Strawberry - 8/23/19

[Kent]

Randy and I fished Strawberry yesterday. We managed to land 97 cutthroats with 2 of them over the slot. All fish were caught either vertically jigging or casting and bouncing back to the boat. We found them in two places in water ~ 48 to 55' deep.
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[lovetofish]

Days like that are stellar. Even when you have to turn most of them loose they are still fun to catch. Did you have to move around a lot to find them.
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[EyLayo]

Sounds like you should have stayed a bit longer. Certainly you could have put 3 more in the boat.
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[doggonefishin]

[shocked]

Great day! Sounds like you are beating the winter ice fishing fish counts. Should be a stellar autumn.
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[Kent]

[quote lovetofish]

Did you have to move around a lot to find them.

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Not at all. We have been doing well recently at our first stop and they were still there. Around 12:30 PM, the wind came up so we movedto get close to the shore in the direction the wind was coming from. We fished an area that has been good in previous years and it treated us great again.
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[Jig-fisher]

Nice! Those are impressive fish counts for one day.
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[BURLEY]

Wow! What a huge number. I should have followed you. I got skunked at Willard trolling for wipers. Great job Kent.
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[N.E.T.O.]

Here is one of the SlotBusters. And we caught a few of these other creatures also. Thanks Kent for another great trip!
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[_6x_]

That's so good! I haven't had success vertical jigging. Do you just have a sense of where they'll be from past experience and then find them with your electronics? I'm not looking for any spots -- but I'd be grateful to take general advice about the strategy, if you feel inclined to share any!
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[kingfisher82]

Ive experienced the same level of success. I’ve rented a 20’ pontoon half day rental, 4 times over the past 2 months, from the marina. Our fish totals across the 4 days were 110, 70, 121, and 130. That’s fishing from 6:30-12. Vertical jigging and we hit the same spot every time. Fishing in 50-60’ of water. The crazy thing is we’ve only caught 3 rainbows across those 400+ fish and zero were over the slot. Still a great time though and my kids love it.
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[Ktrout]

I miss those days at the berry. Sounds like a great day of catching! Does Randy still tell you every time he is successful at the gas station in the morning [angelic]?
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[Kent]

[quote _6x_]

Do you just have a sense of where they'll be from past experience and then find them with your electronics? I'm not looking for any spots -- but I'd be grateful to take general advice about the strategy, if you feel inclined to share any!

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I am willing to share what I do; however, not sure you will like my answers.

Every year is a little different. I am not certain, but I believe it changes because the water depths vary every year. I have a few fellow fishing buddies who share where they recently have and haven't had success. This information is extremely helpful. We have noted that when we find where they are in good numbers that they typically stay in those same areas until the season changes a little. For example, if we locate them in July they will likely be there until at least the end of August. After the season changes and the water cools some then we have to locate them again, because they rarely are still where we have found them recently.

When searching for them I typically try the areas that have treated me well in prior years, during the same time of year. In general, just like many of the birds, I migrate south as the water cools. Unfortunately, I rarely locate fish by seeing them on my fish finder. Although I have a high-end fish finder, it has been my experience that rarely do I see any fish on the very bottom (my preferred place to fish) until I drop some jigs down and fish for awhile. If they are in the area then I will see some chasing my jig up and down. I have had cameras on the bottom and it is amazing how many fish are down there that do not show up on the fish finder, because they are hugging tightly to the bottom. The cone of the fish finder only goes as deep as the shallowest point where the cone touches the bottom. It is not uncommon to have 2' to 3' (or much more if I am fishing in an area with a steep bank) below the cone that doesn't show on the fish finder screen. If I do see fish, on the bottom, before starting fishing, I am confident that we are going to have a great day. I have side imaging but I have never had much confidence in using it to locate trout (more confidence in using it in locating sturgeon).

I often move from previous productive spots to previous productive spots attempting to locate the fish (if I don't have a current report of where they are located). If this doesn't work I will occasionally slow troll while dragging tube jigs in an attempt to locate active fish. Once we get some serious action, slow trolling, we immediately anchor up and go back to vertically jigging. On occasion, this has been extremely productive.

Another thing is that while vertically jigging from my boat I like to fish right on the bottom. For example, I find it more productive to catch fish that are holding at 42' to fish in 42' of water, rather than fishing in 60' of water and trying to catch the fish that are at 42'. I also, often drop one rod straight down and cast and bounce the other rod back to the boat. The vertical rod is typically less that a foot off of the bottom and I never like to leave it sitting on the bottom. I will; however, regularly bounce it off of the bottom and then hold it just off the bottom. When I reel up, from the bottom, I will pause several times, because fish will occasionally follow the jig to the surface. This is particularly true from September on.

Most often, I am able to locate active fish and a typical day is >30 fish per fisherman. However, as some of the members of this forum have had the unfortunate opportunity to experience, there have been some days when nothing seems to work and we catch only a few fish. When the sun, the moon and the stars all line up, we have caught over 300 fish between three anglers.
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[Kent]

[quote EyLayo]

Sounds like you should have stayed a bit longer. Certainly you could have put 3 more in the boat.

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I bet Randy and I each lost at least 20 fish after we had them hooked, so we should have caught many more than we did. Randy had a commitment so we couldn't stay any later.
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[Kent]

[quote kingfisher82]

...Vertical jigging and we hit the same spot every time. Fishing in 50-60’ of water. The crazy thing is we’ve only caught 3 rainbows across those 400+ fish and zero were over the slot...

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It has been my experience that it is rare to catch rainbows, at Strawberry, in water deeper than about 25'. Also, we are typically tipping with chub meat and although rainbows will eat chub meat they seem to prefer other offerings. Finally, there are far more rainbows on the Soldier Creek side than on the Strawberry side.

We have been averaging a slot-buster cutthroat about every 25 fish, which is better than I have experienced in recent years. Interestingly, for several years we have noted, one small area that we frequently fish seems to hold more larger cutthroats than the general population of the reservoir.
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[N.E.T.O.]

[quote Ktrout]I miss those days at the berry. Sounds like a great day of catching! Does Randy still tell you every time he is successful at the gas station in the morning [angelic]?[/quote]

...of course I still report how successful or unsuccessful I am at the gas station...that usually determines the kind of day we are going to have! (Been there, done that...still have the T-Shirt! [] )


We miss fishing with you as well...I've assumed the role of "the lucky fisherman" since you left! []
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[wiperhunter2]

Sounds like you and Randy had another great outing, always nice to catch a few slot busters[cool].

Randy- did you catch the crawfish jigging?
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[Kent]

[quote wiperhunter2]

Randy- did you catch the crawfish jigging?

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I will answer for Randy. Yes he did -- sort of. If one let's the jig sit on the bottom, while vertically jigging, for more than a couple seconds one is almost guaranteed to have a crawdad grab the tube. If the tube is a few inches off of the bottom it is safe from the crawdads.
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[wiperhunter2]

OK, thanks Kent, was thinking that they would not hang on long enough to get them to the surface but I guess they do.
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[fish_fanatic]

Days like that dont come along everyday, thanks for the report.
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[Old_Coot]

Myself and AFDan52 vertical jigged out on the north end of the Berry Friday (one day after you and Randy). Catching wasn't nearly as good for us as it was for you guys. We only stayed till noon and only boated 22 fish between the two of us. Our techniques, lures, and locations are very similar to yours but with very different results. For the last month or so, cutt jigging has been phenomenal! Of course, I have to wonder what the difference was. I do know that the afternoon/night before, a cold front passed over the Wasatch Front. That is the only thing I could think of that had changed for us.

There were however, a couple of other things I did notice Friday; (1) The water had a lot more algae in the water. I kind of suspect that might be an indication of the season to come. (2) We seen as many fish suspended in the water column as we did on the bottom. I am definitely not use to seeing so many suspended fish in the summer months. Those suspended fish weren't above following our lures down/up but only a few of them would bite.

That last observation (fish higher in the middle of the water column), makes me wonder if the cuts might be staging to move south for the season.

I spoke with some other regular cutt jiggers out there and they had expressed the same phenomena for that day.

I'd like to make another trip down there again soon to see if the bite has truly started to drop off or if it was just down for that one day. If the bite has returned to the regular great summer fishing, then I would have to attribute Friday's slump to the cold front the night before.

--- Coot ---
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