# Fall fishing on Mille Lacs with The Rockman



## ROCKMAN (Jun 28, 2004)

We have been able to put another year on the big pond under our belt. This is how the year went. We started the year with great expectations for a great walleye bite after the previous years starvation debacle because of the handling of the harvest levels the year before, and anticipation on what the new slot limit would do for all of you that have been so disgusted with the way the MN state DNR has handled the harvest restrictions. I can say that the response on the restrictions as they sit now, you all can live with it. Being that this is once again suppose to be a 5-yr. Plan. We will see if the DNR live up to their end of the deal with the people. We then found ourselves having to make yet another business move to try and stay in business after seeing 2 more resorts be bought out and closed to the public. Cozy cove and shore acres are the last to fall. So we put the plan in motion to put a bar into the restaurant that has been here for 3 years. To try and fill the void left by shore acres buy out and eddy's buy out 3 years ago by the band. There is not many places left that you can sit by the lake with a million-dollar view and feel like you were sitting at home with friends. I would like to think that is what Patti and I have to offer you at rocky reef resort every time you stay. We also pride ourselves with unmatched full service at every visit. So now we do have the bar and restaurant in place and I think it will be a great addition to what we have to offer. If it wasn't bad news about the lake there was no news about the lake. I can't say it enough, thank you, thank you, thank you. If it wasn't for the loyalty that all of you that patronize our resort have shown us over the years, We could not and more than likely would not do what we do. We truly love what we do and would like to do it for many years to come. So again, thank you. Mid summer there was not a mud bite or a lindy rigging bite on the gravel. There was no spinner bite, but if you could muster up the patience to bobber up then you had a great year. I was able to catch fish under bobbers until mid august. After being run down and pulled into the water spout with my son Jonathan on board while pre fishing for the next tournament and surviving. Just 2 days before the hunters tournament. We placed 3rd in 2 out of 3 tournaments under bobbers.16 hundredths out of first place in the hunters tournament. And 6 hundredths out of first place in the red door tournament. The wave wacker was another story. We rigged the first day and weighed no fish and the second day under bobbers we weighed 15lbs. The second day, by the way the wave wacker was won under bobbers on the reefs out of Myr Mar. So that tells you that bobbers were the ticket this summer. The open lake deep water trolling never got off the ground either this summer. Now the fall bite was much better. September full moon phase was not what we expected because of the water temps being in the mid 60s. It was a 2 to 4 fish a night bite. The October full moon was a big hit with every one that took part in it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kent Hrbec and Eric Gislison for taking time out of their hectic schedule with their new outdoor program Kent Hrbec Out Doors to do a fall full moon shoot with the Rockman and his signature hot dog cook out on the lake. Lots of you have heard of a shore lunch. Well I take it a step further and do a hot dog cook out in the boat while fishing for big fat walleyes. It was the night of the lunar eclipse and it was dark I can tell you that. It was not the impressive numbers night that the night before was, but they were quality fat little piggy. Kent caught the first 26 in. fat little piggy not more than 2 minutes after he threw in the # 8 shallow running shad and Eric caught the last 27 inch fat little piggy at 1:30 am. We did end up with 4 fish. 2 of them were fat 21 inchers so I gave him 2 more that I caught the night before, so his wife was a very happy girl. She loves mille Lac lake walleyes. It is not the first time that I have made the wives at home happy with a limit of walleyes from the big pond. I'm sure it will not be the last. If mama is happy the rest of us are very happy. I had been on the water for four days already when they came on Wednesday and the bite had been 6 to 11 fish a night. But of course as usual the bite I wanted for Wednesday night with Kent was not there, and we fished our hearts out. That's fishing. The next night we caught a dozen fish in the 26 to 29 inch range. Sorry Kent we missed it by a day on either side. The final numbers of walleyes caught on the Rockman's guide trips were 128 walleyes in 9 days. 35 fish were over 26 inches and there were 11 fish in the 29inch range the rest of the fish were in the 25 to 22 inch range with over 30 fish in the slot from 21 ½ to 18 inches. It was nice to send my client's home with a few fish for a change. All of the fish that we caught were very fat and very healthy which is a great thing to see after the past couple of years. Most of the fish were caught on #7 or #8 shallow running shads in the perch and the fire tiger pattern. There were some big fish caught on #12 husky jerks. Of course the highlight of the fall bite was the 50-inch musky that I caught on the September full moon while fishing for walleyes on 6-pound test. What a great memory. Thanks to all of the guys that were up for the full moon phases in both September and October. It is always a great time to be together with all of you. The competition that is displayed is immeasurable and the hard time that we all give one another on the radio and at breakfast the next morning are always very entertaining. For those of us that do not live up to what everyone else thinks we should catch for numbers, all that I can say is "We envy those of you that can" We focus on quality. So there! Now we must focus our energies on the winter season and all that Mother Nature has to bring. Will it be warm weather? Will it be cold weather? Will there be snow or will there be none as we have all experienced for the past few years. Only god knows what is to come, so we must all pray for cold weather and then lots of snow. I know that is what I will be doing as I get ready for the winter season. 
Make sure to check out the photo album for all of the full moon pics. There are a lot of "fat little pigs" there.

Until then stay safe

We will see you when we see you

Rockman


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