06-13-2012, 11:07 AM
[cool][#0000ff]Hadda make a trip to Starvy this week. Our options were either Tuesday or Thursday. Weather forecast for Tuesday looked better. Hate Starvy when it blows. Wind sucks. Only problem was that we had a couple of commitments for Tuesday afternoon that meant a short day on the water. Better a short day than no day.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We were just getting ready to launch at Knight Hollow about 7:30 when BFTer tlarson and his fishing buddy Larry pulled up. It was Todd's first trip to Knight Hollow so I directed them to a spot where Todd could launch his toon and Larry could find some decent bank tanglin' action. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I was surprised at how low the lake was for this early in the year...probably about 10 feet down from the bathtub ring. The shallow points coming out from the east side of the hollow are already exposed. Launched at a spot we usually fish for wallies and smallies this time of year.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water temps are still cool too. Logs from past years show that the magic 65 degree mark usually happens just after the first of June. The cold windy weekend knocked temps back down to 60 degrees at launch...but they were rising to 62 by the time we got off the water at noon.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Got my "Starvy slam" within the first half hour. My first four fish were all different species. Perch, smallie, wallie and trout. But, in keeping with the theme of the day, they were all "short". Ditto for most of the other fish TubeBabe and I caught for the rest of the morning. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I caught somewhere between 15 to 20 "wallettes". All were between about 10 to 12 inches...with only three making the official "footlong" designation. Several smallies up to about 11". Maybe a couple dozen "subtoad" perch that averaged about 8". And two rainbows...one 17 incher and a "short" one at 14 inches. Shortest rainbow I have caught in the last 3 years at Starvy.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe also had plenty of action but also never got into anything with size and shoulders. Unless you count a couple of big rainbows that abused her before forgetting how to hold on to the hook. I had a couple of those too. They are great at taking serious air and then simultaneously flipping back both the jig and a middle fin.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Bank tangler Larry got a bunch of "marginal" perch from shore and then had much fun with some smallies that moved in when the water warmed a bit. Todd is trying to make a tooner of him but he is still holding out.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Todd done good. He followed us out to one of our usually prime areas...where we were getting plenty of fish...but short ones. He started picking up the usual suspects...small smallies, dink perch and "seegar" wallies. But then he brung in a nice 17" wallie and his day was made...until it made a Houdini move. As walleyes have been knowed to do, his sweet seventeen made a power dive to the bottom of his fish basket, got its nose under the spring-loaded bottom lid and slipped out the back Jack. Todd felt real pain. That was his prize for the day.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]But, the day was not over. Oh no, not so. As TubeBabe and I were moving toward our vehicle for our self-imposed early departure...just before noon...Todd started whooping and hollering. He was bendo with a biggun. Turned out to be a twenty plus inch walleye. He claims 26". I say closer to 23". A nice one anyhooters. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]He was so excited he let his guard down and sustained some "war wounds" from the nasty teeth of his prize. So he stuffed it in his basket with the jig still inside the mouth and ran all the way in to where I was just getting out of the water to show off his trophy. I took a couple of pics and then he took the time to remove the jig. It had hooked the fish right in the
. If he had released the fish it would have probably had a speech impediment thereafter. But Todd did not want it to suffer that indignity so he took it home...to "release in the grease". A fitting end.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Just a slight breeze a few times. Then the water would turn to glass again and hundreds of trout would start swirling all over the lake. Not sure what they were taking. Couldn't see any visible insect hatch. Might have done well with the right fly pattern . But those silly "Starvation steelhead" usually hit jigs and other stuff being fished for other species so you really don't have to "match the hatch" to catch a few. More and more anglers are hitting Starvation just for the trout action these days.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Sorry, no dead fish in the basket pics. We only kept a few of the bigger ones for some scampi over noodles. All others were spanked and sent back to grow a bit. That's the long and short of it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We were just getting ready to launch at Knight Hollow about 7:30 when BFTer tlarson and his fishing buddy Larry pulled up. It was Todd's first trip to Knight Hollow so I directed them to a spot where Todd could launch his toon and Larry could find some decent bank tanglin' action. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I was surprised at how low the lake was for this early in the year...probably about 10 feet down from the bathtub ring. The shallow points coming out from the east side of the hollow are already exposed. Launched at a spot we usually fish for wallies and smallies this time of year.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Water temps are still cool too. Logs from past years show that the magic 65 degree mark usually happens just after the first of June. The cold windy weekend knocked temps back down to 60 degrees at launch...but they were rising to 62 by the time we got off the water at noon.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Got my "Starvy slam" within the first half hour. My first four fish were all different species. Perch, smallie, wallie and trout. But, in keeping with the theme of the day, they were all "short". Ditto for most of the other fish TubeBabe and I caught for the rest of the morning. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I caught somewhere between 15 to 20 "wallettes". All were between about 10 to 12 inches...with only three making the official "footlong" designation. Several smallies up to about 11". Maybe a couple dozen "subtoad" perch that averaged about 8". And two rainbows...one 17 incher and a "short" one at 14 inches. Shortest rainbow I have caught in the last 3 years at Starvy.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]TubeBabe also had plenty of action but also never got into anything with size and shoulders. Unless you count a couple of big rainbows that abused her before forgetting how to hold on to the hook. I had a couple of those too. They are great at taking serious air and then simultaneously flipping back both the jig and a middle fin.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Bank tangler Larry got a bunch of "marginal" perch from shore and then had much fun with some smallies that moved in when the water warmed a bit. Todd is trying to make a tooner of him but he is still holding out.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Todd done good. He followed us out to one of our usually prime areas...where we were getting plenty of fish...but short ones. He started picking up the usual suspects...small smallies, dink perch and "seegar" wallies. But then he brung in a nice 17" wallie and his day was made...until it made a Houdini move. As walleyes have been knowed to do, his sweet seventeen made a power dive to the bottom of his fish basket, got its nose under the spring-loaded bottom lid and slipped out the back Jack. Todd felt real pain. That was his prize for the day.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]But, the day was not over. Oh no, not so. As TubeBabe and I were moving toward our vehicle for our self-imposed early departure...just before noon...Todd started whooping and hollering. He was bendo with a biggun. Turned out to be a twenty plus inch walleye. He claims 26". I say closer to 23". A nice one anyhooters. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]He was so excited he let his guard down and sustained some "war wounds" from the nasty teeth of his prize. So he stuffed it in his basket with the jig still inside the mouth and ran all the way in to where I was just getting out of the water to show off his trophy. I took a couple of pics and then he took the time to remove the jig. It had hooked the fish right in the
. If he had released the fish it would have probably had a speech impediment thereafter. But Todd did not want it to suffer that indignity so he took it home...to "release in the grease". A fitting end.[/#0000ff][#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Just a slight breeze a few times. Then the water would turn to glass again and hundreds of trout would start swirling all over the lake. Not sure what they were taking. Couldn't see any visible insect hatch. Might have done well with the right fly pattern . But those silly "Starvation steelhead" usually hit jigs and other stuff being fished for other species so you really don't have to "match the hatch" to catch a few. More and more anglers are hitting Starvation just for the trout action these days.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Sorry, no dead fish in the basket pics. We only kept a few of the bigger ones for some scampi over noodles. All others were spanked and sent back to grow a bit. That's the long and short of it.[/#0000ff]
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