Fishing Forum

For a number of years I have wanted to hit Strawberry in late fall. I have never fished there before but with all the buzz of large fish and the feeding frenzy of fall, I had to give it a try. Sunday was the day[]

After making the long haul from Roy, we arrived at 7am. Temperature was 13 according to the car thermometer and a bit of a breeze blowing. Not to comfortable.

We started fishing with great anticipation of hooking these aggressive fish but to my disappointment, we never did. We threw every type of lure in the tackle box and my wife even resorted to power bait. We saw one fish caught in the five hours we were there. The majority of shore anglers appeared to be bottom fishing as most were standing with the rod proped up waiting for a strike. On the bright side, the wind did calm down and the sun came up which warmed the air nicely.

We fished many different areas which were accessible from pull-offs along the road, but could not find any place with access to deep water. Was I not looking hard enough or is the reservoir shaped like a saucer?

I don't know if I will ever return to Strawberry to shore fish. Maybe one day I will be able to buy a boat and fish it the right way.

By the way, I would like to thank the trio of non-English speaking persons who, instead of utilizing one of the 27 empty spots in the parking lot, felt that jamming their oversize red 3/4 ton Chevy in between my vehicle and the one parked two stalls over, would be the thing to do. Once I saw that I could only imagine what would come next. Sure enough, instead of fishing the other 40 miles of shoreline, they set up camp within 20 yards of where we were fishing. This prompted us to search different areas of the Berry shoreline rather than stay in our spot. So, if you are out there Mr. 3/4 ton red Chevy, thanks again.
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Lots of folks from your neck of the woods that fish the berry from boats and would share gas with you. It would be cheaper than driving yourself and you would have someone to show you the ropes. Shore fishing is tough with the weeds at strawberry, but you kill them in a boat this time of year. Dont give up!
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The Berry is a tough place to fish from shore. The guy in the ¾ ton must be related to a guy that drives a one ton that parked on the boat ramp at Huntington this weekend. Everyone leaving the lake had to drag there sleds around the truck parked right by the ice in the middle of the ramp. It would have been nice to back my vehicle down the boat ramp to the ice and load the sled.
Back to Strawberry, I think the peak is over on the feeding frenzy, it peaked about the 16 to the 20 of November. It changes every year, I’ve seen it start in late October and go as late as first of December.
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Wait for the ice, and go slay them! I have never heard of anyone ever being skunked on the ice. [cool]
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I believe you are right. I was up there Sunday in my boat, between the three of us we caught 15 but it was tough to find them or get them to bit. My last four trip were awesome but this time it wasn't [frown].
I was going to head into the narrows but there was a sheet of ice covering the entrance from the berry side.
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Did you get a chance to make it over to Hawes?
I was gonna make another trip this week but after your lousy adventure, I may reconsider.
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ponyboyf350, yes we did venture over there around noon and had the same fate. As I stated, only saw one fish caught in the time we were there and it was at Chicken Creek, right about first light. I believe the guy was using a white tube jig but I am not certain. Also, I have never fished Strawberry before so I might not have been on the right path so to speak. Good Luck if you go.
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I have been spending a lot of time the past four weeks or so figuring out how to fish the shore at Strawberry. It's pretty tough trying to jig effectively at slow retrieve speed and not get snagged up. I would tell you to buy a map that shows the water depths. I have done pretty well from the shore because I have kinda found a way to jigg vertical/horzontal. I was up there today, I think I finally found a great place to fish from the shore. The spot has a pretty dramatic drop off and this helps when your significantly when your jigging.

Did you try any tubes? Chartreuse was working great for me last few weeks, but today I wasn't getting any action. Also tried pumpkin and nothing. Then I used black and they started smackin' pretty good. Caught four between hours of 2:30-4:30. First hour I really didn't have much activity until I changed up to a black tube tipped w/ minnow. Then it seemed like I was getting hits pretty consistently. Alot of the time I was getting hit on the way down. I was trying to jig off the bottom (20-30 ft.) There's some cliffs over by the damn, that's where I was. Here's some pics from my phone, not the best quality but are ok. Good luck!
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I know for me Strawberry could be frustrating at times, but keep at it. I know that I have gone up there and done really well and then gone the week after and caught a fish or two. I personally would like more consistency, but you can't always get that.

The great thing about Strawberry is if you hit if just right you will be hooked for life. In one week (I believe it was the end of October this year) I know of three people that fished different area's of the lake and all three of them caught 51/2 pounders to 61/2 pound cutthroats. It was like the big fish were just eating everything in sight. I am still cussing to this day that I didn't go up that week!

My point is just keep at it and you will be rewarded.
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I'm a little surprised you didn't have better luck, I was just there with a friend of mine couple of days ago and we caught 14 off the bank in about 7.5 hrs. One nice cutty just over 22", four nice rainbows from about 17-19" and bunch of cutties in the slot which we threw back. Caught a couple on Powerbait, but almost all were on a worm tipped with marshmallow, nothing on lures or jigs. Fished mostly at the view point and at the dam. The worm tipped with marshmallow early morning was the ticket.
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