Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Sea Breeze Charters
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.