Slow day at the Berry

[wiperhunter2]

Ira and I meet up with Alan(2knots) at 4 am and made the drive up to Strawberry this morning. We launched around 6 am and eventually made or way over to the rest of the fleet. We caught bows cutts and finally a decent koke.





After that we tried everything that normally works, then some new stuff and different stuff and found success for the trout but no more kokes for us today. Did lose one small koke at the back of the boat. Thanks for the invite Alan, as always really enjoyed getting out with you again.

[doitall5000]

That's really a difference story this year, do you have any thoughts about Why?? Are you able to find school? How about solder creek is that the same story? I don't see any real temperature differences this year.
How is the size of the fleet, do they seam to be bunched together.

[wiperhunter2]

That's really a difference story this year, do you have any thoughts about Why??  Are you able to find school? How about solder creek is that the same story?  I don't see any real temperature differences this year.
How is  the size of the fleet, do they seam to be bunched together.

I think there is little doubt that stocking numbers are down and that is at least part of the reason the catching is down. Not really seeing the schools like years past. At ice off on the soldier creek side we saw some good sized koke schools but I haven't been back there since. The kokes are usually smaller on that side but it might be worth making one last trip up there and fish that side, just to see if there are more kokes on that side, I haven't really heard of any reports from that side in a while. With the catching being so slow, there is a smaller fleet out this year, nothing close to the numbers we have seen in the last two years but they are still bunched up.

[doitall5000]

That's really a difference story this year, do you have any thoughts about Why??  Are you able to find school? How about solder creek is that the same story?  I don't see any real temperature differences this year.
How is  the size of the fleet, do they seam to be bunched together.

I think there is little doubt that stocking numbers are down and that is at least part of the reason the catching is down. Not really seeing the schools like years past. At ice off on the soldier creek side we saw some good sized koke schools but I haven't been back there since. The kokes are usually smaller on that side but it might be worth making one last trip up there and fish that side, just to see if there are more kokes on that side, I haven't really heard of any reports from that side it a while. With the catching being so slow, there is a smaller fleet out this year, nothing close to the numbers we have seen in the last two years but they are still bunched up.

Thank you for you report/information very much appreciated.

[brookie]

Hey Curt, I went to Jordanelle on Monday. It was even slower - I wished that I had turned right in Heber instead of left. We ended up in full skunk mode. No kokanee, trout or anything and we fished all over north to south to Rock Cliff arm.

[wiperhunter2]

Hey Curt, I went to Jordanelle on Monday. It was even slower - I wished that I had turned right in Heber instead of left. We ended up in full skunk mode. No kokanee, trout or anything and we fished all over north to south to Rock Cliff arm.

Well that's too bad, I was hoping the catching would start to improve now that the spawn was getting close. Hey John, have you heard of anyone on the soldier creek side of the Berry doing any good?

[brookie]

I haven’t heard from the SC side. Last time I was there slower than strawberry side. About a month ago.

[2knots]

Fun day despite the lack of kokes cooperating, maybe vertical jigging on the small schools would of been better if you could of stayed on them. With hunting season about to start for me not many boat trips in the cards, hopefully we can sneak out a couple more times together before the hard deck season.

[obifishkenobi]

Bummer, I figured you guys would have done better than we did Friday. I saw a report last weekend that someone was finding schools farther north than we fished and that they where getting them in 40' of water.

[2knots]

Bummer, I figured you guys would have done better than we did Friday. I saw a report last weekend that someone was finding schools farther north than we fished and that they where getting them in 40' of water.

Saw the same report, fish were there just didn’t find the magic to get them to commit

[Bduck]

I made the trip on Aug 18, trolled the triangle out to where the crowd was east of the island. Located the schools dragging all I could thru them but not a one taker. Usually, I don't have a problem catching a fairly large number of cutts but this trip I was able to bring 5 to the boat. I'm done with the Berry for this season. This has been a very dismal disappointing season for me, unable to get out much and to end it now my wife & I received notices for jury duty from Oct 1-Dec 31.    

[BYUHunter]

There is certainly a fine line between some folks who don't know how to adapt and present what the kokes want at various points in the season, and blaming low fish numbers, and fish numbers actually being down.

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm probably on the water 70 days a year and I've kept a koke journal since 2019. Depth, water temps, time of day, preferred speeds, colors, dodgers, corn or maggot, location on the lake, etc. Those trends and catches seem to follow patterns from year to year - this year has been the greatest deviation I've seen.

I can say with some confidence that numbers are certainly not what they used to be. I would say it's a battle on two fronts between stocking numbers being down, and "COVID fishermen" - there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people chasing (and catching) Kokanee.

I think a significant factor for this is some of the Facebook groups that, for whatever reason, really enjoy hot-spotting and sharing exact catching information, which has increased angler success and harvest. Whereas before, Kokanee were somewhat of a "mystery" to new fisherman, now they're actually bringing them home on the first and second trip.

Price of progress, or something like that.

[wiperhunter2]

I made the trip on Aug 18, trolled the triangle out to where the crowd was east of the island. Located the schools dragging all I could thru them but not a one taker. Usually, I don't have a problem catching a fairly large number of cutts but this trip I was able to bring 5 to the boat. I'm done with the Berry for this season. This has been a very dismal disappointing season for me, unable to get out much and to end it now my wife & I received notices for jury duty from Oct 1-Dec 31.    

The only time this year we have caught more than one limit was right after ice off on the SC side but I have limited the number of trips up there this year because it has been poor this year. I guess we can't always have good years for the kokes but I agree, it has been disappointing.
Wow, jury duty for three months, I have never heard of that before, is this something new?