Thursday morning came early for me, rising at 3:30 am to ready the boat and make sure I had the correct gear in the boat for the tenth time. I had the boat loaded and out of the garage by 4 and to the gas station for a fill up. Last week we ran it out of gas and only put in a few gallons. Gassed up and on the road to pick up Shifty at his place at 4:30 and then on the road to Starvation Reservoir. Starvation is a good hour and a half drive and we pulled into Duchesne at 6:00 am and got some supplies and a breakfast burrito. We were on the water before sunrise and at our first area as the sun was breaking the horizon. One of the reasons to fish is to see the sunrise on a beautiful lake.
Starvation is a mini Lake Powell in looks and structure with legs and arms going off the main body in every direction. We started trolling for trout in a pattern that served us well back in June. This time however the water level had dropped and the pattern was in shallow water of 29 feet and I like to troll in 60-80 feet of water so I changed the path a little and changed colors to a Rainbow Cowbell. I was also running a school of fish with gold diamond cowbells and trailing a chartreuse flasher. Shifty was running silver JoD with a squidring and worm. We fished for about an hour before we found our first hit, I got one on the rainbow and got to a visible length and then we watched it release. The school of fish got a hit but didn't hook up and got a free meal.
The next hit was the rainbow gear and we landed a nice fat Rainbow Trout to start of the morning. Shifty got his first fish in the boat next another nice rainbow trout with large shoulders. Then I got another and another which gave us 4 in the live well. By this time the wind was blowing stiff out of the west and white caps were forming so we decided to go for some Small Mouth Bass in the coves to get out of the wind and be protected.
We fished and changed colors and presentation multiple times in and out of coves and along the rocky shorelines. We nestled in against a set of boulders that were submerged and started casting in between them and running our lures deep. Shifty put on a perch pattern and was swimming it back to the boat when Bam! he got hit hard and fought the fish to the boat for a few minutes we landed it another nice rainbow trout that made five in the live well. We continued to fish for small mouth bass along the shore and boulder structures. We stopped for a sec. and ate a little lunch before mooring to the north end of the reservoir to see how it looked the wind had it all chopped up and not feeling good about the area we went back south and found another cove on the east side of the lake this time.
We started casting along the shore and Shifty got a fish to the boat quickly, well it resembled a small mouth bass but just a fingerling. Shifty caught a couple more of the smaller fish and I continued to change lures until I put on red eyed and red bellied crank bait. This lure proved to be successful for me I caught a bigger small mouth in a couple cast. After that I continued to catch larger sized smallies and one over a pound. We noticed the water had calmed down and we ready to finish the day off without limit of trout. We started to troll the center of the lake down the main body toward the bridge, and I told Shifty he was going to catch the next fish and sure enough he got a nice rainbow trout. I was running rainbow pop gear with a rapala chaser and got one hit so then I change to a lure we actually found floating in the water.
Shifty finished out the day with three more fish. He missed two more one of which he had at the boat and one last fight by the big bruiser and it quick released at about 10 feet from being landed, we both gasped. It was 3:00 pm by then and we had a full limit of trout which made the day great. We loaded and filleted the fish at the cleaning station and headed for town. Cowan's Cafe was the next stop a small diner in Duchesne which serves great food. After a late lunch or early dinner we headed for home and shared our favorite experiences of the day and there were many. It's always great getting out with Shifty and Shifty Outdoors. Till next time tightlines and keep smiling!
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