Strawberry report 3/13

[Bigcat]

Headed up to the Berry this morning expecting this to probably be my last ice fishing trip of the year up there. I was expecting deep slush and slow fishing. I was pleasantly surprised to find neither! We arrived at the marina at 6:30 to a balmy 20 degree's which is 40 degree's warmer than the last time I was there! It was still plenty dark with the time change. We prepared for snow and slush with snowshoes and headed out to our spot. The snow has crusted over and has a really hard 2-3 inch solid top which we did not break through even after taking off our snowshoes. There is 4-6 inches of slush under that but it was never an issue for us today. The ice is at least 24 inches thick under the slush layer. We were set up and fishing a little before 7 and for the next hour we got hits almost as soon as we could get the jigs near the bottom. They were agressive for the first time this winter. It didn't matter what we had on (we all had different jigs and bait on). In that first hour we landed about a dozen fish (3 of us fishing) and lost almost that many after hooking them. When the sun came over hill and hit the ice the bite shut off. There were still a few on the finder but they once again (like so many trips this year) showed no interest. We tried several kinds of jigs and bait with no success. Within 10 minutes of the sun hitting the ice there were no more fish on the finder. They had moved out of that area. We went searching for he fish in deeper water and finally found some fish in the 40 to 46 foot range. Between 9:00 and 11:00 we caught about another 10 fish. We had to be back early so we headed for home at 11:00. It was 32 degree's and warming quickly when we were leaving. We practically walked off the lake in T-shirts but the hard top layer on top of the snow was still holding up well. We had the marina COMPLETELY to ourselves this morning until one lone fisherman ventured out around 9:30. It looked like a ghost town which was perfect! We had enough fun to plan another "last ice fishing trip of the year!" Hopefully there will be a couple more!
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