BERRY 14Mar06

[IceFanatic3]

Hit the Berry again! got their alittle before 7am and the temp was a chilly -20, lot more snow than last week lucky had my snowshoes, got out to my spot and had to wipe off all the ice from my eyelashes and nose hairs (ouch) fished in 34' had a fish right off the bat[cool] got 10 more by 10am then died way down? started to pick back up around 12:30 got 6 more with 2 keepers at 14" and 1 nice 21"that I released, not a real bad day but COLD most of day. 6" of snow ontop of 6" hard slush then still 24" of ice.
[signature]

[Bigcat]

I also fished the Berry today and I will verify that -20 degree's report. It was plenty cold. Not a breath of wind until about 10:30 but by then it was +20 so still tolerable. We fished at the marina and started in the same place that we had good success last week. It was 24 feet deep. Caught 2 fish right away and then it died. Not even any on the sonar. I really didn't want to drill a new hole but it was so dead I decided to head a little deeper and drilled a hole in 31 feet. I started marking fish right away but couldn't get them to hit. When I finally took off the minnow and switched to a mealy they started hitting. The bite was the lightest I have ever seen it and I was missing hits left and right.....swinging and missing! By 11:00 I had landed 7 more for a total of 9 for the morning. My dad and a friend stayed at the 24 foot depth most the morning and only landed 4 between them. All were slot cutts. With the snow/ice as deep as it is its a lot of work to move but it payed off today. The auger handle is touching the snow by the time you finally break through into open water. The fishing seemed to be best from 10:30 to 11:00 when we had to leave to get home. That was my third day this year at strawberry when it has started off at -20 or less. I think the ice is gonna stay for a while!
[signature]

[IceFanatic3]

Thanks for spotting that out for me Bigcat! I think I was still thawing out from the day on the Berry. I think we'll have plenty of ice until late April to icefish[] thats one of my favorite times to icefish(april) no crowds fish are getting real hungry from the long winter and usually most of the snow ontop is melted by then, I can't wait still along icefishin season for me[]
[signature]

[Bigcat]

Your welcome, don't want anyone getting exciting about a typo![]
I'm thinking we have at least 4 more weeks of good ice up there unless we change to some above normal temps and quit getting snow. I am getting a little anxious to get the boat out but it will have to wait til the Berry melts. Did you fish the marina area using snowshoes or did you do some treking off the beaten path? I think its nice to get away but I think the crowds have died down enough on the weekend that the fish are not so spooky now. I hope what you say about them getting more hungry from the long winter but my experience the last month has been that they are getting more and more picky at what they are hitting. Plenty on the sonar but fewer and fewer that actually want to play! I need to check the archives to see when the ice started to peel back last year.....Anyone remember when in April?
[signature]

[IceFanatic3]

I sure hope we have alittle longer than 4weeks of ice! But I love icefishin probably the most out of all my fishin plus I'm not lucky enough to have a boat yet[]. But I don't fish the marina area, I always fish either Jakes bay or over by the ladders I always had alot more luck over their than the marina plus the marina gets alot of pressure. But I really think the fish get alot hungry this time of year, you just have to present your bait or jigs alittle different than normal. What kind of sonar are you using? I'm using a vexilar flasher and it works really well for icefishin. talk at ya later.
[signature]

[doggonefishin]

"Anyone remember when in April?"

My last ice trip to Strawberry in 2005 was on April 22nd. Here is the link to the report.
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=196997;#196997"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=196997;#196997[/url]

Last year, my best 'Berry trips were in March and April. Each year seems to be a bit different however. I was going to go tomorrow, but I am tagged with the flu and will stay home in bed.[][pirate]
Next weekend for sure.
[signature]

[Bigcat]

Excellent, thanks for the info!
[signature]

[kastmaster]

Barry,

Sorry to hear you have the flu. Hope you get over it soon.
[signature]