Strawberry / SC Friday

[catfishbait]

Went up to Soldier Creek on Friday hoping to avoid some of the crowds on Strawberry. Winds were pretty strong making fishing and managing lines and riggers a bit more challenging. Seems several folks are opting for SC side now as well.

Launched around 7:00 and began picking up small rainbows and cuts pretty quick. The trout seemed to like Chartrues color combos with both dodgers and squids being greens. We hugged the shoreline trying to avoid the whitecaps for a couple hours. Caught several more cuts.

Switched to watermelon dodgers with white squids and went a bit deeper. Fishing in about 120 feet of water with 30 to 35 feet on downrigger. Managed to find the Kokanee with this combo. Finally got tired battling the winds around 11:00. Managed to bring home several nice Kokes for dinner.
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[Theekillerbee]

Nice report. I was up there yesterday as well. We were in a tin can and gave up around 9 with the tough conditions.
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[OCF]

We were up there on the Strawberry side, as well. We caught our limit of 12 kokes. The best fishing was between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. We picked up 6 kokes during this hour. Had to work for the other 6, getting the last at 11:00 a.m.

The first couple of hours the wind was freezing cold & then it was plain miserable. If you took your hands off the steering wheel, you were soon spinning donuts. Only had one big tangle with 4 rods out.

The first couple of hours we caught fish around 25 feet in depth. After that we dropped down & fished between 40 & 50 feet. The 52 degree water was around 45 feet in depth. Did not key in on a color; however, I would say green probably worked the best.

Threw back many slot cutts ranging from 6" to 20". It sure is disappointing when you hook up with the cutts! No rainbows this trip; in fact, I haven't caught a rainbow all season up there. Where are the rainbows? However, I am targeting the kokes - that may be the problem.
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