Frozenover and I hit Strawberry this morning. We were on the lake by 7:00 am. My thermometer showed zero.
The bite was very slow. I only caught two all day. Frozenover caught 12. The bite was very light, not very many fish coming through on the finder. We would watch the fish come up to the jig and then turn and swim away. Very frustrating.
We tried everything we had.
The snow on the lake is very deep. I called the marina yesterday to see if 4 wheelers were making it out on the snow. He told, "Oh no problem."
We started to head out to Renegade, before we made it to Haw's Point, I got stuck in the snow. We used the winch to pull my bike out. We decided to head back closer to the marina. We ended at the flong point NE of the marina. The wind and blowing snow were very cold, the ice huts were a very welcome addition to the trip.
We both have hand augers, we were drilling almost to the handles to get through the ice. So, we didn't move around very much.
By far my worst trip to Strawberry this year.
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Sounds like the good ole Berry! thats really sucks you guys didn't do very well[unsure] Was their alot of people out on the ice? usually is on Sat's, what depth was ya fishin? It seems like anytime a big storm moves thru that the fish just don't want anything to do with anything! I have the same problem anytime I go when theres been bad weather for a few straight days, o well I'll be their Tuesday and probably have the same luck But anytime on the Berry is good!
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We fished in water from about 16' to 28'.
With hand augers, we didn't want to drill too many holes. It took both of us on the auger to get through a couple of the holes.
We were at kind of a loss as where to move to if we were to move. Last time I was there, the fish were shallower, the time before that, the fish were deeper. We talked about the effect of the storm on the fish. I know when I fished for bass, when a storm came in like that, the fishing would shutdown. We kind of figured the trout were somewhat the same.
As for people on the ice, it wasn't overly loaded, but mid morning close to the marina did get a little crowded. Once the storm really got going, I looked out of the hut, you couldn't see the marina and there was only a couple of people left out there.
There was seven air boats that cruised by us going north, they didn't stay out very long either. The snow mobilers were out in force, with the whole lake to run on, you would think those guys could go somewhere besides right through your camp. One group came within about 6' of our 4 wheelers at full speed. A little disconcerting when you are in the hut and can't see them.
If you are going on Tuesday, don't plan on getting very far out unless you have a snowmobile. The snow is deep and drifted in places. Walking any distance could be a chore unless you have snowshoes.
Good luck.
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I fished Strawberry with five other guys yesterday. We had four snowmobiles, which was sure nice. We encountered about 10 inches of slush, which wasn't much fun. We fished out from The Ladders, and we fished until 1:00 and caught about 25 fish between all of us. Four guys hadn't ice fished before and everyone caught at least one, so that was great. Some of the new guys would have caught a few more, except they had a difficult time recognizing when they were getting a bite, and they got a little (how about a lot) carried away with the hook sets and snapped some lines and even flipped a rod tip about 25 feet. Fish were hitting harder than they often do this time of year. Then Tincanfsh and I headed for Currant Creek Reservoir. There was no slush at Currant Creek, but that is a long ride to catch small cutts (the largest maybe went 11 inches).
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[font "Arial Black"][red][size 3] Man o man, Kent Things are looking like I might have to get myself a snowmobile of some kind for the future if i ever want to go Ice fishing again. Sounds like the way to go.[/size][/red][/font]
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[font "Arial Black"][#ff0000][size 3]AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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