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Went to the Berry early this morning. Got there at 7:00 a.m. and was welcomed with -18 degrees. Fortunately the wind wasn't blowing and I was dressed and prepared for the cold. Fished the area between East & West Chicken Creek accessable from the road that takes off south down the road to Chicken Creek West. I didn't know thay were plowing it. I was pretty much alone except for two other groups of two. I took everyone's advice and fished shallow to catch the big bows. Fishing was a little slower than usual but the fish were much bigger. Caught a number of large cutts, two of which were pushing 22" and were built like the big bows, wide & thick. Had lots of hits on chartruse foxyjigs with a meal worm fishing in 10'-14' of water. Tried it deeper with minimal success. Lost a lot of fish including a couple of bows right at the hole. Caught one nice 21" bow for dinner and he was not nearly as wide or deep as the other two cutts I released. Go figure. So far this year in four trips this is only the second keeper and the first rainbow. That's ok though, its a hoot to catch & release the slot cutts. Headed up on Monday with a bunch of friends to try it again. Oh, by the way, there is about 20" of good solid ice, no slush, at least were I was, and about 8" of hard crusty snow on top. With all the cold, the surface is firmed up really nice so ATV's might do ok for those of us going up Sunday or Monday, but don't hold me to that. Strawberry is a big place and conditions can vary a lot.
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[cool]Sounds like a blast, MRJ. Especially since there wasn't a million other people there. Did you have an ice shelter, or did you just tough it? I'm going tomorrow, and I think I'll hit Chicken Creek East. Is there still all of those big rigs over there at Chicken Creek West for that movie they were filming?
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No shelter, at least for now. I am looking at possibly getting the Glacier X-Treme III for next year. Anybody know anything about these? All the movie set on the ice is gone and there is just a few vehicles and other equipment still parked at the end of Chicken Creek West. Let us know how you do tomorrow att CCE with all the gory details. Good luck. Mr. J.
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About that road between chicken creek E & W, They usually never plow that but they had to this year cause of the movie crew had to get back an forth from the two sets they had out there. What was the deepest you fished? There is a pretty good spot out there right on the edge of chicken W were theres a point that runs pretty far out and if you could find that spot! its about 20' but all around it is real shallow I did real good there last year but I couldn't get out there yet cause of the Movie crew out there wouldn't let me invade in their filming area but now that there gone??
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So are you saying that it's plowed all the way up to that parking area with the bathrooms? I love to fish that spot through the ice, but it's such a long walk.
What the heck kind of a movie did they want to film out there?
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The deepest I fished I think was about 21' south of the bathrooms and parking area, probably 200 yards off shore.
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Yeah, the road is plowed right up to the bathrooms. The lot is plowed as well to where you could park probably 30-40 cars. The movie they were filming was something about Antarctica, with some big Hollywood names I hear.
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I and another friend went up Saturday afternoon and fished from 4:00 pm to 1:30 am at the lodge area. It was extremely slow. I had 10 or so come in that would not bite, lost 5 or 6 on the way up to the hole and landed 6. All cuts and no bows. 2 were smaller than the slot, the rest were in the slot. It was quite warm when we arrived, sweat shirt weather pulling the gear out. Had to be below 0 when we left. Had the heater on max inside the tent the last few hours. Wax worms on a green bodied ratfinkie with glow in the dark head was what I used. My partner didn't get a bite. He had a lot of fun watching the vexilar and was quite impressed that I could follow the fish up and down the water column until he'd bite. Sounds like we should have gone to chicken creek.
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That movie they filmed is called 'National Treasure" and it had Nicholas Cage in it. Did you guys notice if they had all there crap out of their? Its probably not going to be good fishing their for awhile cause they had a bunch of exploding sets from the movie so all the fish in that area are probably scared to come around their?
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]. Mr. J.