Rockport Morning

[theguide]

I had a great morning at Rockport. The only things missing that would have made it better, my kids and tagged fish.

I arrived at 0730 and left from Two Coves campground. I started in 28 feet of water. But, after 30 minutes of seeing nothing on the Humminbird it was time to move. I moved out towards the center of the lake where I found 38 feet of water. I was looking for 50 feet, but decided to eat breakfast and see if anything came through.

At 0900 the bite turned on. Most of the fish were coming through between 7 and 16 feet. I would jig a couple of times to bring the fish in, but they wouldn't strike until I quit jigging. The action stayed pretty constant until 1100. After that, it was one fish at 1130 and the last at 1208. I caught a total of 18, all in the 14-16" range.

I usually have good success with nightcrawlers at Rockport. Today I was also trying butterworms. I had never used them before, but after today they will probably always be part of the arsenal. The butterworms on a green and white ice fly outfished the nightcrawlers 18-0. I guess it was only 5 or 6 to 0, because after that both of my poles were tipped with a butterworm. I didn't see one fish on the sonar that didn't strike the butterworms. I didn't catch them all, but they all took a strike.

Now, I get to put my Christmas gift to work. Santa must have found me on the nice list and left me a smoker. Having never used one before, if anyone has any tips or recipes, it would be greatly appreciated.
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[brookie]

so are butterworm and meal worms the same? If not where do you buy butterworms?
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[theguide]

I bought the butterworms at the Walmart in Riverton. It's the first time I had ever seen or heard of them. They are very similar to a wax worm. A little bigger, and they have some red color to them.
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[FOD]

They even sound yummy.
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[Edogg03]

I have seen them at all the walmarts i have gone to the are about a dollar more and only have 20 in them the wax worms at walmart have 36 so I have yet to give into my sons begging for them but after this report i guess he will get to try the butter worms.
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[brookie]

Thanks for the info guys, I guess I'll have to brave a trip to walmart.
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[PIKEMAN99]

Hey I got a recipe for you. It's just a basic brine then you add the seasonings you want. The key here is 1 cup of real salt not the morton garbage. Then 5 cups brown sugar. Then 1 gallon hot water ( to dissolve). Then you can add different seasonings from there start with a few teaspoons of different things and experiment from there.I let it brine for 3 days. On bigger trout I like to split them in half so the brine up and smoke better. Just a little tip the biggest mistake that people make when they are first smoking meats is to do two or three pans of wood. I only do one and then just let the heat dry it till the fins are crispy. Let me know if you have any more questions.
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[LurkinLizard]

Stopped by a SprawlMart this morning (in West Jordan) to find them, and all the had was waxies. No mealworms even, definitely no butterworms.

Maybe that's why we only caught 2 fish at Rockport!
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[Blueboy22]

Orem Wallmart use to have Butterworms and waxworms all summer but, they said they all go bad or turn to moths so they no longer carry them. They have told me this several times over the years but keep they keep buying them, the only problem and they can't get this though there heads is, they need to sell them between Oct- march. They sell them from March to Oct ????
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[LurkinLizard]

Sounds like the Sprawlmart sporting goods folks don't fish much! [crazy]
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[MichiganAngler]

Did you guys catch any perch or see any on the sonar?
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[theguide]

I still haven't found any perch. It sounds like they are fairly difficult to find at Rockport. I would really like to locate them though, so good to eat.
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