Da' Berry with Old Coot and Bait Caster 11/23/07!

[N.E.T.O.]

Hey all,
Old Coot and Bait Caster invited me along for a trip to the Berry today, and now that I'm home sitting here I've got something that I would like to complain about:

I can't wipe this silly grin off of my face no matter how hard I try!!![cool]

I can't believe how PERFECT the whole day was! We met at the Red Lobster at 5:00 a.m. and headed up towards Heber in Bait Caster's truck. Stopped for a couple of snacks then headed up to the lake. It was a balmy 18 degrees at the Strawberry Marina, with a little bit of a breeze. We got all garbed up in as many layers as we had then headed out to some honey holes in Bait Casters center console fishing boat. This was like luxury to me! Being able to go faster than 12 mph, and not even getting wet! We started casting and jigging at the first spot and immediately got into the fish. We stayed there for a while and caught all the fish there, so we moved onto the 2nd spot. Glassy conditions, pure blue sky and sunny, we couldn't have asked for a better day. I didn't see one cloud all day long! We caught all the fish there, then moved onto the 3rd and final spot of the day. Old Coot kept seeing a bunch of fish in this one spot and we tried in vain to get the boat anchored over the fish. We finally gave up and decided to just fish where we were and soon found out that where we were was drifting slowly as the anchor wasn't holding us very well in the breeze. This wasn't a bad thing we soon found out as we kept catching fish on our jigs while slow drifting. After a few minutes Bait Caster was tired of catching fish so easy, and of drifting, and got out the "Big Anchor" and threw it out. That stopped us alright... right on top of the best honey hole of the day![cool]
For the next 2 hours we caught fish left and right non-stop. It was like fishing at a game farm! We had multiple doubles and even a triple. It seems like there was a fish being brought in by somebody constantly...mostly by Old Coot! He really went on a run at this spot and caught 3 fish in 3 casts at one point. He made it look easy! I don't get to say this very often, so you better believe I'm saying it right now: We caught over 100 fish between us, and the neat thing was that at the end of the day we were all within 3 fish of each other!
The weather was cool all day and especially when the wind blew, but somehow we managed to stay in calm conditions all day long. In fact, we were so busy catching fish all day that we rarely even noticed how cold it was! The only real bad conditions we had to deal with was the choppy water and the wind on the way back to the marina around 3:30 or so. The boat handled the swells and the chop with ease, but it sprayed a lot of water on us because of the wind. When we got back to the marina I declared "That wasn't such a bad ride", and that's when Bait Caster turned around and said "Oh Yeah!?" and we all laughed when we saw that Bait Caster was covered with a sheet of ice from frozen spray from head to toe![shocked]

Old Coot and Bait Caster are two of the nicest guys you'll ever meet and and it was a real pleasure spending the day with them. It would have been a great day even if we hadn't caught fish, but catching all those fish just made it that much better. I don't know if my cheeks are sore tonight from the sun and wind or from laughing so much! Like I said, I can't get this grin off my face! Thanks again guys, I'm going to remember this trip for a long time!
Randy
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[Old_Coot]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]N.E.T.O., Bait_Caster, and myself enjoyed a fantastic day on the Berry today. BC left his home at 3:00 AM, he picked me up in Clearfield, and picked up NETO in SLC. We launched at 6:30 in hopes of catching the early-morning bite.

We motored out to the Renegade area and fished a couple of points there with good success. After each hole dried up, we went looking for more fish, dropped anchor, and caught a bunch more. In the afternoon, we found a hole that never did dry up. We had frequent doubles and even a triple.

Just for fun, we decided to count our catch today. We were hoping for a 30-40 fish day. As it turned out, everyone caught more than me and I caught 33!! All cuts, no bows. NETO boated 35 and BC boated 36.. Wow, we actually exceeded 100 fish!

We caught about 3-4 on pointers and all the rest on pearl white tube jigs. Specifically, 2.5 inch tubes worked better than the 4 inch tubes. Pearl white 1/4 oz. with a tinge of pink and pepper sparkle tipped with chub was the ticket. Most came in on vertical jigging but several even came in by casting that tube jig way out and retrieving very slow and jerky. [/#002850][/size][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]BC was intent on using two poles so that he could catch more than us (which he did). Here he is with his "Six-Shooters":[/#002850][/size][/font]
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The active fish were in 15-20 feet of water. Shallower or deeper didn’t produce too good.

Not a single fish floated belly up ... very few deep hooks. In the past, I seemed to have lots of deep swallows.

The bite was VERY light. I found that after a nibble, I would simply relax the line and then set the hook. That was much more successful than a quick set of the hook after a nibble. That first relax of the line helped a lot.

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Weather was perfect! We thought it would be very cold but the fishing was so good all day that we didn’t seem to notice much. On the way back into the marina (3:45) the waves were pretty big and BC was DRENCHED by the time we got in.

Man, what a totally stellar day we had on the Berry. NETO made the comment that “every fish was a trophy”. As trout go, those sure are some nice fish down there.

Thanks much to BC for his use of the boat and truck and NETO, you are one great guy to fish with. Looking forward to the next trip with you.

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Oh, and one more thing, the ramp was just fine. No ice or frost.
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[Theekillerbee]

What an awesome day! Thanks for the great report guys.
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[Waresm]

Which boat ramp did you use the one at the marina or renegade? If at the marina did it have ice on the ramp?
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[fsh4fun05]

Great report! Seems that berry has been good to all of us this year. I hope the ice is just as good.
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[muskyhunter]

Great report guys Im glad the weather and the catching was great for you guys. thanks for the report!!! M.H.
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[AFDan52]

Boy O Boy, you guys sure got me jealous about not going up there this weekend. But my priorities are in order and must be delt with now. I'll wait for the hard deck. Great job you guys.

AFDan52
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[Old_Coot]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]We used the ramp at the marina. It was just fine ... no frost or ice. However, we did have some rock salt with us just in case.
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[FishingWaters]

[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Sounds like you guy had a good time. It’s great when you can find a spot when the fish keep hooking up. I should have taken my kids fishing Friday instead I had to get my tractor fixed so I could get a job done the first of the week. [/size][/font]
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[Bait_Caster]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]I want to thank Old_Coot, and N.E.T.O. for taking the day off; & wett'n a line with me. I tip my hat to NETO (Randy) for being brave enough to join in with Coot & I. "Glad you did". What a great guy.[/size][/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Like Randy said, The day was awsome, and the weather was perfeft. And of corse the fishing was steller.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]It was a history making day for us, to boat over 100 fish in a day is unpresidented to say the least. And fun was had by all.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]This day went down in the books as supreme!! What a day!!![/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Great to hook up with you NETO, & Old_Coot, I've been wanting to fish with you guy's at the Berry for some time now. NOW how are we going to top a day like today? Man I can't wait to hook up with you guy's again. What a steller day on the Berry. You guy's Rock!

Here is my fish number 30 for the day:

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On the way back in at the end of the day, the waves were big. The wind picked up lots of water and sprayed on me. Here is my new "wet suit" quite frozen.

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