Berry 4/10 and a big ol' fish!

[yungun]

Headed up to the much talked about ice out yesterday. I had never been before so i wasn't expecting too much, but i had a great day. First arrived and found some open water on the SC side that wasn't to crowded out but it was too shallow. So we headed to another spot but the ice had receded pretty far already and had no luck there, drove back to the strawberry side to find the main open water spots crowded by people. eventually headed over to strawberry bay and found a perfect looking section of water with only one other person there. it was the perfect depth and the perfect amount of ice had come off. i waded out to my waist and started workin the ice line. about ten minutes in i missed one hit and caught my biggest of the day at 21.5.
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The fishing was on fire for the next hour and a half, then slowed a bit when the wind picked but i was still getting enough activity from the fish to keep me going.
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I ended up catching 12 and lost another 12 or 13. 6 were 20in and bigger and not one was under 17. All were cutts with the exception of one rainbow. I was flyfishing and caught them all on a white wooly bugger variation i tied up.

Meanwhile my dad, who was previously sitting in the car thinking the day was going to turn out bad since we had gone to two bad spots already, noticed i was catching fish and finally decided he would come out and give it a try. He tried fly fishing at first but his gear was giving him hell so he went back and grabbed his spinning rod and tied on a white tube jig. He quickly caught a nice 18in cutt and we took a lunch break.

We headed back out and i was having sporadic action, and then the thought crossed my mind to head down to the end of the open water in the direction the wind was blowing. Thinking the fish might be schooling up there where food would be piling up from the heavy wind. Well it turns out i was right but my dad had already beat me to the idea, as i was walking down the bank i saw him yelling at me with a bent rod so i ran down and netted his tank. 26in 7lb cutt!
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I guess it was his lucky day! He ended up catching three more down there and i caught two and we called it a day. It was a very successful trip and exceeded my expectations, im already excited for next year!
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[fish_or_die]

Very nice! those are some chunky fish! congrats on the bugguns, those sure are fun to catch!
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[Hookinup]

Nice report. Great looking fish!

I was up at SC on Tuesday evening with my brother and a friend of his. I was throwing jigs and they were tossing flies. I caught 6 and they caught about a dozen or so more. It was decent for us.

Check out this fish I caught on my third cast.... I guess even the "ugly ones" need appreciated too!
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[EvilTyeDyeTwin]

Nice fish you got there...especially the old mans! You know what they say..."old age and treasurey will always over come youth and skill". The berry has produced a few of those big guns this year. Looks like you will be a fan of the berrys ice off for years to come. Thanks for the post and especially the pics!
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[Springbuck]

The word is "treachery". [:p]

Although "treasury" has likely been known to overcome skill, too....[]
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[STEVEF39]

Awesome catch and great post, hope to get out this week sometime. By chance was mud creek open at all.
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[chinook]

We made the same mistake on Tuesday. We fished by the soldier creek marina and there was too much open water and not very many fish. Should have found a better spot where we could work the ice line.

Nice fish. That is so great that your Dad could catch a trophy.
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[TROUTSLAYER47]

Sound and looks like a good day at the Berry.Thanks for the report.[cool]
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[smittyts]

me and my best friend were out there on the 10th as well. We didn't have nearly the luck you did, but after reading your post I can see it was because of your knowledge and skill. This was my first time fishing teh ice off, and my friend's 2nd time. We landed a fish each,a nd had a few get off before we could bring them in.

Congratulations, and thanks for posting. I liked your tip about following the wind. That makes sense. What depth do you generally look for?
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