03-06-2019, 04:15 AM
Three friends and I made a return trip to Strawberry today. We met at the Marina at about 0800 and headed east from there to the general area we fished last week. The snow conditions haven't changed very much since our last trip. I did see evidence that some snowmobile riders had broken through the frozen layer and got stuck or bogged down in the slush.
We didn't have any trouble riding out at normal speeds and I really couldn't feel any slush pockets that would inhibit travel. We actually found our fishing location from last week. There has been fresh snow since last Tuesday but it wasn't deep enough to hide the disturbed area where we fished. I found a well packed down area and there was no slush to contend with today. One of my friends found himself fishing in an area that had about 2 inches of water on top of the frozen slush layer. Waterproof boots are needed if you are not fortunate enough to find a packed and frozen location.
The fishing was very good today and it began immediately after we put our lines down. We all tried to target the Kokes by using spinning equipment with mono line. We each had a "flasher" of some type, a short leader and then a small squid or tube jig tipped with either pink Gulp Maggots or a meal worm. One of our party was able to catch two Kokes and the rest of us played with the slot cutts all day. Between the 4 of us I would estimate we caught about 115 to 120 fish today. Quite a few of the cutts were good size fish in the 18 to 20 inch range. We fished from 0845 until 1600. We didn't get any rainbows today. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to get at least one Koke today. I'm pretty sure I had a hit from one of the silver rockets based on the nature of the strike. It felt like it hit my jig while it was moving 10 mph and of course, I missed the strike. There's always next week if the conditions hold up.
The weather was beautiful for most of the day with partly cloudy skies and very light winds. Around 1300 the breeze did pick up a little but you could just position yourself with your back to the breeze and it wasn't too bad. None of us put up a shelter today. Where I was fishing the frozen layer would have been OK for a shelter if I had put mine up. It would be challenging to put one up if you had the 2 inches of water on the ice like my friend had to deal with today. I think he could have packed the snow down a little better and made himself a dryer fishing hole.
There were a number of fishermen who had walked out near the Marina but I don't know how they did today. We did talk with one party who used the Strawberry Bay Marina's shuttle service to get out further on the reservoir and they said they had a great day and figured they caught about 50 to 60 fish. The Marina will shuttle people out on the lake and pick them up at a selected time for $25.00 per person which is certainly cheaper than buying and operating a snowmobile. It cost me more than that to haul my snowmobile and trailer from Price.
Mike
[signature]
We didn't have any trouble riding out at normal speeds and I really couldn't feel any slush pockets that would inhibit travel. We actually found our fishing location from last week. There has been fresh snow since last Tuesday but it wasn't deep enough to hide the disturbed area where we fished. I found a well packed down area and there was no slush to contend with today. One of my friends found himself fishing in an area that had about 2 inches of water on top of the frozen slush layer. Waterproof boots are needed if you are not fortunate enough to find a packed and frozen location.
The fishing was very good today and it began immediately after we put our lines down. We all tried to target the Kokes by using spinning equipment with mono line. We each had a "flasher" of some type, a short leader and then a small squid or tube jig tipped with either pink Gulp Maggots or a meal worm. One of our party was able to catch two Kokes and the rest of us played with the slot cutts all day. Between the 4 of us I would estimate we caught about 115 to 120 fish today. Quite a few of the cutts were good size fish in the 18 to 20 inch range. We fished from 0845 until 1600. We didn't get any rainbows today. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to get at least one Koke today. I'm pretty sure I had a hit from one of the silver rockets based on the nature of the strike. It felt like it hit my jig while it was moving 10 mph and of course, I missed the strike. There's always next week if the conditions hold up.
The weather was beautiful for most of the day with partly cloudy skies and very light winds. Around 1300 the breeze did pick up a little but you could just position yourself with your back to the breeze and it wasn't too bad. None of us put up a shelter today. Where I was fishing the frozen layer would have been OK for a shelter if I had put mine up. It would be challenging to put one up if you had the 2 inches of water on the ice like my friend had to deal with today. I think he could have packed the snow down a little better and made himself a dryer fishing hole.
There were a number of fishermen who had walked out near the Marina but I don't know how they did today. We did talk with one party who used the Strawberry Bay Marina's shuttle service to get out further on the reservoir and they said they had a great day and figured they caught about 50 to 60 fish. The Marina will shuttle people out on the lake and pick them up at a selected time for $25.00 per person which is certainly cheaper than buying and operating a snowmobile. It cost me more than that to haul my snowmobile and trailer from Price.
Mike
[signature]