Experimenting at Strawberry

[Kent]

I fished Strawberry with one of my fishing buddies on Wednesday. I often experiment and this trip was no exception. It is not uncommon to see one or more other cutthroat follow a hooked cutthroat all the way to the surface, so I figured the odds of catching a second or even a third trout, on the same line, by adding other jigs, would be good. I have tried using three jigs while ice fishing. I found that my catch rate (for trout) didn't seem to be as good as when I just fished with one jig; however, my catch rate for hooking the ice hole, while landing a fish, went up substantially! This trip, I decided to try two fligs and one jig (on the bottom for weight) on a couple rods to see if it worked any better from my boat. I seemed to get the same number of bites as while fishing with just one jig and I caught two cutthroat, on the same line, on two different occasions.

Because I was fishing with three rigs I decided to also experiment using night crawlers and cut bait simultaneously. On multiple occasions, I would put 1/2 of a night crawler on one rig and cut bait on the other two rigs. I would also switch the order, because I noticed I was catching many more fish on the bottom jig. The end result, for the day, was I caught 2 cutthroat caught on night crawlers and 108 cutthroat caught on cut bait (chubs from Lost Creek). This result did not surprise me.

[BSF]

Kent,
Thanks for sharing, that was interesting.
How big of a piece of chub cut bait do you use? And does it stay on the hook better than sucker meat?

Thanks, Brian

[Kent]

Kent,
Thanks for sharing, that was interesting.
How big of a piece of chub cut bait do you use? And does it stay on the hook better than sucker meat?

Thanks, Brian

I fillet my chubs, salt them down and then vacuum seal them.  Before a trip I cut them up (use shears), at home (they never freeze solid, even at zero degrees, when they are heavily salted) into more or less 1/4 by 1/2" pieces and put them in some small storage bins.  They stay on really good, but not sure if they stay on better than sucker meat.  All I know is that cutthroat love them.  Brian, we need to get out and go fishing sometime.

[BSF]

Thanks for the info on how you prepare your cut bait. Now I just need to go catch some.
I’d enjoy getting out and doing some jigging at Strawberry with you some time. It has been awhile since we have been fishing together.

Brian

[Kent]

I fillet my chubs, salt them down and then vacuum seal them.  Before a trip I cut them up (use shears), at home (they never freeze solid, even at zero degrees, when they are heavily salted) into more or less 1/4 by 1/2" pieces and put them in some small storage bins.  They stay on really good, but not sure if they stay on better than sucker meat.  All I know is that cutthroat love them. 

I might add that I have found that if I keep the fillets cold, while I am fishing, that I can just refreeze any unused bait and it is good-to-go for the next trip.

[BURLEY]

Well, I'm the fishing buddy that can confirm that his numbers are accurate. He has the magic touch. I was using similar and sometimes the same baits and lures, but I had trouble feeling the bites (if there were any). If we didn't have to immediately release them, we could have smoked them on top of his bimini top. Bad smoke even up there. Oh, thanks Kent for being kind enough to not say that his fishing buddy (me) 


only caught 11, maybe.

[doitall5000]

I think I will take my daughter to strawberry. She just wants to catch fish. Since I would not be after kokes, I don't believe I said that, she would be happy to just catch fish.
I would not have to be there by 6. That's good, the crowd at the launch would be past, thats good, cuts are easy to catch, and release, thats good.

Can you tell me what time does the strawberry wind begin each day??

Is the renegade boat launch still available?

[Kent]

Can you tell me what time does the strawberry wind begin each day??

Is the renegade boat launch still available?

In eight trips I haven't experienced any significant wind.  I try to plan my trips when the wind forecast is favorable.  On the days that the wind blows, it often comes up around 11:00 AM.  

You shouldn't have any problems with the Renegade ramp; however, until the water cools some I would recommend that you fish deeper water (60' or so).

[fishinfool]

I fished Strawberry with one of my fishing buddies on Wednesday. I often experiment and this trip was no exception. It is not uncommon to see one or more other cutthroat follow a hooked cutthroat all the way to the surface, so I figured the odds of catching a second or even a third trout, on the same line, by adding other jigs, would be good. I have tried using three jigs while ice fishing. I found that my catch rate (for trout) didn't seem to be as good as when I just fished with one jig; however, my catch rate for hooking the ice hole, while landing a fish, went up substantially! This trip, I decided to try two fligs and one jig (on the bottom for weight) on a couple rods to see if it worked any better from my boat. I seemed to get the same number of bites as while fishing with just one jig and I caught two cutthroat, on the same line, on two different occasions.

Because I was fishing with three rigs I decided to also experiment using night crawlers and cut bait simultaneously. On multiple occasions, I would put 1/2 of a night crawler on one rig and cut bait on the other two rigs. I would also switch the order, because I noticed I was catching many more fish on the bottom jig. The end result, for the day, was I caught 2 cutthroat caught on night crawlers and 108 cutthroat caught on cut bait (chubs from Lost Creek). This result did not surprise me.

Wow, Great report Kent. You sure do slay the cutts up there.

Drop shotting the tube jig has caught me plenty, maybe I will try a jig on the bottom instead of a weight this next weekend.  It will be our first time up there this year.

You going to be up there?

fnf

[Kent]

Drop shotting the tube jig has caught me plenty, maybe I will try a jig on the bottom instead of a weight this next weekend.  It will be our first time up there this year.

You going to be up there?

fnf

Not this weekend.

[Troutster]

Do you think chub meat would be superior to meal worms or waxies thru the ice?

[Kent]

Do you think chub meat would be superior to meal worms or waxies thru the ice?

At least at Strawberry, chub meat seems to work a little better than meal worms (I use both chub meat and meal worms, but rarely use waxies).

[Troutster]

Do you think chub meat would be superior to meal worms or waxies thru the ice?

At least at Strawberry, chub meat seems to work a little better than meal worms (I use both chub meat and meal worms, but rarely use waxies).

Thanks, last night I took Cowboypirate’s advice and took my wife and 2 boys up to lost creek and caught a bunch of chubs for bait. Got to see some nice bucks in velvet on the way home.