Fishing Forum

Because I have posted so many Strawberry reports I was considering passing posting another one, but I noticed I was asked to post again, so here goes.

It snowed on us from my humble abode all the way to just past Jordanelle Reservoir. Then it let up until we were about 1/2 way up to Daniels Summit.

Found that the road to Strawberry Marina had several inches of fresh snow on it. Pulled a guy out who was stuck along the side of the road. The parking lot at The Marina had been recently plowed, which was a pleasant surprise.

Headed out 2 miles give or take a 1/2 mile or so and stopped on an old snowmobile trail. It was nice fishing without slush (because of fishing from the trail). Checked the depth and it was 76 feet deep. It was lightly snowing and the wind was blowing hard enough that it kept filling our ice holes, so we both set up our tents. Sure was nice getting out of the wind and not having to contend with the blowing snow. It snowed probably 3 or 4 inches before we left around 4 PM. The wind blew most of the day, but I think the hardest it ever blew was maybe 20-25 mph for a short time.

We tried for kokanee and trout (nice one can use two rods these days). No luck on the kokanee, but as has been the case this year up there, we caught lots of cutthroats and only one rainbow. I noticed that the glow dodger (that I was using on my kokanee rod) was great at attracting the cutthroat. I started using it as an attractant for cutthroat to my other rod and I also occasionally hooked one on the rod with the dodger, but I have a difficult time detecting bites with that heavy dodger between me and my jig.

The last two trips are the first time that I have fished out in the middle of nowhere. I always thought that one had to fish the shallower water ice fishing at Strawberry to find a large quantity of fish, but these last two trips have certainly proven that theory to be wrong. It does seem like I catch more cutthroat near the bottom of the slot than I typically catch in shallower water.

Pleasant day fishing again and nice to meet and fish with Brian.
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Just curious, how thick is the ice where you fished?
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Thanks for the report!
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One drills through multiple layers before reaching the actual ice. I would guestimate the ice is approximately 2 1/2' thick.
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Ok, thank you.
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Hey Kent thank you for the report and glad the day turned out okay for you guys... Sounds like the slush must of gotten better or you're not a whiner like I was... I noticed the same thing as you mentioned about the fish being small out in the middle... We only got a limited number of fish over 18" out in the middle, but got a ton of 12-15"ers... I don't remember hearing if any of our group caught any bows, but I don't think we did... I know I didn't, but we did luck into a nice bunch of kokes, which I was very happy for..

I had a hard time making the switch to a dodger on my line as well, but after I started catching fish, I adjusted really quick... I used my smaller dodger, I think it was the 5.5" size, but it worked much better than the solitary jig on my jigging jaw jacker..

What depth did you find the fish? Most of the active ones we were finding were around 35' down and we were fishing about 77 fow...

I really liked having a fish finder for this last trip to the berry, I think it made a ton of difference for me to get on the fish that were actively taking it... There were a lot of fish down around 45-50', but they wouldn't take it, so I went up to the 20-30' range and those fish were interested in feeding and that's where the active kokes were at also..

I did see some of the deep fish see my lure 15-20' above them and dash up and hit my lure, so I think fishing shallower, was better for me..

Oh one last thing, lures were very important for us this last trip... I tried all the stuff I thought would/should work and after nothing for over an hour as I was switching around, while others were doing quite well, I switched to a Maniac 1.5" Cut'r bug in glow with a meal worm half on it and the fish turned on for me... The rest of the day I had a blast, until my body got tore up so I switched to a pink glow body and they shut right down again... 45 minutes later, I went back to glow and started catching fish the rest of the day... I think it was more than coincidence this time... Usually the crazy glow orange is our favorite color down there, but only one fish on it this trip... So it's good to have a selection of colors for those days when the old go to won't work..

Too bad its so far away from where I live, I sure like fishing that lake, you guys are lucky that live close enough to go there often... Later J
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Slush was still there; however, we lucked out and stopped on an old snowmobile path and fished from it.

I caught them all the way from about 5' under the ice to about 55' down. Most were caught between about 25 and 35'.

Orange glow Cut'r bug, along with a Maniac glow head have caught over 1/2 of the fish I have caught up there this year. I have also done well on Pat's glow fire tiger jig.

Glow is essential to catch a large number and a fish finder is extremely helpful; especially, if one is fishing in deep water.
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I have also done well with the pink glow Cut'r Bug.

Having a glow jig is of no value unless it is glowing. I charge mine frequently.
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We had some strong sun on Tuesday and leaving those glow jig bodies in the sun before I dropped them down into the dark under that deep snow capped ice sheet, I'm sure makes a presence that the fish can't ignore... Seemed that way from the activity that we seen... I just can't decide why that pink glow wouldn't work... I fished it longer than I should have just trying to prove it would work, finally I gave up on it... Thanks for the details Kent, sounds like we were doing things pretty similar... Jeff
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I had similar observations on my last trip. Very few of the bottom fish took the bait in the deep water. Most of my fish were in the 25-30 ft range. I ran a tandem rig below my dodger for awhile with pink on bottom and orange above. All but 1 cutthroat passed by the pink and hit the orange. Both kokes hit on pink however. I second Kent's advice to recharge glow often. The action of the dodger kept tangling that setup so I gave up on the tandem. Both baits caught some, but it seemed to me that the cutts don't care for the gulp maggot nearly as much as they do a mealworm. I switched to the maggots to act as a sort of cutt repellent. I'm very grateful for any fish, but I was on a mission to catch a koke. Fun times trying to figure out fish
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Good work sir. Even if you post seemingly the same report in your mind, I always find some new tidbit of info that helps me along the way. Thank you
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I find I over think things too much and try to do what I think the fish should like, instead of just going with what they tell me that they like... Need to quit trying to convince them to do what I want them to do... Maybe that's something to remember at home too.... Later J
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