Didn't have much time, but my son and I made a quick stop, about 90 minutes, on the Soldier Creek side of the lake last Friday afternoon. The wind was blowing pretty good and rain was threatening and it was cold. We chose a nice steep slope with clean water. I tied on a 3.5" tube and my son tried a spinner. After ten casts, two fish to hand and five other hits for me, my son quickly tied on an identical tube bait to mine and soon he was tied on to a nice fish. We had lots of hits but with the fish hitting so hard they often missed the hook so we only ended up with seven to hand, six rainbows and one nice 23" cutt. Took three damaged bows home for dinner and put the rest back. The rainbows were really hammering those jigs and the three really got buggered up but they were pretty tasty.
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Sounds like nice way to spend a hour and a half.[cool]
Were you and your son fishing from a boat or from shore?
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Just off shore casting as far as possible into a strong headwind.
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Congrats on the quick shore fishing. This would have been another great entry for Old Coots contest.
Do you care to share your location? Curious since I wouldn't mind catching some bows at Strawberry.
What was were the general size of the bows?
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All the rainbows were cookie cutter 14". My son had one about 19" swipe at his jig several casts in a row until it finally got the hook but he came unpinned.
Generally, I don't think it matters too much the location of my exact spot. Things change so fast at this time of year, fish are moving a ton. I was fishing down the road to the dam on a steep rocky bank with wind pounding the shoreline and the fish were cruising, picking off baitfish. Most of my fish came within 1 - 5 feet of the surface but the big cutt was down maybe 10-12 feet. I caught fish from 10 feet off shore out to as far as I could cast in the headwind maybe 60 feet tops. Some took it on the fall and some took it as fast as I could crank.
Bottom line, go to the lake, tie on something that has been mentioned in this or other threads, retrieve it several different ways, if it catches fish, awsome, if not tie on something else. Keep experimenting until you connect and don't be afraid to try something different. I've caught fish at Strawberry on nearly everything I've tried (jigs, spoons, crankbait, spinners, nymphs, streamers, and bait). This time I got lucky and connected on the 3rd cast.[fishin]
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