Tale of 2 Lakes

[TubeDude]

[cool][font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][#0000ff]With apologies to Chuck Dickens, here's a tale of two lakes. It was the best of times...and it was the worst of times. More of the latter than the former.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]mactuna, nansea and myself met up with road at Rabbit Gulch on Starvation about 7:30 AM. In spite of explicit instructions to leave the W in Heber City, Road brung some with him. We had an onshore breeze that made it really tough for mactuna and nansea to launch their toons with their new electric motors. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]They had just got them and had not had a chance to set them up or work with them. Double bummer. nansea kept getting tangled in the shoreline bushes and gave up trying to get out. mactuna (husband) wisely beached his toon to keep her company on the shore.[/#0000ff]

[#0000ff]road and I launched into the increasing breezes, watching sonar and working a variety of baits and lures as we fished from shallow to deep. Water temp was back down to 43 after being up to 45 last week. Plus, full moon. Plus barometer changes with the storms. End result...a couple of wimpy nibbles but no bites. Walleye trollers in a couple of boats claimed the same dismal success rate.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Mac and nan had a couple of pokes casting from shore, but were ready to change venues when we returned to shore after only a half hour of frustration. We opted for Deer Creek.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Launched from the gravel ramp at Charleston bridge about 11. Water like glass. 46 degrees. No visible surface activity and nobody fishing seemed to be doing much. Road and I worked out into deeper water, while mac and nan fished closer to shore. Mactuna announced that he had accomplished one of his two goals. He had caught a brown (14") from a lake and now needed to catch a walleye. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We all moved around looking for fish. One poor little rainbow really got beat up bad by our group. I caught him twice and so did road. Nansea also caught him once. At least we thought it might have been the same fish. Little bugger.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Mactuna and nansea showed off their toon skills by rowing over toward the opposite side of the lake. Bad Move. The DC afternoon zephyrs suddenly blew in and caused all kinds of problems. I had been fortunate enough to be upwind from the launch area when it hit, so I just rode it back to the vehicles. Road also saw it coming and layed into the oars on his toon, actually beating me to shore even though he was a ways downwind. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Mactuna and nansea were not so lucky. They were still somewhat inexperienced tooners and not skilled at rowing in windy conditions. Wisely, they elected to let the wind push them to shore and try to find a way out rather than do themselves harm by fighting it. Mactuna had put his motor back on and was making some reasonable headway when his right pontoon suddenly went soggy. He was in danger of swamping.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fortunately a good sized boat tossed him a line and hauled his sorry self back to the launch area. He was barely afloat and leaning way over to the side to counter the weight of battery and tackle. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Nansea was nowhere to be seen on the other side of the brush growing up in the channel. We were hoping we would see the boat returning with her in tow, but they were instead towing a small paddle boat that had gone out earlier while it was calm and had been swamped by the wind and waves. The paddleboaters were inside the big boat and the little one was barely afloat when I waded out to help them all ashore.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Road decided he would leave his toon and try to find nansea in his truck. The boat went back to rescue a couple of other small boats that were having troubles. After a suspenseful wait, road pulled in with nansea's toon in the back and an exhausted and grateful lady in the front seat. Whew.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Too much drama and adventure for a first trip with BFTers. Good company and Mac was top rod. He managed to hang a nice 18" rainbow to accompany the smaller brown he had taken earlier. In the picture you can see his soggy air chamber, but he doesn't seem to mind too much while he is holding those two nice fish.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Hey Marty, it is always good to fish with you, but I know at least one other member of our group that was especially glad you came along today.[/#0000ff]


(This post was [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_editlog;post=322349;"][#000000]edited[/#000000][/url] by TubeDude on Mar 31, 07, 6:19 PM)
[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23161;"][#333366] STARVATION LAUNCH.jpg [/#333366][/url](373 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23162;"][#333366] NANSEA IN THE BULLRUSHES.jpg [/#333366][/url](590 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23163;"][#333366] TOON MOTOR MAYHEM.jpg [/#333366][/url](418 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23164;"][#333366] DEER CREEK LAUNCH.jpg [/#333366][/url](465 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23165;"][#333366] NANSEA ON GLASS.jpg [/#333366][/url](244 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23166;"][#333366] WAKELESS SPEED.jpg [/#333366][/url](326 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23167;"][#333366] SWAMPED AND TOWED.jpg [/#333366][/url](411 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23168;"][#000000] DEER CREEK POPCORN.jpg [/#000000][/url](351 KB) [/size][/black][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][size 1]Attachments:[/size][/font] [font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=23169;"][#000000] MACTUNA TOP ROD.jpg [/#000000][/url](370 KB) [/size][/black][/font]
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[buckdawg]

Great pics as always! Sounds like you guys dodged a bullet big time. Glad to hear everyone is safe and sound.
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[zonker]

Man, it sounds like you guys and gals had a rough one! Sorry to hear of your difficulties. Glad you all made it back safe to the shore.

Those are some nice looking trout - and some great pictures, TD.

z~
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[tlspyder13]

Glad you all made it back in one piece with all your gear. A little low on air in that toon Mactuna but those are some nice fish on the stringer. Hope you add that walleye soon.

Boaters sometimes earn themselves a bad rap but the one today sounds like it went out of its way to help people.
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[road]

Most of the boaters here in UT are pretty decient people. The ones you hear about are the ones that are not. Most generally they will give you plenty of leeway and slow to wakeless when they get close. It is the pleasure boaters who seem to be in a hurry, but even they will toss ya a line if you need it. It was a fun time on the water as usual. Maybe tds and mine next trip will be windless. One can always hope. Heres a couple of other pics from the trip.
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[Majja]

Great pics and a good story if nothing else. Glad to here no one ended up in the drink. Sorry to hear the catchin was not to good, but I bet the fishing was still great. When you put in at Starvation are4 you at teh very back of the bay?

Thanks
Majja
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]We go to Rabbit Gulch and then drive back along the shoreline to the north as far as the road goes. It is not quite to the end, but that is easily reached by tube.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There is a great little parking/camping/launching spot there.[/#0000ff]
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[Majja]

That is good to know. When Wasatch and I went there last year we launched of the point. I am glad to see that it can be easily launched form farthere back.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Lets watch for the moon and stars (and fish) to all line up right and then we can have a catch and cook floatilla over there. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are some springs and weedbeds out in the middle of the channel that really bring in the fish. When they are in there, you can really whack them. There were a couple of trips last year where we found fish on the bottom, in 20 feet or more, but when they started hitting they moved up right under us and we could look down in the water and watch big perch munch our jigs as we lowered them only a rod length down. Can you imagine 10" to 13" inch perch on every drop...and doubles when you used a tandem rig?[/#0000ff]
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[Majja]

I can almost imagin that. When we were there we had kicked up to a little rock island not to far off the beach and did real well there than just off of a bouey. That was a fun trip camping down.
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[flygoddess]

Wow! What a day !
Mactuna and Nansea, you really need to look at some of the motorized Pontoon pictures on here. Number one, I am looking at Macs and he has the battery way out to the rear of the pontoon (can't see Nansea's, but she has a definit problem with too much weight on the rear).
You want the batteries right behind your seat to even weight out and even with that, you might have to slide the frame forward.
TURN THE HEAD AROUND ON THE MOTOR, then mount it so that you can kick it up by pulling it forward.
And yes it is possible to have TOO MUCH MOTOR. Neither of you need more than a 30 lb thrust, 36 max and a short shaft.
As far as rowing, everything on a pontoon works best backwards. Get stuck in weeds, kick yourself around and rown backwards. Much more power that way.

Really too bad about the flat. That can be super scary.
To all out there, do not skimp on your tubes and pontoons...they are your life line on water.
Glad you all survived!
Tube dude, stay in touch for up coming week outtings. Is the Babe back yet?
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[tlspyder13]

Your right, most are decient people. I should have been more clear. Boaters like most groups get most attention from the few that make the rest look bad. Their act of kindness was nice to hear about in Tubedude's post.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Mac and nan got plenty of lectures from me and road on their setups. Too bad they could not have had some help in getting them properly installed and positioned before their first fishing excursion with them. I THINK they now know the value of proper setup...and of taking safety precautions.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe is still MIA for a few more days. I suppose she will call from the airport some day and want me to come pick her up...if I ain't fishing. Got a full dance card this week but no plans yet for next week. [/#0000ff]
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[TubeBabe]

Sounds like I missed alot of excitement! Just as well, I was spending the day out in the absolutely beautiful weather of Arizona. I'm hoping that by the time I'm back up that way, the weather will have mellowed out a bit and be on its way to being consistently nice ... no more of those darn storms coming through just when the fishing SHOULD BE GOOD.
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[flygoddess]

[black][size 3]That's easy, just bring some of that good stuff with you[cool][/size][/black]
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[Bassmaster-ND]

Wow road that is a beautiful picture of the sunrise! That's going to be my background![cool]

Nice report TD!
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[road]

Thanks Bassmaster wifey says I should submit it to the old doug miller show. She thinks it could win *her* a volcano cooker. LOL
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[poky-mon]

Heres your valcano cooker And I still haven't used it still in the box
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[road]

Where is the Wasatch was that taken poky? It sure does look familar.
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[flygoddess]

[black][size 3]It was the Middle Provo, to top it off, his brother took the picture, but Poky got the Volcano....whats up with that![laugh][/size][/black]
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[size 3][/size]Still haven't learned how to resize have ya. 500 is the biggest number in the size, buddy.
[black]Now there is an Avatar![/black]
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