Tubing Starvation Again

[TubeDude]

[cool][font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][#0000ff]Hit Rabbit Gulch with Flycasting yesterday morning. On the water about 7:30, under scattered clouds and only light breezes. Water temp down to 69 at launch, warming to about 73 by the time we got off the water at 2 PM.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The water level keeps dropping. Down another two feet from my last trip, two weeks ago. That, and the dropping water temps have pushed the fish into slightly deeper water. On my previous two trips over the past month, the fish have been shallower and more plentiful on the flats in Rabbit Gulch. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We had to work a lot of water with sonar to find any concentrations of willing fish. We finally found a pretty good school of perch in about 21 feet of water. We probably should have gone deeper still. According to Magnaman's report, he was catching them in 25 feet of water. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We got LOTS of perch, from 6" to over 11". No real toads and lots of porky 8 inchers. We both kept about a dozen over 10" for the fillet knife. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Our big (unpleasant) surprise was that neither of us caught even one walleye. They have been thick in the Gulch, but have evidently moved out. Flycasting had one follow up a perch, at first light, but we did not hook any. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We did not find any smallies either. The only other species was a solitary chub I caught shallow on the way back to the car in the afternoon. It was 14" long with a big gut (see pic). Fought better than many trout I have caught in my career...but UGLY.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We used mostly small tube jigs tipped with worm or perch meat. Both worked. White was about the best color, but we also did well with orange and chartreuse two-color tubes. Actually, we kept trying different things and couldn't find anything they would not hit when they were "ON". [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As in previous trips, when the perch got active they would rise up in the water column and suspend right under our tubes. Simply dropping a rod length of line down would get an instant hit. I had several doubles on tandem rigs.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]This was a trip when I was glad we brought the little foam marker buoys. We had only one indentified "hot spot" and Flycasting dropped a marker on it early in the morning. We kept fishing mostly around that. Whenever we moved off to try other spots we kept coming back. The best we could do elsewhere was the occasional single.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Light and variable breezes until about noon. Then some "wet" clouds started coming over, bringing little gusts of short-lived wind and some raindrops. Nothing serious, but a couple of the little cells that missed us had lightning and thunder. We joked about becoming electric anglers. That's not funny.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Had a good day with Tyler. He is good company. He brought some great oatmeal cream pie cookies too. He knows the way to keep me a happy fishing buddy.[/#0000ff]
[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=18053;"][#000000] LAUNCH TIME.JPG [/#000000][/url](175 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=18054;"][#000000] ON THE SPOT.JPG [/#000000][/url](164 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=18055;"][#000000] ON DA FISH.JPG [/#000000][/url](185 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=18056;"][#000000] FISH RASH GLOVE.JPG [/#000000][/url](175 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=18057;"][#000000] CHUB OBESITY.JPG [/#000000][/url](149 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=18058;"][#000000] INCOMING.JPG [/#000000][/url](130 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=18059;"][#000000] FC'S DINNER.JPG [/#000000][/url](252 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=18060;"][#000000] DA DUDE'S DOZEN.JPG [/#000000][/url](241 KB)[/size][/black][/font]
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[zonker]

Nice trip guys. Great report and pics.

That chub had really been packing away the groceries, eh?

You guys must have had a nice, perchy dinner.

z~
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Thanks, Z. The trip WAS great and so were the perchies...on the table. They are firm and mild and are good any way you care to fix them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A little info on the chub. This reservoir used to be infested with bajillions of chubs. The brown trout in the lake could not begin to control them. Walleye and smallmouth were planted in the lake to munch the chubs and to provide a more diverse fishery. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It was actually working too well, with young walleye slurping up all the baby chubs before they could become adults. For awhile the walleyes were growing BIG...up to 15 pounds. With the reduction in chubs, larger walleye became scarcer and most of the walleyes were stunted and skinny. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Then, there was an illegal introduction of yellow perch. That sealed the fate of the chubs. However the perch provide a new food base for the walleye and they are dining well on perch now.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]About the only chubs remaining in Yuba reservoir are over 20 years old, like the porky senior citiizen in my picture. They are dying out and soon there will not be any to spawn at all.[/#0000ff]

[url "http://www.utahfishinginfo.com/news/2006/8-22starvation.php"]LINK TO ARTICLE ON STARVATION
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[zonker]

Interesting article. Sounds like perch fishermen are in for some happy days for awhile - at least until the balance tips some other way .

Lots of Tui Chubs in our oregon desert waters. Probably some other chubby varieties as well. They do tend to take over and overbalance.

Big changes going on in major reservoirs these days. Illegal plantings are causing havoc with our large trout lakes. (We now have goldfish in Oregon's pristine Mann Lake - a prime flyfishing destination for large and numerous Cutthroats.) Until some way is found to control it, these things will probably continue to shift around. All a regular guy can do it roll with the punches and maintain an open and opportunistic mindset to adjust to changing circumstances when nothing else can be done. Like you with the perch (and me with the big largemouth bass last May) there are years when things are "just right" to promote a major successful fishery of sorts as things shift from one species domination to the next. I'm trying to expand my flyfishing horizons beyond the typical cold water trout to better take advantage of these shifts. I'm experimenting with fly rod lures for bass to expand the successful season beyond the spring spawn and the fall pig out. I'm even trying to hook up with a couple of guys who fly fish for huge, reel screaming carp. (Shhh! Don't tell of my flyfishing buddies. They'll disown me.)

There is sport to be had if one keeps up on the happenings and has an open mind.

z~
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Don't worry about me slamming you for throwing feathers at carpkind. I done it my own self. Lotsa fun. Tough customers. Ya just gotta call them "buglemouth browns" or somthin' to confuse the detractors.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Here's a [url "http://www.warmwaterflyfisher.com/homepage2.htm"]WEBSITE LINK[/url] for ya.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]And a [url "http://www.laughingbass.com/speer.asp"]VIDEO ON CARP WITH FLIES[/url][/#0000ff]
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[flygoddess]

So what's wrong with fishing for Carp. They are the inland bone fish. According to several magazines, Carp is turning into a big GAME fish.
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