# Lucky Craft Real California 130



## rapalahunter (Oct 13, 2007)

I thought about buying one of these to fish with at ice off and during the fall up at strawberry. It floats but dives 2-4 feet. It looks great!

I was wondering if anyone out there has ever ponied up the... gulp... 30 bucks :shock: it costs to get one. And if so how did it go?

Even if you haven't fished it... what have you heard about it?


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

I've heard that you're a sucker for a pricey lure!!!  

Just playin' witcha.

That looks nice. Great head and tail. Go buy one and tell us how it works for you. :lol:


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## rapalahunter (Oct 13, 2007)

I just read some online reviews. apparently these things look good, but totally suck!

Still wanting to try a high priced swimbait at least once. I'm thinking an AC plug? Those seem to get rave reviews. We'll see though


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

rapalahunter said:


> Still wanting to try a high priced swimbait at least once. I'm thinking an AC plug? Those seem to get rave reviews. We'll see though


For what?? Largemouth? Walleye? Smallies? Stripers? Larger trout? Just curious... I know they sell tons of soft plastic swimbaits in a Rainbow pattern down in Vegas because the stripers apparently slurp up hatchery trout like candy... I know the big bass have shown em some love in California too but I don't know that we'd have much for em here that you couldn't also get with a big soft plastic fluke or something else. Just my opinion though. I wonder if you could get one with a rattle for night fishing places like the Green, Provo (in the big holes) and any other place that has lunkers that will come out after dark...


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## rapalahunter (Oct 13, 2007)

There are a few reasons why I want to try one of these big swimbaits.

First, every year at this time I need something fishing related to research and obsess over since I'm not doing any actual fishing (too cold). Some that frequented the old DWR site may remember my tangent on night fishing I was on last winter. I read about trout feeding behavior for a couple of months. I even found a research paper on how far big trout move from their day time resting holes to feed at night so I could calculate how far from certain deeper holes I should be fishing to tempt them with my late night offerings.

Second, I really got into fishing strawberry this fall. I caught more fish over 20" than I thought possible with my two largest going 25" and 26" :shock: It was awesome and I'm hooked on big stillwater fish. I did a little research on the variety of cutthroat in the berry. The bear lake bonneville cutthroat trout was chosen for a very important reason. They become primarily piscivores (fish eaters) at adulthood, allowing them to keep the utah chub population in check. Their feeding behavior is different than the strawberry cutthroat of old who primarily were insect feeders. In my research I came across a great article. Here is an excerpt:

"And, as our surveys show, the regulations are working," said Ward. "We saw it here in the gill nets. We caught only five year- old chubs where we used to catch 40 and 50. There was even a reduction in adult chubs. What we've found is a 22-inch cutthroat will take a fish up to 8 inches."

Unfortunately, the cutthroat trout are unable to distinguish between so-called trash fish or chubs, and game fish, which in this case are smaller rainbow and cutthroats.

"That was the most alarming thing we found. We saw a low number of smaller game fish. We're not seeing the fish we stocked this year," he explained. "We're concerned they're getting eaten by the large cutthroat, especially the young rainbow. They're even hitting the smaller cutts. We're hoping some of the smaller fish will show up in our fall survey."

The fact is, the smaller rainbow and cutthroat trout have been on the decline for the past couple of years, which can be linked to the increase in more and larger cutthroat.

"The larger cutthroat have no trouble eating an 8-inch fish -- chub, rainbow or cutthroat. When they reach 8 inches we see higher survival. They're larger, but they're also smarter and know how to avoid being eaten," said Robinson.

Because of these gillnet studies the stocking program at strawberry has changed. They are now stocking larger fish to avoid the predation problem. If a 22" cutthroat can take down an 8" baby rainbow, why not give it what it wants? The same article estimates that there were over 200,000 20"+ cutthroat trout in strawberry in the spring of 2007. The chub population is going down, the bear lake cutthroat is still a genetically programmed piscivore, and they are keying in on small trout. I'm gonna use a small trout (6" huddleston deluxe to be exact).

Last, a guy at sportsmans was telling me about an 8 lb jordanelle smallie caught on a swimbait and I'm kind of a sucker for the expensive lures so I figured if it totally bombed at the berry than I'd give warm water fishing the old college try!

I know this is a novel, but my wife is tired of hearing me talk about it so... I found an outlet _(O)_ _(O)_ _(O)_

If you think I'm crazy that's fine, I may be way off base on my ideas, but I'm sure gonna have fun trying them out! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

I feel your pain on going research crazy. My wife, coworkers, friends, and parents are all pretty sick of the fish talk, but I can't help it. That's just what's on my mind, often.

What can you do to get your fix other than either get off the lumps and fish, or occupy your mind with the book end of it, right?

Who's idea was it to start a Fisherman's Anonymous? Oh wait...That's exactly what this place is. :shock: 

'Hi, my name's not really LOAH, but I'm a fishing addict..."


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## rapalahunter (Oct 13, 2007)

Dude, your name written in urine as your signature... Hilarious :lol:


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

I'm just glad it's only 4 letters. -)O(- Almost ran outta juice.


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## rapalahunter (Oct 13, 2007)

next time try this:

keala'ula'oka'pua'lau'ki

It's my middle name.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

You first. :shock:


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

How did that night fishing work for you? I've gone over and over that in my mind, trying to convince myself to do it.... and have yet to give it a shot. Do you want to fish some rivers at night for big trout? If so, I have some places we could go that I think might just surprise the hell out of both of us. I just am a little sketchy because I don't live down in the Provo area and hit those rivers as much as I used to (almost every day) and so I'm not as confident knowing my way around them as I used to be. I'm way into night fishing, even for bass, which was a blast, but have never tried it for trout. Good for you for thinking outside the box and being determined enough to carry out your experiment. Please feel free to PM me if you don't want to post your results here... if you don't mind, I might shoot you a PM or two myself picking your brain about your adventure. Its something that sounds like fun if I can convince myself to just do it.


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## rapalahunter (Oct 13, 2007)

The night fishing went great the times I've tried it. I've fished some deeper holes in the middle of Provo city at night and pulled out fish I couldn't believe lived there. I've also had success up the canyon, but haven't done it as much. Honestly, I'm a little afraid of the dark when I'm by myself in the woods. -)O(- 

I'm game to try some spots out... once the weather is warmer :? I bet the green would be some awesome night fishing. And no crowds to fight either!

I'm pretty open to sharing info on how my swimbait experiment goes. Unless it goes really well... then my lips are shut 8) But if I don't report on it people will assume it worked... so I guess either way I'll tell everyone it totally bombed.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

rapalahunter said:


> I guess either way I'll tell everyone it totally bombed.


Atta boy!!! :lol: Thats great about the night fishing. About being kinda scared of the woods at night.... it certainly is a little creepy, depending on where you're at. I figure if I stand in the middle of the river, nothing can get me without me hearing it first. :lol: Just kidding.... kinda. Some of the bright moonlit nights I think would be awesome for fishing a couple of local rivers and I've actually talked to a guy off of BFT that went by Curtisfish (Chad Curtis) who used to fish the Green at night with floating Raps. He told me that it was just like topwater bass fishing... cast out, pop, glide, pop, glide, splash and you're tight to a nice fish. He sent me some pictures (I've since deleted them from my email) of some fish he caught out that way and man, it was worth the time he put in. I used to fish the Provo downtown a lot and caught some nice fish in the early mornings and evenings, but never fished it at night. Sounds like you certainly had a good time.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

What a couple of babies.!! -)O(- -)O(-  

Some area's along the Provo scare the hell out of me, some of the weirdest noise's when it gets dark...Owls, Fox, Muskrat, Fish jumping, Wuffs and Coyote's... :lol:

Another river I fish does the same thing....I think they're both *Haunted !* :shock: :shock:


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

.45 said:


> What a couple of babies.!! -)O(- -)O(-
> 
> Some area's along the Provo scare the hell out of me, some of the weirdest noise's when it gets dark...Owls, Fox, Muskrat, Fish jumping, Wuffs and Coyote's... :lol:
> 
> Another river I fish does the same thing....I think they're both *Haunted !* :shock: :shock:


When I'm comfortable knowing the area, it doesn't bother me near as bad.... but something about not being real familiar with my surroundings kinda freaks me out. Its not the dark.... I just feel.... weird I guess. I think I'd manage to suck it up long enough to find out what critters really lurk in some of the deep holes I've fished in broad daylight though.....


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Riverrat77 said:


> When I'm comfortable knowing the area, it doesn't bother me near as bad.... but something about not being real familiar with my surroundings kinda freaks me out. Its not the dark.... I just feel.... weird I guess. I think I'd manage to suck it up long enough to find out what critters really lurk in some of the deep holes I've fished in broad daylight though.....


Me Too !!! 

Acutally, rapala's, at night work quite well on the Provo. It's an outright attack !! Not a nibble here and there. The noise of the attack, itself, can be frightening !! :shock:


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## Hellsangler69 (Sep 26, 2007)

.45 said:


> What a couple of babies.!! -)O(- -)O(-
> 
> Some area's along the Provo scare the hell out of me, some of the weirdest noise's when it gets dark...Owls, Fox, Muskrat, Fish jumping, Wuffs and Coyote's... :lol:
> 
> Another river I fish does the same thing....I think they're both *Haunted !* :shock: :shock:


 The beavers can sneak up on ya too .You ever had a big kitty get close to ya on the Provo ? They can get loud if you are in there way .That always makes the hair on my neck stand up . :lol: I have only bumped in to 3 people at night and they never seen me till I said something . Once about 2:00am a couple years ago I had a bunch of drunks in rafts come down the river at night and spook the fish . I think I scared them too . :twisted:


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