Strawberry 4/18

[WeekendWarrior]

I headed up to Strawberry this morning in hopes of hitting some ice-off fishing, knowing in advance that it was probably still a little bit early in the season. It turns out that was the case. I arrived at 6:30 a.m. and headed for Mud Creek. The bay looked open toward the back from the main road, but a thin layer of ice had formed over night. There was some open water, but it was very shallow. So shallow that my lures ended up dragging weeds on almost every cast.

After giving up on Mud Creek I headed over to the Marina just to see how things looked. There was only a few feet of open water in the bays near the campgrounds, so I moved on to the ladders. (Note that the road toward renegade is still closed for the season.)

As seen in many previous posts, the ladders have a lot of open water. There were a few others fishing there, but I didn't see anyone catch anything. I spent about an hour fishing the ladders and caught one 20" cutthroat just before heading to work. The weather was remarkably warm with very little wind. With the extremely warm weather in the forecast, it shouldn't be long before ice-off fishing is in full swing. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to make it back up until the ice is completely gone!
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[remo_5_0]

Thanks for the info!
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[HD7000]

Thanks! I was starting to feel a bit sick to my stomach that I am not able to head up this weekend thinking that I might miss Berry Ice-Off! lol, looks like it may hold out one more week for me!
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[addicted2fishin]

Ok. A bit late for this photo, but here is what the lake looked like from the air on Saturday, April 9th. If you look close the ladders is opening up, and the edges are open at chicken creek west and by the ranger station. Soon......
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[FlavorDave]

I went out this past Saturday and fought the wind for a couple of hours at the Ladders. I was able to kick out to ice edge, but only had one fish on that didn't cooperate. It seemed like a decent cut when it came out of the water for a split second.

I had to cut my trip short after pulling on my jig that was stuck on the ice and having it fly right back at me and hit my in the eye. A few weeks ago I was fishing on the Weber, walking along the bank when I stepped off a boulder and had a broken willow branch go directly into my ear.

Luckily no permanent damage on either incident, but both were very painful. My wife mentioned that I need to start wearing a fishing battle helmet and protective goggles next time I go out. [pirate]
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[Jedidiah]

Caught a hook just a little through my eyelid last year and decided to take it as a sign that I should start wearing my fishing sunglasses. Now I don't get my eyes sunburnt and I see more fish.
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