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It has been a decent ice season for me but my huge regret was that I had only been to Strawberry once this year on the hard deck. Time to fix that. I got there about 8:00 Am. The slush is all that was advertised, but if you follow the snowmobile trails it isn't too bad. I fished east of the marina. The weather conditions couldn't have been better. The ice and slush went all the way up to a standard ice drill handle, but the ice itself is kind of soft. The mighty 'Berry was at her most fickle today. From 8 to 9 AM it was smoking hot. Lots of fish on the finder and they were biting. It slowed down from 9 to 11 but I could tease a few bites and hookups, and after 11 AM it died. At this point, I moved around to other areas and found nothing in regards to bites or even fish on the finder. After a while, (and a short nap, loved that weather) I finally found a few fish at 28 ft., caught one, had a couple of taps that I missed afterwards, then they developed lockjaw. Time to go. The fish were all slot cutts and were all between 18 and 20 inches except for one that was 15 inches. I might have to brave the slush and try it one more time. There is so much snow on the ice that I don't forsee the slush freezing at all before ice off. Good luck if you go.
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I too made it to the Berry. Got there about 7:oo am. After hearing about how bad the slush was at the Berry, I was hesitant about taking the wheeler. I took it anyway. Anyway, the fishing was good. Fished about a mile straight out from the boat ramp. As long as you stay on the snowmobile route that is made to get over to renegade you'll have no problem. The 4-wheeler had no problem. As long as you stayed on that path. Once you get off that path you're in deep s--t. Anyhow, we were fishing in about 38 ft. of water. The fish were all over the screen. At the bottom and suspended. We were using whatta crickets. tube jigs and rat finkies. We were tipping them with nightcrawler or mealworms. They seemed to go more for the rat finkie/mealworm. All were cutts. One was 22", caught a few between 19-21". The rest were 13-18". It was a beautiful day on the ice. Started shedding the coat about 10 am. Also got a sun tan. Left the ice about 2:30. The ice had softened up a little on the way back. But again, staying on that snowmobile freeway it was fine. And by the way. Some guy caught a 18lb. rainbow out of soldier creek. Don't know the details but there is a picture of it at the marina store. I'm told it was caught friday.
Robert
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Sounds like a very productive day! That slush can be a real pig up there at times. If we could get one more cold snap, it might freeze up the slush....
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Guess I need to get up there to see the bow pic . Thanks for the report .
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nice report. man i would love to see a picture of the 18 pounder.
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