Rocky Fork Lake Report

I'm a little late on this but we took a trip out to Rocky Fork last week. It's probably been 25 years since my last visit so I was pretty much fishing a new lake to me. My 1st 1/2 hour I just motored around looking at my electronics trying to find something interesting to fish. I didn't have any luck and decided to just pick a spot in mid lake and just start fishing. It took us a while to catch anything but we finally started to get on a few fish. We were getting a few fish and one of the locals fishing in a pontoon turned us on to a pattern that was working for him, I won't say we killed them but we certainly had more than enough fish to call it a decent catch and the average size was pretty good. One other thing was the catfish must have been close to spawning because we caught a bunch of them on jigs up to maybe 6# or so. All and all it was a very good day with steady action.

Attachment 242535
Dad caught this there last week still tearing them up..this weighted 2.83 biggest one I ever seen in ohio

Outstanding fish. Even though EF is 10 minutes from my house I plan on visiting Rocky Fork more often.
My biggest crappie in Ohio came from Cowan and it was a close to the 16" mark. For some reason it was a rare day and I didn't measure or weigh the fish. I looked at it, a buddy took a pic and I tossed it back.
I wonder how much your dad's fish would have weighed a month or 2 ago providing it was a female and full of eggs.

Great fish......Rocky Fork has been on my bucket list for years. That picture right there convinced me to get my but up there. Probably only 10-15 minutes farther for me than East Fork.

Guys,
Rocky fork for us has been the best in five years we've fished it....numbers and size....we have had many limits this year at rocky fork..and size usually you got to weed out the small ones but this year we had to keep the measuring stick in the tackle box 97:/: of fish we caught were 10 inches and bigger....I'm worried next year might be bad at rocky fork a lot of short fish but I'll be there to find out.... That black crappie still had eggs in it

Still had eggs...wow, this is the latest I've heard of. I'm impressed as to just how late some fish actually spawn. I'm hoping to make it back out to Rocky again next week if I can.

I've only fished RF once last Fall, but my wife and I are going out for a camp/fish weekend tomorrow, I'd like to crappie fish if anyone has any tips for a 90 degree June weekend? I can be set up for spider rigging for suspended fish, just don't know the lake that well, we will be camped on the North Shore too.

John, do you like my new humble signature? lol

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Originally Posted by Tom 513

I've only fished RF once last Fall, but my wife and I are going out for a camp/fish weekend tomorrow, I'd like to crappie fish if anyone has any tips for a 90 degree June weekend? I can be set up for spider rigging for suspended fish, just don't know the lake that well, we will be camped on the North Shore too.

John, do you like my new humble signature? lol

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Nice signature :Rofl
Tom give me a call when you get a chance...FWIW, I'll spill the beans :fish

can you save the beans till this Fall? family trouble is going to keep us home this weekend, dang it

I debated whether to start a new thread but here it goes...

My dad has been itching to take a trip to Rocky Fork this year. I have fished it when I was a kid but neither of us have been there in 30 years.

I could do a day trip but it would be a looong drive. So debating doing a 2-day trip there in mid-September. It would take us a little exploring anyway - more than 1 day would allow.
My dad is 75 and his camping days are behind him. What I am interested in knowing is if there is a good cabin rental for a night somewhere very close to the water? I thought that the park would have cabins like East Fork but they apparently don't. Anyone know of a good 1-night place? Just somewhere to sleep until it's time to fish again.

Thanks.

I hope someone reply's to this. I'd like that info myself if it's available.

FWIW we made a second trip to RF last week and even though e caught some fish size and numbers were down from the previous trip. We were there on Wednesday when the storm were coming in so we had limited time. Our last hour or so we decided to look at some new water and see if we could find a few perch. For the little time we had we surprised ourselves and did catch a few plus some bonus crappie and saugeyes. With the storms fast approaching we decided to quit for the day. Hopefully we'll make it back sometime this week...we'll see.

bayview campground & cottages bait & tackle 937 393 3119 Bayview Campground and Cottages, Bait and Tackle. nice people,right by the north shore boat ramp good luck

bayview campground & cottages bait & tackle 937 393 3119 Bayview Campground and Cottages, Bait and Tackle. nice people,right by the north shore boat ramp good luck

Thanks collier...those folks are friendly. I never paid attention to the sign I guess. I bought bait there when I was at the lake. Like you said it is close being just across from the parking lot from the launch ramp. He's got a nice selection of bait and tackle too.

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Originally Posted by crappiemax

Thanks collier...those folks are friendly. I never paid attention to the sign I guess. I bought bait there when I was at the lake. Like you said it is close being just across from the parking lot from the launch ramp. He's got a nice selection of bait and tackle too.

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Thanks. I will probably contact them. Seems like a good option, especially since I think in early September, I'll be fishing that cove and also trolling with minnows, so having bait options are good. Also, looks like a good place to put in on the lake. I have heard about fishing the docks, which I assume are mostly toward the dam, but if they are heavily fished from the shore, there may be better options with a boat.

CMax you trying to get everyone outta your honey hole???? everyone knowes EF is the best lake in Ohio.... RF has small fish and low numbers ;)

Hey Fish...how ya doing??? Naw, there ain't no honey holes at EF...I'm just trying to figure out why some of these guys who basically live next to EF are driving an hour to RF on the weekends. Now I know...it's a nice lake. Some guys who do there scouting via the internet see the all the chatter about EF and think it's the only lake in Ohio with crappie. Since retiring this year I've been moving around to different lakes and IMO lots of these other lakes have much better fish in them. I've fished EF since it was built and I've never seen a fish like the one in post #2 at EF.
With EF just being 8.5 minutes from my house to the launch, I made a 3rd trip up to Rocky(an hour away) about 2 weeks ago. This time we didn't do as good on the crappie but we started to get into a mess of decent ring perch. We decided to make a location change and my motor started acting up so we had to cut the trip short. So far I'm impressed with what I've seen.
One thing I didn't mention on our 1st trip was that as we were fishing we noticed the water level was slowly dropping. We thought it was odd to be lowering the lake during mid June but as we were pulling the boat out we found out what was going on. At the ramp we ran into your old man (Yslabs) and he had caught so many fish the water dropped,,,all nice big fish too I might add. The secrets out now, all these guys fishing EF are headed your way so I can have a little peace and quiet at EF :ThumbsUp

Attachment 245204Here ya go max the paper says it all ��

that reporter been smokin

Dang it Fish...now everyone knows!