Strawberry 06/01 Report

[piscispursuit]

Fished the Berry this morning with a buddy from 7-11, boated 26 in beautiful weather. Again, caught most of the fish in 8 feet or less, most on pointers, but a few on jigs. Couldn't find a good group to jig deeper so we took off. Water temp has cooled slightly probably due to the Memorial storm - currently 49.8. Talked to a couple people up there who indicated that the last couple of days have been a little slower (both had been skunked today). Noticed a huge difference in effectiveness between my retrieve and the guy I was fishing with, in terms of speed of retrieval. I was up 10-0 before we identified the disparity and he stepped it up. Pointers seem to do best with a fast retrieve, a little something to think about when using pointers or any other cast & retrieve lure.
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[maddawg]

glad to hear you did well I was up there Saturday and only netted two. It was still fun I was flyfishing for em.

Trent
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[Bigcat]

Piscis- I always look forward to your posts about Strawberry since you seem to have things figured out up there. I have never fished pointers however I did take out a second on the house and purchased one a few weeks ago but have yet to use it. I was just wondering about your technique. I am assuming that you cast right up next to shore and then what???? Do you start a fast steady retrieve or do you do some sort of jerk, pause, reel technique???? How deep will the pointer go (I'm a little worried about loosing my retirement nest egg to a tree limb all in one cast![])? Do you look for gradual sloping shallow areas or fairly steep ones to fish? And last question is do you have favorite pointer pattern or color that has been most effective at Strawberry. I think I purchased the ghost minnow color after I sold my first born child for 15 dollars so I could afford one. []

Thanks for the information! Can't wait to get up there. I learned a lot last year about vertical jigging and hope to get a lot more experience with that this year as well as broaden my techniques of how to tie my second mortgage to the line and throw it in toward shore and catch some nice ones!
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[chinook]

Way to go. You had a great day. I went to Strawberry yesterday also and was at East Portal all morning. I only caught about 7 fish and all were on a black bugger. I had read your other report so I tried pointers in the early morning casting to shore. I would retrieve to get it down and then stop, then reel fast and then stop. I did the stop and go most of the time, nothing. I tried reeling steady, nothing. I did not have one hit on the pointers. I tried ghost, rainbow, and the one with dark blue on the back. I knew the fish were in there. They were top feeding all morning.

Help!!!! You said that fast is the key. How fast?? What colors work at the Berry. Thanks
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[piscispursuit]

I hope you didn't pry the wedding ring off your wife's finger as well - they cost a bunch but work like nothing else. To answer your questions, early in the day I just sneak along the shore in about 10-12 feet of water and cast as close as I dare to the waters edge. We get hung up all the time, no big deal to cruise over to the shallows and use the net to get it off the snag. Be careful, the hooks are the nastiest sharp I've ever used, it seems like you just look at them and they jump over and stick into your finger. I retrieve quite fast, occasionally slowing it down for a second, but never really pausing. The pointer will dive to about 5' max, I look for structure that has about 4-8 feet of steep drop right off the edge of the water, then slopes very gradually, or is even flat. Ghost minnow and Aurora black work very well, and I also use a couple customized patterns.
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[Ewetah]

Great report. The LC pointers are a great way to catch the cutts up there.

BigCat I just take a loan out on my 401K and buy a couple new ones each year. My favs are the ghost minnow and the nishiki. I really like to make certain my knots are good and I check my line for nicks after every fish I hook up.

You will also notice that line diameter makes a difference in the depth they run. I like the small diameter super lines best.

Have fun!
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[fish2xtc]

Great report. We were up there from about 4pm till dark and only caught a few each. I caught mine one a rubber minnow that I was jigging with. Tried a ton of other plastics with no luck. I could kick myself though. I had a LC Ghost Minnow in my hand, ready to purchase, and then at the last minute bought the imitation minnows. That will teach me to not be such a cheapskate. Shore fishermen were doing good on powerbait. We had a blast though. It was a beautiful day and we left work early. So I have two questions for everyone. 1- What size of pointers do you use and 2- Is it still a little slower because of the water temp, and will it pick up more when the fish go deeper? Maybe I just need to learn how to fisher better.
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[Hellsangler69]

I would suggest pointers in 65's and 78's for size . Chartreuse is a great color for the Berry also . Big fish are close to shore with deeper water near by in the morning right now . I used pointers and jigs and did fine . Look for them close to inlets because of spawning going on right now . When they go deeper just find them and give them something like a jig or bait . Fishfinders are a must to find them . Lots of smaller cutts out in the main lake at about 20' over deeper water . I fished it saturday with only about 30 for count but I spent the afternoon looking for kokes . Seen fish anywhere from 6' to 61' deep . Lots of fish at 21' and 36' .My biggest fish went 23" with this berry bass at 12+ .[] Water was 52 to 56 degrees .

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[Kent]

Good size to that berry bass. I was fishing Strawberry with my cousin a couple years ago and he caught one of those bass on a five inch minnow! I was surprised to see that they eat each other, and at that that they would try to eat a minnow that large.
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[Hellsangler69]

I launched a little before 4:00am saturday and seen fish all over my finder right at the boat ramp . So I dropped a jig and this is all I could find . I did drag 2 of them on a stringer all day and release them when I went home .
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[MGB]

Randy, did you see any minnows crusing the shore line?
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[piscispursuit]

I agree with HA69, size 78 seems to do the best for me. The 100's are a little big, though in the fall I have caught some on that size when I have lost all of the 78's in the patterns I like. Nice report - I'm hitting it again tomorrow.
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[Hellsangler69]

I only looked when I was leaving and didn't see any minnows at the marina .
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