02-23-2022, 05:20 AM
Foot-soldiered it down the slope to the ice at R.P. this morning, line in water by 0745...ice solid, edges solid today...it's a little eerie being the first one on the reservoir, but ok....cold to start, but no wind yet, and dropping the finder down the hole revealed activity on the bottom..perch were here...a few good ones on ice just before DuBob and Allen came out on their machines..my activity slowed just long enough to get my tent set up, and was able to greet Bob and Allen while getting inside organized...We had pretty good activity right away again, which lasted 'til about 0900, but then the wind and cold started...Time to get the heater going, as the bite pretty much stopped..Big schools went away, little schools didn't stick around, and mostly just sniffed our presentations... lots of 'thumb twiddling' for a couple hours, and Bob and Allen packed up and headed back to civilization...I know they each got a few nice ones...I wanted to stay a little longer, as my heater was doing a fair job of fighting back the frigid temps, and this is where I needed to be...now about 1230? a couple more good ones up on the ice...I'd made a homemade 'wonderbread' patterned jig, and now this worked great with an eyeball.. The big school stayed around for almost 45 minutes longer, 'til I had to leave at 1:30, providing an unusually good bite that whole period...dead stick still mostly not working, but 'teasing' them up did at this time...overall, 1 caught on small pc of nite crawler, 2 on wax worm, 0 on red spikes, several on cut mealworm, and the rest on donated eyeball...released 4 or 5, those kept were 9 to 10"..no monsters...just nice perch...