I am headed up to starvation tomorrow with a friend of mine, we have fished strawberry consistantly for years, as well as fish lake, pineview, and the gorge but I have never ice fished at starvation. I read posts about rabbit gulch, but I don't know what the access points are like or what depths to try to look for. I would love to learn how to fish this lake so if there's any info as far as best places to get on the lake, and what depths to look for it would be much appreciated! Also if anyone else is going up tomorrow it would be fun to meet up
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[#0000ff]There was a big (Classic) tournament on Starvation yesterday. It was originally scheduled for Rabbit Gulch but I understand it was moved to an area near the main marina...so Rabbit Gulch is not as likely to have been hammered yesterday.
But, so far this year there are not many good reports from Bunny Gulch. You might have to look to find the fish. [/#0000ff][signature]
Awesome thank you!
The other place I was co soldering was yuba, I want to go somewhere that catching walleye is a possibility does yuba have safe ice again? (I saw it was good for a while and people were fishing it then saw some posts that it's not safe anymore..)
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[#0000FF]Yuba would be a bigger gamble than Starvation. It has been fairly poor fishing for several years. And this past year the water levels got down almost to nothing. That being said, there have been both walleye and perch caught through the ice this year, but few and far between. More luck than by design.
If you find any fish at Starvation you will usually have a shot at all species in the same area. Perch, trout and maybe walleyes. And you can catch all three on the same lures and baits. But it is always a search to find where and at what depth they are holding.
Yuba is a lower elevation lake than Starvation, and shallower. It is more subject to varying ice conditions and fish population problems. I would not make a trip there without recent first hand reports.
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We were at the tourney that was held there yesterday. We prefished Friday, it was brutal. I fished 3 hours were the tourney grid was out in front of the ramp, no fish seen. We made a pilgrimage across the lake to the north and moved 8 times with not one fish marked. I fished every depth from 6' to 90' and never even marked a fish. Our last move we found some small perch in 20 fow. Pat is correct- I would guess all predator fish are around and keying on the small perch. My buddy got one 19" bow at this location, I still never marked a fish other that the small perch.
On a better note, we placed excellent in the tourney on Saturday. We each caught one fish. Only 27 were caught out of 500+ people. I caught a 2.18 bow that won $500 for 7th place. My buddy got a 1.22 bow that landed him in 14th to win a boot dryer and an aquaview camera. My 9 year old son took 21st with a .85 bow winning around $200 worth of stuff. We luckily capitalized on our only bites of the day and it paid off with over $1,000 in cash and gear. It was a really well put on event, those guys know how to do it. A 3.3 bow won the four wheeler. I don't think the lake took really any pressure to speak of, as everyone was within a 200x200 yard grid right out from the ramp. Different format, but it worked better than I anticipated. Good luck if you go- I would hit somewhere else tho.
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Man you guys are really putting me off of starvation ha now I get to choose to listen to your advice or not
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I guess a better question to ask would be where WOULD people go tomorrow if they could?
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I guess I'm not saying don't go to starvation. I would just avoid the areas I tried. There's rabbit, knight, Indian and the bridge etc. The fish are somewhere, just not where I was. I don't fish starvation much, but I can read my sonar and I saw 3 fish in 14 hours- two bit and one I missed.
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[#0000FF]Don't decide to NOT go to Starvation based on the tournament results. They set it up in the historically worst area of the lake for ice fishing. Starvy is one of those "90/10" lakes...90 percent of the fish will be found in only about 10 percent of the lake. The fish go where the groceries are...that means weed beds and/or rocky structure where there are aquatic invertebrates and small perch. The area out off the main boat ramp is a barren mud bottom desert. Whoever planned that did not know the lake well.
The good thing about Knight Hollow, Indian Bay and Rabbit Gulch is that there is a wide diversity of depths and bottom conditions. It helps to know the underwater topography but even if you don't you can drill a lot of holes and find different situations if you are willing to work for it. Or...if you get lucky...you can follow the trails of previous anglers and look for holes with blood around them...hopefully fish blood and not angler blood.
If nothing else, you can check the bottom depth and conditions there...even if the fish have moved...and then look for similar conditions nearby. The fish usually do not move far in that lake. If they are patterning on the edges of weed beds that is what you look for.
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I wasn't going to base my trip on the tournament results, just didn't seem that anyone had anything positive to say about it and with it being my first trip up there I would love to go with some good vibes!
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I was there with a scout troop 2 weeks ago staying in the cabins at the State Park. Talking with one of the rangers, he said the trout were being caught at Knight Hollow. Did not know where the perch were at. I went across the lake from the ramp and fished by the cliffs. I had the same results... nothing caught and nothing marked on the vex. I fished in depths of 10 feet to 60 feet.
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The other problem is most people that ice fish don't really have a clue what they are doing or just too lazy to actually find the fish. Like TD says you have to find the groceries and that means go look around. Never understood the people who park at a marina all day and catch nothing
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