Rockport Perch Jerkin' 8-23-22 (With Video)

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Had a hankerin’ for some perch.  Weighed all my options and Rockport won the three sided coin toss.  Got a few nice ones there last year…even in the disastrously low water.  Figured the current higher water conditions might offer more potential.  I was right.
 

Launched about 7ish.  Amazing how much higher the water level is this year.  Last year I had to wade through sticky mud at the end of a long ramp to get my tube launched.  This year the ramp to the water was only about 1/3 as long as the ramp at Deer Creek on my last excursion.  Mo bettah.
 
Air temp at launch was a cool 49…warming to a lovely 82 at noon departure.  Water temp was 66 at the ramp but 68 main lake…warming to 70 by noon.


Couldn’t believe it.  As I was prepping my tube for launch a large wakeboard boat backs down right next to me…not even light yet.  And when I hollered that the lake was reserved for float tubes the response was unprintable on a family forum.  At least he did most of his big wake playing on the other side of the lake…as did the two other water skiers that launched on Tuesday.
 

Based upon recent intel received…and factoring in past experience…I headed south from the ramp toward the inlet.  Made a brief stop at the rocky outcrops and did some exploratory fishing.  Saw marks on sonar and sent down a couple of different sizes and colors of worm-baited whirly fligs.  Only got a few perch pecks for a few minutes.  Then I picked up a couple of basket perch and a couple of small smallies.
  

Moved slowly south off the mud and rock shoreline.  I was slowly bottom bouncing a couple of worm baited whirly fligs at about .5 mph…working in and out from as shallow as 12 feet out to over 20 feet.  Began seeing huge schools of baby perch along the bottom at several depths.  And also began to pick up perch with fair regularity. 
 

The earlier fish came from about 15 feet.  Later the bigger fish moved out to 20 – 22 feet.  Lots of bait stealers and dinks...and a fair number of half-footers (six inchers).  But between 8 – 11 am I managed to put over a dozen filletable sized perch in the basket.  They ranged from around 9 to 11 inches.  And I lost one humongo at the net that would have been an easy 12-13 inches.  There are still some bigguns in Rockport.


Besides the little whirly fligs, I had one rod rigged for vertical jigging whenever I found a concentration or a school of perch.  It was a tandem rig with 2 1/16 oz. pale perch colored PBJs (painted body jigs).  One was a “flat rinkee”.  The other was a wobble head jig.  Both produced a fair number of perch…from super small to respectable.
 

By 11:30 the fishing had slowed, my big battery was running low and my bladder was getting full.  So I headed for the ramp.  Chris Penne (DWR) came over to chat while I was getting my gear packed up.  He was there with some other folks from the Division doing some studies on the young of the year perch population.  Said they had been finding them at all levels…even up to 49 feet deep…but most above the thermocline which they measured at 32 feet.
 
Fun day on the water.  Plenty of perch jerkin’ and only a light smattering of other boats.