from the shore. - As I do on occasion, I looked around me. I saw a boat approaching at a very high speed - coming directly at me. It was obvious that the operator of that craft had not seen me in my white hat, shirt and pants, nor my 16 foot aluminum fishing obstacle before getting close enough for me to see small details of each of the occupant's surprised looks, and for them, to read my lips. They did turn in time, to avoid any real contact, but their wake did hit me full on at point blank range. No problem - my vessel rode it out like a champ - bow first. Of course they speed off like nothing happened. So I gathered myself and the few things that rode it out on the floor, and headed back to the boat ramp.
OK, this is where the PWC's come in. As I made my way back, I discovered that for some reason my tiny tin trawler some how looks just like a racing pylon. I am sure you know already but some of those devices shot a stream of water way in the air. That stream is capable of entirely soaking a person in a millisecond. My main thought at that time was that I was pretty gratefull that the ramp wasn't too far away. As I pulled up to the ramp, I saw a Park Ranger headed down to the Park service boat. So, I mosied over to tell him about my close encounters. He said he had watched the boat episode from his truck up on the road. Then I told him of the PWC's and he said He was going to go out and check them too. Just as he was starting his engine to go out, the PWC's raced right past us into the no wake zone. He went right over and wrote them tickets - as I watched. The Ranger then went out to find the people in the boat. I called it a day.
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Hey Fishhound,
Thanks for the report. Did you keep the sucker for bait? How's the water level. Is there any any flooded brush or tree's that might be fun to fish near in the Yak's. The Kayak Guru is back from Cali so we might need to take a run to the basin for some yak fishing.
Tincanfsh
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How deep were the perch? Thanks, I need to find some for the grandkids (and for me, too).
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Yea, I have plenty of sucker meat now. The Lake is very high - as high as I have ever seen it and there is quite a bit of flooded brush, but not as much as other waters. Last year, Rockport was almost at full pond, but this year it seems over that.
Let's get the Guru out and hit some yak water for fish - like Pelican maybe ? Just a thought. Don't forget - gray trout tomorrow.
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The perch were shallow - down about 3 to 5 feet. They were all around me and taking my presentations withing a couple of feet of the boat. You and the grandkids should have no problem getting into them. For me , it was non-stop action for an hour or so and then I quit - not because the bite died down - but because the traffic picked up.
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How deep was the water you were fishing in? We tried the flats uplake on the west side along the highway ~three weeks ago in about 12 feet. I have done well there in years past, but not that time. Any size to the perch? We did pretty well through the ice last winter. Thanks.
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I was on the edge of the 9 and 12 foot depths in the flats. In that area the weed growth on the surface is only sporadic but, down about 2 feet there is a canopy of weed growth. The perch were hanging a foot or so beneath that. While I was there, there were a number of very large suckers cruising just above the canopy - that's where I got mine.
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