Strawberry 03/22

[icerman]

17 degrees on arrival, 43 degrees on departure.  Edges were fine.  Evidence of melting on top of the ice, definitely wet when I was leaving.  Great day for catching!  Beautiful, sunny weather (make sure you wear sunblock and sun glasses).  Caught 14 in my first hour, then it slowed down, eventually caught my personal best of 40 fish!  fished 5 hours and had a great time!  Fastest action was before 9:30 a.m.  White with red flecks gazilla was the best, initially waxies were great but shrimp eventually attracted the most.  Had to jig to get their attention.  Had many lookers and leavers, other wise it would have been a 100 fish day!!!  I mainly fished in 15 FOW, but as the day progressed, moved up to 30 FOW, most caught around 15'.

[MWScott72]

I was going to post a separate thread, but since Icerman already started one, I’ll add on. Fished the Soldier Creek side. I’ll be honest…used Obi’s decription from earlier this week, and fished in the same general area. We were in 39 FOW. Fish were very active throughout with only a couple minor lulls of 10 minutes or so. Most caught within 5-8 feet of the bottom, but plenty suspended between 15-20 feet down too. Had numerous takes on the drop and many fish zooming up 10 feet or so to hit the presentations. Early on, if you could see them, you could catch them. Mostly dead sticking, but light jigging would re-ignite their interest at times. Fish got more picky as the morning wore on, but they were still biting well at 11am when we had to leave. Probably caught 25 or so from 7:15-11am. Missed another 15. All cutts, no bows and avg size of 17-18” with a few bigger and smaller. No slot busters. I caught min with either the white with red flake gazilla or the gazilla in crawdad color. White was king early, but crawdad started to outperform from 10-11. Also used a silver and silver blue kastmaster as an attractor about 8-10” above my jig. Tipped with mealworm. Condition report on ice same as Icerman’s. No slush, hard edges, blue sky, NO WIND, aggressive fish. Doesn’t get much better!

[Cowboypirate]

The berry has certainly been productive this spring. I had student anglers up there last week and some more this morning. Thier catch rate and gear has been similar to what everyone is posting

Cookie asks me every couple days if the ice is pulling back. It is her favorite spring thing to catch the ice roll off bite.

[Lunkers]

17 degrees on arrival, 43 degrees on departure.  Edges were fine.  Evidence of melting on top of the ice, definitely wet when I was leaving.  Great day for catching!  Beautiful, sunny weather (make sure you wear sunblock and sun glasses).  Caught 14 in my first hour, then it slowed down, eventually caught my personal best of 40 fish!  fished 5 hours and had a great time!  Fastest action was before 9:30 a.m.  White with red flecks gazilla was the best, initially waxies were great but shrimp eventually attracted the most.  Had to jig to get their attention.  Had many lookers and leavers, other wise it would have been a 100 fish day!!!  I mainly fished in 15 FOW, but as the day progressed, moved up to 30 FOW, most caught around 15'.

How thick was the ice?