Bunny Gulch Floatilla 8/12/08

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]LloydE, TubeBabe and I had planned a tubing shot on Starvation today. Last night I got a PM from an old friend and fishing buddy...PrinceFisher. He has been going through some LIFE problems and is started to get it together again. He is buying a new Super Fat Cat, but won't have it for a couple of days. So, we hooked him up with Lloyd for a ride and we brought the tubin' stuff to get him afloat.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We all hit the water at Rabbit Gulch just after 6:30. COOL air temps...mid 40's. Summer may be on the way out. Water temp 68 at launch and 72 when we got out about 1 PM. Water temp has dropped 1 degree since last week and the water level has dropped about 2 feet. Still fairly high compared to last year at this time.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A very light breeze from the NW at launch. Nice. Everybody started getting hits as soon as they started fishing. TubeBabe lost a nice smallie on a crankbait in close. I caught either that same fish or a close relative as I came through, throwing a white tube. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Once past the heavy weed growth and into water over 20 feet deep, we started seeing perch. Caught a few as we moved into deeper water, looking for walleyes. Lloyd got the first couple, out in about 28 feet of water. I banged two or three pretty fast once I got in the zone too. Then it was one here and there, interspersed with a grundle of perch.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Lloyd scored his personal best day on walleyes today...10 in the basket...a limit. Of course he was more than mildly excited about that. I only brought in about 7 walleyes, while tinkering with a lot of new stuff...as usual. But, most of the new stuff worked. In fact, my goodies are what Wal-Lloyd got all his fish on. One of the hot items the last half of the day was a white tube that I decorated with sharpie permanent markers to create my pale perch design. Perch and walleye both loved them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]PrinceFisher was enjoying his on the water therapy, away from all the stuff he has been going through. He was scoring some nice perch, and finally dinged a 17 inch walleye that turned out to be our largest LANDED walleye of the day. We all lost larger fish.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe terrorized the perch, but could not get the feel for the walleyes...in spite of professional coaching by both myself and Lloyd. But, she had a good time and contributed a few nice "basket fish" to our haul for the fillet board.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The perch seemed to be in 20 to 25 feet of water today. The walleyes hit best in 27 to 30 feet.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Oh yeah, we also abused some of the big old chubs in Starvation today. Lloyd, TubeBabe and myself all brought in big ugly "smallmouth carp". They hit hard and fought well and we were all fooled into hoping we might be connected to something with teeth...not just gums. We released them all back into the food chain. We respect the old folks. Heck, we are some.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Beautiful weather all day. Light breezes from all points of the compass at one time or another. Only one or two ski boats and one PWC rider that had to circle us to show off his ride. Ya gotta wonder, what would the power squadron do or where would they go if the lake had no fishermen to bother?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Always great to fish with Lloyd. Even better today to see PrinceFisher again and to see the satisfied look on his face after a successful day on the water. It was long overdue...for both of us.[/#0000ff]
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[onehun]

Nice report as always. Them perch are fun and make a great dinner.
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[fuzzyfisher]

nice TD & TB great report as well.. i realy enjoyed them perch and eye's i brought home the other day.. it's been a long time i have seen meat on perch like them! the eye's have a lot of meat for there size as well.. great job my friend! [sly]
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[mactuna]

Very nice, looks like everyone is happy. Looks like the bite continues on.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Thanks. You are right. The chunky 9" perch from Starvation have more meat than the skinny 11 inchers from most other lakes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The mad scientist has been at work in the tackletorium. You need to see some of the new colors and trinkets. Been catching all species on some of them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In the picture of the "Mega Perch", there is a weightless "drop shot fly". I make them in pale perch, fire tiger, white and chartreuse. They are great for droppers or for fishing behind a bottom bouncer rig...with or without spinners. They are a variation of the "PBJ" (painted body jig) line.[/#0000ff]
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[Majja]

Nice work TD. It looks like it was a tasty trip. So when are you just going to do it and take that state chub record for your own.

Majja
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I would never think of unseating the great Ray Johnson. If I were to replace his chub record he would be spending weeks at a time on Starvation trying to recover it. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have caught bigger chubs than that out of Starvation...and some big enough for the state record out of Jordanelle. So have many others.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]My biggest chub...which would probably be a world record...was caught out of the Snake River in Idaho, when I was in high school. I caught it on a big spoon being fished for trout, below the old Ashton Bridge. It was 18 inches long and weighed over 3 pounds. Made great cat food for my former Idaho friend and fishing buddy with whom I was spending part of a summer after I had moved to California.[/#0000ff]
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[PrinceFisher]

A few words:

Firstly, TubeDude and the 'Babe know how to throw a mean floatilla--with tasty jigs, a sweet ride in the hefty kitty, and undaunted witty banter over the radio and echoing across the water's surface from the 'Dude and company. I'm convinced that world peace could be acheived and gas prices would drop substantially if political leaders from across the globe and OPEC execs got together and fished with TubeDude for a day. Yes, the world would be a better place.[cool]

Secondly, Lloyd is the walleye master.

And finally, I'd like to know where Starvation got its name. Those perch in there certainly aren't starving, by any stretch of the definition. Every single specimen, large or small, I caught was unabashedly porky. I'm glad I was able to give several of them some exercise.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]You wrote: "[/#0000ff][#000000]I'm convinced that world peace could be acheived and gas prices would drop substantially if political leaders from across the globe and OPEC execs got together and fished with TubeDude for a day."[/#000000]
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[#0000ff]Hey, that is a lot of pressure. I can usually manage to catch a few fish, but adding in all that other stuff would really put a crimp in the enjoys.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Anyway, I would rather fish with my friends rather than a bunch of political wackos. Instead of me helping with all the problems, those guys would probably just ruin my fishing.[/#0000ff]
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[waljustia]

[quote PrinceFisher]
And finally, I'd like to know where Starvation got its name. Those perch in there certainly aren't starving, by any stretch of the definition. [/quote]

I know this was said kind of in cheek.. BUT I read the little pamplet or one of the signs they have up there at starvation.. I guess guys would try and open range their cattle in that valley and they would come back and the cattle had starved to death.. so it became known as starvation valley or something like that.. then, when they made the reservoir, they kept the name for the valley.. making Starvation reservoir... Obviously, the fish "Open Range" there a lot better than cattle!
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[LloydE]

It was such a beautiful day at Starvation yesterday --in all ways. I really enjoy that fishery, and the people I fished with yesterday made it even more enjoyable.

It was good to meet Shawn (princefisher), and get to know him. He is a very skilled fisherman, and an excellent person! After the fishing was over I discovered that he fished the morning without crawlers. In spite of the handicap he caught the largest walleye and a huge number of perch.

I didn't appreciate Pat's filleting skills like I should have until I got home yesterday afternoon. I had an appointment yesterday and I thought I had enough time to fillet the fish and get ready for the appointment as well. However, it took me several hours to fillet my 10 walleye and my 12 perch (bragging). I am definitely looking to acquire an electric fillet knife and the skills needed to operate that tool.

Pat is always coming up with something new, and yesterday was no exception. When the fishing slows down, he jumps into high gear. His "doctored" white tubes on his creative 1/4 oz minnow head, with the chartreuse eye, was the big hit of the day. However, his pale perch and firetiger roadrunners are hard to beat. I have one of them tied to one of my fishing rods all the time.

Just for fun I tried a 1/6 oz silver/red Crippled Herring tipped with a nightcrawler yesterday and had good success. I put a #6 bait hook on the Crippled Herring so the crawler would stay on, and the fish went after it!

It is always fun to fish with people you like. Pat and Delores are great fishing friends, and I hope to fish again with Shawn. Delores always "out-fishes" me, but yesterday she had one of those days we all have. She caught a bunch of fish, but the walleye just didn't behave for her yesterday like they should have.

It's too bad Starvation is so far away from Salt Lake and Orem. I have had such a great time fishing that body of water this year. Every opportunity I get to go to Starvation I will use to good advantage. I would fish it continually if it was closer to home. I hope the fishery remains as good as it is for years to come.
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[Majja]

WOW that is a big Chub.
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[fsh4fun05]

Glad to hear you guys released the chubs, Starvation needs them. Most people don't understand that the lake is full of predators and think chubs are trash fish. I hate seeing dead ones floating near the shore where people are fishing.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Normally I am not a big fan of chubs, but I do realize the important part they play in the food chain of some lakes...especially Starvation. I remember back in the late 70's and early 80's...before walleyes, smallies and perch...when the lake was overrun with chubs. You could not even fish through the ice there without chubs swarming your jigs before the trout could find you. And, in the spring the coves were black with heavy schools of them.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The wallies and smallies mopped them up pretty fast and would have probably crashed if not for the "bucket brigade" that dumped the perch in there.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I had never realized that chubs lived so long or got so big in Utah until the survivors in Starvation began showing up. The big ones are usually over 20 years old and they are all nearing the end of their life cycle. I always have respect for the old folks.[/#0000ff]
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[lov2fish]

[font "Times New Roman"]TD I want some eyes really bad. How bad does the bunny get on Sat (boat wise) and what I’m I looking at with no fish finder, luck wise? Are the fish hard to find? Should I just hit the banks or keep going with my tube.[/font]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]On a nice day (Saturday) you will share Bunny Gulch with a lot of walleye trollers and also plenty of the power squadron.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Without sonar and basic knowledge of that part of the lake you might be wasting your time and gas money. It can be good, but it can be frustrating too, if you do not hit it right. Heck, even if you know what you are doing you can have bad days too.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When the weather cools off and the wackos thin out a bit, maybe we can have a Saturday floatilla over there. That is the best way to learn it first hand.[/#0000ff]
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[lov2fish]

sweet keep my posted.
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