Frozenover and I went to Strawberry today to try fishing from float tubes. We went down close to the dam on the Solder Creek side.
We were on the water just at day break. We were both excited about the prospects of catching a lot of fish.
We have wanted to fish ice off for the last few years and were just not able to. So this year we made a point to make there.
Judging from some of the reports, we were expecting to do very well.
It just didn't happen.
I caught 4 fish, two 21" cutts, a smaller cutt and one rainbow.
James caught one cutt.
We caught the most on minnows. We tried most every thing we had with not much luck.
The wind started blowing fairly early, which made it a little difficult to detect the bites.
I finally found a spot at the end of the day that produced bites on every cast and then I ran out of minnows.
Most of the people we saw casting from shore didn't do much better. We only saw two other fish caught.
From the looks of the number of people fishing at the Ladders and CCE, maybe we should have tried it there. Either would have been a far easier launch than the hike we took to get to the water on the SC side.
We will be back to try our hand at float tubing on Strawberry again.
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Fishing ice off is something I've always wanted to try as well...just never had the chance. I'm surprised you only caught a few fish, as I've heard reports of stellar days just after ice off. Oh well. Better luck on your next trip out.
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Playas44
I am hoping to go Tuesday with my dad and a few friends. Two will be tubing and two bank fishing. You said you had a long walk where you went. Where would you advise going? Did you try tube jigs or wooly buggers?? Thanks!
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hey bigcat, if i were you, i would put in at cce, drive towards the cut in the hill, easy access or soldier creek side at aspen cove. my 2 cents worth
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well ,i wouldnt fill to bad i was up here sunday for about 5 hours and caght 3 rainbows sord of near the dam.but i was watching all the shore fishers [ powerbaiters] and [worm drounders].and it seemed like every time i looked over near the shore they were realing them in,time after time.i was very tempted to give it a try but im not much of a powerbaiter.i was also expecting to fill up ,but i guess everytime we expect something good it dont happen very often.i guess better luck next time for us. fish on
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I also floated the Berry for a short time on Saturday, but I went to the marina and launched there right off the ramp. (It is open for boats BTW.) Most of Strawberry bay is open with only a few floating ice sheets to dodge. Portal bay still is iced up except for the edges. I launched about 9:45 AM. A reel malfunction [mad]relegated me to vertical jigging and kick trolling a wooly bugger until about 11:30, when the wind hit hard and blew me off the water. I had a couple hits on the buggers and one long line release on the jigs. (that was the only jig hit) Fellow tubers I talked to were getting cutts early on with black buggers, but it slowed way down by about 9:30. There was a guy on shore that scored a few good trout using conventional baits, but most people were not doing too well that I met. I then stopped on the way home at a small stream I had always wanted to try and played with some browns for a while. I was marking large numbers of fish right in the vicinity of the ramp between 5-20 feet. There was very little activity in deeper water.
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Ya have the right idea doggone for this early. Sorry you didn't do better. I'll be heading up again Sat (unless I play hooky from work), your welcome to join me. Just drop me a PM.
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Hey doggonefishin,
How close could you get to portal bay? I was hoping to launch the toon and head that way hopefully on Saturday afternoon. I have been dying to get up there. Thanks for the report.
fish2xtc (formerly tuber)
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I don't know how well the people did over by the Ladders and CCE, but it sure looked like a much easier walk that what we had.
I did try small glo-in-the-dark tube jigs tipped with power bait and I caught one rainbow on that and the same jig with a whole minnow behind it caught the three cutts.
I tried a black fly and even tipped the fly with earth worm, I didn't get any takers on that.
I tried some pink and green jigs with no actions on either of them.
When I go again, I would like to go on past the dam and past the Aspen Grove camp ground and put in over in that area somewhere.
Don't know if it would be any better, I would just like to fish that area.
Good luck on Tuesday.
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The main road still had some snow on it Saturday, but was passable. The dirt road down to where most people launch tubes in Portal bay was impassible. It was all a moot point though, because the bay was still frozen. There were a few shore anglers that parked along the road and fished the narrow shoreline that was open. It might take another few days, but it is melting fast and it might be ready to go by next weekend.
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