04-20-2023, 03:48 PM
I fished Strawberry, yesterday, with Chuck. We arrived to a balmy 18 degrees. The plan was to fish one of my honey holes, but that plan quickly went awry when my GPS wouldn't turn on. I tried to find the spot anyway and ended up in 46' of water (The water, at my honey hole is 24'.). Decided to not waste any more time looking, so we drilled some holes.
My auger will reach 37" and we wouldn't have made it if it only would have reached 36". I immediately saw some marks on the bottom and that looked promising. I was discouraged to find that most of the fish, on the bottom, were just looking. I caught a few, but I noticed that Chuck was having much faster action. In chatting with him, I discovered that he was only dropping down 15' or so and was getting constant bites. I changed tactics and started concentrating on more actively fishing shallow and that paid off and the action picked up. I had noticed the suspended fish, but it has been my experience, at Strawberry, that the suspended fish often bite less than those on the bottom. Yesterday, was the big exception to the general rule. I also noticed some fish would immediately shoot up from the bottom, when my jig was dropping down, but still over 25' from them. I also had one fish bite my jig, that was down at 15', and immediately dove to the bottom and bite my other jig. Those jigs were over 20' apart. I have heard, from some, that trout only look up and never dive down to hit a lure or bait, so much for that theory.
Around noon, I decided to walk around and see if I could find my honey hole. After walking less that 100 yards, I recognized some drill patterns that I thought were my honey hole. After drilling a hole, the depth confirmed that I had found it. I was rewarded by marking very few fish and only catching one and missing one in about 1 1/2 hours of fishing.
We had lots of wind, that was cold on the hands. Walking was no problem and ice was still forming until we left around 2 PM. The ice at the shore is still solid.
My auger will reach 37" and we wouldn't have made it if it only would have reached 36". I immediately saw some marks on the bottom and that looked promising. I was discouraged to find that most of the fish, on the bottom, were just looking. I caught a few, but I noticed that Chuck was having much faster action. In chatting with him, I discovered that he was only dropping down 15' or so and was getting constant bites. I changed tactics and started concentrating on more actively fishing shallow and that paid off and the action picked up. I had noticed the suspended fish, but it has been my experience, at Strawberry, that the suspended fish often bite less than those on the bottom. Yesterday, was the big exception to the general rule. I also noticed some fish would immediately shoot up from the bottom, when my jig was dropping down, but still over 25' from them. I also had one fish bite my jig, that was down at 15', and immediately dove to the bottom and bite my other jig. Those jigs were over 20' apart. I have heard, from some, that trout only look up and never dive down to hit a lure or bait, so much for that theory.
Around noon, I decided to walk around and see if I could find my honey hole. After walking less that 100 yards, I recognized some drill patterns that I thought were my honey hole. After drilling a hole, the depth confirmed that I had found it. I was rewarded by marking very few fish and only catching one and missing one in about 1 1/2 hours of fishing.
We had lots of wind, that was cold on the hands. Walking was no problem and ice was still forming until we left around 2 PM. The ice at the shore is still solid.