Starvy blowout with Bassrods 1-25-14

[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I have been lusting after trying Starvation...since the early iceout thing. When Bassrods offered a ride on his bass sled for the day I swallowed my (tubers') pride and got on board.

Weather forecast from yesterday was for calm conditions all last night and well into the day today. This morning it had changed to 10 mph winds early and semi calm conditions by late morning. Liar, liar pants on fire. Stupid weather guys.

We were at the wide open ramp by 7ish...and watched the bumpy wind-driven waves moving by from west to east. Decided to wait a while to launch and hoped for better conditions. No better at 8 so we launched anyway. Headed toward Bunny Gulch to try to find a spot at least a bit sheltered from the "breezes". Hard to fish finesse and hold the boat in position with the weather we were facing. And it just kept getting worse as the day went on.

Cruised around while watching sonar...looking for any fish at all...and trying to guess what depths we would be fishing. Finally just put the bow-mount down and tried bottom bouncing as we drifted and blew across any likely looking areas.

We saw a few marks that looked "toothy". Other marks that looked "yellowish". But no love. Also saw some suspenders above the bottom. Who knew that trout wore suspenders?

Bassrods kept working his trusty Gulp Minnows on a dropshot rig. I rotated through an assortment of jigs and baits that had worked well in the past. Nada, nada, zip, zip. Finally, a couple of "Starvation steelheads" gulped Bassrods' Gulp Minnows and he had his skunk taken care of. Took me a while to rig with some Gulp goodies but I also got deskunked. Big, hard-fighting bows...up to 22 inches.

We both fought hard for every bite we got. We both kept a limit of 4 big bows before the "popcorn" on the water got too pesky to handle. Bassrods also scored the only brown trout of the day...but it went back in for another trip. A couple of rattle rattle bites that might have been perch but no non-trout species were harmed in the making of this report.

Only saw a couple of other boats but there were several other trailers in the parking area when we got back in about noonish. Water temps were 37 degrees. Some ice still clinging to the back of a few coves and on the south side of the bridge. But there was no ice I would feel safe walking on and drilling. It is pretty much over. We could hear the chunky gal tuning up. Maybe it was just coyotes.

Thanks for the ride and the "entertainment" Cliff. Been a long time since we abused each other's eardrums so unmercifully. You get a couple of old reprobates together in the same space for very long and the BS-ometer starts spinning.
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[riverdog]

Thanks for the report. Nice to see that evil ice gone.
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[bassrods]

Leave it to TD, He said it was going to be com little to no wind OKAY maybe TD's no wind is just under 100 mph..[]
But it was almost fishable as long as you didn't try to cast..
And thank goodness the bite was the way it was with some of the fish with (call age degrees)[cool] They knew how to hang on..Some with help from the wind we just drug-to-death before we knew they was on..
Fun you bet, and looking forward to the next day with no wind..
But watch out if TD says its not going to storm...[]
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[TubeDude]

[quote riverdog]Thanks for the report. Nice to see that evil ice gone.[/quote]

[#0000FF]Evil? Sorta. Didn't last long this year. But I agree. I prefer to fish the soft water on Starvy.

By the way, the fly-flingers have been doing very well on those troutskis. Some walleyes too.
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[fmrusmc]

Thanks for the report! Nice to see some soft water. Im itching to get my ton back out. But by the time the weather cools, I'm sure I'll be missing the hard water. There is no pleasing fmrusmc.[laugh]
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[gofish435]

Hey Pat. We were up there yesterday in rabbit gulch and I think we saw you guys in the boat. We didn't start until 9:00 in our kick boats expecting the breeze to die down, wrong. I must have watched the same forecast that you did about light breezes. You sure do get a lot of natural jacking action in a kick boat with two foot waves. We managed to catch some rainbows and also a few browns. We caught all of our fish on crystal buggers, leeches and wooly buggers. The other guys on pontoons with motors had their batteries get low and they left around 12:30. I fished until 4:00 expecting the wind to lay down, wrong again. Fishing was pretty good but it will take a few days to get my legs to quit shaking from all the paddling.[]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]We weren't up there yesterday. It was today. We originally planned on Monday but early forecasts made it look like Tuesday would be better. Not much.

Purty picture of the brown. This is the time of year to get 'em. I used to fish them every year as the ice was coming off...back before walleyes and smallies...and perch. Used to be mainly browns and chubs.

I like it better now...when the wind doesn't blow.
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[300win]

Great report. I think I will have to breakout the boat for a trip[]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Hey...don't shoot the messenger. I TOLD you that the forecast kept changing and that I NEVER trust it any more. Wish I had a job where I could be wrong all the time and still get paid. About as bad as being married. Being wrong all the time and never getting any allowance. Unless you consider the 50-50 plan we have...$50 for her and 50 cents for me.

Some of those silly fish were either taking pity on us or they really wanted to commit suicide. Unbelievable that we hooked as many fish as we did. Really tough duty to hook light biters when the boat is spinning out of control in the wind. But you did a great job, captain.
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[bassrods]

It was a much better day then it looked like it was going to be..Cold water baths just don't a peal to me..
But the wind won in the end..
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[perchinski]

Maybe I missed it....but what was the water temp?
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[Yahtahay]

37 degrees.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Looks like someone else was a more efficient reader and you got your answer...37 degrees. That is cool, indeed, but I have fished Starvy in my tube when the ice was still covering a lot of the lake and it was a few degrees cooler. I ain't no candidate for Mensa.

I did NOT mention the air temps. It was 33 upon our 7 am arrival and about 45 when we left just after noon. But with the wind chill factor it had to be lower while we were out on the lake...for us, if not for the fishies.
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[PACKFAN]

Looks like the water level is starting to come back up.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I was amazed at how high the lake is already. There has evidently been a lot of runoff from the recent rains. Also, they are only letting a trickle out of the dam right now. The river below is so low the fish are wearing tennis shoes.

I snapped a pic of a spot along the shoreline that showed the high water mark only being about 4 feet above current water level. But the wind must have blown it off my camera because it wasn't there when I downloaded my pics. Here is another pic of the main ramp area that will show it too.

If you are familiar with the Rabbit Gulch area, the long finger hump of rocks out from the end of the road is under water...with two or three feet of water over the highest point. Ditto for the low islands across on the north side. You can see them underwater but they are covered.

The lake will definitely fill to above high water during the next couple of months, but will likely be tapped by downstream water users sooner this year because of the low snowpack. So, we will have good fishing for a while but the lake will probably drop even lower this year than last year.
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[high_n_dry]

Great report as always, appreciate the update. Have to consider hitting that place here soon as well as other good early spring contenders. Weathers starting to look good temp wise, wind wise not so much.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]You'd better go fishing more often this year than you did last year...or you will be banned from buying a license.

Perch fishing will be down again this year on Starvy but the walleye population is great...especially for larger fish. Always the smallies...and troutskis.

Lemme know when you and Daniel are ready to hit the kitties on Utah Lake. Should be soon now.
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[ripnlip]

wish I was a fly on that boat all day. I bet the BS-O-meter was spinning! 2 old fellers telling life long fishing stories... would have been a hoot i think.
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[bassrods]

Yes TD does talk a lot but he can walk the walk as well..[sly]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Look who's talkin'.
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