02-09-2015, 05:22 AM
Well...at least Daniels Canyon on the way to Strawberry was on fire. That set back our fishing expedition quite a while. While the canyon was down we hung out in Heber and stimulated the local economy a little by stopping for breakfast.
Instead of making it out onto the ice by sunrise it was around 10:30 AM by the time we were drilling holes and setting up on the Chicken Creek area of the Berry. The ice was good and solid;anywhere from 10-12" thick. Our group of six fisherman spread out and started trying different depths and different lures and baits. We were getting nothing in 15-20 FOW and so we gradually moved deeper. Once we made it out to 25-35 ft. we started marking fish and got the occasional nibble.
The group's first fish was caught in about 25 FOW, on a jig tipped with sucker meat. That same fisherman caught 3-4 fish (I can't remember) and they were all on sucker meat or garlic Powerbait tipped jigs or Kastmasters.
My first fish came around 12:30. I was in 35 FOW and the fish was suspended about 20 ft. Since it had been really slow we had been trying all sorts of crazy stuff. I caught this fish on a ratfinkee tipped with Berkley Gulp corn flavored nuggets that was on a dropper 12" below a 5" hyper-plaid kokanee trolling dodger. Weird to do through the ice, but it caught something. I also got a few more good hits on the same setup but could not get a good hookup.
Half of the group had to leave early and so my cousin, a buddy and I decided to go further down the shoreline and punch some more holes. We were fishing between 18 - 25 FOW. I had a few investigators hit a jigging rapala tipped with sucker, but none that wanted to come to the surface. My cousin set up his fish finder in the tent and he started marking fish around sundown. He started jigging a white paddle bug tipped with the corn-flavored Gulp. Bam! I wouldn't say it was then "on like Donkey Kong" but compared to the slowness of the rest of the day it was pretty good. I caught two more on a white paddle bug with the Gulp corn nuggets. My biggest was a slot limit 19-incher that was pretty colorful.
Between 5:00 - 7:30 pm my cousin caught nine, one of which we think was a cuttbow (take a look and chime in). My buddy caught seven and I caught three. I missed plenty of opportunities for setting the hook or else I could have been closer to them in the final tally.
Of these 19 fish, only two were caught on sucker meat; the rest were caught on corn flavored Berkeley Gulp. At least 11 of the 19 were caught on white paddle bugs tipped with the Gulp. I still had a second pole in the water tipped at times with sucker, shrimp, spikes, waxies, mealies, etc. but no takers. After sunset they were coming in to aggressive jigging either right on the bottom or suspended at about 10 ft. The bite was not that light after dark.
All in all, corn-flavored Gulp saved the day and I give it the MVP of this fishing trip.
(After reading all of the responses to KC5's post on Strawberry's good old days I noticed some people talking about flinging corn in their younger years. Corn is illegal now, but a corn flavored/scented/shaped Berkeley bait might be worth a try.)
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Instead of making it out onto the ice by sunrise it was around 10:30 AM by the time we were drilling holes and setting up on the Chicken Creek area of the Berry. The ice was good and solid;anywhere from 10-12" thick. Our group of six fisherman spread out and started trying different depths and different lures and baits. We were getting nothing in 15-20 FOW and so we gradually moved deeper. Once we made it out to 25-35 ft. we started marking fish and got the occasional nibble.
The group's first fish was caught in about 25 FOW, on a jig tipped with sucker meat. That same fisherman caught 3-4 fish (I can't remember) and they were all on sucker meat or garlic Powerbait tipped jigs or Kastmasters.
My first fish came around 12:30. I was in 35 FOW and the fish was suspended about 20 ft. Since it had been really slow we had been trying all sorts of crazy stuff. I caught this fish on a ratfinkee tipped with Berkley Gulp corn flavored nuggets that was on a dropper 12" below a 5" hyper-plaid kokanee trolling dodger. Weird to do through the ice, but it caught something. I also got a few more good hits on the same setup but could not get a good hookup.
Half of the group had to leave early and so my cousin, a buddy and I decided to go further down the shoreline and punch some more holes. We were fishing between 18 - 25 FOW. I had a few investigators hit a jigging rapala tipped with sucker, but none that wanted to come to the surface. My cousin set up his fish finder in the tent and he started marking fish around sundown. He started jigging a white paddle bug tipped with the corn-flavored Gulp. Bam! I wouldn't say it was then "on like Donkey Kong" but compared to the slowness of the rest of the day it was pretty good. I caught two more on a white paddle bug with the Gulp corn nuggets. My biggest was a slot limit 19-incher that was pretty colorful.
Between 5:00 - 7:30 pm my cousin caught nine, one of which we think was a cuttbow (take a look and chime in). My buddy caught seven and I caught three. I missed plenty of opportunities for setting the hook or else I could have been closer to them in the final tally.
Of these 19 fish, only two were caught on sucker meat; the rest were caught on corn flavored Berkeley Gulp. At least 11 of the 19 were caught on white paddle bugs tipped with the Gulp. I still had a second pole in the water tipped at times with sucker, shrimp, spikes, waxies, mealies, etc. but no takers. After sunset they were coming in to aggressive jigging either right on the bottom or suspended at about 10 ft. The bite was not that light after dark.
All in all, corn-flavored Gulp saved the day and I give it the MVP of this fishing trip.
(After reading all of the responses to KC5's post on Strawberry's good old days I noticed some people talking about flinging corn in their younger years. Corn is illegal now, but a corn flavored/scented/shaped Berkeley bait might be worth a try.)
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