Today I rousted my three oldest (ages 10, 7 and 5) at 5:30 and headed to the Berry, since I couldn't make it happen on Friday. We got there around 6:45 and were the 3rd truck in the lot. I figured there'd be more people today but I guess not. Anyway, we headed south to my normal catching grounds and sore lipped 45-50 fish (my daughter claims more, but my count made it about 47) before noon when we headed home. My five year old daughter got five by herself which was fun to watch. I have noticed the last week or so more big fish are showing up, as we caught six over the slot today, including two 24"+ as pictured. Weather was great, a little cool wind out of the southwest which drifted the boat just right for jigging, though we caught the biggest two fish early on pointers in about 8 feet of water. Jigging wasn't terribly fast, but was steady most of the day. Water temp is at 43.2 according to my friend Lowrance.
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Good to hear you made it out today with your kids. I have kid about the same age, on my trip Thursday and Friday I left my kids home to attend school. I often would think about how if they had come I could watch the
on their face as they reeled is some of the 20 inch plus fish that are being caught there. I enjoyed watching my 5 year old last year cast, hook and reel in his fish by him self.
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] On our trip up there Thursday, We caught alot of fish that were over the slot. I know that the first three I caught were over the slot. Petty and Fishing waters also caught fish over the slot. We also would see two to three "followers" with each fish we caught coming up with the hooked fish. Hopeing for some goodies!
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Another Great report from the 'Berry!!! Care to share where these cathing grounds are? I am trying to lure my Dad to drive up from Colorado to do some fishing on the 'Berry next weekend, since it will be a 3 day weekend for us Veterans!!! HAHAHA Anyhow, I know pretty much every report on here tells of a different location that does well, so maybe I should just close my eyes while driving the boat for 20 minutes huh? Thanks again for the report!!!
TS
J A K
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[black][size 3]Hey trout slayer,[/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]Troll randomly for 20 minutes and then drop the jigs. That's been my technique on the Berry on more than one occassion. And surprisingly enough, it has even worked before. [/size][/black]
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[black][size 3]Probably the best way though, is to spend time there and remember where you were successfull - or, you could always GPS the spots that are good.[/size][/black]
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When I fish the berry I rarely fish the same spot. The spot I fished Thursday morning with [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?username=RILEYFISH;"][#000000]RILEYFISH [/#000000][/url] and [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?username=petty4life;"][#800080]petty4life[/#800080][/url] did not produce any fish Friday morning. Thursday I found fish stacked up but Friday there were only a few fish. What I do is cruise around looking for fish that are stacked up or in groups. I cruise in and out from shore looking in different depths. When I find fish I try several techniques to get the fish to bit. As RILEYFISH stated we had several followers follow the jig up even when the hooked in another fish’s mouth. I watched one fish attack the jig about a dozen times while the fish that had it kept trying to get away. I was casting out about 40 to 50 feet and letting sink as I reeled it in to keep the line tight. Most of the time before it ended up straight down from the tip of the pole I had a fish lightly hitting it.
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Great report and pics.
Myself and FishingPro where at the berry Saturday we arrived at 7:00am, must of just missed running into you. The morning conditions where great but around 12:00 "W",light rain and alittle hail rolled in for a couple hours then condtions changed to slighly breezy.
The catching started slow for us for the first 4.5 hours only picking up about 10. We kept scouting for a good school and finaly came accross one around 12:00 and it stayed active untill 4:00pm. Ended up catching around 2 dozen each all where caught vertical jigging, 3 or 4 where over the slot and most of them over 20".
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Looks like you guys had another great trip up there. Nice to see the kids with big
s on their faces!
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Looks like you and the kids had a great time, and the thrill of fishing (catching) the fish overshadowed the cold. The photos are great. Being interested in photography, If you have the time and interest, could you let me know what type of camera and software you used on the photos. (you could PM me). All of the reports coming from Strawberry seem to be the best of the year.
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Heh Mike, sounds like you ended up doing well after the slow start. I was just heading out and thought I saw you guys putting in. Seems like we are about to the time of year when the afternoon is better than morning. I was messing around with a new pointer color just as we had to go and picked up three in maybe five feet of water (south of those big weed beds we fished awhile back).
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