Starvation Tubing Floatilla 6-19-09

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
1

:sunglasses:A few of us tuber types launched an assault on Starvation, at Knight Hollow. Managed to catch it between Mama Nature’s hissy fits and had a nice sunny day, with only light breezes. Water was a COOOOOOL 59 at launch, warming to about 63 by the time we got off the water about 3:30.

**The water temps were a lot cooler than the previous week, due to a lot of storms. That shut down the good fishing others had enjoyed before. We saw very few fish on sonar early, and nobody on the lake was getting any action. Several boaters said they had not had any bites at all. **

There were TubeBabe and myself, Swedishfish, LloydE and his son Jody…Lloyd Jr. Jody scored first, with a nice perch. Then the “first fish jinx” set in and he only got one other small perch all day. Lloyd went fishless until just before 11, and then got a SMALL smallie. His only fish of the day. TubeBabe smelled skunk until about an hour before we left and then scored a phat perch and a 14" walleye in quick succession. Swedishfish got a couple of “teen incher” walleyes…bigger than his previous best six incher from Starvation last year. He also smacked a couple of smallies.

**Until 11 AM, I had only a couple of small perch pecks…nothing hooked. When Lloyd caught his first and only smallie, I joked that I had really had to wait a long time for him to catch his first fish and now I could get started. A few minutes later I netted a 16 inch walleye…our first for the floatilla. **

I continued to work that same area but didn’t get any more bites. Then Swedishfish caught a couple in a row out further and I moved out into that area. Bang, bang. I got a 12 incher and a 14 incher in short order. Then TubeBabe got her perch and walleye. But, no more walleye action for me.

**My shoulder was starting to ache, and it was past the time we had planned to leave…but you hate to leave biting fish. The afternoon warming temps had seemingly turned the fish on a bit more. **

I kicked over to FOD, who had been dodging our crew and a host of power squadron boats in his wallie-ized drift boat. Up until that point he had only a perch and a little “wall-ette” to show for his efforts. I exchanged pleasantries with FOD and his K9 Krew (dogs) and kicked in to work some of the rocky shoreline for smallies on the way back in.

First cast to the rocks produced a rat smallie. Got several more in quick succession on the little roadrunner I had been using for walleyes. Wanting to get bigger fish, I switched to a pale perch pattern crankbait and got into some larger smallies. The biggest I got to the net was only about 13 inches, but I lost a couple at tubeside that were maybe 16 inches. Much fun. Probably got about a dozen smallies to finish the day and we all converged back at the vehicles and headed home.

Saw FOD land his big walleye. Well, we HEARD him first. I think everybody on the lake heard him. Maybe people as far as Strawberry and Pelican heard him. Good show.

2

Not a tuber, but thoroughly enjoy your adventures, great post. Was down to OC on Thursday lots of tubers there. Limited but fishing was slow. FYI lots of weeds in the north end, but its holding a ton of fish to, fly and a bobble would work wonders I’ll bet..

3

That was a fun day. I wish they could all be similar as far as the weather, company and of coarse the fish. I am sorry I diddnt get to meet all the others floating but I really diddnt want to get tangled up with all the rods in the water including mine. Glad that everybody caught fish though. Hope to do at agin sometime. Hope your fish fry turned out. One if these times we need to have a shore lunch with the days catch. I am up to do it anywhere.:sunglasses:

4

:sunglasses:Don’t have Starvation on the “dance card” for next week. But, I will PM you when we plan another shot and we can work out the details for the shore lunch. I’m down widdat.

5

:slight_smile:I enjoy your stories! What did you use for the perch and walleye? and where did you get those sweet fish cages?:laughing:

6

Despite the slow fishing, that was one of my most enjoyable float tube trips to date. Nice weather, little wind, 3 species day (perch, walleye, smallmouth), and it was good to see everyone again.

I was beat afterwards though. I don’t think I have ever spent that many hours in my tube. I don’t remember what time we launched, but we must have been on the water nearly 8 hours. I hate to admit it, but I’m not sure how you more “mature” folks do it.

7

:slight_smile:I enjoy your stories! What did you use for the perch and walleye? and where did you get those sweet fish cages?:laughing:

:sunglasses:Since we can’t maintain trolling speed for very long in our tubes, we mostly either cast and retrieve or vertical jig a variety of small jigs. One of the most effective is the PBJ (painted body jig) line I make, in a “pale perch” pattern. See pics. A couple of folks were also doing well by just hanging a piece of worm on one of the “Ultra Minnow” jigs in the same pale perch color. Those things hang horizontally and make a good presentation. This stuff works well when the fish are in a neutral or non-feeding mode, as they seemed to be yesterday. When they are more active we go to bigger and brighter colors…like fire tiger.

The baskets are 19" X 30" wire fish baskets, available at Sportsmans and BassPro for under $12. We put a ring of foam “noodle” around the neck, both for floatation and to serve as a bumper to keep the basket from coming into direct contact with our inflated bass boats. Pic attached. We now use plastic zip ties to fasten the noodle…starting at the back and then doing both sides. Hope you like TubeBabes purty purple basket.

8

:sunglasses:Mature? Hey, I can take it. Old fudd works better. That’s what I are.

Answer? Industrial strength Geritol. Just snort a few lines before you hit the water and you are good to go…for at least 5 minutes. Bet you didn’t know what I kept sipping out of my hydration pack.

Like any activity, it pays to be in condition for whatever it is you are doing. I go tubing about 100 times a year. On an “average” day, I cover a whole lotta water. I seldom exert myself by towing a skier or racing a bass boat across the lake, but I just maintain a steady powerful kick. That is not too debilitating…even for old fudds. But, it can whup my behind when the wind comes up and I have to kick all the way back in upwind. Thankfully, that was not an issue yesterday.

It was good fishing with you again. Glad you beat your walleye record from last year.

9

We were there also caught 12 eyes the day the Floating went on, Fished it hard from Tuesday to Saturday, We fished the Catch a Cure Saturday