3/02/10

The end off the 2010 ice fishing season has drawn to a close and all and all it was a pretty good season. We were out on the ice on the 15th of December, which gave use an extra 2 weeks on the ice on the front end and 1 week of an extension on the back side. The really nice part was that the walleyes were biting out on the sunken island and # 1 & #2 humps for the first 4 weeks of the season until that bite fizzled out. Then we moved to the deeper water off of the second reef and that produced some very nice 26 and 28 inch walleyes and some very nice perch walleyes over the past 3 weeks, just not in large numbers. There were 8 Northern pike from 32 to 41 inches caught along with hundreds of tullies.

There were a lot of walleyes caught in the 14 to 17 inch range, and there were quite a few fish in the 10 to 12 inch range, which was great to see. You always had a chance at an occasional 25 to 26 inch walleye mixed in with them during the 3 hour window from to 3 to 5pm. There were 8 fish caught this season that were over 28 inches and all of them are going the wall. Four of them were caught by 10 and 12 year old kids, coming up with their dads for the first time on Mille Lacs Lake this season. I was very excited for them, and I know that they were very pleased and excited to land those big pig Mille Lacs Lake Walleyes and you can rest assured that they are hooked on Walleye fishing at least through the ice for life.

It is a great feeling to make a difference in some ones life especially when they are young kids. There was a 28 inch walleye caught out of one of the foam houses this weekend By Mike, Joey and Shane. I have a picture of it on the photo album. The perch and tullibee bite was quite slow this weekend for some reason, who knows why, other than the fact that I had a great report from the bug beds out 5 miles last weekend and then the second reef slowed down too. It will start up again, with the warmer temps coming all this week, we will lose a lot of snow cover and water will start to flow down the open holes and oxygenate the water, which in turn will allow some of the chain of events that must happen to get the perch to come in, to get under way. Then we can start to search and destroy them big jumbo fat belly perch that we use to be know for here on Mille Lacs. I guess I should have said some of us some of us, but I am still determined to make it out a couple of times this season. I will just fish out of the safety of the Trail Blazer in comfort.

All’s that is left to get done now, is to get the 12 houses that are in the yard put away and gather up all of the garbage and crap that is left out on the ice by, Let’s just call them; The Pig people. They do not have any respect for nature or other people that use the resource. Don’t get me going on that subject, because I end up with a lot of the blocks and plastic bags and just plain garbage on my beach every spring when the wind blows the crap and debris all along the shoreline and we clean it up for days when the wind blows in the spring.

I was very proud of the job that Jonathan did this season and was particularly impressed with the way he took care of getting everything off of the ice and handled everything with care. He has turned into a vey responsible young man over the past 3 months. Thank you Jonathan for taking over while I am not able too, I am very proud of you and the man you have become. This will be my last Rockman’s Report until the opener. I will keep you updated on the perch bite as it continues to get better, and we will do what we can to keep the roads open, but at some point over the next 3 weeks, I am sure that the shoreline will start to thaw and the fishing will be over until open water. I can’t wait to get all healed up and get back into my warrior and rip some lips this season.

It was a very tuff year last year, physically and emotionally. I felt like I had to have hit the bottom, I can only go up from here baby! We are looking forward to a short break for a couple of months and then it will be time to focus on the summer season ahead. Thank you once again, too everybody who supported us again this season, in the toughest of times, you have always come through and kept us doing what we love to do, We will see you in 8 to 10 weeks!

Be safe, and we will see you in the spring!

The Rockman