Fishing Forum

I had a chance to fish Strawberry today with four of my good friends. It was one of the nicest days on the ice for us in several years. Sunny, light winds and the temperature got up to around 40 degrees at 3:00 p.m..

Even though it was a warm sunny day the conditions were very good. We used snowmobiles to get on the lake near the marina and we went east about two miles and fished the open water where we all troll for Kokes in the soft water season. The snow was about 10 inches deep over a frozen layer of slush that held us above the liquid. I did run over one spot of slush on the way out but some additional throttle to the sled took care of the bogging down effect. We shoveled off some fishing spots and we were never bothered by the slush and I never broke through the frozen layer.

I'm willing to bet Strawberry ice fishing will last well into March and possibly early April unless we get some very abnormally warm spring weather.

We started around 0900 and we were immediately greeted by the residents. We were trying to target the Kokes and some of us (not me) had success. I believe 6 Kokes were harmed during the making of this post. A good number of rainbows were also caught and a bunch of slot cutts. We fished with a variety of jigs, squids, spoons and I even caught several slot cutts on one of the new "Steelshad", gold color, in the smaller size. I found the cutts just couldn't leave it alone. I caught 5 cutts in about 30 minutes in the afternoon just before we packed up for the day. We fished at depths from 10 feet to as deep as 50 feet in water that was about 80 feet deep. It was surprising how many fish were crusing around out in the open area of the reservoir.

It certainly didn't hurt that one of our party was the very person with Adam Eakle on last Saturday's KSL Outdoors program. Paul was able to put us on a spot were the snow conditions were great and there were some of the silver speeders that wanted to play. Paul caught two Kokes as I recall and his brother got three. One of the other fisherman from Price got the largest of the day, a great 19.5 inch, 2.75 pound forked tailed beauty. Two of us caught lots of fish but the salmon evaded our offerings on this outing. We all agreed a return is likely next week if the weather is favorable.


EDIT: FYI. KSL Outdoors Kokane show from last Saturday is available to view online at KSL.com. Adam Eakle and Paul got into great detail on how you can target the Kokes and catch a lot of other trout. I just watched it since I missed it Saturday and it's a very well done episode.
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Good report -- tks for the info....we usually hold off on Strawberry 'til March, squeezing out as much from the mid-elevation waters as we can, 'til they become questionable for safety reasons....they're getting close, so Strawberry is just around the corner .... glad to hear you had success....Guluk...
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Sounds like a fun outing. Did the kokanee come through in large schools? Or just singles passing through?
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Hey Mike that’s a great post, I just watched Adams KSL Outdoors last night and got excited to try that this year. I usually head that way after my usual waters get questionable and it’s not far off. I always hear about the triangle how do you line up into that area? If you go next week PM me, I may take a day off and join you if you don’t mind. Thanks Jeff
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Jeff and EyLayo, I'll try to answer your questions.

First about the Kokes coming through. We were all running electronics to make it easier to determine when fish were below us. It did seem the Kokes would come through in small schools of 2 to 8 fish. They would hang around for a short time if there was something to keep their attention, like a struggling former school member.

I had to move off a short distance to avoid having my Showdown interfere with the Whirling Disease devices (flashers as they are often called) used by the other, less sophisticated fishermen. I saw many groups of suspected Kokes come through our location but none seemed interested in my presentations which were the same as the other guys who did connect with salmon. Most of the Kokes seemed to prefer the 20 to 35 foot depth although there were "targets" showing up nearly all the way to the bottom in the 80 foot deep water. Most of the fish we hooked very deep where slot cutts and a few rainbows.

Jeff, I'm not the wizard with Goggle Maps like our friend, the Prince of PVC, Tubedude, but it's fairly simple. Head east/northeast from the marina and travel about 2 miles. You'll find yourself out in the apparent middle of the reservoir. I don't think it's critical exactly where you fish because the fish were always on the move eating the abundant plankton. I would suggest testing the snow and slush conditions where you plan to fish to avoid standing in water.

The current weather forecast for next Tuesday looks fairly good and Tuesday is the best day for many of us to take off for fishing. I'll send you a PM if we do decide to go next week.

Mike
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Thanks Mike, it sounds good... I think I may be able to do that if nothing too hot comes up... Let me know a day or so ahead of time... Thanks Jeff
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Did you see other fishermen close to the marina.
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Thank you for the reply. While reading up on the subject it seems they are usually in larger groups. But with your info, the recent ksl episode, and my last trip, the schools appear rather small in numbers. Do you think the plankton are more spread out in the winter? Assuming that would spread out the fish as well. I guess it's also possible that there are larger schools around. They just were not located on the few given instances. Anyhow, congrats on the team win. Happy fishing to you.
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I have always wondered if the variety of Kokes makes the difference on the school sizes... The small kokes seems to swim in clouds of fish... whereas the bigger variety always seem to be more spread out in my limited experience... Anyone else ever notice this trend? Later J
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There were quite a few foot soldiers out in the area within about 300 yards of the marina. I would estimate there were about 15 to 20 fishermen on the ice near the access point at the marina. There were also about 15 to 20 other snowmobiles out around the lake. There were also some fishermen on the east side below Highway 40 where they had walked down to the water.

Mike
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