Boy or Boy do I wish Global Warming would hit us over here (LOL). OK, I know, I have broken Mom's first rule, you know the one, Son, Never talk Religion or Politics in public, and I just did both.

So, perhaps a report. We were the first on the lake with a boat today. For the first 100 yards, the water was normal, but the temperature gage read very cold. When I got out farther, something looked wrong, but with the glass calm surface, it was not until I got to the edge of the 3/8" thick ice sheet that ran for about 1/4 mile North, that I understood what it was. I figured, what the heck, I have an aluminum hull for a reason, and I pushed the gas a little and went through it. Slightly warming day time temperatures and wind removed the ice later in the day, but this was an omen. Please keep in mind that I have never seen ice on Rock before - not even in January.

The two of us did catch 19 fish, all but 5 were Browns, with the smallest (~12") a bow, and the second largest being a bow. All were released, but they are smarter now. We noticed that most fish were caught early, before the front hit and dropped the pressure through the floor. As the day went on, we did catch fish, and had follows, but they just got less interested in our offerings by the minute. In fact, we had to change out from our normal patterns to get hits, and our normal locations were less then stellar.

In summary, I am sure that with warming temperatures, the Lake will recover, but we need some of the NORMAL 50 degree days, not the 20's we had last week, with lows in the single digits.

The water was down a full degree from last week, down to 37.4 degrees throughout the day. The fish ranged from a small of about 12" to about 22". We did not actually measure them, but we are normally pretty close by now as judging them. Also, with the colder temperatures, the water is not flowing in as fast, so the depth has dropped about a foot. The lake is dropped stained, even green, but not muddy.

bazzdude

3/16/2009 9:11:00 AM

Nice report, Rock laks is an addictive lake i think. Expecially this time of year when there in not much else going on in this area. I was woundering if you were throwing rapallas or spinners? Stay warm and safe out there,later.

Anglinarcher

3/16/2009 10:35:00 AM

Bazzdude, the answer to your question, about lures, is yes, rapalas, spinners, Yo-Zuris, Swimbaits, Swim Jigs, flatfish, fly jigs, my whole 10 tackle boxes............................... In short, it did not seem to matter what you tossed, or trolled, it was location, location, location. We noticed that we would catch two or three fish in a 20 yard spot, but nothing for another 100 yards. We also noticed that color was critical, but changed every 15 minutes. We did good, but it was a day of adapting to changes.

RAT Sports

3/16/2009 4:41:00 PM

I agree with Anglinarcher, location is much more key than lure but we have noticed curtain lures and curtain colors catch the bigger(25" +) fish while pretty much anything is catching the smaller ones. And to sound like a broken record, they are schooled up pretty tight right now, if you only catch one, keep throwing in that general area because there are more in there. Patterning where they are can be tough in terms of depth or structure but the key for us really seems to be patterning water temps. Good luck !

bazzdude

3/16/2009 10:23:00 PM

Yes i can agree with you guys, now that i think about it i would catch 2 or 3 fish in 10 min of bank fishing and then nothing for about 30-40 min then again same thing. Strange. I stuck with the same lure for my 4 hrs on the lake and cougth 11 browns missed atleast 5 but the bigest was 19'' and the smallest being 16''. Anyhow, stay warm out there.

Anglinarcher

3/17/2009 10:22:00 AM

What I found interesting last time was that my largest lure caught the smallest rainbow. Go figure, but RAT is correct in that some colors and lures work better then others. I just may not agree with him on which ones (LOL). I had my buddy down 5 fish to zero, and I was hitting bigger fish as it turned out, but he changed to a lure and color I hate, and until he broke it on the rocks, it was killing them. I put the same danged lure on out of my box and caught nothing, so he put MY lure on and hit them again.... What the.......... I suspect that in many respects, what makes a certain color, or lure, better for RAT, or for myself, is confidence. I laked the confidence in my friends choice and lacked the desire to keep working it, so he caught them but I did not. At the end of the day though, the count was 10 fish for him, 9 for me, and I caught the two biggest Browns, he caught the biggest Bow.

bazzdude

3/17/2009 8:09:00 PM

Anglinarcher. Sounds like a good day huh? Where most of your fish around 5 feet deep? that is where i have found most of them to be. Anyhow, stay warm and safe out there.

Anglinarcher

3/17/2009 11:13:00 PM

bazzdude, fish were shallow early, moving deeper as the front moved in, with fish from 1' early to over 20' by 1:00 PM. It was a tough day.

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