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Ok, I used to think of myself as quite good at fishing strawberry....but then I took a 2 year hiatus due to circumstances beyond my control.
Well, I have finally been back there twice, once on shore and once on my boat (the boat is a whole other trial in itself). For the first time in my life I have been SKUNKED twice in a row at strawberry!!!
I'm heading up again tomorrow with the boat as I refuse to accept defeat (or maybe I'm just trying to escape the 100+ heat here).
Anyway, if someone, anyone, can give me some very specific information on what / where / how to catch some fish there it would be greatly appreciated. My nieces are going with tomorrow and they will be highly disappointed if we don't get anything.
Thanks!
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ive been fishing there twice in the last couple of weeks and the fishing for slot cutts has been incredible. do you troll? we've been catching a ton of fish with pop gear and worm. we use downriggers and have had our success down around 30-40 feet deep. location didnt seem to matter last saturday. but, try around renegade and around the old dike. we even caught a lot around haws point, the mudcreek and chicken creek. just get it down and you shouldnt have too much trouble catching the cutts. if you want more specifics pm me and ill return. good luck, and let us know how you do!
oh ya- my uncle had success on leaded line out 5-6 colors. also using pop gear and worms.
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You didn't say how old your nieces were. If I am fishing with youngsters at Strawberry I have been known to fish with PowerBait (green, orange, red white and blue -- I prefer sparkle). I use a full clear bubble, with a split shot below the bubble and about 18 to 24 inches of leader. At times I have tried to get four rods in the water, but was only able to get three going because of helping land fish and rebaiting. The problem with PowerBait is that fish are prone to swallow the hook more. Next trime I fish with it I am going to try circle hooks. Try launching at Renegade and head east checking the different bays for fish -- probably about 25 feet of water this time of year.
Most often I fish with fresh whole minnows, vertically jig or troll. This time of year, except for early and late in the day, I would concentrate on trolling deeper water (even out in the center of the largest bays). Depending upon what lures your are using (and many different lures will work) I would troll between about 1.5 and 3.0 (GPS) mph. I prefer a dodger or flasher over popgear (because of less drag and weight). Try lures, crawlers, and minnows about 18 to 24 inches behind one. I prefer to use rebarb hooks for my crawlers (they are a little pricey, but worth it and Sportsman's sells them). Use a worm threader and fish a whole crawler (direction of crawler on hook seems to make no difference) with it put on the hook so that the entire curved part of the hook is exposed. By fishing this way I rarely have a crawler stolen, and nearly all fish are hooked in the corner of their mouth. If the wind comes up try drift trolling. Can be extremely relaxing and often very effective.
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Try trolling with a U-20 Frog Flatfish behind 3-4 colors of lead line or 25'-35' with a downrigger. For bait fish 35'-45' with rainbow powerbait on one hook and a crawler on the other. Move around a lot until you find fish. Mr. J.
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If you have a downrigger try riggin a large popgear to the ball, with the release on the popgear 8# and a no.2 baitholder with a threaded worm 6 ft. behind the popgear 30 to40 ft. down. When the wind comes up shut off the motor and drift, it's alot more pleasant without the motor anyway, last saturday we were getting alot of hits on a threded worm and three pea sinkers about 100 ft. behind the boat drifting acrost Indian creek bay.
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If you are not going to be trolling and/or do not have downriggers i would suggest anchoring at the mouth of mud creek as it enters the main lake. Tie on a 3 inch tube jig and tip it with a minnow or a crawler and jig 2 feet off the bottom. Try to find 35ft of water, and you should have some success. I had a friend go last week and caught 60 with the biggest 24". Good luck!
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Thanks for all of the replies. Unfortunately I only got to read a couple of them before I left, but I plan on heading out again in the next few days.
I have one of those cheap Cannon Sport Troll manual downriggers but never learned to use it. Unfortunately the only level wind reel I have is the one with the leaded line on it, and other reels are a pain to let out with a rigger.
Anyway, I gave in and took the rigger and attempted it since the leaded line didn't seem to be getting deep enough. I didn't get skunked, but it wasn't a banner day either. We came home with all of 4 fish caught and about 10 other bites (some I'm not sure were bites). Rigger caught 3 of the 4 dragging pop gear and a worm. The other was caught with leaded line, large egg sinker to weigh it down ahead of pop gear and a worm.
I think part of the problem is that the surface water temp is consistently between 69 and 72 degrees there over the last couple of days. If I remember right, Strawberry usually only sees those temps in late august, if ever.
I'm also going to blame some of it on the full moon and clear nights since I CAN'T be that bad at fishing. [  ]
Anyway, thanks for the hints and ideas.....I will keep those in mind for next week.
At least I figured out how I can use the motor without the power tilt working.
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i have two small electrics, but my brother still uses his sport troll. last week my dad used my old sport troll that has been sitting un-used. in my opinion its a great little rigger. theyve been very durable and work great.
as far as reels are concerned i have always used open faced trolling reels. it is kind of a pain to hold the line as it goes out, but that isnt even necessary all of the time. sometimes i just let it go- and then reel it back in once i get to the right depth. its a pain sometimes, but it is made up for when fighting the fish- i prefer open faced spinning to levelwind. (my personal preference) my little brother sometimes uses his new mitchell spinning reel for an even lighter approach. (of course, with no pop gear)
anyways, im glad you got out and didnt get skunked. sounds to me like you've got a pretty good setup and will have success on a better day! some days are slow no matter how youre set up. but, in my experience downriggers make a lousy fisherman good and a good fisherman great! (depth and speed are the two keys to trolling) what speed were you trolling?
have a good one, bkidder
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not to take over the thread, but i forgot to mention one other thing i like about riggers over leaded line. lead line drags at an angle that catches moss and takes it down to your offering. (so your dragging a green glob half the time- a real problem at the berry right now!) a rigger cuts the water at a near 90 degree angle- so any moss that it runs into stays on your wire- or is cut in half and moves on.
one way, i have read, that you can help to alleviate this problem on flatlines or leadlines is to tie a piece of stout mono about a foot above your pop geer or flasher. this is supposed to whisk the moss off of the line and send it to the side- and away from your offering. it only has to be a few inches long. ive never tried this as i have been using downriggers for quite a while. has anyone else tried this method of keeping moss off your geer?
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If you are fishing popgear you may want to fish with a rubber snubber inline to your offering after the popgear . It works like a shock absorber for your line . Some of your bites could be kokes . They have softer mouths and the lure can rip out of them . I bet you will hook more fish with one on your line .
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