Hit Strawberry today with four other guys. Fished south of The Strawberry Marina. We first tried to get to our spot using two four wheelers -- big mistake. After getting them stuck several times they got returned to the trailer in the parking lot. Walked out on a point, and drilled my first hole. I thought the odds were that it would be too shallow, but not as shallow as I found. Drilled a hole and mud shot up on the ice! After walking probably two hundred more yards we finally found water that was between 22 and 34 feet. Not the fastest day I have seen on Strawberry, but I have also seem much worse. I figure we caught about 90 fish, with the largest going 24 inches (caught by MGB), and the smallest going just under 15 inches. All fish caught were cutts. It is not too bad getting around walking, if one stays on the snowmobile paths – and there are plenty of them to choose from. Snowmobiles were getting around with no problem at all. There is about 8 inches of snow on the ice, about 8 inches of ice, approximately 8 inches of slush, and then another 25 inches or so of ice under that. Drilling a hole with a hand auger would be a major pain. Fun day with a great bunch of guys.
[signature]
Thanks so much for the report! Sounds like you guys did great.
Looks like we'll have a lot of sore arms after drilling through the ice. =P
[signature]
For those using hand augers, like me, I would pick your fishing spot carefully. If you drill a hole and find it to be too shallow, you've wasted a good 30 minutes and a sore arm. I have been out with a hand auger twice in the past two weeks and it is not easy drilling holes. Still fun though. The last two times I went out were around the marina and I caught 5-8 fish each time and so did the person with me. Seemed much slower than Kent's trip above. I also threw everything at them and no one thing was hot.
[signature]
Nice report. I was over at CCE and the fishing was really slow. I only caught 7. I talked to the DWR guy and he said it was like that on most of the lake. I guess you happened to find the right spot. Good job.
[signature]
Thanks for the invite Kent.
The catching was good the whole day from about 7:00am - 4:30 with a few slow moments here and there. Drilled my hole in 34' of water and caught 3 with in 10 minutes decided to stay there the whole day. Caught fish mostly on the bottom - 4 feet off the bottom with a few caught at 15' below the ice. Had one ralley at about 12:00 when me and NoBites caught at least 10 in a little over a half an hour. Ended up icing about 30 for the day. Pearl 2" jiggs tipped with a piece of chub worked best early then switched to a foxey jigg tiped with a meal worm or wax worm for the afternoon and evenign fishing.
[signature]
Only 90 for 4 of you? And you guys call yourselves fishermen! You should be ashamed
]
I would be happy if I caught 9! I always have to say, "Well, this sure beats work!" Sounds like lots of fun to me!
[signature]
Again thanks to Kentofnsl for allow me to tag along with him, for my first trip to the berry on the ice. The fishing was great all day he put us right on the fish. I own you one, let me know when I can repay.
4boats
[signature]
If yours was the truck with the old style BFT sticker and two 4-wheelers parked most of the day we were parked right behind you. Should have followed you guys out I guess.
The Auger we borrowed wouldn't start and then the pull rope on it had the nerve to break. What a waste of effort there. Brought the hand auger though and kind of liked the different layers of drilling other then every time we thought we were through there seemed to be another one.
Out4aFloat and his wife fished in 36ft of water and my wife and I fished 31ft. About the same success. Six in there tent and 5 in ours. I caught two of those while trying to take down the tent and leave. Missed or lost more then that though. Matt spoke to some people that had been there all day without even a bite. 90 would have been great but some is always better then none.[
]
[signature]
I visited with a guy as I was coming in and he had fished all day, just south of The Marina, and had one bite and caught one fish (which was just a couple minutes before I stopped). Looking across the bay it looked like a small city on the ice east of The Marina. Like others have said many times before, no guarantees, but if one wants to increase their odds of catching fish they need to get away from the crowds. We walked at least 1/2 of a mile before drilling our first hole.
[signature]
Well I am glad I left when I did to miss the worst of the storm..but MGB and I had a great time talking and he must have rubbed some of that good luck on me, I was skunked until I changed locations from Kent and the boys to Mike....We were lucky I guess and the cut finger came from the hook off the last BIG fish that was caught...the jig that was stuck on the outside I grabbed hauling that beast out of the ice....All in all I needed that cardio we got
cc
[signature]
After you left I got thinking that cut on your finger must of came from the hook when you pulled him out of the hole. At the time we did'nt relize the hook was on the under side of his jaw. Thanks for the help. I seen some blood where your car was parked hope it was'nt yours, it should of stoped bleeding by the time you got to your car.
[signature]
Next time don't hesitate to speak up about borrowing some different bait. Sorry, but I don't think that red preserved cut bait you were using was the ticket. I didn't realize what you were fishing with until I went back later and fished your abandoned ice holes.
[signature]
I only used the red chub for a short while...the rest was smaller baits, but the ticket for me was the white and green tube bait with waxworm....I had alot of fun and I had a rough trip home...I hope you guys got off the lake before the snow hit
cc
[signature]
Hey Kent, and MGB, etc...
Very nice report! My cousin and I didn't get going till about 6:00 a.m. and we figured you guys were already fishing by then. We also didn't know where you were going, (Marina, Ladders, etc.) but were hoping to run into your group.
We arrived at the Ladders parking lot around 7:45 or so, to a brisk negative 1 degree temperature. Didn't have to worry about the ice melting. We got on the snowmobile and jetted out to a new spot, drilled some holes and kind of like you guys, we had 4 fish within two minutes! Arron called his dad and told him to come up as the fish were really biting. His dad arrived around 10:30 and Arron went and picked him up with the snowmobile. By then unfortunately the bite had slowed down somewhat, but we still ended up with 45 fish when we left at 2:00. I had 26, Arron had 15, and his dad (my uncle) had 4.
The fish were more active today that I have seen in a long time.
Around 1:00 or so the 3 of us were cozy fishing in the ice shack when we hear a snowmobile pull up right outside our tent. "Fish and Game" he yelled. He asked if he could talk to us, then very thoroughly checked our licenses, number of poles we were using, and measured the 2 fish we had kept that were outside of the ice shack, and then asked specifically who had caught them. He was very nice, but very thorough. He told us that he had already cited quite a few people that day for not having licenses, but had not measured any of fish as nobody else had caught any over the slot that he had checked!
Anyway, satisfied he buzzed off towards some more ice fisherman.
Arron drove his dad off the ice then came back to get me and guess what? Once again that stupid snowmobile wouldn't run. We dinked around with it for about 20 minutes, then finally I got on it alone and got it to rev up and go. Our two sleds were already hooked on and we had kind of decided that if we got it going that whoever was on it was to just get it back to the parking lot without regard to the other person. Well, it was running pretty good as long as I kept the RPM's up but if I tried to slow down it would die, so I made a wide wide circle driving back to Arron, going as slow as I could go without it dying and as soon as I got within shouting distance I yelled for him to run and jump on the back of the machine. Well, I misjudged and he couldn't run fast enough to get on the snowmobile, but instead he superman'ed right ontop of the two ice sleds that we were pulling (side by side)...it wasn't exactly the plan, but he was waving me to go go go before the machine died, so I did. I imagine it had to be pretty fun riding those sleds at 35 to 40 mph! Right before we hit the parking lot I slowed down enough for him to bail off then I kept going and made it back to the truck. Sometimes I'm not sure if those snowmobiles are worth the effort or not, but it sure makes getting out to those far away remote ice stations easy!
We missed most of the storm, but drove through the snow in Parleys Canyon around 4:00 p.m. or so.
Anyway, we had a really good day of fishing. All 45 fish were Cutthroats, and only two were over the slot. One at 22.5 inches, one at 23 inches. We caught about 6 or 7 that were right at 22 inches.
That is the first time I've ever been checked on the ice at the Berry. I've been checked a lot just walking off the ice, but never had a Fishcop come right out to our ice shack and check us. We were glad to see that they were out checking people.
Randy
[signature]
We tracked it back to the ramp from where we fishing and it was over a mile, good walk, better fishing. Way away from the crowds.
Thanks again
[signature]
I have been checked many times by the snowmobile riding UDWR officer, but somehow he missed checking us on Saturday. I believe The Strawberry Anglers Association provided the funds for his snowmobile, and I am grateful that they did. I have a hunch that many an angler fishing through the ice at Strawberry has been surprised by him driving up.
[signature]
Wow, I must be in better shape than I thought that I was. I had no idea that we had walked that far, but we were definitely away from the crowds.
[signature]
Kent-
Where do you buy your chub minnows? I'll be taking a bunch of Boy Scouts up to Strawberry in a couple of weeks and would like to put them on some fish.
TiteLines
[signature]
I have been using minnows that I and a friend netted and also caught in traps. I am about out of them and then I will go back to purchasing them from Sportsman's until I can net some more.
[signature]
Thanks I'll check. I've tried their shiner minnows and got zip[
]. Hope their chubs work better..
[signature]