Found the fish bunched up and fishing spotty. They would turn on for an hour and we would really get into them, then nothing. Had to do a lot of searching to find the schools. In the evenings we would float the edge of the weed beds and cast large (U20) chub & frog Flatfish to rising fish with fantastic success. Often they would explode out of the water hitting those big lures. The flatfish would stay just under the surface and out of the weeds for the most part. Just like casting crankbaits for bass at Powell. What a hoot! Caught one 18" and half a dozen 8" rainbows. All the rest were slot cutts averaging 19" except one 6" mini. Largest cutt was 21.5" at the upper end of the slot. Question for all, where are the rainbows? I hear they are planting 1 million + a year in Strawberry, but I and my friends don't see them showing up much at all. I go to my regular producing "spots" and only cutts. What gives? Are they falling victim to the large cutthroats? What about the chubs? Are they starting to out-compete the rainbows. Now a tougher question. As a dumb fisherman and not a fisheries biologist, how would lake trout and/or tiger muskie impact the existing fish in Strawberry? If the chubs are as bad as everyone says they are, might these two species be worth a try? During the winter I would expect the lakers and chubs would inhabit the same areas. In the summer tigers would cruise the shallows where the chubs congregrate. I just don't know what the opposite seasons would bring as far as predation on the desired game fish. I will await enlightenment. Mr. J.
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Reports on rainbows have been drastically down and I don't think it's going to improve too quickly. I think part of the problem is the springville hatchery getting whirling disease. A number of the fish lost there were slated for Strawberry.
There may be other things contributing to the low success for rainbows. I think my biggest problem is that I'm out trolling the lake, and you usually end up with cutts that way.
As for the other questions, I think I will decline to comment there. That has been hashed, hashed, and rehashed on this site and ends up turning into some ugly arguments and some not-so-nice comments on the competency of those in the DWR.
Do a search for previous topics on this board and you will find a lot of info on ideas about stocking other species at Strawberry.
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"where are all of the rainbows?" I have heard "unofficially" from knowledgable sources that the last rainbow fingerling plant was munched pretty severely by the cutts, and that the next time, they will plant the bows at a bigger size, and they should do better in regards to predation.
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to find the bows look deep into the moss beds durring the daylight hrs. try and find springs in the moss. or open water sarrounded by moss. durring the darker hrs they are on the outside edges of the moss. alot of them are holding off the kokes spawning beds. inlets start off first then the sides of the boat ramps come on. most yrs about 3 weeks after the tribs. samon eggs........
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I catch plenty of bows on the Soldier Creek side but not many on the Berry side. But you should catch more cutts than bows as they plant 2.5 to 3 times as many plus the natural spawn of the cutts.
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[#505000]I'm no Berry pro as that lake and I just don't seem to get along to well, but as far as the bows go I have my theroy. I would guess that since they aren't covered by the slot regulations they get hammered pretty good by the harvesters. [/#505000]
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[#505000]The cutts keep getting tossed back but I imagine a large [/#505000][#505000]number of caught bows find their way into coolers. [/#505000]
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[#505000]In other words the Cutt population stays relativly stable while the bow population is on a steady decline between plantings.[/#505000]
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Thanks for all the info and opinions. I will check the archives regarding "other species" and hope everyone does their part to bring this fishery back to where it once was. Mr. J.
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[crazy] Finally got my validation code...I can now post. Just to reply to the question of where are the bows? We got lucky trolling berry two Saturdays ago; 3, 2lb. bows and a three slot cuts. I agree, the bows are dwindling in number. I did pull a 2 lb. bow out of the Jordonelle on Tues. nite, shore fishing with worm and green power bait. I don't think BigCat pulled out any bows on his 15 fish frenzy last Fri. nite either; did ya BigCat? I believe he only pulled out cut slots.
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Welcome chicsfish2 (bout time you signed up!). I agree the bows are very evasive at the Berry. But I mainly fish areas that the cutts hang out in. I would rather catch 20 cutts in a day fishing those areas than fish next to the shallower weed beds and catch 1 bow and 3 cutts in a day of fishing. Out of the probably 500 fish we (myself and those I was fishing with) caught on the ice last winter at the Berry, less than 10 were bows. But I hear that the bows fishing is better on the Solder Creek side but I have never fished it.
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