Went up early to pre fish for the Starvation Classic tourny. We were not dissapointed in the walleye bite. The eyes were all over the lake.
Salratus had alot of fish but most of them were small 13 to 14 inches but a 6# came from the bay on sat. for big fish on day 1.
The wife and I fished below the bridge on the 1st. day and weighed a 6 fish limit for 10.48# that put us in 8th place for the 1st day.
Ive a local had a great weight for the first day of 16.88# and tied up the 1st. place for the first day.
6:30 Sunday morning Debbie and I blasted of too Salratus figuring there had to be some bigger eyes some where in the bay. At 10:30 and 25 eyes later we had 6 cloned eyes that looked identical at 13 in. long in the live well [frown]
Told the wife to pull em in it was time to run and gun and try to find some bigger fish. I was going to run back down below the bridge where we fished day 1 but passing rabbit gulch I rememberd picking up a few good eyes pre fishing there and peeled of to the south side where I had a couple of weigh points on my GPS from pre fishing.
It was a good plan. I had one rod rigged and in the water and was putting a crawler on my 2nd rod when I saw a heavy bend in my 1st rod. Setting the hook I felt a solid “thud” and I knew I was into a heavy fish.
I called for the net and 3 or 4 minutes later I had a 23.5 incher in the boat. The wife turned around and yelled she had a big fish on. Dumping my fish on the floor out of the net I hustled back to net my wifes 22 incher.
In the next 30 minutes the wife and I culled all six 13 in. fish out of the box and replace them with 14.73 # of quality eyes 
for a 2 day total weght of 25.21# and a second place finsh in the tourny.
We coulden’t close the gap on Ive as he brought in a decent limit the second day for a 1st place finish with 28.13 #.
After all was said and done it was a good trip with lots of eyes boated. The wife and I caught 142 eyes in 7 days fishing. Debbie also caught a 20 in. smallie that had to go at least 5#. The perch were all over the place and were more than willing to put a major dent in our flat of 500 crawlers we took with us.
We ended up cashing 3 checks. 2nd place for the tourny,1st place for mixed couples and top 3 teams for weight. Plus for a bonus Deb won a 7 ft 10in G Lommis
cranking rod at the raffle on sat.
The bite for us came on crawler harnesses tied up with a red bead then a soft green glow bead and another red bead topped off with either a chartruce or dark green fire tiger smilly blade at .50 MPH.
It was a great way to close out the tourny year
Congrats to you and Deb for doing well in the tourney, how many teams this year. Good to see you on the site haven’t heard from you in awhile.[fishin]
It’s obvious that you know your way around Starvation and fishing for walleyes. Great job. How many teams participated.
Not a big field, only 29 boats. But I know most of the guys that fished the tourny and it was good to see everyone again.
We had a major eye and perch fry (beer battered and deep fried) thur. night. Must have cooked up 20 plus pounds of fillets 
Fried tatters, colslaw, P&Beans and lots of ice cold beer MMMMMMMM good.
Nice to see the lake coming back with some quality fish. I can remember years ago where a ten fish limit would only weigh 6 to 8 #.
From now until freeze up the eye fishing should only get better.
I might try to sneek one more trip in after the deer and elk hunts.
My hats off to the Starvation parks folks. They bend over backwards to provide a outstansing and pleasant atmosfere for the tournament crowd right down to providing shuttle service from the boat docks up to the weigh station saving a long walk packing a bag of fish and water.
Nice job Rog, sounds like you and the Wife had a great time.
Great report, I was up there bass fishing that weekend. I was going to trailer up just as everybody was coming in from the tourney. I went back out for an hour or so.
Very nice report. Sounds like you have the Walleye thing pretty well figured out. My wife an I love that reservoir, and we’ve only missed a couple weekends their this summer. She loves chasing the perch, and I like targeting the bigger fish. We’re heading back over their this weekend for a full moon night fishing adventure if the weather permits.
I’d like to take this opportunity to ask you a FEW general questions on bottom bouncing as I’ve had very limited success with the tactic thus far, and I’d really like to find out where I’m going wrong.
Do you use use the wire style bottom bouncers to pull your harnesses or a Lindy Rig setup?
How deep do you typically fish, and how do you tell at the speeds your trolling if the harness is tracking properly below the boat? I think many times I’ve been dragging mine on the bottom.
How do you know what’s the best weight to use for a certain location / depth?
Do you troll in the areas that are free from bottom vegetation or trek right through them there weeds?
Do you troll over humps (and other structure), around them or both?
Do you find trolling the shoreline productive?
Did you do any jigging at all during the tournament or just troll to your second place finish?
I sincerely appreciate any constructive advise you care to share.
Glenn
I will go across the street tomorrow and tell him he is being summoned.[;)]
Great report Roger and congratulations on a great finish. I bet this tournament paid for your expenses[;)].
Glen:
Bottom bouncing takes some practice and some good electronics. I run a 334 Lowrance GPS with fish finder and speed and temp, on the bow and on the dash. My wife has a Lowrance X85 on the back deck of our Crestliner so she can keep track of the bottom.
I build my own bottom bouncers out of guy wire bought at a modle air plane store. The weights are 3/4 oz. egg sinkers and the “weight keepers” are a 1 in. piece of modle air plane gas line tubing that can be bought in 4 ft. sections.
If you get hung up ( something you shoulden’t do very often if your keeping track of the depth ) 9 times out of ten you will pull your weights off my type of bouncer rather than breaking off the whole rigg and needing to take time to retie. Just add more egg sinkers and a keeper and your back in buisness. Also it’s easy to add or take off sinkers to ajust for depth and keeping your line at a 45 degree angle for your trolling speed.
My bouncers I build 30 in. long (yeah 30 in. [crazy] ) and my wife runs 16 inchers We cover a little more of the water colum with the two different lenghts.
The weight of the bouncer depends on how deep your fishing. The more depth the more weight you need to keep your bouncer at no more than a 45 degree angle behind the boat and still in touch with the botttom.
Trolling shore lines can be productive in the mornings and on the windy side of a shore line when you get a defined mud line.
As far as structure goes a hump can hold fish on top as well as both sides. Structure is an ambush point for activly feeding fish. Don’t get me wrong. Large flats will hold feeding walleyes too it’s just more productive to fish crank baits in that situation than using bouncers and a harness so you can cover more water faster and put your bait in front of more fish.
Ah weeds I love em. Thats where my 30 in. bounces really shine. Depending on how tall the weeds are I normally can keep my crawler harness tracking just above the weed beds and not dragging through them and fouling my bait.
As far as jigs go they catch alot of eyes and if I was a better jig fisherman I would have one more round of ammo in my arsenal. But unfortunatly jigging is outside my comfort zone so I don’t do alot of it. Allthough the wife and I did win the last tourny at Yuba just before they drained it by slooooow dragging a jig with a half a crawler it shallow water.
One of the best jig fisherman I ever saw was a good friend from Idaho that passed away last Feb. I swear that guy could entice a walleye out of a bathtub full of water with a jig [;)]
The last bit of advice I can give you is have a good partner in the back of the boat. My wife can perform magic with a bouncer and a crawler harness. She ussually catches more fish than I do. But look whos driving the boat and putting her over fish LOL 
This is turning into a book. I’ll leave it at that . Hopes this helps.
Wiperhunter:
Yeah the pay back helped. Payed for this tourny and the one to Boysen that we fell on our face on. Every little bit helps on this retirement pay.
Thanks very much for all your feedback. Great advise, and if you put it in a book, I’d probably buy it. As always, this forum is the best, and with the best members. It’s nice to go where egos don’t get in the way of fellow
members helping one another become better anglers.
I sincerely hope I can contribute my fair share to others as time goes on. I excel in stream fishing so I’m limited in what I can offer the lake fisherman in the way of advise. Hopefully this changes as time goes on. This boat stuff is a constant work in progress.
My wife still kicks my *&%^$ continually, and almost always catches the first fish; and boy can she rub it in!
She keeps it simple with a jig head and a worm, where I’m constantly trying new things and tactics hoping to land that trophy size fish. Some how, she manages to do both most of the time. First fish, biggest fish (some times), and the most fish (always). I think I’m continually trying to justify the millions of dollars in, what she calls “worthless tackle”, that I’ve spent gearing up the past couple years. She’s probably right when she says “We may look like pros with all our fancy gear, but many times, we can’t catch a fish to save our lives”. Oh well I’m in it for the fun anyway, and I happen to like the feel that a smooth 10+ bearing reel offers. Who cares if theirs a fish on the end of the line anyway. It’s like caressing a beautiful woman. Even if it doesn’t go anywhere in the end, it’s very pleasant trying.
Thanks again, and have a great day!
Glen:
Your more than welcome. Like I’ve said many times on this forum. I’m more than willing to share what I know to get more folks interested in walleye fishing,help them catch walleyes and to hopefully get more intrest in promoting a better walleye fishery in Utah.
I find a bigger challenge to consistanty catching walleyes than any other type of fish here in Utah other than maybe a tiger muskie.
I hope I don’t sound like I’m trying to be an expert on eyes because I not. if I was I should be winning more tournys LOL [;)]
I’m just sharing what helps the wife and I to put alot of walleyes in the net.
Keep us informed on how it works for you.
nice report. way to cross them eyes!!![fishin]