[unimpressed]Hit the water at the Strawberry Bay ramp by 7:30 a.m. and tried all the usual spots that have been productive in the past. It was really strange because we could not find any fish on the finder other than an occational loner. Tried several places in East Portal Bay, ladders, & Sage Hen Knoll with only limited success. Between the latter two spots my Dad's pole went over the side and after several minutes casting a weighted trebble hook, I snagged the line and brought in his pole with a 17+" rainbow on the other end. Sometimes you just get lucky. Decided to change tactics and we trolled all the way back to the marina with U20 Frog Flatfish and couldn't keep them off the hook. Landed a boatload of slot cuts 16"-21". Still looking for the rainbows. Mr. J.
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Hit Chicken Creek with the toons and float tubes at the same time and had similar results. A few under the slot limit but not big enough to keep so we let them go to grow up. Nice day.
I was a little heart broken to see quite a few good sized fish, all probably in the slot limit, that were dead on the bottom in about ten feed of water. We figured they couldn't be kept and had to be turned back and just didn't survive. One of my fish decided to swallow the hook to his tail so the best thing I could do was cut the line as close to the hook and set him on his way wishing him the best of luck.
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Hit Chicken Creek with the toons and float tubes at the same time and had similar results. A few under the slot limit but not big enough to keep so we let them go to grow up. Nice day.
I was a little heart broken to see quite a few good sized fish, all probably in the slot limit, that were dead on the bottom in about ten feed of water. We figured they couldn't be kept and had to be turned back and just didn't survive. One of my fish decided to swallow the hook to his tail so the best thing I could do was cut the line as close to the hook and set him on his way wishing him the best of luck. [/reply]
I hate finding so many fish like that. Catch and release is good, but if it's big enough to keep and the fish is going to bleed out, then I usually keep it unless it puts me over my limit.
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I feel the same way but what else can you do with the regs at Strawberry. Sorry, maybe I should have been more specific that we were fishing the Chicken Creek bay at Strawberry.
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The high mortality rate of slot cutts being released is why I will only use flies, jigs, and lures at strawberry any more. I may use a piece of worm or piece of minnow to tip with but using the standard power bait and worm type bait that generally hooks deep in the mouth are not good options for Strawberry when you have to release 19 out of 20 fish that you catch. Just my 2 cents
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BOWS ARE IN THE MOSS RIGHT NOW FEASTING LIKE EVERY JULY. 2 TATICS THAT WILL PRODUCE GOOD FISH. FIRST, POWER BAIT. LOOK FOR THE SPRINGS IN THE DENCE MOSS, BUBLES WILL GIVE AWAY SPRINGS. THEN TAKE PADLE OR YOUR OAR AND MOVE MOSS FROM BUBLES. THEN DROP DOWN THE OFFERING. THE OTHER IS TROLLING FLAT FISH.. ORANE FLAT FISH, NOT QUICK FISH. YES THERE IS A DIFFERNCE. TROLL OVER MOSS BEDS WHERE IT DOES NOT REACH THE SURFACE. ALSO THE OUT SIDE EDGE WILL PICK UM UP JUST NOT AS MANY BOWS AS OVER THE BED.
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The fishing has been a little tough this year at strawberry. Two weeks ago I found a spot where it held alot of fish, we fished it from 2:00pm untill 5:00pm and caught about 20. Last Saturday we went to the same spot and the fish where still there and we caught about 30 from 7:30am-12:00. Then the bite stoped so we moved on and had a hard time getting into some fast fishing the rest of the day.
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