Starvation May and June 2024

[Outfishing13]

The past 4 weeks my fishing buddy and I spent our Saturdays at Starvation (our first year doing this).  We went to basically the same place up Rabbit Gulch and had very successful days catching Rainbow trout.  We anchored in locations where the water was 14-22 feet deep and used Powerbait.  I caught my personal best Rainbow at just under 23 inches and 4.3 pounds on one trip.  The water temp on all these trips was below 60 degrees. Anywhere from 53 to 58 degrees. Here's a video I made of our second trip. https://youtu.be/qlOxUPCkzg4 You can find a couple more Starvation videos on my channel OutFishing13.

So we hit it again for the 5th trip and were sorely disappointed on the showing of rainbows. We caught 1 within 5 minutes of anchoring up, but then with nothing biting we started jigging and watching our fish finder.  We saw lots of bait balls of new minnows and we jigged the bottom with just a worm and picked up some decent sized yellow perch and juvenile walleye, which we kept to thin the herd.  That was in 15 feet of water and the water temp was 65 to 66 degrees.  

We moved once to deeper water to see if we could locate our rainbows, but nothing after 6 hours. Just more Jr. walleye and lots of perch.  We were amazed at the quantity of perch willing to take a worm jigged off the bottom.  Lots of 4-5 inchers and we kept the nicer big ones that were 10 inches or so.  

So the question for those much more familiar with Starvation.  Where did the trout go??  We caught them last week and this week we landed two.  One (14 inches) when we anchored and one (14 inches)  trolling back to the docks with a flicker shad right by the buoys.

Do you have to give up on the rainbows in the summer months?  

Thanks for any tips.

Matthew

[gofish435]

Thanks for the report.

I feel your pain.  I fished RG last Wednesday for seven hours and caught one 15" rainbow and two small walleye using my usual fly tackle.  I had a couple of other rainbows on but it was really slow.  There were a lot of boats there and I only saw one fish caught from close to a dozen boats that passed through during the day.  The water temperature was 63-66 degrees.  The water wasn't as clear as it usually is because of all the wind events earlier in the week.  It seems like when the water temps are in the 50's the rainbows are easy to come by.  I have a hard time finding them in the late fall when the water temps drop too.

At least you were able to get into some perch action.    

[TubeDude]

I have fished Starvy during the "transition times" quite a few years in the past.  It is a combination of a change in the water temps and the food chain.  As you observed on sonar, the hordes of newly hatched baby perch move into shallower water as it warms above 65...and the larger perch and small walleye (predators) follow.  But the temperature sensitive trout move deeper...from 30 to 40 feet or so.  But if you find them they will still hit.  

All of that reverses in the fall.  There can be some great fishing for all species in water less than 20 feet deep in the upper end of Rabbit Gulch from sometime after about the first of September to sometime in October when water temps begin really dropping below 60.  Then all species go deep again.  Takes some experience and good electronics to find and follow the fishies.

[Outfishing13]

Thanks for the report.

You are welcome.  It sounds like the trout fishing in RG shut down pretty quickly.  I know that June 15 was fair and my friend caught some nice trout.  But June 22, was no good for us and you are saying June 19 was a bust for you. 

If I head there this summer it will be for walleye or trolling deep for the big trout.

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I have fished Starvy during the "transition times" 

Thanks for the info, TubeDude.  That will be really helpful information to know. I may stick to fishing closer to home during the summer months and chasing the kitties around Utah Lake.  Lots of choices when the weather gets warm.