I went to Strawberry for the third time this year and I have to say it just isn't what it used to be. Some might say it just gets more pressure. I may be wrong but to me it seems like there are fewer people fishing there now than when I was a teenager. Probably because its not that great a fishery any more. We caught a bunch of fish this time out but with one exception (a nice rainbow) they were all cutthroat in the slot limit. Is it just me or is anyone else wondering what the big deal is about nurturing the cutthroat population? I really feel that the focus on cutthroat has hurt the fishery overall substantially. Cuts don't fight half as well as a rainbow, they are mushy and no good to eat, and they are super fragile. I have to spend 10 minutes reviving just from the lackluster fight. If you are to attempt to remove a deep hook (don't worry I don't) or even net one forget about it. To me they don't really have any redeeming qualities. I'd just as soon catch a carp or sucker - at least they put up a fight. Is it just some nostalgic 'this is the native fish' sort of thing? Because Strawberry is not a natural impoundment to begin with and it has never had a pristine natural eco system.
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Welcome to BFT and thank you for posting.
The cutts are there to control the chubs and they are doing a fine job of doing that. If they weren't there anglers would catch even fewer rainbows and many more chubs.
If you want to catch more rainbows you need to change how you are fishing and where you are fishing. I did both on the DAV outing and we caught more rainbows than cutts.
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=941165;#941165"]Link to my report[/url]
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I've never had revival issues. What are you using? I like to tip jigs with small amounts of bait and jig based off feel. Then I can feel when the fish is nibbling and when you feel the fish pulling you can set the hook.
Are you using power bait or just bait because that is when I run into fish swallowing hooks whole.
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I wish I knew what tactics and places you are talking about because I tried different spots all the way from the dam, through the narrows, to the ladders and the island, all the way to Chicken Creek and the north end at depths from 45' to the surface using every trick in my book and like I said when I caught fish they were always cuts. On the same day I caught cuts down rigging at 40' all the way to the surface and also still fishing. Back when it was full of chubs I used the same tactics and I never got skunked like I have in recent years and usually caught one rainbow after another. Its just not like that any more. Granted there are most certainly methods I am not aware of that produce only rainbows but how many people are aware of those methods? Everyone I talked to at the boat ramp were discouraged and caught nothing or did poorly. It should be a fun and productive fishery for everyone like it used to be, not just those who are experts on the 'secret' tactics. Part of my love of fishing came from my success as a youngster at Strawberry. How discouraging it must be for a kid to fish for hours from the shore to either catch nothing or even worse catch something that they have to turn back. I know there are the catch and release die hards out there. Thats great, go fish the Provo River. It's exciting for a kid to take home a few fish and its also nice to eat a nice firm pink fleshed rainbow every once in a while.
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My report gave details on how I was fishing to catch the rainbows and I was fishing on the Soldier Creek side. If you want to catch rainbows stay on the Soldier Creek side and fish in water 35' or shallower. Trolling has almost always resulted in more cutts than rainbows on Strawberry for me.
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Hey Fishslayer - every single Cut I caught at depth was exhausted in the few minutes it took to get them to the boat - lip hooked and they still would belly up if I did not revive them for several minutes. I don't net them and I always cut the line if they are hooked deep. I was not gut hooking them with powerbait, but that certainly does kill a bunch of them - I actually wonder if the slot limit is worse because the silver bullet boys often catch and 'release' (kill) more then their limit would have been but hey the crawdad population is boomin! Not really a big deal, I was able to revive them just fine, my point was more that they are just pretty fragile.
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Hey Kent thank you for your responses! Can you link to your report? I looked at your posts and I'm wading through them but haven't found it yet.
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I'm with ya man!
I really enjoy Strawberry its been good to me the last 2 years, but for the most part if you aren't into the whole nasty power bait scene all you catch is Slot Cutts. And while they are good for chubs and helping that whole situation out, they sure are a boring fish to catch! Swim right in to the boat, too easy!
I was talking with my brother the other day and we both can't understand why the Rainbows aren't quality bows like that in Starvation! For the most part we catch planter bows with few that are keepers. Maybe it's just me but I'm not into the whole power baiting scene, I like to troll, but with bows seems like strawberry you gotta use the dough.
The only reason I keep going up there is for the Kokanee fishing! They to me are the best part of Strawberry and the only reason to fish it. For quality bows I go to Starvation. The Cutts in Strawberry just aren't fun for me.
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[quote wall3y3]
Can you link to your report?
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If you look at my first reply to you I put a button on there for you to click on to link to my report.
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Maybe I'm weird but I don't target trout in June, July or August. The fishing goes down hill then in my opinion and fishing for other species is really good (catfish, wiper, walleye).
Or maybe you should try other venues for rainbow trout? Flaming Gorge produces gobs and gobs of rainbow trout. Seems like thats what you want. I dont fish Utah for trout very much, I'm from WY, but I'm sure there are other places to try for bows.
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I personally love the berry, when I fish it with Duckdog1us. Beyond that I hear you on the absolute love affair with cutts..
and just to say it first on this thread........tigers in the berry pelase!
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[quote wall3y3]
- every single Cut I caught at depth was exhausted in the few minutes it took to get them to the boat - lip hooked and they still would belly up if I did not revive them for several minutes. I don't net them and I always cut the line if they are hooked deep.
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Any trout (macks are not trout) will not do well if caught in deep water, rainbows included. Combine that with the warm water of summer and they are even that much more susceptible. I have caught lots of cutts over the years at Strawberry and I have not noticed them to be any more fragile than rainbows. I do agree that rainbows give a much better fight, pound for pound, but most of the cutts fight harder than walleye do. If keeping fish is that important to you perhaps you should fish Deer Creek or other waters.
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Duh, I totally missed your link. Thanks!
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The one rainbow we did catch hit like a freight train and was descent.
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I don't know if I would say that I am any type of Fishing Expert. As you can see by the amounts of time I get the chance to post, I don't fish or post nearly as much as others are able to on this site. But I have to say that I love Strawberry. I fished it this winter for my first time and always had lots of....i guess it was luck. I went back last week and as you can see from my pictures, my daughter and I did not "fish for hours from the shore to either catch nothing or even worse catch something that they have to turn back" as you said. We were there for less than two hours and left after we both limited out on nice sized rainbow. She has been talking none stop since we have been home about catching 6 fish and daddy only caught 2. In the 2 hours that we were there I couldn't get all the poles in because we were catching them so fast. I thin that if the cuts were not there and the slot was not in place I would have just pulled up a lot of chubs like I did in the winter at Scofield. That night I took my other kids and we ended up with 11 or 12 rainbows between the 4 of them all from the bank. We caught 3 slot cuts and it was actually fun for them to see a different type of fish.
I went back trolling a few days later and caught a lot of cuts that we released, but we were targeting cuts and kokanee so I wasn't surprised that we didn't pull in any rainbows.
We love Strawberry and I hope to take a few scouts there next week so they can enjoy the fishing and crawdads too.
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So the "deal" with bear lake cuts is that they are a protected species. By consistently putting them in Strawberry the state of Utah keeps the Feds management out of our backyard. It's a very good thing too!!
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The State loves those Cutts man. Its pretty crazy sometimes, but I trust the DWR. sometimes they make some decisions that I disagree with, but I love fishing and they seem like they usually do a pretty decent job with most things.
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I hope I am not coming across too negative. I just have an opinion on the matter and wanted to see if anyone else felt the same. When the lake was infested with chubs I could pretty effectively target rainbows. I almost never caught a chub, now I am catching 20 cuts to every rainbow - I'm not fond of power bait. As far as I am concerned they just traded one trash fish for another. I really think there are better options. With regards to the comment on the feds it seems to me they are already in it up to their elbows if they are dictating what kind of fish the Utah DWR can plant not to mention the fact that Strawberry is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forrest Service (the feds) already, not the state. It's the only body of water I fish that doesn't cross state lines where I can't use my Utah parks pass to launch my boat.
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[quote wall3y3]
I hope I am not coming across too negative. I just have an opinion on the matter and wanted to see if anyone else felt the same. When the lake was infested with chubs I could pretty effectively target rainbows. I almost never caught a chub, now I am catching 20 cuts to every rainbow - I'm not fond of power bait. As far as I am concerned they just traded one trash fish for another. I really think there are better options...
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Would be interested to hear your "better options".
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Plant a couple of hundred cuts so everyone is happy then replace the rest of the cuts they would have stocked (or more) with tigers - they are more easily targetable, they fight way better, they are aggressive and eat the chubs, they are sterile and easy to control, and they grow faster than natural species. Use the same slot limit on the tigers as the cuts. Plant more rainbows and Kokanee and only allow 1 or 2 under a certain size like maybe 20".
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