10-02-2013, 10:21 PM
[#0000FF]Checked my Windows app and found there was a window in the weather for today...from early morning until about noonish. Headed for Starvy and launched at Bunny Gulch about 7ish. Nice red sky...with the promise of a "breeze" later. So, what else is new on that pond?
Water has fallen from the mid sixties to 59 degrees at launch. Trout are moving shallower and the other guys are moving deeper. Happens that way about this time every year.
Started shallow...just in case. Waste of time. Saw nothing on sonar from 10' out to 30'. Then started seeing a few isolated marks above bottom...mostly in the 36' zones. But they all had fall fickleness. No inquiries on anything I tried.
Didn't get the merest whisper on anything I threw for the first two hours. Didn't see any trout hitting the top but did see some cruisers go through at mid depth that looked suspiciously spottish.
Decided to drag a jig and fly combo on one rod and a small spinner on the other rod while covering more area to look for fish...any fish at all. Had a couple of bonks on the jig/fly rig and one hookup that went airborne...and let me have my rig back. Then I started reeling in the spinner quickly to check the bait and WHAM. Another airborne Starvy steelie...and another long-line release. Fun, and all that, but my hands still did not smell fishy enough.
I had worked into shallower water...about 20 to 22 feet deep...when I got the hits. That told me that the trout were probably hunting food in the weed beds being exposed by the dropping water levels. I changed up to dragging a tandem tube jig rig on one rod and casting spinners on the other. I got into one area that had a lot of playful rainbows and was getting hits on almost every cast with the spinner. I was making a long cast, letting it settle toward the bottom and then reeling fast back up through the water column.
I probably missed at least a dozen hits, hooked a dozen more and got lots of string zings, jumps and rainbow rolls before losing most of them. I did bring several to net...and kept one that was a bleeder. Two of the ones I scooped in the net did a gelandersprung skyward as soon as I removed the hook and arranged their own release.
I worked hard to find perch or walleye. I caught one silly 8 inch perch and lost what I think was a walleye about halfway up in 40 feet of water. Yeah. Fall conditions is here.
The forecast "breezes" started kicking up just before noon...closing my window. I packed up and drove to the bridge. I walked down to see what the bank tanglers were doing. They were also scoring some nice rainbows...mostly on chartreuse bottle baits. The intensifying south winds helped push my sorry old behind back up the hill and I boogied for home by 1:30.
In retrospect, I probably coulda done as well at Deer Creek. But then I would have missed out on that long drive and all the trucks that clog up Hwy 40 these days. I need to join Masochists Anonymous.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
Water has fallen from the mid sixties to 59 degrees at launch. Trout are moving shallower and the other guys are moving deeper. Happens that way about this time every year.
Started shallow...just in case. Waste of time. Saw nothing on sonar from 10' out to 30'. Then started seeing a few isolated marks above bottom...mostly in the 36' zones. But they all had fall fickleness. No inquiries on anything I tried.
Didn't get the merest whisper on anything I threw for the first two hours. Didn't see any trout hitting the top but did see some cruisers go through at mid depth that looked suspiciously spottish.
Decided to drag a jig and fly combo on one rod and a small spinner on the other rod while covering more area to look for fish...any fish at all. Had a couple of bonks on the jig/fly rig and one hookup that went airborne...and let me have my rig back. Then I started reeling in the spinner quickly to check the bait and WHAM. Another airborne Starvy steelie...and another long-line release. Fun, and all that, but my hands still did not smell fishy enough.
I had worked into shallower water...about 20 to 22 feet deep...when I got the hits. That told me that the trout were probably hunting food in the weed beds being exposed by the dropping water levels. I changed up to dragging a tandem tube jig rig on one rod and casting spinners on the other. I got into one area that had a lot of playful rainbows and was getting hits on almost every cast with the spinner. I was making a long cast, letting it settle toward the bottom and then reeling fast back up through the water column.
I probably missed at least a dozen hits, hooked a dozen more and got lots of string zings, jumps and rainbow rolls before losing most of them. I did bring several to net...and kept one that was a bleeder. Two of the ones I scooped in the net did a gelandersprung skyward as soon as I removed the hook and arranged their own release.
I worked hard to find perch or walleye. I caught one silly 8 inch perch and lost what I think was a walleye about halfway up in 40 feet of water. Yeah. Fall conditions is here.
The forecast "breezes" started kicking up just before noon...closing my window. I packed up and drove to the bridge. I walked down to see what the bank tanglers were doing. They were also scoring some nice rainbows...mostly on chartreuse bottle baits. The intensifying south winds helped push my sorry old behind back up the hill and I boogied for home by 1:30.
In retrospect, I probably coulda done as well at Deer Creek. But then I would have missed out on that long drive and all the trucks that clog up Hwy 40 these days. I need to join Masochists Anonymous.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
irony that FISH and WORK are both four letter words...but the meanings are so different and diametrically opposed.