Annual Strawberry Trip Report

[obifishkenobi]

Had a great time again this year fishing with a number of great folks Thursday through Sunday, I did manage to put Kokes in the boat every day sending everyone who fished with me home with a few kokes. My four day total was only 28 kokes. about half my annual average count for the 9 years I have been doing this trip. 

Day 1 Thursday
launched at 5:00 am and started fishing off Mud Creek working south. We Started our day with a 20" Rainbow that we put back and probably should have kept but it was early and hope was still high that we would get into the kokes. My 4 lines where spread between 25-40' down going 1.3-1.7 mph. We where marking a bunch of fish between 30-45' but the only thing we caught that deep was cutthroat, we got our first koke 500 yards off dry storage then went a long time catching only cutts, then I compared notes with Robert who was fishing another area where he had a few that he was getting between 13-23', so we started running a couple rods at those depths and the other two targeting the fish we where marking deeper. We ended up catching 4 more in the same area as the first, then at 10;30 made the classic mistake of leaving fish to find fish making several moves trying other areas where I have got them prior years and called it quits at 1:30pm  with no more Kokes in the box. I went back out in the evening and caught one more bring my day one total to 6 kokes in the box and several lost at the back of the boat and dozens of trout caught and released. The largest Koke was 19" we caught on the set back.

Day 2 Friday
My most productive day, we started at 5:00 fishing where I got them the day before and stayed there all day, Craig and I ran two down riggers with my gear and 2 of my guest ran two with theirs. I ran my lines at !7' and 23' all day going about 1.3 mph we put 11 kokes in the box, the largest 21" by the time we quit at 1:30pm losing a couple at the back of the boat I put one more in the boat in the evening. That evening a couple families that where camping with me went out and quickly filled up a cooler with crawfish at the launch ramp for our Saturday Crawfish boil.

Day 3 Saturday
I fished the Cast For Kids event taking a special needs kid and his family out, my least productive day. It started out pretty rough we didn't get started until about 7:30 and went an hour without catching anything not even a Cutt. This was the 7th year that the family had fished this event and they told me that they had never caught any fish the years that their host trolled and that the only time they caught anything they where anchored up fishing power bait, hinting that they wanted to change tactics at one point the kid told me my fishing rods where no good and that's why we where not catching fish. Finally we caught a Cutt and shortly after that we doubled on Kokes then caught several small Cutts they wanted to keep and a couple fat rainbows and 2 more Kokes  by 11am by the end of the day it was the best day they had ever had at this event. I didn't get back out again that day. We had a great Crawfish boil with a number of great people. Interestingly the magic depth on Soldier Creek was 40'.

Day 4 Sunday
Best day for hours per fish, starting at 5:30 and quitting at 10:30 to pack up camp. we spent the whole time off dry storage fishing two lines at 17 and two at 23 going 1.3 putting 7 Kokes, 2 Bows and 2 Cutts in the Box, releasing a bunch of Cutts. 
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[wiperhunter2]

Way to go Shawn, you sure did much better than most people are reporting, do you think the average size is down as well this year?

[obifishkenobi]

Way to go Shawn, you sure did much better than most people are reporting, do you think the average size is down as well this year?

I would say the average size is slightly smaller with most of ours at 14-15" several 18-19' fish and we only had one over 20"

[Bduck]

Nice going Sean, I've yet to make my first appearance to the Berry and wasn't sure if I was going to. Koke fishing for the past couple of years there had started to deter me to fish other waters. No problem catching those nuisance cutts. Your report gives me a revised optimism to revisit Da Berry. 

[2knots]

Well done, glad you found some kokes.

[BROWNBAGGN]

That's awesome turn of fortune for those kids, you made their decade. (nice)
Makes me wonder if they hadn't been poking you in the ribs for those ju ju poles, it changed the game.(lol)
Solider creek was so much deferent in water. I was picking up a thermocline at 30 to 40.
my kokes were hanging in 34 foot depth.
It's weird to see the strawberry side, with shallower water so much different.

[lovetofish]

I'm sure all your guests were very happy and appreciative. You did a fantastic job of getting them into fish. 

Being a care giver, I'm finally going to make my fist fishing trip of the year this coming Thursday and I'm really looking forward to getting out.
I'm going to try Deer Creek and launching for the Charleston area in my little boat. Details to follow.

[portofthesea]

I'm sure all your guests were very happy and appreciative. You did a fantastic job of getting them into fish. 

Being a care giver, I'm finally going to make my fist fishing trip of the year this coming Thursday and I'm really looking forward to getting out.
I'm going to try Deer Creek and launching for the Charleston area in my little boat. Details to follow.

Shawn- just wanted to thank you and your wife for an outstanding afternoon with your crawdad feast. Thanks for the invite and sharing with us. Great food and great company.
Gary

[obifishkenobi]

I'm sure all your guests were very happy and appreciative. You did a fantastic job of getting them into fish. 

Being a care giver, I'm finally going to make my fist fishing trip of the year this coming Thursday and I'm really looking forward to getting out.
I'm going to try Deer Creek and launching for the Charleston area in my little boat. Details to follow.

Shawn- just wanted to thank you and your wife for an outstanding afternoon with your crawdad feast. Thanks for the invite and sharing with us. Great food and great company.
Gary

Gary,
 You and your wife are regulars now, I expect to see you guys every year. Thanks so much for attending , I really like comparing  note with other Fanatics.

[MWScott72]

Sounds like you made some good friends while catching good fish over the weekend. That’s as it should be! Sorry I couldn’t make it out this year. We had such a good time last year, and it looks like the kokes were more cooperative this time around.

[liketrolling]

I was there Tue the 52 deg water temp was at 33 feet down but we were catching them higher than that but we did catch one big one down at 40 feet.  on the fish finder we see a lot of fish down 55 feet and up to 10 feet.   weird for this time of year still catching a lot of cuts. on the SC side I was catching more rainbows.  I had a weird squid I made up 2 years ago and never got a fish on it was using it yesterday it had a cut on it all the time. driving us nuts would have stopped using it  but we did catch a koke on it.

I don't remember catching a Kokanee at 33 feet down I still don't think it is going to be a very good year for kokanee   
did see some schools at 33 feet but they would not bite maybe little ones 

at 7 am there was a lot of boats in one spot by 9 am they were all over the place . hate to see what it is like on Sat.