Starvation Smackdown

[LOAH]

Recently, the word got out that the fall-run rainbows at Starvation Reservoir were spawning and shallow gravel shorelines were stacked with nice fish.

Having never caught a trout from Starvation, I was excited to hear about the easy pickings and went to check it out on Black Friday, instead of contributing to the retail madness.

My arrival was met with a stiff breeze and I was unsure how much fly action I'd be able to get in. The first spot I fished was a sheltered cove, although no trout were visible or biting. It didn't take long for me to realize that I was in the wrong spot and I started walking along the shore, watching for dark masses moving about.

After a march of only about 100 feet, my eyes met several of those dark masses, some of them not even two feet from dry land. Sneaking up on them, I started to cast an olive sculpin pattern. The wind was horrible and I could barely get my fly out 10 feet, if that. Not to mention, aiming my cast was nearly impossible.

Despite my difficulty casting and spooking fish with hard line slaps, I still managed to entice one of the smaller masses to give chase. Half-guessing when the fish took, I lifted the rod and had a connection!

Though it was one of the smaller fish mulling about, it was still a nice catch.



Ah, my first trout from Starvy. It felt nice to shrug that monkey.

A few more attempts at fly casting were made, but the wind was just too much to deal with and out came the Blue Fox, so I could pick on these brutes more effectively.

Bingo!



What a difference that made! She was large and feisty. I never got a tape on her, but I'm positive she was over 20 inches.

Some smaller ones also found my lure while I moved on to another area where I could find some shelter from the wind and hopefully find more active rainbows.

Once I arrived to a nice little bay, the wind was still annoying, but nowhere near as bad as the other spots. One side of the bay was shallow while the other had a steep, rocky shoreline. Though it was the most sheltered from the wind, the rocky shoreline left me wondering where the fish were, so I tried my luck on the shallower end, where many casts were chased by more nice fish.

The action was hot for big fat rainbows and I even got a little bit more fly casting in. It was a blast.







The Blue Fox was working well, never going more than 10 casts without a strike. Some smaller fish also came in, but with the super cold water on my hands, they didn't warrant a photo.

Here's another really good one I taped at 20 inches, this one coming from my favorite sculpin:



The wind was still a factor and I ultimately lost that fly, trying to cast into the breeze. After that, I didn't feel like trying anymore and it was back to casting the Blue Fox.

My day started a bit later than I would have liked and the evening was approaching, so I started moving back toward my car, picking up a couple more rainbows on the way out. Here's the best of those:



On the way back home, I stopped in and fished some moving water for about 10 minutes, catching three browns and seeing a lot more hanging out in an eddy. One of them was huge, but he wasn't interested in my measly Blue Fox. I could only pull in two little dinks and this one:



What a day! Sight fishing for big rainbows all day long, overcoming the tenacious wind, and finally catching some trout from the mighty Starvation Reservoir. It was a great time.



Happy Fishing, Humans.
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