Starvy Perch-Boatin 9-26-12

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Anybody notice a change in the force this morning about 7 am? Anybody see the sun rise in the west or birds flying backwards?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Got in TopH20's boat with him this morning at the main ramp at Starvation. LOW TIDE. Lowest anybody has seen the lake in over 10 years. Water temp 63 at launch and stayed right there all day until we got off the water about 2ish. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Supposed to be "potential" for light showers until about 9 am and then calm and clear afterward. That translated to a cold east wind all day...with lots of "moisture" to make it more interesting. It definitely made it tough for "touch" fishing for perch and walleye. Mike had to work hard and stay on the electric motor most of the day.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Started working along the channel edges in Bunny Gulch. WOW. Talk about low tide. One of my favorite high water rock humps is out of water...and it is 25 to 30 feet deep in June each year. Deepest part of the channel where I usually fish was maximum about 16 feet. As near as we could figure from past GPS marks the lake level is down about 30 feet from high water. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We did find a few underfooters in 14 to 16 feet of water. All perch. Nothing else. However, we did see a lot of trout on the surface. Prime time for fly flingers. Mike reported a group of tubers and tooners throwing flies in the gulch yesterday and doing well on trout...as well as a few perch and a couple of walleyes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The few perch were very scattered so we motored around to try some other spots. Finally found a past productive area for this time of year in deeper water...up to 42'...with schools of perch suspended up off the bottom. We immediately began hooking up regularly all the way from the bottom to only about 15 feet below the surface. Most perch were filletable 9 inchers. Some ten and eleven inches. No footlongs today.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Mike caught only perch. I managed to drag up one silly footlong walleye. Later I caught a nice 18" rainbow right on the bottom in 41 feet. Much fun.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]One of the pictures I attached shows the dense clouds of perch we worked over. As long as they were active they whacked everything we dropped down to them. But at noon they took a lunch break and never resumed hitting again. In fact, the big schools moved off somewhere and there were only small clusters here and there...and none of them were active. We saw a lot more than we caught.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]By 1 pm the wind had kicked back up and gotten colder. It was almost impossible to follow the fish and hold position. An anchor was not the answer. So we stuck it out for only a little while longer and then roared back to the ramp.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We both had plenty of action and caught enough keepers to produce a nice bag of fillets for my upcoming family perch chowder feed.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It was great to fish with Mike again. Sorry to everybody who has had to deal with having the earth tilt wierdly on its axis...or whatever. I promise I won't be fishing out of a boat all that often. I'm sure Mike was about ready to dump me over the side the next time he heard a snarky comment about maintaining position over fish being easier from a float tube.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Oh yeah. I got rained on several times on the way back to Salt Lake. Hooray for the weather folks again. I think they are bucking for a 100% award...wrong 100% of the time and still employed. What a job to have.[/#0000ff]
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[dubob]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]I KNEW it; I DID feel a slight tremer in the Force this morning. So you were the cause. Nice mess by the by.[/size][/#800000][/font]

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[a_bow_nut]

I was wonder what was making the whole house shake this morning.

Well OK it may have been the fact that they are paving the road in front of the house and the vibrator that they have on the roller works extremely well.

Nice job on that Pail O Perch.

It was even good of you to take that albino carp home too.
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[TubeDude]

"It was even good of you to take that albino carp home too."

[cool][#0000ff]I do what I can to thin the herd. Some folks are going to Starvy strictly to fish for the trout now. That was unimaginable just a few years ago.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Had we been more inclined to fish for "albino carp" we could have caught grundles of them. They were cruising around just under the surface and rolling and wallowing like real carp all over the lake. Disgusting.[/#0000ff]
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[CoyoteSpinner]

Was waiting for you to confess you'd been espousing the "if I was in my tube" rhetoric. . . .Weather report I saw said "drying conditions" in Eastern Utah, so I guess that means they had to wring the clouds out first.

Nice perching. Strange not to see one of the "not-Starving" thunks. But one way or another - ya done got on some fishes.

I'm due for some more fall perchin'. Just nabbed some Maniac plastics that are sure to entice.

[fish_fear_me2]

I have been walkin sideways for 2 days since you first mentioned the boat. Glad you found a few perch. Those trout are getting fat. Was hoping you were going to catch a few of the larger toothy perch, but, it sounds like you guys made the best of some tough conditions.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Hey, you always walk funny anyway. Don't try to blame that on me.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Those "Starvation steelheads" have been growing big and fat in there for several years now. Lots of water and lots of food. And they fight harder than most trout in most other waters. Definitely fun interludes between catching the other species in the lake.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]With the low lake levels and dropping water temps the walleyes have starting playing their typical "walleye games" that they play every year about this time. There are grundles of them in Starvation of all sizes but when they do their annual disappearance act you would swear there has been a massive dieoff or something. According to reports lately nobody is really doing much except a few footlongs. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Hope the lake freezes good this winter and that we have a chance to fish it when the low water levels concentrates the fish in spots we can find and catch them.[/#0000ff]
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[TheCarDoctor]

What's next? Are you going to start packing a fairy wand?
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[fish_fear_me2]

I was hoping you didnt notice the list to starboard when I walk[laugh]. We better get some moisture this winter along with the ice or next year you will standing on top of your underwater hump fishing in 6" of water. I looked at your launch ramp pic and WOW.
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[TubeDude]

[quote TheCarDoctor]What's next? Are you going to start packing a fairy wand?[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]Maybe. But that's kind of a personal question.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Before we moved to Arizona in the 80's I usually took only two rods afloat...one spinning and one flyrod. Used them both and enjoyed them both. I still enjoy fly flinging but seldom take a flyrod aboard with all those other rods. Tough enough to work a flyrod properly without several other rods pointing skyward and without all the PVC contrivances attached to the tube to catch loops of line. But if you concentrate and make only short accurate casts...mostly sidearm...you can still git 'er done. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have several fly fishing rigs of various lengths and weights. And I keep planning to do more REAL fly fishing. But at my age I have remembery problems so I usually don't remember not to forget my fly rods.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Actually, I have learned to present flies many different ways with spinning gear and with only a few exceptions of specialized conditions I can usually do just as well without the long rod. In fact, there are more than a few situations in which you can actually make a better presentation with a spinning rod than with REAL fly fishing gear.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Interestingly (or not) I have been adding to my supply of fly tying supplies and plan to add some new patterns to my fly arsenal over the winter months. That will be the first step in actually doing more REAL fly fishing next year. I have thought of setting goals for several species to be taken exclusively on properly presented "pocket lint" creations...on fly rods I have built myself. It's been a few years since I really worked at it but maybe it is time.[/#0000ff]
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[TubeDude]

[quote fish_fear_me2]I was hoping you didnt notice the list to starboard when I walk[laugh]. We better get some moisture this winter along with the ice or next year you will standing on top of your underwater hump fishing in 6" of water. I looked at your launch ramp pic and WOW.[/quote]

[cool][#0000ff]And all this time I just thought you were trying to imitate the famous walk of the late great "Duke" Wayne. My hero.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Mike and I had some conversation about the low water too. One of our favorite ice fishing spots is high and dry under current conditions. We joked about needing post hole diggers instead of ice augers this year. That's not funny.[/#0000ff]
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[TroutBumDave]

This is what I like to hear! Walley on the fly... I think that sounds dandy!
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[TopH2O]

Just got home from Starvation. It was great to fish with you on Wednesday. The weather forecast was screwed up because you got into my boat. Mother Nature was all and didn't know what to do. Sterling Poulsen is a great fisherman for a weatherman!

We needed one or two more pictures to actually prove to the whole world that you were really afloat in a boat.

[url "http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc127/topwater52/IMG_4314.jpg"]http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc127/topwater52/IMG_4314.jpg[/url]

[url "http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc127/topwater52/IMG_4309.jpg"]http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc127/topwater52/IMG_4309.jpg[/url]

I just ordered a new set of blades for my post hole digger!

Mike
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Sorry Mike. It has been so long since I last "boaticated" that the seismic forces had built up to a high degree. When I waddled onto your boat the fishtonic plates of the cosmos shifted and all heck broke loose. (Remember...heck is where people go if they don't believe in religious stuff...as per our deep psychological conversations)[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I had brought along my raincoat...just in case. And of course I left it in my car through ignorant optimism. Glad you had an extra that was big enough to keep my right arm dry.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Good luck with finding new blades for your post hole digger. Everybody else has been buying them up and there is a shortage. Seems like other folks are expecting the worst too.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Thanks for the pics. Some people want justice. Others want mercy. There's more than one reason why more pictures of my old mug ain't posted. My physiognomy has ruined the innards of many a camera. Hope yours survived the challenge.[/#0000ff]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I just ordered my new "ice auger" for the dry winter ahead.[/#0000ff]
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[rctalbot]

As always, great post! I learn so much from your trips, thanks.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Thanks. I enjoy doing the fishing to make the reports to keep you entertained. Maybe more.[/#0000ff]
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