Fished Strawberry today with a couple of the grandkids and the fishing was fantastic! I can't imagine how good it would have been had it not been a full moon. Caught them on minnows still fishing. Caught them on Carter Spoons, Rapalas, Flatfish, Jakes Spin a Lures, and a minnow trolling. We once had a fish on all three rods while trolling (downrigger, leaded line, and long lining). Saw MGB, Hellsangler, Aquaman, Lundman and Extex. Got checked by the game wardens. Saw a guy get a ticket who only kept one fish, but it was a 17 inch cutthroat, and he had no idea about a slot limit. It was one of those days that it didn't matter what we trolled they hit it. The fish are larger this year than they have been for several years.
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Hey Kent good ta hear of your great success. Bet your grand kids had a hoot! Guess I'll have to break down and checkout the Berry during my travels to Starvation soon.
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Sounds like a great day at the Berry, I won't ask you what the water temp was but how about fish size? You said the fish were bigger this year but failed to give us any size of the fish you caught today. How long was the biggest fish and what was the average of the trout you caught today? WH2
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nice report. Sounds like a fun day on the water. I'm planning on taking a trip to Strawberry sometime this week. I have never been there. Can anyone offer some advice on where to fish, are there any pulloffs or must I go to a fee area? I will be fishing the shore or float tubing using spinning gear, tubes, castmasters, Jakes, tubes. Are the fish close to shore or deep? That sort of stuff, anything that would help me have a great day on the water.
Thanks,
Al
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Fished strawberry Saturday with Ha69 and Aquaman. We had a fantastic day also. We boated over 60 fish. Caught them verticaly jigging,trolling,casting lures and casting jiggs. The biggest was 22", caught alot that where 19"-21". At the end of the day Aquaman had something big on but it got away. Sure would of liked to see that fish.
It was good to see you up there Kent.
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The average size (all cutts) was about 17", with the smallest being about 13 1/2" and the largest was 22 1/2". I also caught one fish-eating duck, and I didn't get a measuement of it -- it kept biting my fingers. Good that you didn't ask about the water temperature from me, because I looked at that fishfinder off and on all day long and didn't even notice the temperature.
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You are not going to display them with a apple are you ? I may never go back to the float tube forum again .
Fish can be close to shore , but early morning , and evening will be best .Lot of my big trout come from shore . If you are out in a float tube with a finder look for them , but any structure can be good . Humps , drop offs , weeds . Soldier Creek has some good drop offs and can be reached from shore . A good map will show areas where it drops off fast . I done a lot of shore walking to find the holes from shore . But most of the time is just find the fish and you should hook up on some . Plan on paying a fee for most areas , or a long walk .
Yesterday , I hooked 3 from shore waiting for MGB , throwing jerk baits . I was casting where I seen minnows leaping out of the water or water movement indicating something chasing something . Stop and pause with a jerk bait can get them , but cranking a lure fast thru that area works too . Jigs worked on the bottom and 4 foot off the top on a bobber . Anything will work to catch them . If you are not catching fish move to another area . sometimes it only takes 10 ft and you will get them . If any thing read the Strawberry a[size 1]rchives for info . Sounds like you got the gear , just find the fish and find how they want it fished and you will do fine . Right now , they are pretty easy to get to bite . Seen fish in all areas from 67' down to up on top of the water . [/size]
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Hey Kent , At least you got 2 species . LOL I was wondering if you got a measurement off that .I didn't pay attention to water temp either with the fish biting . I did hook up on 3 species but one was chub , but I use it for jig enhancement . 1 rainbow about 13" off a smaller crankbait . No cutts over 20" for me . But that is Ok , I will get them next time .
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Those fish eating ducks are fun to catch, they put up a great fight, the only problem is the release, they sure don't like that for some reason, ha,ha. WH2
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Thanks for the info Randy. I don't care much about size, fast action is what I like. What size tubes do you think? I got them in 1.5" and up to 3.5". Do you have to pay for every area or does one fee give you access for the day? I got to give Strawbeery a shot, the distance always turns me off.
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One pass will work for all areas. Unless you are willing to walk a considerable distance carrying your tube, plan on paying $4.00.
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A funny thing happened in the parking lot at the marina. I was in the boat as my wife was driving the Suburban up the ramp. She drove out around a few vehicles that were being checked by the UDWR on the road going through the parking lot (she didn’t notice that they were checking), and I was waiting for one of them to shout for us to stop, but no one said anything. She pulled back into the parking lot and stopped next to the last restroom on the west side of the parking lot. Immediately a man came up to my wife, wearing casual clothes, and a loose fitting camouflage shirt. He asked my wife, “How was fishing?”, and she answered that it was very good. He immediately parted his camouflage shirt and announced that he was a UDWR officer and asked if he could see the fish that we kept. I handed him our cooler and told him that I thought that we were legal. He carefully measured all five of our fish and found that they were all cutts and all under 15 inches (most were about 14 ½ inches long). He told us that they were fine, but I thought that I sensed a little disappointment in his voice, because I’m quite certain that he was sure that he was going to catch us with illegal fish after we went around their checkpoint. While cleaning them another officer asked me if those fish all belonged to me (I had four out that I was cleaning at the time) and I almost answered yes (meaning they belonged to our party) when instead I answered that they had all been measured by his partner wearing a camouflage shirt, but that he was welcome to measure them again. He said that I had described him precisely, so it wasn’t necessary. It didn’t occur to me for a few minutes that I would have had to do some explaining had I answered yes (because one person can only keep two cutts under 15 inches, not four).
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WOW! I think I am spoiled now [
] Kent it was great to meet ya - at least a long distance handshake anyway [
] and I have some pics for ya. Catching those grebes is a lot easier than releasing them eh!
We fished hard friday nite thru noon today and I would still be there if my partner did not have to be back for work early Monday. We caught them on everything but the kitchen sink saturday and today it was a little slower until we used stop and go on the troll or retrieve. Daylight -Shad raps and wedding rings tipped with worm or salmon egg caught the biggest fish. Nighttime-drifting minnows just off the bottom caught a lot of fish.
Never did find the kokes - guess I'll have to go back [cool]
Those F&G guys were there sunday as well - even the one in Camo
- nice guys with a hard job - They got a guy with a 19 inch Cutt - Can't people read a proclamation? Signs with the regs are posted everywhere as well.
Water temp is 63 wph2 [
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GREAT WEEKEND OF FISHING!
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nice report. i need to get to strawberry. thanks for the report.
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looks like you made it up there. glad to see a bit better succes than what we ran into.
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They would of been real disappointed if they checked me . I kept 7 fish . All chub .
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I saw you clicking your camera while I was trying to release that grebe. Did you get a picture?
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They would be very mighty disappointed when they see my livewell... see coppie, I catchy lottsa fishies, but where are they...?
[sly][laugh] Catch a trout and release it for another day to be caught by a walleye... LOL I ought to design a catch and release sticker for my vehicle with a photo of a trout in a walleye's mouth...
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I agree that the F&G guys have a hard job to do -- and at times a dangerous one (I sure wouldn't want to arrest an armed poacher). I have never had one be anything but courteous to me, and I likewise have treated them with total respect, and have on occasion expressed appreciation to them for enforcing the laws at Strawberry. We even had our licenses checked (from a distance) at Strawberry once while we were out fishing from my boat! I don't think many people fishing from a boat would not have a license, but I could be wrong. Eventually, maybe after getting a few tickets, people will realize that all cutts in the slot must be released, and saying that it was hooked deep won't get one out of paying a fine. I saw a guy carrying a stringer of fish around the parking lot Friday night that looked like it had several fish that would have drawn a ticket.
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I think the camoflage thing goes alittle to far. They could have easily walked over and checked your boat without the whole "lets see if we can trick them into saying they broke the law. I always drive into the parking lot to clean up the boat so I'm not in anybodies way coming up the boat ramp or trying to launch. I agree that they need to enforce the regs. But its there gestapo tactics that irratate alot of people. Just my two cents.
John
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