03-27-2022, 06:13 PM
[font="Open Sans", sans-serif]I went to Strawberry on Saturday 26th for one final ice trip. I went with my son-in-law, his father, and my SIL's friend and his son. We hit the Ladders area. Road into the parking lot was good, some washboards, but easy access. Parking lot is bare as well, with some water accumulated at the SW corner where you access the lake. Snow between parking lot and the lake was soft and we kept breaking through, even when following snowmobile trails. This was at 6:30 am.[/font]
[font="Open Sans", sans-serif]The ice conditions were good first thing in the morning. We skirted the open water and set up in about 35 fow. Very slow, caught a few there, then moved shallower. Ended up in about 24 fow. Ice is thick (we didn't measure, but probably 20-24 inches). We fished until about 3 pm. In our group of 5, we only caught about 23 fish total, mostly slot cutthroats, but a handful of rainbows. Bite was very light. Small jigs and small bait were the key for me. Several in our group had luck with a chartreuse/green speckled atomic teaser about a foot below a split shot. I had no luck with a similar rig. I caught several on a yellow/chartreuse tungsten jig, then seemed to have better luck on very small white jigs. It seemed like shrimp worked best for bait, but I caught one on a piece of chub too. I caught one on a nightcrawler nub, but the fish showed no interest in wax or meal worms.[/font]
[font="Open Sans", sans-serif]The sun was out and hot (remember your sunscreen!). It was slushy everywhere as we came off, with standing water in many places. And a real work out stepping through slushy knee deep snow to get back to the parking lot. Several snowdogs and snowmobiles were out on the lake. Not very crowded at all (we were hundreds of yards from anyone else).[/font]
[font="Open Sans", sans-serif]There were several water craft in the open water area at the Ladders throughout the day - kayaks and rafts? Not sure how they did. My guess is the ice will start breaking up sooner than later if the warm temps hold up. Again, last trip for me this winter. Sorry to see it end. See my other updated post about how I ended up against my goals for this ice season.[/font]
[font="Open Sans", sans-serif]The ice conditions were good first thing in the morning. We skirted the open water and set up in about 35 fow. Very slow, caught a few there, then moved shallower. Ended up in about 24 fow. Ice is thick (we didn't measure, but probably 20-24 inches). We fished until about 3 pm. In our group of 5, we only caught about 23 fish total, mostly slot cutthroats, but a handful of rainbows. Bite was very light. Small jigs and small bait were the key for me. Several in our group had luck with a chartreuse/green speckled atomic teaser about a foot below a split shot. I had no luck with a similar rig. I caught several on a yellow/chartreuse tungsten jig, then seemed to have better luck on very small white jigs. It seemed like shrimp worked best for bait, but I caught one on a piece of chub too. I caught one on a nightcrawler nub, but the fish showed no interest in wax or meal worms.[/font]
[font="Open Sans", sans-serif]The sun was out and hot (remember your sunscreen!). It was slushy everywhere as we came off, with standing water in many places. And a real work out stepping through slushy knee deep snow to get back to the parking lot. Several snowdogs and snowmobiles were out on the lake. Not very crowded at all (we were hundreds of yards from anyone else).[/font]
[font="Open Sans", sans-serif]There were several water craft in the open water area at the Ladders throughout the day - kayaks and rafts? Not sure how they did. My guess is the ice will start breaking up sooner than later if the warm temps hold up. Again, last trip for me this winter. Sorry to see it end. See my other updated post about how I ended up against my goals for this ice season.[/font]