06-24-2010, 01:02 AM
[cool][#0000ff]For two weeks Mama Nature has pitched a hissy fit when I planned a trip to Starvation. This morning I sneaked out under cover of darkness and boogied for Knight Hollow...hoping to get on the water before she knew I had outfoxed her. It worked.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Air temp a cool 45 at launch. Water temp a cool 63...especially cool without waders. Ya gotta be tough. Only warmed up to 65 by quittin' time at noon, even with calm wind and warm temps.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I was more than ready. Luckily, so were the fishies. I used the trolling motor to head out into the lake, watching the depth and looking for fish on the sonar. Shut down and started fishing in about 20 feet of water. Started dragging a worm-baited "flig" (floating jig) on one rod while vertical jigging and bottom bouncing a small jig on the other rod.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Got my first inquiry on the pale perch colored flig in about 24' of water. Good scrapper. Took line off the drag. Was thinking smallmouth. Fooled me. It was a PORKY PERCH...14 incher. Way to start the day. Biggest perch of the day too.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Then I started alternating. First a perch and then a mini walleye. Got into an area that was covered with wall-ettes...nothing over about 10 inches. Caught a grundle of them, along with perch that were longer and heavier.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Loved the perch but had come for the toothy guys. Kept moving around and trying different jigs. Finally tried one of my new ultra minnow jigs that I had modified to have a spinner blade...kinda like a Roadrunner. Fished it a while and was just getting ready to change again when THUMP. My biggest walleye landed of the day...a nice 16 incher. It was followed soon by a 15 incher. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]After a long dry spell on both the flig and the jingle jig things got busy. I changed to my deadly "RC Killer" (red & chartreuse tube jig) and started getting fish again. At one point I was five for five...five drops and five walleyes. Only a couple were over the "teen incher" size limit I had imposed upon myself. All the foot-longs or smaller still swim. And there are lots of them for future reference.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Two times my flig rod took a sudden deep bend and the surface erupted with a head-shaking rainbow. Landed the first one after a spirited tussle. 16". Just right for my sis in law. The second one was larger. A lot larger. Of course he arranged a "professional release". I was just a spectator as he tore up the surface, twisted free of the offending sticky thing and then swam off.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Had a similar situation on smallmouths. Tried throwing cranks over a shallow hump and got thumped good. A 3 pound smallie came up for a look at me, decided he didn't like what he saw and gave me back my crank. Got a couple of other bumps but no more hookups on hardbaits.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The RC Killer put several more teen inchers in the basket for me before the combination of low wind and high sun sent them...somewhere. Suddenly it just died. I moved around and tried different depths to no avail. I had nine perch and nine walleyes in the basket. That seemed like a nice round number on which to quit. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There was a boat with a couple of other guys fishing near enough for conversation for a while. They were spanking the small wallies pretty good too and said they had one about 20". Also said that they were told by some buddies that there is a crankbait bite starting for the walleyes if you hit them right. But the wind has been blowing hard over there most of the day...every day. I told them I brought the calm. I don't do wind very well in my tube.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water level seems to have peaked and is starting to drop. Down a foot or so from high water but still pretty high. Good clarity.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Not much water coming in the diversion pipe. And it is pretty clean. Didn't seem to be holding any fish. I talked to a couple of boaters who had fished it. One caught a small walleye and a perch but nobody else got bit.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Final tally: 9 and 9...plus a slimer. I caught perch from 12' to 30'. Ditto for walleyes. Best areas were in water between 10 to 15 feet deep. Baited with worms on fligs and jigs...except for the few times I tipped with 2" chub minnows. Caught both perch and walleye on minnows as well as worms.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Air temp a cool 45 at launch. Water temp a cool 63...especially cool without waders. Ya gotta be tough. Only warmed up to 65 by quittin' time at noon, even with calm wind and warm temps.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I was more than ready. Luckily, so were the fishies. I used the trolling motor to head out into the lake, watching the depth and looking for fish on the sonar. Shut down and started fishing in about 20 feet of water. Started dragging a worm-baited "flig" (floating jig) on one rod while vertical jigging and bottom bouncing a small jig on the other rod.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Got my first inquiry on the pale perch colored flig in about 24' of water. Good scrapper. Took line off the drag. Was thinking smallmouth. Fooled me. It was a PORKY PERCH...14 incher. Way to start the day. Biggest perch of the day too.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Then I started alternating. First a perch and then a mini walleye. Got into an area that was covered with wall-ettes...nothing over about 10 inches. Caught a grundle of them, along with perch that were longer and heavier.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Loved the perch but had come for the toothy guys. Kept moving around and trying different jigs. Finally tried one of my new ultra minnow jigs that I had modified to have a spinner blade...kinda like a Roadrunner. Fished it a while and was just getting ready to change again when THUMP. My biggest walleye landed of the day...a nice 16 incher. It was followed soon by a 15 incher. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]After a long dry spell on both the flig and the jingle jig things got busy. I changed to my deadly "RC Killer" (red & chartreuse tube jig) and started getting fish again. At one point I was five for five...five drops and five walleyes. Only a couple were over the "teen incher" size limit I had imposed upon myself. All the foot-longs or smaller still swim. And there are lots of them for future reference.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Two times my flig rod took a sudden deep bend and the surface erupted with a head-shaking rainbow. Landed the first one after a spirited tussle. 16". Just right for my sis in law. The second one was larger. A lot larger. Of course he arranged a "professional release". I was just a spectator as he tore up the surface, twisted free of the offending sticky thing and then swam off.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Had a similar situation on smallmouths. Tried throwing cranks over a shallow hump and got thumped good. A 3 pound smallie came up for a look at me, decided he didn't like what he saw and gave me back my crank. Got a couple of other bumps but no more hookups on hardbaits.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The RC Killer put several more teen inchers in the basket for me before the combination of low wind and high sun sent them...somewhere. Suddenly it just died. I moved around and tried different depths to no avail. I had nine perch and nine walleyes in the basket. That seemed like a nice round number on which to quit. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]There was a boat with a couple of other guys fishing near enough for conversation for a while. They were spanking the small wallies pretty good too and said they had one about 20". Also said that they were told by some buddies that there is a crankbait bite starting for the walleyes if you hit them right. But the wind has been blowing hard over there most of the day...every day. I told them I brought the calm. I don't do wind very well in my tube.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Water level seems to have peaked and is starting to drop. Down a foot or so from high water but still pretty high. Good clarity.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Not much water coming in the diversion pipe. And it is pretty clean. Didn't seem to be holding any fish. I talked to a couple of boaters who had fished it. One caught a small walleye and a perch but nobody else got bit.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Final tally: 9 and 9...plus a slimer. I caught perch from 12' to 30'. Ditto for walleyes. Best areas were in water between 10 to 15 feet deep. Baited with worms on fligs and jigs...except for the few times I tipped with 2" chub minnows. Caught both perch and walleye on minnows as well as worms.[/#0000ff]
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