Friday Better Than Monday...Barely

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]TubeBabe and I got blown off Starvation on Monday. Couldn't get back until today. Weather forecast was good and figured there would probably not be too many weekenders camped out there yet. FIGURED WRONG.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The spot we wanted to launch was blocked off by a city of large trailers, 5th wheels and motorhomes. No way anybody could get near the beach to launch within a hundred yards of the "Indian Bay Barrio". Looks like Friday is the new Saturday.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We backtracked a ways and then use 4 wheel drive across mud, sand and rock to find a launch spot. Albinotrout, Mama Trout and the Minnows came in behind us but did not follow us all the way to our spot in their van. Good move.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Slight breeze at 7 am launch. Water temp just under 67...down 1 degree from Monday. Early fall?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe and I started fishing deeper water, hoping to find some wallies early. We did...barely. 10 to 13 inchers. But walleyes...or wall-ettes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Moved shallower and got into a major dink perch fest. Vacuumed the worms off our jigs as fast as we could drop them down. Not good. Hooked and snagged a few, but no keepers. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I finally had eeeeenuffff and fired up my electric motor and chugged over to the area where TubeBabe and I had harvested a few decent perch on Monday before getting blown off the lake. Good move. Eight big perch in eight drops...as fast as I could get down. Hollered to TubeBabe on the walkie talkie and she came "screaming" over in her motorized tube. But, that is when the breeze/ripple died down and so did the fishing. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Over the next three hours I bagged another 8 keeper perch, a couple more wall-ettes and some small-ettes...small smallies. TubeBabe dinged a footlong here and there to put a few in her basket. Kevin also scored a few nice perch and smallies but he was no-keepum today.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The early walleyes were in 25 to 40 feet of water. Caught some later as shallow as 20 feet. The bigger perch were from 18' to 22', with a few shallower and a few deeper. I caught fish on a variety of my favorite lures and rigs. Roadrunners in red/chartreuse and pale perch caught both walleyes and big perch...and some smallmouth. My double dropshot rig with weightless tube jigs...red/chartreuse or white with red eye...caught quite a few also...as did my "flig" rig...floating jig head above a "hanger shot" sinker...a piece of clothes hanger (see pic).[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Most of the fish I kept had no food in them. But some of them had 4" perch...fairly fresh. The smallies had bits of crawdad peeking out from their throats.[/#0000ff]
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[pa]

Awesome job. Did the fish take the roadrunners on the retrieve or on the drop? Seems here of late all of mine have hit it on the slow retrieve. Like that pale perch runner.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I fish those little spinner jigs a lot of different ways. The slow steady retrieve almost always works, especially in the shallow waters of Utah Lake. But in deeper waters...Deer Creek, Jordanelle, Starvation, etc....I use them mostly for vertical jigging. I drop them to the bottom and then raise them just a few inches and jiggle them...or slowly raise and drop them to get the spinner blade turning and flashing. Another good method is to cast out a ways, let the jig sink to the bottom and then kick slowly backward...lifting and dropping as you go. Not a good method for rocky or snaggy bottoms.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Yesterday I got a lot of my hits after dropping to the bottom, raising and jiggling it a little and then letting it sit motionless for a few seconds. The flash and vibration of the blade brings fish in and then the worm gets them to smack it while it is sitting motionless and helpless.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have caught quite a few fish in Starvation and other lakes by just putting the rod with the roadrunner in my pole holder, with the lure a foot or so off the bottom, and letting the motion of my tube supply the action. Walleye love that. Perch and trout too.[/#0000ff]
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[cpierce]

Red and Chartreuse is also a favorite combination of mine to use for panfish. It works great for just about everything especially in the spring. I have caught bass, bluegills, crappie, and trout on it. I can't imagine what they take it for, as it can't possibly look like anything that they are used to eating. Shock and awe effect??

http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/gforu...ead#unread
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I wrote an article at one time called "Triggers"...no, not guns...referring to the variations in size, color and patterns on lures and flies that "trigger" fish into striking. I lost my digital file of the article during a computer malfunction but I have issued variations on it several times since.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The main idea is that visually oriented fish respond to a wide range of stimuli that cause them to attack a fly or lure. Even though fish are widely thought to be mostly color blind, I believe that there are colors within certain wavelengths that DO cause fish to respond. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Red, for example, is almost a universal color for many species. Blood? Maybe. Maybe it is just dark enough that it is visible in low light. I have proven to myself that even different shades of red or fluorescent red can have different levels of appeal at different times and on different species.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]White is another universal color...or lack thereof. It shows up under almost any light conditions. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Chartreuse is one of the "hot" colors that appeal to a lot of fish. It really shows up in low light or in murky water and is especially good when used in combination with contrasting darker colors...like red.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Bottom line is that sight feeding fish will respond faster and more aggressively to something they can see well...and which has appealing colors. There are several colors that go together well with chartreuse. Obviously the red works well. But, so do black, hot pink, purple and orange. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I make jigs and tie flies incorporating most of these combinations. All of them work. Some work better under certain conditions than at other times...or in comparison to other colors. But whenever water temps and clarity are changing and you need more visibility, the hot two tones are good to have in the arsenal. [/#0000ff]
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[albinotrout]

On the drop shot rig that I was using I had a double. I had rigged a red and chartreuse tube on the upper one and a plain chartreuse/silverfleck on the bottom one. They didn't seem to prefer any. Then on my other rod I placed a Berkley Power grub on. They pretty much destroyed the bait.[cool] It was plain chartreuse.
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[albinotrout]

Well I finally got mamatrout in her FC4 with the motor. Heard a lot of whining over the radio about steering but did see her out running around the bay and enjoying herself.[cool]
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[eDUBz]

Cool report and nice fish.
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