09-23-2021, 08:16 PM
Haven’t fished Starvy for a while. Reports have shown it to be stingy except on a few rare occasions this year. And it’s a long drive for mediocre results. So I have kept my trips closer to home.
Just hadda get in at least one trip before the end of the year. And September is usually a good time to find “all the usual suspects” (walleye, smallies, perch and trout) active in the Rabbit Gulch area. And I figured the current cooldown might help things. So I contacted my fishing buddy Gofish435 in Price and we put together a meetup for Wednesday.
We had our tubes launched by about 8 am. Tom went one way and I another. Air temps were a cool 41 at launch…warming to 70 at 1 pm departure. Water temps had been listed as 70 degrees on the State Parks website. But the cooldown took them down to just above 62 at launch and warming to a bit over 63 by 1. Glad I brung my waders. 65 is about my lower comfort level to fish without waders.
![[Image: STARVATION-LAUNCH-9-22-21.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/d2YYqmZ/STARVATION-LAUNCH-9-22-21.jpg)
Those who know Tom know that he is a true professional fly flinger. That is about his only form of fishing. He ties his own flies and is usually able to put together the right combination of size and color flies and the right type line, strip cadence, etc. He almost never smells skunk and is often top rod…as he was on our Starvy trip. Tom is good enough that trout are not his only victims. He probably catches more Starvy walleyes, smallies and perch…on flies…than many non-trouters. Of course he exercises a lot of Starvation Steelies too.
Tom started at a spot in which he had done well on his previous trip to Starvy a couple of weeks ago. My radio crackled and he informed me he had gotten things started with a small walleye and a couple of nice perch. All before I had reached my intended first spot to fish. When I got to the area I typically do well this time of year, I found only 5-6’ of water where there is usually 12 to 18 feet.
The same was true of planned spots B & C. So I had to go asearchin’. Found very little on sonar to provide any optimism. Kept dragging whirly fligs on one rod while pitching a variety of jigs on the other.
Finally worked my way back up to where Tom had some success…while he started moving west…back towards where I had been fishing. Several boats had moved in on the area Tom had been in, so I moved further east and saw a few marks on the screen. One of those marks slurped my whirly, pulled my rod down and made my reel sing. Turned out to be a nice 19” Starvation steelhead. Skunk begone.
![[Image: STARVATION-STEELHEAD.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/1KZyphw/STARVATION-STEELHEAD.jpg)
Shook off a small smallmouth and had a few perch pecks but no other hookups. That’s when Tom radioed he had found a few decent walleye down in the area I had fished earlier. So I fired up the big motor (40# thrust electric) and roostertailed down to refish that area. Of course, by the time I got there, Tom had caught all the easy ones. I finally caught one small “seegar” walleye. That was my last fish of the day.
![[Image: SEEGAR.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/VTQgtx9/SEEGAR.jpg)
Of all the boats we saw, I only witnessed one small walleye caught. And most of the boats didn’t hang around long. Doitall5000 was one of those. He pretty much blanked in Bunny Gulch too…before going over to the bridge area and finding more fish.
We all gotta have excuses for bad days. It was a full moon, fer sure, but I’ve done well before on Starvy during full moon periods. I’m gonna blame the sudden cooldown this past week…along with the super low water conditions. Fish are nervous and not schooling up and feeding up for the coming winter. But what do I know? Tom still got some.
Got lucky on the way home. A normal 2 hour drive turned into a 3 hour drive. There was a crime scene on the freeway in Park City and the whole freeway system was shut down. 3 lanes of vehicles backed up for miles between Jordanelle and Park City…and then finally working through the detours until getting back on the freeway. Fun Fun.
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URptcnKG7EE
Just hadda get in at least one trip before the end of the year. And September is usually a good time to find “all the usual suspects” (walleye, smallies, perch and trout) active in the Rabbit Gulch area. And I figured the current cooldown might help things. So I contacted my fishing buddy Gofish435 in Price and we put together a meetup for Wednesday.
We had our tubes launched by about 8 am. Tom went one way and I another. Air temps were a cool 41 at launch…warming to 70 at 1 pm departure. Water temps had been listed as 70 degrees on the State Parks website. But the cooldown took them down to just above 62 at launch and warming to a bit over 63 by 1. Glad I brung my waders. 65 is about my lower comfort level to fish without waders.
Those who know Tom know that he is a true professional fly flinger. That is about his only form of fishing. He ties his own flies and is usually able to put together the right combination of size and color flies and the right type line, strip cadence, etc. He almost never smells skunk and is often top rod…as he was on our Starvy trip. Tom is good enough that trout are not his only victims. He probably catches more Starvy walleyes, smallies and perch…on flies…than many non-trouters. Of course he exercises a lot of Starvation Steelies too.
Tom started at a spot in which he had done well on his previous trip to Starvy a couple of weeks ago. My radio crackled and he informed me he had gotten things started with a small walleye and a couple of nice perch. All before I had reached my intended first spot to fish. When I got to the area I typically do well this time of year, I found only 5-6’ of water where there is usually 12 to 18 feet.
The same was true of planned spots B & C. So I had to go asearchin’. Found very little on sonar to provide any optimism. Kept dragging whirly fligs on one rod while pitching a variety of jigs on the other.
Finally worked my way back up to where Tom had some success…while he started moving west…back towards where I had been fishing. Several boats had moved in on the area Tom had been in, so I moved further east and saw a few marks on the screen. One of those marks slurped my whirly, pulled my rod down and made my reel sing. Turned out to be a nice 19” Starvation steelhead. Skunk begone.
Shook off a small smallmouth and had a few perch pecks but no other hookups. That’s when Tom radioed he had found a few decent walleye down in the area I had fished earlier. So I fired up the big motor (40# thrust electric) and roostertailed down to refish that area. Of course, by the time I got there, Tom had caught all the easy ones. I finally caught one small “seegar” walleye. That was my last fish of the day.
Of all the boats we saw, I only witnessed one small walleye caught. And most of the boats didn’t hang around long. Doitall5000 was one of those. He pretty much blanked in Bunny Gulch too…before going over to the bridge area and finding more fish.
We all gotta have excuses for bad days. It was a full moon, fer sure, but I’ve done well before on Starvy during full moon periods. I’m gonna blame the sudden cooldown this past week…along with the super low water conditions. Fish are nervous and not schooling up and feeding up for the coming winter. But what do I know? Tom still got some.
Got lucky on the way home. A normal 2 hour drive turned into a 3 hour drive. There was a crime scene on the freeway in Park City and the whole freeway system was shut down. 3 lanes of vehicles backed up for miles between Jordanelle and Park City…and then finally working through the detours until getting back on the freeway. Fun Fun.
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URptcnKG7EE