Starvation Floatilla

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Shoulda gone to Knight Hollow. That's where I always start my year on Starvation. But TubeBabe and I had already agreed to meet the "3 Amigos" at Bunny Gulch. That would be BFTer Hnaf, his bro in law Jason and Scott.

We were all there by 7 am and launched by 7:30. Air temp 50. Water temp 54. Glad we decided to bring waders. The usual brisk NW breeze in the morning. But it lasted much longer than usual. Then turned around with much of a calm at 10:30 and started to pick up from the east. Nothing serious but made us work harder to fish finesse.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe got the first fish jinx out of the way...while I was still getting ready to launch. Takes me forever to get launched when I have to help her too...about 3 times longer on average.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The dinkfest started as soon as I started dropping my jigs to the bottom. Got over 30 in the first hour and quit counting. Probably got a "grundoodle" over the course of the day. For those of you not fluent in the terminologies of higher math, a grundoodle is grundle squared.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Didn't bring in any perch over about 8 inches. Lost one walleye about 15 inches just as it reached the top of the water. Think I lost one trout after a short screeching run. That was it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe did catch one 14 inch walleye. Jason got the biggest eye...at about 18". Hnaf was top rod for the day with a 16" eye and a hefty rainbow...to go along with a few decent perch...but all underfooters.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Was really surprised by the lack of trout action. Only saw one or two hit the top and very few slipped by on sonar. I had only a couple of pops that might have been trout. Tubebabe had one on a spinner and lost it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I tried for trout. Used a bubble and fly for a while. Got a couple of dink perch. No trout...or even chubs. Also tried trolling spinners for a while. Again, only some pesky perch pecks. There were a couple of fly-rodders in pontoons that were dredging deep with black fly patterns and they caught a couple of rainbows. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Saw a lot more fish on sonar than I caught. There were some pretty big schools of perch...with some larger fish in the bunch. But the big ones were either too slow to beat the dinks to the bait or they had lockjaw. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Caught perch in depths from 12' to 35'. Fastest action was across the gulch along the shelf on top of the channel breakline...in 17 to 19 feet. Walleye came from 17' to 25'.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water is still far colder than perch and walleyes like it. Two more weeks of warmer weather and we will start seeing faster action for all species. Guys are getting fish in some spots on some days but the wide open reports are still to come.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Next up...Knight Hollow.[/#0000ff]
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[flygoddess]

I bet HNAF lost a few water inches... Neoprene waders and a leather had....what a he-man LOL Nice catch, guys!
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Mighta been some reaction overkill. Last week they launched in the mouth of the Provo River, on Utah Lake, without waders. Chilly dilly. Water temps 53 to 55. Upon arriving at Starvation he stuck his toe in the water and opted to err on the side of warm.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I wore lightweights and one layer. I could feel the coolness but was comfy. On our next trip in a couple of weeks we can probably go wet.[/#0000ff]
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[Hnaf]

no leather on that hat.. just a sun block with mesh on the to to manage heat. neoprenes are all I've got to work with so far so you make due... []
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[flygoddess]

Even my phone misspell you figured out the HAT thing...LOL Those are cool hats, but it looks like one of those Clint Eastwood hats...very cool[cool]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Yeah, he's even got the "thousand yard stare" thing down...and the swagger on the way to the water. Mighty tough for me to talk him out of wearing those spurs on his fins though. Finally convinced him that sharp pointy things don't go well with inflatables.[/#0000ff]
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