Fishing Forum

A week ago I did a pre-fish for the DAV event and I was concerned. Tried my honey hole, that I have had for over 15 years and it was really slow. We managed a few but not many.

Fast forward one week and wow how things changed. Got to the honey hole a little late, but it didn't matter. For about the first couple hours it was non-stop action, and after that it was steady action. Mark (my assigned vet) was catching them just about as fast as he could get a line dropped down and when I wasn't rerigging, or rebaiting Mark's two rods I would occasionally hook a fish on one of my rods and hand it off to Mark. He was one happy vet.

Mark caught the second largest fish that has been caught from one of my boats on Strawberry. It was an extremely heavy cutt that went 24 1/2 inches and definitely weighed over 6 pounds. I would have gotten a precise weight, but I found a dead battery in my scale. We also caught lots of really nice rainbows. Around 75% of the fish we caught were rainbows, which was nice because Mark wanted to keep some fish.

Because Mark wanted to keep some fish I wanted to increase our odds of catching rainbows, so, I switched one rod and later two rods to PowerBait. Every fish we caught on the PowerBait was a rainbow. Around 3/4 of our fish were caught vertically jigging. Casting and bouncing back to the boat wasn't working today, and really wasn't necessary, because they were hitting just fine straight down. We tipped our tubes (mostly white shades) with cut chub, raw shrimp and also caught a couple tipping with 1/2 of a crawler. We fished in water from about 34' to 38' deep.

All in all, I couldn't have wished for a better day. Always concerned when I have a special guest or guests that I especially want to catch some fish. My wife joined us, which is always an extra treat.

Mark with his large cutthroat.
[inline "24 inch Cutt.jpg"]
[signature]

You had an awesome day.[cool]
[signature]

Nice going Kent, sounds like there were s all around. Did you and the wife stay for the BBQ, if so, how did it turn out?
[signature]

We got there in time for the Subway sandwiches, chips, cake and some of the drawing which was nice.
[signature]

Subway? I guess things have changed.
[signature]

Yeah, we were one of the last boats back and the subway was pretty much picked over by the time we hit the pavilion...that's fine though, kinda had our heart set on a burger burn so we were forced to hit Dairy Keen on the way back!
[signature]

Nice job Kent!
[signature]

Glad you had a good time and I'm really glad that you were able to put your vet on such an amazing fish. Thanks for coming up and letting me put a face to a name.[]
[signature]

Trevor it was a pleasure meeting you. Thank you for introducing yourself.
[signature]

I chatted with Mark during lunch and he raved about his experience. He couldn't say enough about his experience and the generosity of you and your wife.

He mentioned again and again about coming back next year.
[signature]

Awsome Kent ... absolutely AWSOME!
[signature]

What size and colors of tubes worked best for you? BTW thanks for taking our vets out, I hope I can get involved one of these years.
[signature]

Size 2 1/2" to 3 1/2". The whitest white that one can purchase is the best. I also fish with black, yellow, various shades of white with and without flecks, browns in various shades, especially with flecks and around Halloween orange will sometimes work. I tip with cut bait chubs, shiners, raw shrimp and occasionally 1/2 of a crawler or even a dab of PowerBait. PowerBait will get bites but you only get one jerk and the PowerBait falls off. Painting eyeballs on the tubes seems to help a little but not necessary. I also sometimes add a bead and a propeller above the tube.
[signature]

Awesome thanks for the info.
[signature]

Awesome report. Thank you for your willingness to share. I am taking my elderly father up on Saturday morning probably for the last time. He has enjoyed Strawberry his whole life and had a small cabin at Clark's Camp before they grew the lake.
I have a pontoon boat rented from the Marina for Sat. morning. I have never been on a pontoon, but have trolled on Strawberry my whole life. I am thinking that it would be best for my dad to sit with Powerbait on this trip. I love the white tube jigs and troll with them all the time, but I have never actually "jigged" them though. Do you think that an Older Man (83) could jig or should I just find a spot around 35ft deep and use PowerBait? I don't ever use PowerBait, so any suggestions on the color/flavor?
I have heard that somewhere behind the Marina in Strawberry Bay should produce a few rainbows for him.
Thanks again for your post.
[signature]

I would think that PowerBait would probably be the best way to go. The biggest problem I see with folks using PowerBait is that they use about a size 4 treble hook and put a huge ball of PowerBait on it. I don't often fish with PowerBait, but when I do, I use the smallest treble hooks that I can find (I don't believe you can purchase treble hooks too small) and put on a ball of PowerBait, just large enough to cover the hooks. One can also use a size 8 or smaller single hook, but more fish will get the bait off without being hooked. From a boat, a small split shot with about 18" to 24" of leader works great. I would start out in about 25' of water and work my way out deeper as the day progresses. I think any color will catch fish, and I had great luck using Rainbow on that trip (but it is the only color we used).
[signature]