First Tube Dunk of this year

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Started out 2012 just like I finished 2011...tubing Deer Creek. Just about the same results too. Nothing like consistency. Tried to find Lurkinlizard's little pet skunk but the fish chased him off.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Launched about 7:15. Dark and cold...about 24 air temp and 35 water temp. Actually pretty warm on both counts for this time of year. Should be thick ice and teen temps. There were a few small pieces of ice floating around. And a few had trout laying on top of them. Puzzling. Maybe jumped on and couldn't get off?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Motored the hundred yards out to the "trout condo" I found just before Christmas. Residents were still there...and still playful. Played with a few bows and then moved out to deeper water to hunt up my friends the perch. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Flygoddess drove up a launched before I caught my first perch but I did start catching them fairly early. I had three or four in my basket within the first hour. But they were scattered...one here and one there. A couple of times I found small groups I tossed over the marker buoy, caught one fish and then they boogied. They were restless today.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]While bottom bouncing for perchkind in 50 feet of water I had a hard pulldown, set the hook and enjoyed a good tussle with a skinny spawned out female brownie. Took her picture, gave her a smooch and sent her back to the depths.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Flygoddess took a while to get rigged up and found that she had only brought her "river flies". No bigger and brighter lake stuff. Bummer for her. I knew better than to offer her some jigs and worms. She did bring in one trout and had other inquiries but succumbed early to the frosted tootsie syndrome. 35 degree water will do that to ya. If I wasn't numb at both ends it would probably get to me a bit more too.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I continued to score a few perch both before and after the goddess lady departed. But about 11ish the bottom turned into a perch desert. Nada, zilch, niente, nuttin'. Couldn't find a mark on sonar and couldn't buy a bite. Soooo...I worked my way back over to the trout zone and picked up another fat 16 incher to join the one I already had keeping company with the perch in my basket. Needed a pair for my sis in law. Had about 15 perch for a couple of meals for TubeBabe and I. And my sis in law makes great cookies...for bribes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Both trout and perch hit a variety of my jingly, flashy lures today...including some glow rinkees I use for ice fishing. Caught them both on worm and on "processed perch meat". The key was finding them wherever they were coming through. Some only nibbled lightly and had to be finessed. Others did the wham-bam thing. It's all good.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Seemed a shame to leave the lake when it was so glassy calm at noon. But if the fish ain't bitin' I ain't playin' no more. I may be tough but when it comes to cold I gots my limits too. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Several trout trollers on the water today, but few ventured out until mid morning...and sun on the water. Wimps. Didn't see anybody catch anything from any of the boats.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Noticed sheets of ice in Rainbow Bay as I drove back by there...and also some in corners on the main lake. With 35 degree water and a couple of COLD calm nights there could still be a cap. If I was a betting man though, I wouldn't put any serious money on it. I think Deer Creek has missed its best chance of icing up this year.[/#0000ff]
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[idahopanfish]

Yep our ice will be short lived I'm a thinkin. Just not fair how it won't stayed cold enough
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[cpierce]

Those are some fat perch! What a nice day out.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Couldn't have asked for nicer weather...this time of year. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The perch ARE fat...females full of eggs. Actually the fillets from them are not all that thick. But I plan to dispose of the evidence. Munch munch.[/#0000ff]
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[pa]

Awesome Pat. You are da man for sure[]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Thanks.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The frozen man.[/#0000ff]
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[flygoddess]

Glad I'm not that crazy[] How did the guy in the pontoon do that launched before I came in?
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Didn't see him catch anything. He came out and fished circles around me two or three times, trying to figure out what I was doing or to poach my fish. But he didn't give a shout out or ask for help so I didn't volunteer any. He eventually headed over to the outside of the island and I couldn't see him when I left.[/#0000ff]
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[flygoddess]

I do much better on the other side of the island, maybe he did too.
I was going to try till my gear started freezing[] Tried to reel in my line and the reel would not turn...shouldn't have submerged it I guess[crazy]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]As an old timer from "the old country" used to tell me..."Too soon old...too late smart."[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You may or may not have found more willing fish over there. I have not had any good reports from shallower waters. Even the fish coming to the top have mostly been over deeper waters.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I also typically do well along the old channel line on the other side of the island...and out over the flats. But my last two trips this year that I fished there I saw very few fish on sonar and even fewer on my line. [/#0000ff]
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[flygoddess]

You were in the right place as usual.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Jes lucky I reckon.[/#0000ff]
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