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[#0000FF]Didn't go trick or treating last night. Had to get up early for a Starvation trip. Originally planned to fish it from my float tube but BFTer Humpy talked me into getting into his boat with him. What the heck. Fished it last week from a Lund. Might as well do a Crestliner this week.
Guys were whacking some nice rainbows from the dock and surrounding gravel shorelines at the main launch ramp when we got there. Couldn't believe it. One guy was throwing a 3" white plastic tube...no bait.
Air temp mid thirties and water temp 49 at launch. A light breeze was rippling the water but we expected it to get calm later...as per the forecast. Yeah, right. The forecast.
Set up in the same general area I fished with Shane (in his Lund) last week. Found fish on the sonar and set the auto controls. Controls were not working well. We kept drifting off and having to try to find the fish again. Finally got on one spot with good numbers of fish and brought in several walleyes and perch. Then the wind picked up and it was almost impossible to find fish and hold a spot. I'm sure that Humpy got tired of hearing about how well I could hold...hands free...if I was fishing from my tube.
Tried dragging jigs across the area while drifting and motoring slowly...with and against the wind. I got one more walleye and a 20 inch silly rainbow that thought it was a perch...on the bottom in 42 feet of water.
Wind kept picking up and turning the water to popcorn. We had about 20 - 30 minutes of actual fishing in over an hour of trying to find fish and stay put. If we were not on fish we did not get bit. We even put out an anchor on a long scope rope but the wind was too much. No hold...no fish.
Figured we would drag around some lures and play with the silly steelheads. We both caught a couple of newbie planters and I finally caught another bigger one...19 inches. Every time we thought the wind might be laying down it would blow up again even harder.
Not a good day for Humpy. He had just cleaned out his boat...including his State Park pass and his Mussel Certificate. We paid the park fees to get in but he got in a hurry and did not fill out a mussel sheet. When I went to get the truck for loading the boat there was a friendly reminder from the rangers. Thankfully, it was just a reminder...and not a ticket.
Bottom line, I caught more fish and had less wind while fishing in a Lund. Crestliner should do something about that. Yeah, right. Was good to finally get out fishing with Jon even though the fishing was not all we hoped it might be.
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Good to see you are getting out a bit this fall even if it is is in a boat. Wind sucks but if ya wanna fish ya get wind sometimes....Nice to see you finding a few perch and walleye
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[#0000FF]"Even if it is in a boat."
The sacrifices I make.
Yeah, the perch and walleye are offsetting benefits.
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Hey, you were still fishing... And, at least we can now look forward to mussels in Starvy. ![[Image: happy.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/happy.gif)
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Well you did better than curt and I. We hit yuba today. No fish wanted to play but I guess we had the better weather. No wind to speak of.
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C'mon Pat. Go fish Starvy for what it's good for right now. Big, fat, hard fighting delicious rainbows! Why struggle in a wind-tossed boat for a couple of lousy walleye or perch?
Some folks be so strange ]
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Thanks for a great day Pat. I had a good time learning the subtleties of Wally Fishing. Next time I am going to put Lund stickers on my boat to calm the wind monster a bit. Thanks for sharing your tackle and tips. You did a great job on my fly rod repair also. hey you forgot to mention the part about me catching the first fish [:p]
looks like I need some tips on taking and posting pictures as well...
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[quote TubeDude]
Set up in the same general area I fished with Shane (in his Lund) last week.
Wind kept picking up and turning the water to popcorn. We had about 20 - 30 minutes of actual fishing in over an hour of trying to find fish and stay put. If we were not on fish we did not get bit[/quote]
So this time the friendliest anglers on the lake didn't come "share" your spot?
But wait - you mean you really got no bites when there were no fish? I thought you were the Pied Piper of hookups! The fish whisperer, your magnetic peronality tuned as if by black box to the perfect frequency to draw them in for YOUR tricks and treats!
Sound like an adventure all the same.
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Dude that first picture is a classic, I love it, sorry Pat, but that was so funny... but hey all of my fish fill the same screen whether they are big or small they fill the same picture frame so I'm guilty as well... Later J
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[#0000FF]You're prejudiced. But no argument. Like a lot of "warm water" anglers I say derogatory stuff about "slimers". Still, I love 'em...especially those fancy, frolicsome fishies from Starvy. They're special.
I have been knowed to abandon my perch searches to play with the troutskis. They definitely provide more tugs and string zings.
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[#0000FF]Thanks again for the invite Jon. The problem is that we made our plans more than one day before we hit the water. That gave Mama Nature time to stir up more weather for us. Last week Shane called the night before the trip...after I had just got back from Deer Creek. I was already hammered but agreed to go. With only a few hours planning Mama Nature couldn't arrange much wind for us.
I always enjoy Starvation...wind and all. Well, maybe the wind not so much. But it was still a good time with you...in your CRESTLINER. See what you can do about the wind generator.
Sorry I omitted to mention that yes, you did catch the first fish. Since it was your boat I figured I should use a lure without a hook and any bait in order to give you a fighting chance. And it still took you three stops before you got bit.
But...who got the most and the biggest...and the last two?
Your pics are fine. Better than the ones some guys post that take a day and a half to load up...even on high end computers.
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[#0000FF]I think we avoided the "friendlies" by going on Friday instead of Saturday. They had youngsters in their boat last week...who probably have school during the week. One more argument for my seldom fishing on the weekend.
Magnetic personality? Black box? Nay...not so. I play by the same rules as everybody else. You can't catch 'em where they ain't...and findin' 'em is no guarantee you can catch 'em. Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don't. Much better when it all comes together just right. But the occasional "downside" trip makes you appreciate the gooduns that much more.
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[#0000FF]BUSTED!
But at least I got my big hands in the pictures so folks have some perspective on the size. Better than posing the fish with a miniature ruler...or next to a metric ruler and telling everybody the numbers are in inches...not centimeters.
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Those jigs look familiar.........
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[#0000FF]Yeah. I know the guy who makes them.
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Those are some super cute wallettes! It seems starvation only has little guys. Haven't caught any in the fall cuz didn't really have a chance to hit the L yet but boy the eyes this spring that we caught could probably down two or three of these cute little guys. That bow is amazing though haha. Keep them posts coming, you always have the best ones haha. Haven't caught a white bass all summer only like 3 or 4 during the eye run. Hopefully they will show up soon. I know there's still a huuge 2 yr old catchable year class out there. The big 3 and 4 year olds are for sure dead of old age for now.
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[#0000FF]Cute? Bait? Well...maybe so. Starvation is a walleye factory and there always seem to be a lot of "smalleyes". But many of them do grow into bigger ones. I usually catch more of the smaller ones because they tend to hang with the perch and feed on the same invertebrate goodies. But there are some hefty ones in the lake. Heard of quite a few 25 inch plus fish this past year. It just takes fishing in the right place at the right time...with bigger offerings. The bigguns are meat eaters and usually don't hit the smaller jigs I typically use.
Surprised you haven't been hitting Utah Lake this fall. My sources tell me there have been a lot of big wallies coming in at the "usual places". Several in the 30 inch category.
White bass have definitely been missing in action this year. I have had a few trips...mostly around the bubbleup...when I got a half dozen or so. Certainly a lot less than any of the past few years. With the low water situation I doubt there will be much of an ice fishing season on Utah Lake. Maybe at a few deeper spots. Almost certainly not inside the harbors where there is very shallow water. There have been cycles in the past though, and white bass are so prolific that as soon as conditions improve they come back quickly.
Thanks for your kindly comments on my posts. I always value positive input from you. I'll try to get in some more research and lab work so that I can dazzle you further.
I heard you met one of our mutual friends at a favorite minnow hole. Glad to see that one is coming back a bit. I stopped in there on the way back from California in May and it was almost dry. Couldn't see any chubs but I did get lots of bites...from a cloud of starving mosquitoes. Much better a couple of weeks ago, just before you hit it.
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Looks like you had another great trip, congratulations.
I almost went back to Starvation the day you and Humpy were there but I haven't missed a Utah pheasant opener in over 20 years and I needed to keep with tradition. We limited out so fast that I almost had time to go fishing too but I had some concrete to take care of at my house.
See ya.
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[#0000FF]Glad you had a good shoot. Saw a blurb on the news about DWR releasing something like 12,000 pheasants for hunters this year. Thatsa nice but kinda like stocked rainbows to me. I reckymember the good ol' days of being able to walk along almost any rural ditchbank and to flush all the wild birds you needed. But, of course, that was back in the days when we hunted in animal skins and threw clubs at the birds.
Not sure if your Lund on the water would have calmed it down any. Probably good you didn't show up on Starvy that day. Pretty sloppy and hard to fish with finesse.
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I hadn't heard of a bird planting?
We hunt some pretty  area full of Russian Olive and cattails. It is very difficult hunting but very rewarding to score. Couldn't do it without a good dog!
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