09-19-2009, 12:04 PM
[#0000ff]TubeBabe is a female fishin' fool. She loves to fish ALMOST as much as I do. We have been tubing together for over 30 years. But, it has been quite a while since we had just a "his and hers" trip. Seems like every tuber in Utah wants to fish with us and most trips there are other tubers who join us. That's cool. We enjoy their company and tubing is a social thing...almost like ice fishing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Yesterday we headed to Starvation again, perhaps for our last trip of the year before "hard deck". There are a lot of other tubing venues coming into fall fruition and Starvation has treated us well this year. As luck would have it, all of the other tubers who wanted to join us were unable to fit the trip into their personal schedules. Just me and Da Babe.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Got to Bunny Gulch at first light and were launched just after 7 AM. Clear and light breezes, with air temps at a reasonable 50 degrees. Water level still dropping but not nearly as low as in previous years at this time. Water temp 64 at launch and 67 by early afternoon. Has been fairly constant for the past three weeks. Should start cooling soon.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I took care of the "first fish jinx" by catching a big fat chub. Because I performed the jinx dance in my tube after catching it (very difficult), I was able to ward off the bad juju and also caught perch and walleye later. Also caught another chub later in the day. That monster 16 incher would have been a state record if I cared to register it and take the prestige away from Ray Johnson. No thanks. Like the first chub it swallowed my little flig (floating jig). But, they were both released in good condition to try to maintain the food chain for Starvation.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There were quite a few boats joining us on the water Friday...since it is now the new Saturday. Lots of folks with Fridays off these days. And, like ourselves, nobody was scoring much in the early part of the day. We sonared and jigged the heck out of a lot of water without seeing or catching much. Just a single perch here and there, and many of those sub-basket size...less than 10 inches.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]About 11 o'clock we were chatting on our walkie talkies and agreed that we probably had enough keepers between us for a good meal. Not our best day on Starvation, but the wind had not been bad and we DID have a few fish to show for our efforts. I suggested a spot for TubeBabe to try and I headed for an area that had treated me well on a couple of previous trips. We agreed to give it until noon and then we would head for home early if it did not pick up.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Ding-ding-ding. Somebody rang the dinner bell for the fishies. TubeBabe started whacking them pretty good in her spot and I got two doubles in a row. The first was a nice keeper perch on one rod and a throwback 8 incher on the other. Got both flig rigs back in the water, moved a few feet and both rods went off again. Out went the marker buoy for the first time of the day.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The second double was a "good news - bad news" situation. The first rod yielded a purty 16 inch wallie...on a pale perch flig. By the time I snapped a quick picture and put the fish in my basket, the line was slack on the second rod. But, when I tightened the line it had weight. Felt like a second wallie. Yee hawww. Yuck. It was a humongo chub. The 16 incher I mentioned before. I extricated the swallowed fire tiger flig from deep inside its mouth, took its picture and slipped it back into the lake.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]For the next two hours, the "Tubin' Duo" put a hurtin' on the local fishies. We each caught a grundle and we each kept just under the 20 fish limit on perchies. No smallies. And, no wallies or chubs for TubeBabe. She was just perch jerkin'. But, I did score one more walleye of about 15 inches on a red and chartreuse shad grub plastic.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe got most of her fish on one of our favorites...a 1 1/2" tube jig...red and chartreuse...on a "heavy" 3/16 oz. red glitter head. She did best by fishing perch meat and "touch" fishing...maintaining a hold on the rod and waiting for weight on the rod before setting the hook. She has become a pretty good "finesse" angler. In fact, she got the biggest perch...a 13 incher. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As usual, I kept changing around to different lures, just to find something they would not hit. I caught fish on just about everything I tried, but I probably caught the most and the biggest on those little floating jigs (fligs) tipped with crawler...drop shotted about 2' above the sinker and dragged behind the tube until I found fish. Then I would do some vertical jigging with pale perch roadrunners or a red and chartreuse 3" shad grub. It was all good.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The clear skies started to fill with pretty clouds, which turned to
looking cumulus clouds. Thunderstorms on the way. When we heard distant thunder we decided we should depart hence. We hit the beach and set up my portable fillet station to give our fish a weight loss program. Packed our gear, dropped of the bagged fish cleanin's in the dumpster and headed down the road. Ran through several minor downpours on the way home.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We both agreed that we had thoroughly enjoyed our togetherness on the water. [/#0000ff]
[signature]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Yesterday we headed to Starvation again, perhaps for our last trip of the year before "hard deck". There are a lot of other tubing venues coming into fall fruition and Starvation has treated us well this year. As luck would have it, all of the other tubers who wanted to join us were unable to fit the trip into their personal schedules. Just me and Da Babe.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Got to Bunny Gulch at first light and were launched just after 7 AM. Clear and light breezes, with air temps at a reasonable 50 degrees. Water level still dropping but not nearly as low as in previous years at this time. Water temp 64 at launch and 67 by early afternoon. Has been fairly constant for the past three weeks. Should start cooling soon.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I took care of the "first fish jinx" by catching a big fat chub. Because I performed the jinx dance in my tube after catching it (very difficult), I was able to ward off the bad juju and also caught perch and walleye later. Also caught another chub later in the day. That monster 16 incher would have been a state record if I cared to register it and take the prestige away from Ray Johnson. No thanks. Like the first chub it swallowed my little flig (floating jig). But, they were both released in good condition to try to maintain the food chain for Starvation.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]There were quite a few boats joining us on the water Friday...since it is now the new Saturday. Lots of folks with Fridays off these days. And, like ourselves, nobody was scoring much in the early part of the day. We sonared and jigged the heck out of a lot of water without seeing or catching much. Just a single perch here and there, and many of those sub-basket size...less than 10 inches.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]About 11 o'clock we were chatting on our walkie talkies and agreed that we probably had enough keepers between us for a good meal. Not our best day on Starvation, but the wind had not been bad and we DID have a few fish to show for our efforts. I suggested a spot for TubeBabe to try and I headed for an area that had treated me well on a couple of previous trips. We agreed to give it until noon and then we would head for home early if it did not pick up.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Ding-ding-ding. Somebody rang the dinner bell for the fishies. TubeBabe started whacking them pretty good in her spot and I got two doubles in a row. The first was a nice keeper perch on one rod and a throwback 8 incher on the other. Got both flig rigs back in the water, moved a few feet and both rods went off again. Out went the marker buoy for the first time of the day.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The second double was a "good news - bad news" situation. The first rod yielded a purty 16 inch wallie...on a pale perch flig. By the time I snapped a quick picture and put the fish in my basket, the line was slack on the second rod. But, when I tightened the line it had weight. Felt like a second wallie. Yee hawww. Yuck. It was a humongo chub. The 16 incher I mentioned before. I extricated the swallowed fire tiger flig from deep inside its mouth, took its picture and slipped it back into the lake.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]For the next two hours, the "Tubin' Duo" put a hurtin' on the local fishies. We each caught a grundle and we each kept just under the 20 fish limit on perchies. No smallies. And, no wallies or chubs for TubeBabe. She was just perch jerkin'. But, I did score one more walleye of about 15 inches on a red and chartreuse shad grub plastic.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]TubeBabe got most of her fish on one of our favorites...a 1 1/2" tube jig...red and chartreuse...on a "heavy" 3/16 oz. red glitter head. She did best by fishing perch meat and "touch" fishing...maintaining a hold on the rod and waiting for weight on the rod before setting the hook. She has become a pretty good "finesse" angler. In fact, she got the biggest perch...a 13 incher. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]As usual, I kept changing around to different lures, just to find something they would not hit. I caught fish on just about everything I tried, but I probably caught the most and the biggest on those little floating jigs (fligs) tipped with crawler...drop shotted about 2' above the sinker and dragged behind the tube until I found fish. Then I would do some vertical jigging with pale perch roadrunners or a red and chartreuse 3" shad grub. It was all good.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The clear skies started to fill with pretty clouds, which turned to
looking cumulus clouds. Thunderstorms on the way. When we heard distant thunder we decided we should depart hence. We hit the beach and set up my portable fillet station to give our fish a weight loss program. Packed our gear, dropped of the bagged fish cleanin's in the dumpster and headed down the road. Ran through several minor downpours on the way home.[/#0000ff] [#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We both agreed that we had thoroughly enjoyed our togetherness on the water. [/#0000ff]
[signature]
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