1/22/07
It was nice to have some consistent weather for a couple of days; the weather this year has been very weird. We ended up with just a dusting of snow on Saturday, with south winds at 25 mph. I feel sorry for all of you that have your sleds sitting in the garage collecting dust. I bet you are past, chomping at the bit. It doesn’t fair well, for any of the businesses that make their living in the winter time. We are down to 4 weeks left of our season already, and we just got started. The fishing this weekend was very slow for most, but there were a few guys in the rentals and out in portables that I were able to get on some fish. Other than that, it was slow. It would be nice to get 3 inches of snow, so that I can establish some kind of road system. Without out it, every one is running all over the place, and they come from all over. They are driving over from the north, south and even from the east side, with great big 20 foot wheel house on the back. Wow, to scary for me, you can hear them coming from a mile off. We have 18 inches of ice rite now and I don’t think it is a great idea to be traveling like that with that kind of weight, especially when the ice is still moving around. We got a new pressure ridge this weekend just past the humps that are out a mile or so. It will take a while to put on much more ice in the near future, with the temps staying in the 20s during the day. Every inch that we can get from now until the close, will be greatly appreciated. Here are a couple of nice emails, from the guys that caught fish this weekend. It is always nice to get these emails from the guys. When you see as many people as I do, in a day or a weekend, I hardly ever get back to them all, to find out how they did. The pics are on my web site @ http://www.rockyreef.com under photo album tab. Enjoy
Rockman,
I wanted to thank you for the advice to fish the 3 mile rockreef.We arrived Saturday at 9am and fished for 24 hours and left this morning.We were pleasantly surprised with the number of jumbo perch right away. We were fortunate to get amid day 28″ Walleye on a sucker minnow.Then a flurry of eyes right at dusk. 2 18″ and one 26 inch. It was dead till 10pm.Then we caught a very nice number of walleyes on the rattle reels.They bit steadily from 10pm-330am. We ended up with 7 eyes over 26 inches, one of which was a solid 29.5″ and 28.5″.We caught 2 more from 7am-9am this morning.What a GREAT time! I don’t get to Mille Lacs as much as I would like to but every time I go thru you for the safety of your ice reports and your continuous update on the fish report! I will email you pics this week as we only had a cell phone camera.I forgot my digital at home 
In total we caught 12 walleyes, 5 under the slot and 7 over 26 inches! Also kept 10 true jumbos! The best hog fishing ever for me and friend! Thanks again and I will hopefully see you before the ice is out!
Rockman,
My dad and his buddies were pretty impressed with your houses and had fun this weekend even though the eyes were a bit scarce. They are planning on coming back next already. Thanks for everything. After you stopped in to check on us Saturday night, I iced a 25in. walleye at 7:30 pm. Red Gammy hooks, 3 ft. up. We had a few other rattles later w/ no hookups throughout the night and finally scored a 15in. ‘eye this morning about 6:45am. More good news from this morning too….. I went back out off the reef where I had set up the night before and banged another 28 in. walleye right off the bat at sunrise! Then the perch started rolling through. Best perch was a fat 13 incher. Fishing definitely picked up from Saturday afternoon and on. 19 perch between 9-13 and 4 walleyes, 2 28’s, a 25 in. and the 15 in. We finished strong. The pictures included are of the fish I caught today. I couldn’t figure out how to get the photos on my cell phone from Saturday evening onto the computer. The walleye only pic. Has a 30in. rod laying next to the fish reference. The other picture of the perch has a15 in walleye laying next to it as referenceJ that was a nice perch!! The perch were out there in good numbers though tentative to bite at times. I had a lot of lookers that would drift away slowly but for the most part, the perch I landed were active and racing each other to my bait, sometimes 7-8 ft off the bottom. Red glow spoon, with a minnow head accounted for both 28 in walleye and the majority of my perch.I don’t know how far out you move your houses but that spot I was on was .42 miles from house #4. I’ll give you GPS coordinates if you’re interested. Anyway, thanks for a great weekend.That was my first time on Mille Lacs in the winter and I had a great time. You’ll probably see me roll through a few more times this winter to use your access at least.
Brad Gudenkauf
