Strawberry Is Hot

[Henerysfork]

I fished the berry monday on my toon. I used curly tailed grubs, white with a red tail. Got a few bumps but no hookups. I changed to a pointer minnow and it was FISH ON all afternoon.They were all cuts 16-25". My last fish was a big one but didn't like the looks of my net and did a deep dive and came up between legs, wrapped the line around my foot and foot rest. He gave me a dirty look,shook his head and ran of with that expensive lure [pirate] . I tried a few rapalas but they didn't want those cheep lures.
What a nice day up there, air temp was 53, water temp was 42.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Glad you got into 'em. Strawberry has really been fantastic this year, and especially lately. Too bad you had to donate one of those pricey Pointers. I guess they taught hog-tying at the school that fishey was from.[/#0000ff]
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[Henerysfork]

I went to SW and picked up a few more Pointers. I'm going back up this Friday and try not to donate any more, or at least not get hog tyed again []
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[zonker]

Wishin' I was there fishin'.[cool]

z~
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Since you like pics, here are some pics of cutts and rainbows posted recently on the Utah Board.[/#0000ff]
[font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=13125;"][#333366] 1122-25tape.jpg [/#333366][/url](242 KB) [/size][/black][/font]
[font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=13135;"][#333366] IMGP0906.jpg [/#333366][/url](155 KB) [/size][/black][/font]
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=13119;"][#000000][size 1] hogbow.JPG [/size][/#000000][/url][size 1](20.4 KB) [/size]
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=13005;"][#333366][size 1] mike26.jpg [/size][/#333366][/url][size 1](143 KB) [/size]
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=13006;"][#333366][size 1] tape26.jpg [/size][/#333366][/url][size 1](159 KB) [/size]
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=12973;"][#333366][size 1] HPIM0742.JPG [/size][/#333366][/url][size 1](144 KB) [/size]
[size 1]Here is a [/size][url "http://www.strawberrybay.com/images/jaredbutler.jpg"][#000000][size 1]PIC[/size][/#000000][/url][size 1] of a 14 pounder [/size]
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[zonker]

Now those are nice fish! I could live in a place that kicked out cutts and bows like that.

I was over on the Utah board last night and read some of the tales of recent fish. Is that typical of this time of year for that lake or are they experiencing some kind of special alignment of the stars and planets?

Also, it would seem that posting such specific news in a public place like this one would attract quite a crowd. Is it standing (floating) room only?

zonker
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Strawberry Lake has a long history of boom and bust. It is currently enjoying the fruits of a planned management program. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The lake has been completely poisoned and restocked a couple of times in the last 40 years. Each time, the chubs and shiners came back and exploded their populations faster than the planted rainbows and bonneville cutts. Both of these species, though smaller, competed with the trout by eating the food resources needed by trout fry...hatched or planted. But, neither rainbows or Bonneville cutts ate enough of the "trash fish" to help the problem.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Currently, Utah fisheries managers plant the lake with Bear Lake cutts and sterile rainbows. This strain of cutts is more piscivorous (eat minnows). The rainbows live mostly on aquatic insect life and the abundant crawdads. They are sterile so that they do not cross with the cutts and reduce the minnow munching tendencies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Until a couple of years ago, Strawberry was mostly a family fishing lake, frequented by cooler fillers who always kept everything they caught and complained when they couldn't catch a limit. Under those conditions, there were few cutts that survived long enough to eat the larger minnows. The chub problem continued to get worse.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A couple of years ago, a slot limit was put in place for the cutts. You could no longer keep cutts between 15" and 22". That discouraged a lot of the meat fishermen, but not C&R folks. Everybody still likes to harvest a rainbow or two for the table, but the cutt fishing is largely recreational now.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]This past year has justified the changes in the regulations. Almost everybody can go to Strawberry and have days of 30 or more fish, with the average around 19"-20". These all go back in the lake. Even a lot of the over slot fish go back too, and there are some real toads swimming in Da Berry these days.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As you can see in the rainbow pics, there are some bodacious bows in there too. Almost all of the fish taken are very healthy.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]During the past year, fishing was good almost every month. There were very few reports of poor fishing, especially from those who know the lake fairly well. As long as you adapt to changing seasonal conditions you can count on action pretty consistently.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fall is traditionally one of the best times to fish Strawberry. Fish that usually hang in the deeper waters come to the cooling surface waters to feed aggressively before iceup. They hit and fight well, and are big enough to put a on anyone's kisser.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A lot of our Utahns love to ice fish, and Strawberry can be awesome through the ice. Imagine catching fish after fish, through a tiny 8" hole, with some fish almost too big to come through that hole.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]And, then there's iceout. Tubers and tooners brave the frigid icewater to cast jigs along the edges of the receding ice and catch some of the largest shallow fish of the year. Fly flingers get in on the action too. In fact, Strawberry has to be one of the best lakes in the west for being able to catch large numbers of large fish on flies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Do I have your attention yet?[/#0000ff]
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[zonker]

Yes, you certainly have my attention! Now if I could just figure out how to make it in a daytrip or overnighter... I'll have to check and see if Mrs. zonker is using the Learjet with the deployable drop tubes next weekend. Until then I'll just have to listen to the reports and try to find that kind of fishing someplace closer.

Our own Diamond Lake has gone through some of the same growing pains, boom or bust, based on the overpopulation of Tui Chubs. As I understand it they are going to drain and poison it either this winter or next. They've done this before, only to have either "unauthorized plants" made by the midnight bucket brigade or illegal use of baitfish which are then dumped into the lake. 'Tis a rotten shame when a rich lake that has so much potential has to be completely wiped out and restarted. Opportunistic fisherpersons who keep up with the latest news, though, can get some fantastic years of fishing when they pay attention.

I've occasionally heard tales of great fishing at Strawberry, even from my distant listening post.

Happy Thanksgiving.

zonker


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