I usually wait until the middle July to begin fishing Strawberry again after ice fishing. I did the same this year. I typically do OK in July, August and September, but my go-to months have been October and November (all trips are vertically jigging and casting and bouncing back to my boat).
This year has been unusual in the quantity of fish that we have been catching, so early in the year. Two of us fished on July 23rd and we caught 131 cutthroat. We fished yesterday and the Strawberry newbie, caught 44 and I caught 128 (all cutts).
We started fishing at 7:00 AM and got off of the water at 3:30 PM. During that time, I think there were a couple times that I went 2 minutes without a bite! The quantity was unusual, and what really surprised me is that the fish were acting like it was October or November. About 1/3 of the time, when I reeled in a fish another fish was following behind. If a fish got off, sometimes even after reeling it in for 20 feet or more, that fish, or perhaps it was a trailing fish, would immediately grab my jig again. If I started quickly, reeling in from the bottom, and stopped reeling, down at least 15' (we were fishing in 42' of water), almost every time, a fish would hit my jig.
Only disappointment is that we didn't catch anything over the slot. Tipping with cut bait worked the best, and tipping with 1/2 of a crawler would also get a bite. White tube jigs were the hot color but other colors would also generate some action.
This year has been unusual in the quantity of fish that we have been catching, so early in the year. Two of us fished on July 23rd and we caught 131 cutthroat. We fished yesterday and the Strawberry newbie, caught 44 and I caught 128 (all cutts).
We started fishing at 7:00 AM and got off of the water at 3:30 PM. During that time, I think there were a couple times that I went 2 minutes without a bite! The quantity was unusual, and what really surprised me is that the fish were acting like it was October or November. About 1/3 of the time, when I reeled in a fish another fish was following behind. If a fish got off, sometimes even after reeling it in for 20 feet or more, that fish, or perhaps it was a trailing fish, would immediately grab my jig again. If I started quickly, reeling in from the bottom, and stopped reeling, down at least 15' (we were fishing in 42' of water), almost every time, a fish would hit my jig.
Only disappointment is that we didn't catch anything over the slot. Tipping with cut bait worked the best, and tipping with 1/2 of a crawler would also get a bite. White tube jigs were the hot color but other colors would also generate some action.