Strawberry 4/19/23

[Kent]

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.

[wiperhunter2]

Thanks for the nice detailed report Kent. Just curious were you fishing with one or two poles? I'm not sure about everyone else but when I'm ice fishing I always have one line near the bottom and one suspended at mid depth, at least for the first hour or so to figure out where most of the fish are hanging. If I see fish coming through at a certain mid depth, I can easily drop down or raise up a few feet pretty quick and sometimes even get the fish to bite. Glad you get in one more trip to the Berry.

[2knots]

Sounds like a good day even though you didn’t find your honey hole until later. I ran a camera off my downrigger for a couple years, fish (trout and kokes) both dove down from above to hit the gear many times dispelling the same that the theory I had heard before also

[SkunkedAgain]

Hey Kent, still sounds like a lot of winter up there... thanks for a great report... Would be pretty crazy to ice fish in May, but I think that may be a possibility this year... Might have to do it, just to say I did... Later Jeff

[Kent]

Thanks for the nice detailed report Kent. Just curious were you fishing with one or two poles? I'm not sure about everyone else but when I'm ice fishing I always have one line near the bottom and one suspended at mid depth, at least for the first hour or so to figure out where most of the fish are hanging. If I see fish coming through at a certain mid depth, I can easily drop down or raise up a few feet pretty quick and sometimes even get the fish to bite. Glad you get in one more trip to the Berry.

Yes, I had one rod on the bottom and one suspended.  I was marking fish around both rods; however, it has been my experience that the fish on the bottom are more likely to bite than the suspended fish and so I was more actively fishing the rod on the bottom.  It has also been my experience that the fish on the bottom, on the whole, are larger than the suspended ones.

[Fishhound]

It was great getting out to fish with you again Kent.  Sorry we missed the honey hole but it turned out ok down wind of it. 

Fishing was pretty mixed with hits coming all over the water column.  For me the actual takes were mostly from 5 to 20 feet from the ice.  A few came off the bottom but only with very active jigging - the dead stick technique would not work for me, so I was basically fishing only one rod. Catching was good with most cuts and bows in the 18 - 22 inch range.  One cut and one rainbow were about 14-15 inches. 

I Caught the most beautiful rainbow I have seen in my life yesterday. It was about 24 inches and the most amazing shimmering iridescent Maroon and Dark Burgundy wine color. 

All in all a pretty good day of fishing to wrap up the ice season - for me anyway.

[joatmon]

Thanks for the report Kent.  I noticed a similar pattern when I was there on April 1.  That day, I needed 52 of 54" on my auger to get through the snow, ice, and slush. 

I also saw a lot of fish on the bottom, but little interest.  Most were caught in the 10-15' range and were fairly aggressive.  In fact, I only caught one on the bottom, but it was a 21" cutthroat.  Caught it on a gray speckled tube jig with a minnow piggybacking (also with a stinger hook) that it hit aggressively. My experience at Strawberry has been that the shallower fish tend to more rainbows, but only caught 1 rainbow that day. Maybe the long winter has the fish out of their regular pattern?

Good to hear the conditions are holding up - might try to hit the ice in May just 'cuz I can.

[icerman]

Thanks for the report, I am heading out Sat morning.  Last week I was in 24' FOW, caught between 15' and the bottom.  Seemed that I had to jig to get their attention, then hold still.  Many came up from the bottom initially, then stopped.  Several hit the jig on the way down, then stopped.  I caught 3 by dropping my jig and letting it rest on the bottom with slack in the line, then just randomly setting the hook (I couldn't tell there was a bite).  My catching was best early until about 9:30 or so, then slowed, and suddenly around 12, it was hot catching for the next 30+ min.  

This is the latest I have ever ice fished.  Sure would be fun to say I ice fished in May! 

[Kent]

Try dropping to the bottom and tightening your line so that the slack is just barely out of the line.  If the line goes slack (a fish has raised the jig off of the bottom) or if your line moves, in any direction, set the hook.

[LuvThemCuts]

Great report Kent!!

Are you guys thinking ice-off will be coming later this year? Seems like he ice is still pretty thick up there.

[elkantlers]

Great report Kent!! 

Are you guys thinking ice-off will be coming later this year?  Seems like he ice is still pretty thick up there.

It will be later this year for sure. Hopefully we can get a boat on before Memorial Day.

[Kent]

Great report Kent!! 

Are you guys thinking ice-off will be coming later this year?  Seems like he ice is still pretty thick up there.

Likely so, but a warm heavy rain could speed up the melting immensely.