01-20-2013, 05:47 PM
Had a little insomnia Friday night, so at 3:30 a.m. I decided to stop laying in bed and go fishing. So I packed up and headed for Strawberry. I believe I was on the ice around 6:00 a.m. - in the cold & dark. Dropped the fish finder in the hole and it showed fish from the surface to the bottom. I was fishing in 24 feet of water. I thought the cold must have affected the fish finder. Dropped my jig in the hole and starting getting a bite immediately. The fishing the first hour until about 7:20 a.m. was phenomenal. You would get a bite as fast as you could get your jig down the hole. I could only fish with one pole during this period.
Around 7:20 a.m. the fishing slowed - this was the time all the snow mobiles started showing up and others started drilling holes. I think the noise must have affected the bite. For the next hour, fishing was "good" with a bite every 5 to 10 minutes.
The rest of the morning the fishing was great. I fished until 1:00 -1:30 p.m. I lost track of the numbers, must of caught somewhere near 50 fish. Many times I had two fish flopping on the ice at once. Most of the fish were < 20 inch cutts. I did manage to end up with 4 rainbows - the largest went 21-inches (somewhere near 3 pounds?). This was a beautiful rainbow, starting to grow a hook jaw. The only fish to strip line off of my reel.
I started out the morning using my favorite "go to" jig which is a Radical Glow - tipped with a little piece of shrimp. Just for fun, I traded some of my jigs out for others to see if the jig mattered. I remembered that "Pikeman99" always using and recommending Maniac Custom Lures (?), so I ended the day with Maniac jigs (Gizilla?) on both rods tipped with a little worm. Between noon and when I left, it was crazy fishing! The fish loved these Gizzillas - I did not catch the rainbows until I put this jig on.
Caught all fish within 2 feet of the bottom. It appeared like the fish were cruising the bottom for food.
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Around 7:20 a.m. the fishing slowed - this was the time all the snow mobiles started showing up and others started drilling holes. I think the noise must have affected the bite. For the next hour, fishing was "good" with a bite every 5 to 10 minutes.
The rest of the morning the fishing was great. I fished until 1:00 -1:30 p.m. I lost track of the numbers, must of caught somewhere near 50 fish. Many times I had two fish flopping on the ice at once. Most of the fish were < 20 inch cutts. I did manage to end up with 4 rainbows - the largest went 21-inches (somewhere near 3 pounds?). This was a beautiful rainbow, starting to grow a hook jaw. The only fish to strip line off of my reel.
I started out the morning using my favorite "go to" jig which is a Radical Glow - tipped with a little piece of shrimp. Just for fun, I traded some of my jigs out for others to see if the jig mattered. I remembered that "Pikeman99" always using and recommending Maniac Custom Lures (?), so I ended the day with Maniac jigs (Gizilla?) on both rods tipped with a little worm. Between noon and when I left, it was crazy fishing! The fish loved these Gizzillas - I did not catch the rainbows until I put this jig on.
Caught all fish within 2 feet of the bottom. It appeared like the fish were cruising the bottom for food.
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