06-30-2010, 12:58 PM
[cool][#0000ff]Last week I made a solo trip to Knight Hollow (Starvation) and scored pretty well on small walleyes...and a few nice perch. Figured maybe the perch might be moving into Rabbit Gulch by this week. Only partly right. Lots of perch but mostly dinks.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fellow tubers "pa" and "Hnaf" joined me to look for whatever might wanna play. First trip to Starvy for Lee (pa) and second for Brian (Hnaf). Brian's first trip was in mid July last year and he scored a limit of nice perch and a couple of walleyes (his first).[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We were on the water by 7 AM. Calm and air temps in the mid 50's. Water temp 63 at launch, warming to 66 by the time we left at 2 PM. Water was very clear and you could see the bottom in over 15 feet of water. Lots of small smallies around the rock hump to the north of our launch spot.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Took a while for any of us to get fish. Tried shallow to deep. A few light bites in 15 feet of water but no hookups. Finally worked out into deeper water...24 to 30 feet and began seeing marks on sonar. Little marks. Dinkos. Went through about a dozen crawlers catching my first 20 dinksters...looking for something bigger but not succeeding. The other guys reported similar results on the walkie talkies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fellow BFTer and longtime friend Therapist cruised up in his boat and made some rude comment about "How do you keep that thing afloat with all that stuff on your tube?" I replied "Simple. A lot of hot air." He reported slow fishing too and decided to blast off to hit the Strawberry River inlet area. Later reported that a few smallies were the best he could do over there. Then he headed for Saleratus and I didn't hear back on how he did up there. Hope it was better than we did.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Also got a rude comment from TopH2O as he came up on me from behind while trolling bottom bouncers with a couple of other guys. "Hey, if you had a rear view mirror on some PVC you wouldn't have to worry about running over me." Rude. They also had caught nothing but dink perch but had lost one walleye. But, they later set up a long term stay up at the shallow end of Bunny Gulch. Didn't get a report on what they were doing...or how they finished up.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I finally found a couple of areas that held more than just the youngsters. Picked up a couple of keeper perch and eventually one small wallie...about a footlong. Also got one of Starvation's infamous chubosaurs...those giant holdover chubs. Released it gently to continue to add to the food chain with annual spawns until it too dies off.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I had been fishing in the upper end of the channel and decided to work a couple of humps back uplake. I have a few spots that have produced in the past when large fish are sparse. I kicked in my electric motor and threw up a roostertail. NOT. But I did cover the several hundred yards a lot faster than if I had to use fin power alone.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The first two "honey humps" were barren. The third was the charm. The magic depth was 28 feet. Deeper or shallower produced nothing. But, a small pale perch ultra minnow jig with a small piece of worm...fished straight down and with finesse...would get a few larger perch in among the dinksters. Still got a lot of bitty bites but some of them had weight when I set the hook. Added a few more keepers to the basket and called in the other guys to join me. But alas, the bite shut down and the afternoon breeze started coming up so it was hard to hold absolutely steady over the fish. And that was a requirement. Finesse fishing all the way.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I tried to make the best of things by throwing some crankbaits over the shallow rock hump. Had a few smallettes that wanted to play. Nothing over about 10 inches...except for the 16 incher in the picture. I ended up with 4 species for the day and a dozen eater sized perch. The other guys caught lots of dink perch but only a couple of keepers...other than a few we each kept to cut up for future bait.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I gave Hnaf a free ride back in by towing him behind my tube with my electric motor. Partial repayment for the ride he gave me on Willard with his pontoon in a windstorm. But the extra strain on his toon by rowing both of us caused his frame to come apart. Good we were close to the ramp when it happened. Thankfully we both made it in without mishap at Starvation.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We had all just beached our tubes when a bunch of bozos started backing a big boat trailer right down on top of us. They "politely" told us to move our tubes so they could bring in their noisy ski boat...one of which kept buzzing us and bouncing us around in the wakes. Insult to injury. Lee and Brian politely moved their tubes to accomodate them. But, once they had the boat on the trailer it took them almost a half hour to get the wheels up over the submerged rocks. We learned some new words and some new uses for old ones.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Those guys were part of a large group that had set up camp and pretty much taken over Bunny Gulch. A couple of them were running generators and between that, their loud yelling and their frequent noisy boat runs towing tubes and skiers it really added to the pristine experience. Usually it is calm and quiet during the week but I guess some folks take a few extra days before big holidays to take over a campground and let everybody else know how much fun they are having.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Still, a great day on the water. Good weather and good company. Fishing could have been better but there was no smell of skunk. It will be better next time. Eternal optimism is what keeps us fishing instead of staying home and griping about it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Fellow tubers "pa" and "Hnaf" joined me to look for whatever might wanna play. First trip to Starvy for Lee (pa) and second for Brian (Hnaf). Brian's first trip was in mid July last year and he scored a limit of nice perch and a couple of walleyes (his first).[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We were on the water by 7 AM. Calm and air temps in the mid 50's. Water temp 63 at launch, warming to 66 by the time we left at 2 PM. Water was very clear and you could see the bottom in over 15 feet of water. Lots of small smallies around the rock hump to the north of our launch spot.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Took a while for any of us to get fish. Tried shallow to deep. A few light bites in 15 feet of water but no hookups. Finally worked out into deeper water...24 to 30 feet and began seeing marks on sonar. Little marks. Dinkos. Went through about a dozen crawlers catching my first 20 dinksters...looking for something bigger but not succeeding. The other guys reported similar results on the walkie talkies.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Fellow BFTer and longtime friend Therapist cruised up in his boat and made some rude comment about "How do you keep that thing afloat with all that stuff on your tube?" I replied "Simple. A lot of hot air." He reported slow fishing too and decided to blast off to hit the Strawberry River inlet area. Later reported that a few smallies were the best he could do over there. Then he headed for Saleratus and I didn't hear back on how he did up there. Hope it was better than we did.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Also got a rude comment from TopH2O as he came up on me from behind while trolling bottom bouncers with a couple of other guys. "Hey, if you had a rear view mirror on some PVC you wouldn't have to worry about running over me." Rude. They also had caught nothing but dink perch but had lost one walleye. But, they later set up a long term stay up at the shallow end of Bunny Gulch. Didn't get a report on what they were doing...or how they finished up.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I finally found a couple of areas that held more than just the youngsters. Picked up a couple of keeper perch and eventually one small wallie...about a footlong. Also got one of Starvation's infamous chubosaurs...those giant holdover chubs. Released it gently to continue to add to the food chain with annual spawns until it too dies off.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I had been fishing in the upper end of the channel and decided to work a couple of humps back uplake. I have a few spots that have produced in the past when large fish are sparse. I kicked in my electric motor and threw up a roostertail. NOT. But I did cover the several hundred yards a lot faster than if I had to use fin power alone.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The first two "honey humps" were barren. The third was the charm. The magic depth was 28 feet. Deeper or shallower produced nothing. But, a small pale perch ultra minnow jig with a small piece of worm...fished straight down and with finesse...would get a few larger perch in among the dinksters. Still got a lot of bitty bites but some of them had weight when I set the hook. Added a few more keepers to the basket and called in the other guys to join me. But alas, the bite shut down and the afternoon breeze started coming up so it was hard to hold absolutely steady over the fish. And that was a requirement. Finesse fishing all the way.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I tried to make the best of things by throwing some crankbaits over the shallow rock hump. Had a few smallettes that wanted to play. Nothing over about 10 inches...except for the 16 incher in the picture. I ended up with 4 species for the day and a dozen eater sized perch. The other guys caught lots of dink perch but only a couple of keepers...other than a few we each kept to cut up for future bait.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I gave Hnaf a free ride back in by towing him behind my tube with my electric motor. Partial repayment for the ride he gave me on Willard with his pontoon in a windstorm. But the extra strain on his toon by rowing both of us caused his frame to come apart. Good we were close to the ramp when it happened. Thankfully we both made it in without mishap at Starvation.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We had all just beached our tubes when a bunch of bozos started backing a big boat trailer right down on top of us. They "politely" told us to move our tubes so they could bring in their noisy ski boat...one of which kept buzzing us and bouncing us around in the wakes. Insult to injury. Lee and Brian politely moved their tubes to accomodate them. But, once they had the boat on the trailer it took them almost a half hour to get the wheels up over the submerged rocks. We learned some new words and some new uses for old ones.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Those guys were part of a large group that had set up camp and pretty much taken over Bunny Gulch. A couple of them were running generators and between that, their loud yelling and their frequent noisy boat runs towing tubes and skiers it really added to the pristine experience. Usually it is calm and quiet during the week but I guess some folks take a few extra days before big holidays to take over a campground and let everybody else know how much fun they are having.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Still, a great day on the water. Good weather and good company. Fishing could have been better but there was no smell of skunk. It will be better next time. Eternal optimism is what keeps us fishing instead of staying home and griping about it.[/#0000ff]
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