Strawberry Report 8/23

[Shrimpboy]

I talked my wife into going up to Strawberry yesterday afternoon. We got to Renegade at about 2:30 and spent about 30 min catching minnows, then we were out on the water.

We started catching fish almost right away. We were just trolling a minnow behind a small egg sinker as we made our way towards Indian Creek. Everything we were catching was within the slot limit except for the biggest cutt that I have EVER caught. Only problem.....he snapped my leader when he ran under the boat. He was at the very least 24in.

After six or so cutts between 12-18 inches and just as many misses, we scooted over to Indian Creek to see if we could catch some rainbows to eat. We anchored off about 75 yards from shore and my wife started catching fish right away on powerbait. After she had caught 3 fat rainbows in about 15 min, I decided that maybe I should try PB too. I caught one right away, but then it shut off for the next 45 min. The wind kept kicking our anchor up off the bottom, so we decided to start drifting again with minnows. We were getting constant action as we drifted across the bay. My wife caught two 20 inch cutts, one of which we're sure didn't make it. He had blood coming from his gills from the get go. She was really mad that we had to put it back. She felt bad. We both caught a couple more in the 18-19 inch range and then it was time to get going. We were off the water by 7PM, a short trip, but still fun. My wife outfished my 12 to 6 and we had 4 tasty rainbows to eat!

Kent- When we were anchored, I couldn't buy a fish with a minnow. Do you usually drift and troll them? Also, the smaller shiners seemed to work a lot better than anything else. Do you ever get much action on some of the bigger minnows? What size do you usually shoot for?

Also, what's the trick to targeting the smaller minnows. It seemed like sometimes all I was pulling up was 6-7 inch chubs. On my first cast out with the net, I caught almost 20 of them. I figured that they were way too big and just threw them up on shore.

-Jack
[signature]

[Kent]

Hey Jack, it sounds like you had a great day on Strawberry. Did you do all of this in your canoe? I have never had much luck on the largest minnows, and I have always had better luck with the red shiner chub minnows than the plain chub minnows. I prefer the three to five inch red shiners. One thing that you might try with the larger minnows is cutting them in thirds, and especially fishing with the middle section. I think the time of year has a lot to do with the size of minnow that works the best. Especially in the fall, I believe they will go for larger minnows than they will this time of year. If they don't hit the minnow by the time it has sunk to the bottom, I start reeling it in, either slowly, or a few quick turns of the reel, and then let it set for a few seconds. Using a slip bobber is also a great way to fish them. Also, drifting with them can be extremely effective. There is no trick to catching the smaller minnows. I usually catch a mixture of both. The larger minnows should also be good to fillet and fish for the mackinaws. I wouldn't throw them up on the shore -- a game warden may ticket you for doing that. If you don't want them, either for fishing, or for growing rose bushes or something else, I would put them in a bag and put them in the trash, but not leave them on the shore.
[signature]

[Shrimpboy]

Kent-

Yes we were out of the canoe. We stayed in the general area of Renegade just because of that. Do you think that I didn't catch anything on the minnows while we were anchored because we were so close into shore? Do you usually anchor up farther out? Do you ever get rainbows on the minnows? When you do drift the minnows, do you put any weight on there? I was worried that we might be moving too fast, that's why I put the sinkers on there.

I thought tha the chubs were not gamefish and that they wanted them out of there anyways. I wasn't throwing the shiners up there, just the larger ugly chubs. That's still considered wantful waste? You're right though, they'd make great bait for other species. I've never fished for macs nor been to the Gorge, but I bet they'd be awesome for some large channel cats.
[signature]

[Fishrmn]

Shrimpboy,

The ticket you would get for tossing chubs up on the shore wouldn't be for wanton waste of wildlife. It would be for littering. Nobody wants to see, or SMELL a bunch of dead chubs rotting in the sun. Kent had the best ideas. Fertilzer or landfill fodder.

If there are seagulls flying around you can sometimes toss the chubs out to feed them, but the DWR might still frown on that too.

As for catching rainbows on minnows. Yeah they'll take them, but the cutts will usually beat them to it unless you are in a spot that is dominated by bows.

Fishrmn

[Shrimpboy]

I didn't even think of the littering....you make a good point though. It probably wasn't too considerate of me to do that.

When I finally finish with college and get out of stinking apartments, I'll have to keep the chubs in mind for gardening. When I was in HS I used to bury the post-fillet remains of fish carcasses in my mom's garden. Over the years it turned that soil into natural miracle grow.
[signature]

[Kent]

Perhaps you didn't catch any with minnows because you were anchored too close to shore. If I anchor, I anchor where the fish are (or at least where I hope they are) at the time of year I am fishing and time of day (they tend to be in close early, late and at night and move out some during the middle of the day). I have caught far more cutthroat than rainbows with minnows, but the guy who got me into minnow fishing at Strawberry claimed to catch as many rainbows as he did cutthroats using minnows. He had one honey hole that I believe he almost exclusively fished -- and perhaps that area had more rainbows. I have fished that same honey hole and have yet to catch many rainbows there. It has been my experience, on average, I will catch many more larger fish using minnows than fishing with PowerBait. With this in mind, you may be able to catch fish in an area with PowerBait and catch few or any fish using minnows -- simply because there are no large fish in the area during the time you are fishing. Also, the rainbows in Strawberry will tend to be more on the bottom and the cutthroat will be suspended. This also explains why more rainbows are caught fishing the bottom with PB, crawlers, or by any other means, than by trolling or maybe even fishing with minnows.
[signature]

[polokid]

I was up at Jordanelle a couple of years ago and a buddy and myself probably had 150 chubs laying in the fish baskets in my boat. Ready to take to the dumpster, the game warden made his stop by and asked what we had planned for all the chubs, and said we were going to "dispose of them properly" He said just throw them for the birds and raccoons, he actually got on the shore and helped throw chubs like gernades towards the sage brush. But I guess it would differ on what kind of fish cop you are dealing with. Unless told it is ok to do the gernade throw, I bag them up and dispose them properly!!!
[signature]