Berry conditions

[bghunter]

I was just wondering if anyone went to the berry today and what the ice/snow conditions are llike. I am thinking about heading to the marina tomorrow.
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[sunkee]

Marina ice still very fishable. I was there today and it was fine. I'd stay away from haws point and the old dam site area.
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[UintaIce]

As mentioned, the Marina area is in great shape.
We went Saturday, and the 5 of us got the big skunk.
Beautiful day to be out, however.
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[Giants05win]

Went up to S-Berry yesterday (Sunday). Fished Chicken Creek East. Fished in 18-20' of water and had fish hitting us all day...glow tubes tipped with Shiners and tubes filled with shrimp gel got the hits. We had TONS of bites, caught 4, broke off 3 and had numerous others on that we lost...I'm guessing they were hitting short and when we did hook up it was tearing through...never have I seem so many fish get off...! Any advice on how to improve our landing %?

Ice was thick, 14"+ and it was COLD. We will be ice fishing up there for a long time yet. Only saw 2 other groups of fisherman...where is everyone???

Made a grievous mistake, got set up, turned the switch on the Marcum and....nothing. Yep, fully charged it 2 weeks ago after it's last use and
Thought I was good....nope. We had to do it the old fashioned way...which honestly was just fine, we were on the fish...
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[Old_Coot]

[quote Giants05win]I'm guessing they were hitting short and when we did hook up it was tearing through...never have I seen so many fish get off..! Any advice on how to improve our landing %?[/quote]

I highly doubt that those hooks were "tearing through". Most of the time, if the hook is in fact in the fish's mouth when it hooks, it doesn't tear through. If that hook is in their mouth, that fish is coming up!

What you described remindes me of crawfish bites. I've had days like that and frequently it was crawfish trying to secure a meal. You can easly prove that by GENTLY lifting and reelling in. Don't be surprised of how many of those are actually crawfish on the end of your line.

If your are in fact getting fish bites (not crawfish) and you are not able to stick the steel to them, you may be yanking before they have fully comitted to biting. I've seen that on underwater cameras a lot. So often, when jigging, you will feel that trademark light bite and set the hook only miss the hookup. Some days you can miss 5-10 fish in a row. That can be pretty frustrating. Here is a trick that I use 99% of the time now and it increases my catch rate by about 80%: The instant you feel that “nibble”, do NOT set the hook! Rather, instantly, DROP your rod tip for two seconds … THEN set the hook. 80% of the time, you will secure a hook set when otherwise you would have missed it. It can be difficult to out-think your natural reflexes to set that hook. But if you can master this little trick, I think you will be pretty impressed.
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[Giants05win]

Thanks for the tips, ill try the bite-drop-2 seconds-hook set technique.

Yea I've dealt wth crayfish before...we were cranking up 3 cranks from the bottom just to make sure that didn't happen. They were fish.

I was thinking of rigging up a stinger hook off the jig tail...to nail the short biters...

Heck I had a lot of fun even missing them!
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[chavislundskog]

I ran up on Saturday and ended up just catching a carp. The first time I have ever even seen one in strawberry. Fishing has been slow for me the last 3 weeks.
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[albinotrout]

Welcome to BFT! A carp eh? Haven't heard of any in there either.
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[FishSlayerMP]

[quote chavislundskog]I ran up on Saturday and ended up just catching a carp. The first time I have ever even seen one in strawberry. Fishing has been slow for me the last 3 weeks.[/quote]

Sorry to hear. However the way you worded that I ended up laughing out loud here.... A CARP!???

Ice is still good, had a friend up there today said the ice was still thick.
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[FishSlayerJT]

+1 on what old coot has to say. I have more of a problem of getting hooks out. Had to cut off a bunch of lures today that got swallowed. have to let them take it. its almost the exact same as bass fishing. Drop the rod, feel the thud, thud, set hard and keep the line tight. Lower the drag if snapping off and put the rod tip in the hole when they run. caught 50+ fish today and only had a few get off and most ended up right back on. Just leave it down there after they bite or get off, they dont learn, they keep coming back for more. Also caught many fish that seemed to really like the lure hitting the bottom...
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[Flyfishinglover]

I'd be guessing he actually caught a sucker not a carp.
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[monsterbrowns]

I caught a carp (not a sucker) on the Soldier Creek side a couple summers ago. There must be a few in there.
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[downed_Phly]

I've seen some MONSTER carp in there on my underwater camera before. Never had any of them even remotely interested in my lure though. They just swam on through without so much as a glance.
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[rahmaster]

Did your Carp look like this ???
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[downed_Phly]

I've seen those on camera too, but I was talking about the common carp - Cyprinus carpio.
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[rahmaster]

Has anyone else seen or heard of a carp at Strawberry ????
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[chavislundskog]

Here is a picture of the sucker I caught. Im not sure if its a carp or a sucker or a big chub or what. Anyone know what it is? There were tons of them right under my hole. Most of them just swam by not really interested but I got a few to bite.
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[chavislundskog]

Here is the picture. It didn't upload to the other post.
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[rahmaster]

That is what you call a monster chub !!!! Wow !!!! I seen one like that come out of Jordanelle !!!
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[Kent]

I have seen massive schools of huge chubs (like the one in your picture) on Strawberry for several years. As you noted, many times they don't seem to be very interested in biting. I have found if one drops a small chunk of crawler, on an unweighted small hook, they will usually bite.
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