02-01-2021, 06:15 PM
REPORT: So we hit Strawberry for the day on Friday. Snow and ice conditions were good for ice fishing, not good for snowpack. As mentioned, there was around 18" of ice and 4" of snow on top, no slush.
Fishing was slow at best. With around 10 or more poles in the water in our group (depending on when the kids wanted to fish or just play in the snow) we went the day with only a few light bites and only one hookup. The one fish came on some cheapo pole that was destined for D.I. so I grabbed it. It's one of those plastic poles with a plastic reel you turn one way to reel in and the other to reel out. It had a bare #8 hook on it so I just threw on a small sinker and a small piece of shrimp meat and dropped it down the same hole as my transducer. I would occasionally drop it down slowly or reel it up slowly and watch the graph. A couple of times I saw a fish check it out and was able to hook one. It was about a 20" cutt and was hooked through the thin skin on the lip, so thin you could see the hook through the skin. Still, somehow I got it on the ice without ripping through that skin.
That was it for the day.
Got the sleds back on the trailer and hit the road just after dark in a whiteout storm and ended up going down Daniels behind a semi doing no more than 25mph the whole way down.
WARNING: DWR was there all afternoon checking fish, sled registrations, helmets on kids riding machines, etc.. One in our group saw them ticketing one person and it looked to be for lack of a helmet on a teenager.
Saturday we hit Rockport with even worse success. We marked very few fish on the graph at several different depths / locations and not a single noticeable bite. There were quite a few people there, but not packed, and we didn't see anyone else bringing in fish either. We talked to one or two people that said they had caught one or two fish all day, and many others with nothing.
Here's hoping I can get out again soon to redeem this past weekend. For just the one fish that was an expensive trip.
Fishing was slow at best. With around 10 or more poles in the water in our group (depending on when the kids wanted to fish or just play in the snow) we went the day with only a few light bites and only one hookup. The one fish came on some cheapo pole that was destined for D.I. so I grabbed it. It's one of those plastic poles with a plastic reel you turn one way to reel in and the other to reel out. It had a bare #8 hook on it so I just threw on a small sinker and a small piece of shrimp meat and dropped it down the same hole as my transducer. I would occasionally drop it down slowly or reel it up slowly and watch the graph. A couple of times I saw a fish check it out and was able to hook one. It was about a 20" cutt and was hooked through the thin skin on the lip, so thin you could see the hook through the skin. Still, somehow I got it on the ice without ripping through that skin.
That was it for the day.
Got the sleds back on the trailer and hit the road just after dark in a whiteout storm and ended up going down Daniels behind a semi doing no more than 25mph the whole way down.
WARNING: DWR was there all afternoon checking fish, sled registrations, helmets on kids riding machines, etc.. One in our group saw them ticketing one person and it looked to be for lack of a helmet on a teenager.
Saturday we hit Rockport with even worse success. We marked very few fish on the graph at several different depths / locations and not a single noticeable bite. There were quite a few people there, but not packed, and we didn't see anyone else bringing in fish either. We talked to one or two people that said they had caught one or two fish all day, and many others with nothing.
Here's hoping I can get out again soon to redeem this past weekend. For just the one fish that was an expensive trip.