Strawberry

[baetisman]

I used to fish Strawberry a couple dozen times a year. I would target the rainbows. The Spring was always great and it seemed like every trip produced at least a couple of 20 inch plus bows. They were football shaped and fought better than most any fish around. Then they stopped planting the rainbows and I pretty much stopped fishing Strawberry. The cutthroat are nice to catch sometimes, but the fight is less than stellar.

Because they've been planting rainbows again I decided to head there on Saturday. The fishing was fairly good. I probably caught around 15 in a few hours. Not as good as in the past, but decent. The wind was blowing pretty hard and I remembered I would fish the banks where the wind was crashing because the fish were hanging there and getting all the food that was bunching up in those areas. That tactic seemed to work again, although it gets tiring fighting the wind in a float tube.

The rainbows are nice and healthy, although I didn't catch any of great size. They were all between about 12 and 16 inches. The 16 incher was a football shaped fish that put up a heck of a fight. It reminded me of why I loved fishing for the rainbows years ago. I also caught 4 cutts between about 14 and 18 inches. The fight of the cutts reminded me of why I don't target them more often. I also caught 3 chub. Little b*st*rds. It's interesting that you can tell what kind of fish is on immediately. The chub do a tug, tug, pull. The cutts start that head-shake body roll. The rainbows turn and run.

All fish were caught on a size 10 black leech pattern. I've always seemed to do well enough on that fly.
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[OldTroller]

Thanks for the detailed report.

Could I get you to go a little further when you have the time...

What line were you using?

How long of leader?

Weighted or un-weighted leech pattern?

Was that a mohair or rabbit or other leech pattern?

I don't often fish leech patterns that small so I must ask was that a straight size ten. I have size ten 3x hooks. Do you think that would be too big?
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[baetisman]

I was using an intermediate sinking line. I wish I could tell you the class and sink rate but I've had it for so long I don't know anymore. It's on the slower side of a sink rate. I use it to fish in water that's about 15 feet deep or less.

I tie on about 8 or 9 feet of straight monofilament tippet material. I was using 3x on Saturday. When using straight monofilament and not a tapered leader the fly needs a bit of weight. I don't use weighted flies but instead put a split shot on the line right in front of the fly. The split shot on the head gives it a nice swimming action. I guess it's sort of cheating because I guess it's almost like fishing a jig with a light weight head, but the swimming action is so much better than just a weighted fly. With a slow sink and a little bit of weight on the head, the fly can be fished pretty slow. A few short strips gives it nice action and then there can be longer pauses in between strips when the fish often seem to hit. You can put more weight on the head and fish the fly a little faster and sometimes the fish like that better. But I find that they usually like the slower retrieve with pauses. I've never seen leeches move too fast in the water and so I seem to do better fishing the leeches pretty slow. It works when the damsels are swimming too.

I usually fish sizes 10 and 12 in 2x, but I'm sure 3x would be fine. I seem to like to fish smaller sizes than most, so the larger and longer sizes work I'm sure. The leeches I tie are made entirely of marabou. I tie in the marabou tail and then spin a bunch of marabou on for the body. I then pick at the marabou with the finishing tool to give it more body. It looks close to a mohair leech but with all the marabou the fly has a lot more movement in the water. It's a simple, lazy, but effective tie. I do the same with brown marabou and tie them a little thicker and I think it helps imitate the crayfish. On the black ones I use red thread and tie in a nice red head. For some reason the red head seems to make a difference some time.

There are certainly others who fish Strawberry more effectively than I do but I have success on this set-up so maybe it will work for others.
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[flygoddess]

Try PURPLE with that black instead of red on a couple[]
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[gufero]

Totally agree with ya bud Bows> cutts by FARRRRRRRRRR
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[orvis1]

Those strawberry cuts fight like hell...They just save all their fighting for the net... [fishin]
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[flygoddess]

After catching a bunch of Crappie, I think those Cutts are fantastic fighters!
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