12-29-2006, 07:17 PM
Frozenover and I hit Strawberry yesterday morning.
We were on the lake well before the sun came up. We had to use flashlights to hike out and set up.
James caught a fish on his first drop and things picked up from there.
The fishing was very good to say the least.
We fished Mudcreek last week a couple of times and caught a total of 10 fish in two days.
Yesterday we caught 60+ fish. James was catching 2 to my 1 for a lot of the morning. I did catch up a bit in the afternoon, but he still caught the most today. Most of the fish were caught before 11:00 am. After that the fishing got real slow.
We caught fish on a number of different jigs and for a while color or type didn't seem to matter. Most were caught with meal worm on the tip. Some caught with minnow and a couple with wax worm.
James caught most of his with a pink headed jig and meal worm, I caught most of mine with a lime green fat boy tipped with meal worm and a spot of green power bait.
The wind came up around 10:00 am. We were fishing without the ice huts up until then.
We waited a little too long to put them up. My hut is a Frabill and it turned out too be too difficult to get set up. It caught far too much wind. James did get his set up, but couldn't move out of it without the wind taking it away. I had to use his to block the wind long enough to take mine down.
We both ending up in his hut. One of us had to stay in there all of the time to keep it from blowing away.
We watched two guys fishing close to us without a hut, I don't know how they made it, it was extremely cold in that wind.
The wind blew hard enough to cover a lot of our gear with snow.
The fishing was very slow from 11:00 until 3:00 pm when we left.
As slow as it was, it was still far better than Mudcreek.
We ended up catching about 10 a piece during the time in the hut.
The fishing in the morning was very fun with fish coming though most of the time. When it would slow down a bit, all you would have to do is jig a couple of times and the screen would fill back up with fish. It was fun to watch them come up to the jig and then hit it. Some times they wanted it dead still and others with some movement.
In the afternoon, we would do the same thing and watch fish come up and turn around and leave. The afternoon bite was very light, if you weren't watching very careful, you would miss them.
We both caught a number of fish that went 21". Most of them were pretty fat.
I did catch a couple at the start of the day that most likely would have gone under, but I didn't measure them.
We only talked to one other group out there, they didn't do very well. They had started on the SC side and then came over afternoon when the bite was slow.
It was very surreal to see fish swimming under the ice, we had cleared the snow back about 5' in each direction and as they would come to the hole, you could see them through the ice.
The ice was 6-7 inches and at the end of the day was making a lot of noise. It was making enough noise to make us very nervous.
All in all a good day on the ice.
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We were on the lake well before the sun came up. We had to use flashlights to hike out and set up.
James caught a fish on his first drop and things picked up from there.
The fishing was very good to say the least.
We fished Mudcreek last week a couple of times and caught a total of 10 fish in two days.
Yesterday we caught 60+ fish. James was catching 2 to my 1 for a lot of the morning. I did catch up a bit in the afternoon, but he still caught the most today. Most of the fish were caught before 11:00 am. After that the fishing got real slow.
We caught fish on a number of different jigs and for a while color or type didn't seem to matter. Most were caught with meal worm on the tip. Some caught with minnow and a couple with wax worm.
James caught most of his with a pink headed jig and meal worm, I caught most of mine with a lime green fat boy tipped with meal worm and a spot of green power bait.
The wind came up around 10:00 am. We were fishing without the ice huts up until then.
We waited a little too long to put them up. My hut is a Frabill and it turned out too be too difficult to get set up. It caught far too much wind. James did get his set up, but couldn't move out of it without the wind taking it away. I had to use his to block the wind long enough to take mine down.
We both ending up in his hut. One of us had to stay in there all of the time to keep it from blowing away.
We watched two guys fishing close to us without a hut, I don't know how they made it, it was extremely cold in that wind.
The wind blew hard enough to cover a lot of our gear with snow.
The fishing was very slow from 11:00 until 3:00 pm when we left.
As slow as it was, it was still far better than Mudcreek.
We ended up catching about 10 a piece during the time in the hut.
The fishing in the morning was very fun with fish coming though most of the time. When it would slow down a bit, all you would have to do is jig a couple of times and the screen would fill back up with fish. It was fun to watch them come up to the jig and then hit it. Some times they wanted it dead still and others with some movement.
In the afternoon, we would do the same thing and watch fish come up and turn around and leave. The afternoon bite was very light, if you weren't watching very careful, you would miss them.
We both caught a number of fish that went 21". Most of them were pretty fat.
I did catch a couple at the start of the day that most likely would have gone under, but I didn't measure them.
We only talked to one other group out there, they didn't do very well. They had started on the SC side and then came over afternoon when the bite was slow.
It was very surreal to see fish swimming under the ice, we had cleared the snow back about 5' in each direction and as they would come to the hole, you could see them through the ice.
The ice was 6-7 inches and at the end of the day was making a lot of noise. It was making enough noise to make us very nervous.
All in all a good day on the ice.
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