Fishing Forum

[cool][#0000ff]Hit Deer Creek this morning, in spite of the full moon. Didn't have a lot of expectation for walleyes. Good thing. They didn't wanna play. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Met up with Waljustia, Wildcat94 and LloydE about 6:30 AM at the Island and we were all launched about 7ish. TubeBabe stayed home this morning. She overfunned on Starvation and had some other things she needed to do. Didn't miss an awful lot.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water was flat calm and 66 degrees at launch. Several troller boaters hit the water early. So did a couple of water skiers. Of course they had to buzz one or two of us to let us know they still owned the lake.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Started things off by catching the first fish...a mighty 4" smallie. Figured I could absorb the first fish jinx and give the other guys a better shot. Wondered about the logic of that when after a couple of hours that was all I had caught...a few dink smallies. Then things improved. I also got a few dink perch. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fished shallow to deep. Pitched plastics and cranks along the island. Missed a couple of serious whacks but only hooked the aforementioned dinky-doos. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Finally kicked out into deeper water and marked a few fish cruising in 29 to 35 feet of water over 45 to 50 feet of depth. That spelled suspended trout to me. I rigged a water filled bubble and fly and sailed it out to run deep while I continued to jig at varying depths with an assortment of plastics.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The first fish that hit the fly was a lost perch. Couldn't have been more than about 20 feet deep over 45 feet of water. The second had more shoulders. It was a feisty rainbow about 20 inches. Kicked my behind on my ultralight rod and 4# line. Finally made a twisting dive at the tube and gave me back my fly.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Then I got into an area with some active trout at middepth and caught several in fairly quick succession. In talking with the other members of the floatilla, Lloyd had been working for walleyes but had only managed one trout. Wildcat94 had 3 trout and had also caught some bigger smallies near the rocks. Claimed he lost one that would have been over 5 pounds. Angler's discount on that makes it nearer to 2 pounds. But, our agreement is that it can be anything you say unless you bring it in to remove all guesswork.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The rainbows were mostly between 13" and 15"...cookie cutters. But they hit hard and fought well. Wildcat94 had a 16" and a 17" that made him grin a little. And the flesh was the typical Deer Creek red. Will be some good eating.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]At noon the lake was still pretty much flat calm. I called it a day after keeping the fourth trout for my limit and kicked in to the ramp. Waljustia had left a bit earlier so I did not get a picture of his fish, or a count of what he had caught. Last I heard he was playing with some perchlets...Deer Creek Dorado. Most were small but hopefully he found something larger.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]All in all a lovely day. Water temp as I beached my tube was about 2 degrees higher than at launch...68 degrees. Still a bit warm for the fall fling. But, with deer season around the corner the cold mornings can't be far off.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I got to try out my latest design for a tube cart, using the wheels off a golf cart. Worked great on first the rocky trail to the north of the lot and later coming up the steep concrete PWC ramp. Makes getting the loaded tube to the water and back a lot easier for us old guys.[/#0000ff]
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5 Perch for me and one 6" Large mouth bass. LOTS of perch all over. But, they were all dinks. There were a couple in the mix that I could see that were big, but they preferred to let their cousins "Try it out" first.

Did mark fish on the bottom around the area of the perch nursery.. but not any real takers. Had one of the marks off the bottom on for a couple cranks.. but not long enough to feel a head shake.. so, I can only assume it was a 5 lb walleye [cool]

Finally got tired of playing with the swarms of perch. It was fun to bring them up to the side of the tube and see 30 - 50 perch watching my jig like a dog watches your hand when your eating sausage []

Found some floating moss and that's where the dink LMB came from.

Decided to try for trout (After I looked at my watch and realized I lost track of time playing with the puny perch). Kicked out into deeper water looking for them, never really marked any fish. Kicked around for a while before I had to go home. On the way back in, I spanked a couple more perch before I threw them back in the water, and gave several more a sore mouth, but no spanking.

Left the water @ noon.
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[cool][#0000ff]It was good to join you on the water again, even if you preferred the company of dink perch. I'm sure that Rojo appreciated the outing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The upside of all those bitty perch is that they have a good shot at becoming bigger perch for next year. With the higher water we may have cause to be optimistic. Here's a pic of you that I did not include in the post. Nice legs.[/#0000ff]
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It's not that I prefer their company ... I am just VERY EASILY distracted by fish..
Another positive.. they were all chubby for their size. None of these skinny ones like you can sometimes pull out of jordanelle. Even though they were small, they already had some shoulders and girth to them.
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Sorry I missed you guys I really wanted to hook up. Any way I got there @ 11 and left @ 6. Catching perch is addicting. Those little buggers are tough to fillet, I got some more learnin to do. LOL. Here is a pic of my take home.
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nice pic. What are those little non striped ones?
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Small, Small Mouth. You cant keep anything over 12in. Then again I have never caught one out of Deer Creek that was over 12in. []
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It was great fun to be on the water with you and fellow BFT members. I have now fished with Bryce enough to know what a great guy he is. He is so enthusiastic, and resourceful--great fisherman! After I go on a fishing trip with you I love to read your posts and view the pictures you take, so I can see what lures you were using. I was hoping to see the flies you were using. Do you have any pictures? You were really getting the attention of the fish with those flies. I can always count on you pulling something out of your tackle supplies when the fishing gets a little slow. Yesterday was no exception.

Always enjoy fishing with you.
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[cool][#0000ff]Glad you could work your schedule to join us. Sorry the walleyes were sleeping in, after a night under the full moon. But, ya gotta try. Right?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Also sorry you got the line in your electric motor. Hope it did not cause any permanent damage.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I DO usually show the lure or fly upon which I caught most fish. However, three of the trout I caught (and had to keep) actually swallowed the fly on the take and were bleeding from the gills. They really liked that fly...the "White Rainbow". That has been a good pattern for the last couple of years on several lakes...including Huntington for tigers. But, I had never tried it with the red hook before. Seems like the fish like it fine. Hated to take pictures of bloody fish. There is one picture in which if you look hard you can see the top end of the fly down in the trout's mouth.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I only had one of the White Rainbow flies and by the third fish that swallowed it the fly was dark and trashed with slime and blood that i could not rinse out. So, I changed to one of my orange patterns...one I call the "Gold Marma-Lady". There are a variety of my "Bubble Bugs" that include orange as a primary attractor pattern. This is going into the time of year when orange is good.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Anyway, I had several whacks on the gold and orange fly and landed two fish on it. They liked it but did not swallow it on the strike.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Some folks scoff at fishing a fly with a bubble, but the system I use is fairly refined. It involves watching the sonar to determine at what level the fish are cruising and then trying to present the bubble and fly rig just above them. That involves tracking the length of the cast and monitoring the speed at which I move around in the tube. If I get it right, I get fish. If not, I keep experimenting and try to remember the combination that worked.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have been creating some new patterns to add to my bubble bug arsenal. Going to give them a good workout this fall. Looking forward to some R & D at Huntington toward the end of the month. And then there's Scofield...and...[/#0000ff]
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You got a recipe for the flies so that those of us savvy enough can give it a try at tying it up?
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[quote albinotrout]You got a recipe for the flies so that those of us savvy enough can give it a try at tying it up?[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]Here ya go.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As you might guess, I am always messin' around with new patterns...and changing the ones I use. Most of the stuff I use on my "bubble bugs" is designed more for attraction than imitation of anything natural. They are actually more "lures" than flies. And, I often degrade them by adding a bit of crawler to sweeten the attraction. Sacrilege.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are a couple of materials I list that are not readily available. One is the Glo Brite chenille. Good stuff and I use it in many colors. Great for ice fishing jigs. I get it from Hook and Hackle, in New York.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Another material I use a lot is the holographic gold and silver chenilles from Barlows, in Texas. That stuff makes some killer glitter patterns.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Everything else is pretty much standard and you can substitute without blowing the effectiveness of the fly. For example, I sometimes use white marabou on the tails...either instead of or in conjunction with the materials I listed. You can vary the length of the tails for greater or lesser action.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I might suggest using soft webby hackles when fishing the flies behind a bobber...or when working them aggressively with a sinking line. The more pulsing and "breathing" you get from the hackles the better.[/#0000ff]
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Thanks, I will have to give them a try. Always looking for a new neat fly to tie. Especially now since I misplaced two of my fly boxes last month.[:/]
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