Return to Rockport 8-30-22

[TubeDude]

Had a fun time at Rockport last week.  No better options this week so I hit Rockport again.  Wasn’t as fast as last week but good enough to keep me happy.
 
Launched just before 7 am.  Air temp was a cool 46…warming to a toasty 85 by noon departure.  But a full 10 degrees cooler than it was when I got back down the hill to Salt Lake.  Water temp had cooled down to 66…from over 70 last week.  It will probably warm back up in the next few heat wave days.  Still don’t need my waders.
 

A couple of fishing boats launched about the same time I was heading out.  No power squadron today.
Also got to meet BFTer lovetofish as he was prepping his toon for a launch.  Said he was going to hit the west side, down below the highway.  Didn’t see him back at the ramp when I packed up my gear.
 
Figured since I found the fish last week that this week was going to be a big perch harvest.  Nay, not so.  Got into a couple of good areas early but then it got tough.  Hardly anything on “TV” this week.  But did find a couple of big concentrations of young perch on the bottom still.  The only problem was that the only bites I got in the area were from peck peck bait stealers.  Caught a few dinks that were aggressive enough to get the hook.
 
 
Since the fish were fewer and more scattered, I searched for them by dragging a couple of mini whirly fligs with worm at about .5 mph…moving in S turns from about 12 feet deep out to over 25 feet deep.  When I found a few fish I would stop and make short casts with a tandem rig of small plastic tubes…or vertical jig them.  I caught fish both ways.  I was able to keep enough fish to provide another good family fish fry.  And quite a few of them were right on the 11 inch mark…and healthy.  Some good fillets.
 

The cooling waters had the trout fans out in force.  Saw several boats that were obviously dragging gear for troutkind.  But didn’t ever see any of them bring anything aboard.  Also saw a couple of other small boats that were vertical jigging…probably for perch.  They all moved around a lot and I never saw any of them catch anything.  Count my blessings.