Tubing Deer Creek 7-13-23

[TubeDude]

First shot at Deer Creek this year.  Didn't know what to expect...with the higher water and lack of good reports.  Was hoping Thursday the 13th wasn't as bad as Friday the 13th.

Got launched around 7 am at the Charleston area.  First time it's been high enough water for small craft to launch there for a few years.  Purty morning.  Calm...until the water skiers started running the edges on the far side of the lake...before I even got launched.  Glad that was not my intended fishing area.  Air temp was a cool 52 at launch, warming to 82 at noon departure.  Water temp started out about 67 and increased to just over 71 at noon.  And it is always nice fishing Deer Creek with Mama Timp watching over ya.


Headed out trolling a crank and pulling a spinner flig rig...hoping to maybe molest a trout or two while searching for promising walleye territory.  Had a couple of minor whacks but no hookups in the next half hour.  Finally put out a couple of whirly flig crawler rigs and started dragging them around from 18 to 25 feet deep.  Saw occasional fish in the 19-20 foot range but nothing deeper.  And if I moved shallower I immediately got fouled with nasty green weeds.   Had to watch the rod tips for drag and pull in and clean off the green gunk every few minutes.

Had a couple of whacks around 7:30 in one spot...one on each rod...but did not hook up.  Then it was absolutely zippo until about 9.  That's when the first seegar walleye climbed on...and was quickly released.  After that I got more hits...hooking 5 walleyes and two trout.  Two of the walleyes were "seegars", two were "footlongs" and only one 14 incher got invited home.  The trout hit the same stuff I was fishing for walleyes.  One was 15" and the other a chunky 18 incher.  Had a few "perch pecks" but nothing brought to the tube.  And had one small smallie hang on for exercise until I got him close enough for a jump and long line release.


There were a lot more ski and wakeboard boats on the water today than anglers.  And of the fishing boat watched I didn't see any wet nets.  Although a couple of guys who launched a small boat about the same time I did...and returned when I did...claimed to have caught a lot of trout fishing power putty in 10 -12 FOW in the old channel.  They had kept one nice trout that succumbed while being released.


I have definitely done better on Deer Creek this time of year in years past.  But at least I got some tugs and brung home some edibles.