Nate and I fished Strawberry yesterday. It was one of those magical days that one occasionally has up there. We launched at The Strawberry Bay ramp (thank you for putting one of the docks back in [
]) (now if someone could take responsibility for putting toilet paper in the outhouses in the parking lot [frown]) and headed to Renegade bay at 33 mph. Saw a few fish on side imagining and set up shop. We never moved more than 75 yards from there until I shut off the virtual anchor and let us drift while we got everything stowed for the ride back at 2:40.
Occasionally, we went 5 minutes without one of us getting a bite, but that was rare. The most effective method was to cast and aggressively bounce back to the boat. Vertical fishing wasn't happening with a drop shot (which I tried for way too long). After switching to an off-white tube jig vertically jigging was also working well. I also caught a few under a bobber. Tipping with cut chubs or cut shiners worked the best, and tipping with crawlers also produced a few. The largest cutthroat was 21 inches and the average was around 18-19 inches. If we would have caught one more rainbow we would have caught one.
Good to get out with Nate again, our last trip up there produced only a handful of fish.
[signature]
I missed it by a week!! It seems like they are used to the high pressure on the weekends, some people just might have to come down with a cold and miss a day of work soon. :-)
[signature]
Thanks for the report! I'm heading up again tomorrow for some jigging!
[signature]
boy did you luck out and stop on the fish.
that is why I keep driving around you
my 360 was working and I was seeing a lot of fish on the fish finder
by where you were at. must have been over 200 fish around your boat.
we did good we got 3 rainbows one i thought was a koke it came high out of the water 4 times.
when we went way west of you we started catching bigger cuts over 20"
we left at 1 PM
I did not see others catching a lot
a guy that lives next door asked me to take him and his dad Monday
[signature]
[quote liketrolling]
boy did you luck out and stop on the fish.
[/quote]
What do you mean luck, that was skill.[
]
Actually, I saw a few fish on my side imaging and decided to give it a try. Interestingly, it was actually better after the sun came up and in the early afternoon than it was the first thing in the morning.
[signature]
[quote liketrolling]
a guy that lives next door asked me to take him and his dad Monday
[/quote]
I could be persuaded to also give it another try next week. If someone would like to join me on Tuesday or Wednesday please send me a PM.
[signature]
Thanks for the report Kent. Was you out over deeper water than 20-30 fow?
[signature]
Most of the day we were anchored up in 44 to 45' of water, but we were casting all directions, so sometimes we were in shallower water and sometimes we were in deeper water.
[signature]
Sounds like a great day Kent.
[signature]
Thanks Mike. I have had better days at Strawberry (drop tube straight down, jig it once or twice, hook fish and reel it in) but I would be one happy angler if every trip was as good as this one was.
[signature]
How deep were you fishing. By bouncing back to the boat were you bouncing it along the bottom? Pretty deep for me to bounce along the bottom at 40' to 45'.
I'm struggling to be successful this year.
[signature]
Until early afternoon, they were mostly suspended, so we were able to catch them just letting the jig fall a little ways and then reeling fast and then slow or jerking the rod a few times and then letting it sink.
Later they moved deeper and most were caught by letting the jig fall to the bottom and then lift the rod and let it fall to the bottom and repeat the process. This is not difficult to do in deeper water. We frequently varied our speed of retrieval. We caught many within 10 feet of the boat. I hooked several and missed several that were only a foot or two under the water next to the boat. Especially this time of year, after almost reeling the jig to the boat I will often let it drop clear to the bottom and many times I will get a hit. We had many fish follow our jigs right to the boat and often when we reeled in a fish another fish was following the fish being reeled in.
When vertically jigging, I typically let my jig sit just a couple inches off of the bottom while I cast the other rod. After casting my other rod I will frequently grab the dead sticked rod and bounce it off of the bottom 3 or 4 times and then just raise it a few inches off of the bottom.
[signature]
I'll have to work on the deep water bottom bounce retrieve when they are deep. 30' and more is pretty deep for the 1/16 oz jig head I usually use. Will probably have to increase a bit.
I like to fish light jigs so I can work them slower.
I love it this time of year when lots of times multiple fish follow. Sometimes it almost seems like they are fighting each other about who can get it first.
LOVE THEM FISH
THANKS
[signature]