01-18-2017, 03:17 AM
I fished Starvation with a friend from Price today. We went to the Knight Hollow area which is at the far east end of the reservoir. The road off the hill down to the inflow channel has been plowed but you will still probably need 4x4 to get back up the hill.
We tried driving over to one of the points where we normally access the ice but the roads in the area have not been plowed and there is about 14 to 16 inches of crusty snow which made it very difficult to maneuver or turn around. We decided to stay safe and not get stuck so we went back to the bottom of the dugway and parked there. We walked out onto the ice parallel to the inflow channel and we found solid ice of about 8 to 10 inches with several inches of frozen slush on the top. Once on the ice the walking was OK but getting to the ice required about 250 yards of walking through the knee deep crusty snow.
We walked out about 300 yards to an area fairly close to two shallow water warning bouys that mark an underwater obstacle. We had a problem with my auger and I couldn't get it started as a fuel line had pulled off from the carb. I called a friend who lives nearby and fortunately I caught him before he left home. He was very gracious enough to loan us his fairly new ION X electric auger. It took me about 30 minutes to drive to his home and get the auger.
Once we got setup in 22 feet of water I started seeing fish on my Showdown. We caught a bunch of 13 and 14 inch rainbows but we could not locate any perch or walleye. We didn't move around much and generally stayed in the same area. We fished until 3:30 p.m. and we caught 28 rainbows. All but a few were in the 13 to 14 inch range and looked like they may have been catchable trout placed in the lake in the fall. Some had the obvious deformed tails caused by concrete raceways of the hatcheries. We kept a few for the smokers. The best one caught today was 17.5 inches and 2.3 pounds.
It appeared there may have been a slush problem a few days ago, possibly over the weekend. There were some footprints in the frozen slush that looked like it might have been a tough walk a few days ago. All of the slush we saw was frozen and walking wasn't a problem. I believe you could use a snowmobile or ATV in the area we fished.
One item of interest: There is a patch of apparent open water to the left as we walked out from the parking spot. The water was about 50 x 100 feet and it is either open water or water that has flowed out over the ice from the inflow channel. We didn't get near enough to find out for sure. Be careful as the area could skim over and the predicted snowfall might make it hard to see.
We were fishing near the bottom with one line and the other was suspended at about 12 feet. The fish were hitting jigs with pieces of chub meat or mealworms. The Showdown was very helpful in seeing the trout coming through at mid depths.
We saw a few people fishing in the Juniper Point area but I have no idea how the conditions are over there or how the fishing was for the folks. I drove around to the main State Park boat ramp and the whole lake visible from there was capped with ice. I could not see any open water except the small area I mentioned.
Good luck and use caution because the conditions elsewhere on Starvation may be very different from what we saw today.
Edit to add information: I checked the stocking report for Starvation and it shows over 43,000 9 to 11 inch rainbows were stocked in early November 2016. Those RBT have shown good growth and they are now 12.5 to 14 inches and healthy. Give them a year or two and they should be true Starvation Steelhead.
Mike
[signature]
We tried driving over to one of the points where we normally access the ice but the roads in the area have not been plowed and there is about 14 to 16 inches of crusty snow which made it very difficult to maneuver or turn around. We decided to stay safe and not get stuck so we went back to the bottom of the dugway and parked there. We walked out onto the ice parallel to the inflow channel and we found solid ice of about 8 to 10 inches with several inches of frozen slush on the top. Once on the ice the walking was OK but getting to the ice required about 250 yards of walking through the knee deep crusty snow.
We walked out about 300 yards to an area fairly close to two shallow water warning bouys that mark an underwater obstacle. We had a problem with my auger and I couldn't get it started as a fuel line had pulled off from the carb. I called a friend who lives nearby and fortunately I caught him before he left home. He was very gracious enough to loan us his fairly new ION X electric auger. It took me about 30 minutes to drive to his home and get the auger.
Once we got setup in 22 feet of water I started seeing fish on my Showdown. We caught a bunch of 13 and 14 inch rainbows but we could not locate any perch or walleye. We didn't move around much and generally stayed in the same area. We fished until 3:30 p.m. and we caught 28 rainbows. All but a few were in the 13 to 14 inch range and looked like they may have been catchable trout placed in the lake in the fall. Some had the obvious deformed tails caused by concrete raceways of the hatcheries. We kept a few for the smokers. The best one caught today was 17.5 inches and 2.3 pounds.
It appeared there may have been a slush problem a few days ago, possibly over the weekend. There were some footprints in the frozen slush that looked like it might have been a tough walk a few days ago. All of the slush we saw was frozen and walking wasn't a problem. I believe you could use a snowmobile or ATV in the area we fished.
One item of interest: There is a patch of apparent open water to the left as we walked out from the parking spot. The water was about 50 x 100 feet and it is either open water or water that has flowed out over the ice from the inflow channel. We didn't get near enough to find out for sure. Be careful as the area could skim over and the predicted snowfall might make it hard to see.
We were fishing near the bottom with one line and the other was suspended at about 12 feet. The fish were hitting jigs with pieces of chub meat or mealworms. The Showdown was very helpful in seeing the trout coming through at mid depths.
We saw a few people fishing in the Juniper Point area but I have no idea how the conditions are over there or how the fishing was for the folks. I drove around to the main State Park boat ramp and the whole lake visible from there was capped with ice. I could not see any open water except the small area I mentioned.
Good luck and use caution because the conditions elsewhere on Starvation may be very different from what we saw today.
Edit to add information: I checked the stocking report for Starvation and it shows over 43,000 9 to 11 inch rainbows were stocked in early November 2016. Those RBT have shown good growth and they are now 12.5 to 14 inches and healthy. Give them a year or two and they should be true Starvation Steelhead.
Mike
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