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Fished Strawberry today with Tincanfsh. Between us we only managed 20 fish and Billy allowed me to catch a few of them but not many. The snow and slush was beyond ugly. There is a thin layer of ice on top of about 12 inches of slush, and when walking you break through on almost every step. The hike back up the hill was through at least 4 feet of snow, and snow shoes help, but the snow is so soft that snow shoes break through most of the time. At one point my right foot went down at least 4 feet. The only way I could get my snow shoe and foot out was to dig it out with a shovel. IMHO ice fishing is over for the season at Strawberry, at least it is over for enjoyable ice fishing. I predict soft water fishing in 2 to 3 weeks.
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Sounds like a rough day at the berry. 2-3 weeks untill soft water sounds good to me can't wait to get back up there with the boat. Did you guys catch any over the slot? What area did you fish?
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Thank you for the report. I was considering one more trip, but it looks like the ice equipment is officially headed to storage. Was it worse than Huntington after that November storm?
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Serves you right! You should be home getting those tax returns filed! You can't be out slacking off, playing in the snow! LOL![/size][/black][/font]
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Sounds brutal Kent. I put away the ice gear last week after I heard a similar report from a friend. Been a fun ice season though, but I think I'm ready for the soft stuff.
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Mike -- none over the slot, with several going about 20 inches. We fished your sometimes honey hole north of The Strawberry Marina. You know the place.
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I told my tax clients to get their work to me early (didn't happen but I still tried) because I was taking Saturday off to go fishing. I hate it when the 15th falls on a weekend, because then some of my late-filing clients realize that they don't have to file until the following Monday.
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...sniff...sniff....sob....sob......sniff.....sob.....moan....sniff
Can it really be over? I know everyone else is boating but I really wanted one more ice trip to the Berry! Guess I'll put the ice fishing stuff away now......sob......sniff.....*wipe away the tears*
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Thanks for the report. How much hard ice was still on the reservoir?
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Slush was much worse at Huntington than at Strawberry on Saturday. At Huntington the slush was about 6 inches thicker and the temperature was about 40 degrees colder.
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There is still about 25 inches of ice, but it seems to be softening some.
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Kent,
Thanks for the adventureous trip again. It's wasn't so bad until my snowshoe broke and the ascent up the hill in all that snow.
Tincanfsh
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Good to hear you caught some fish, it sure would have been tough to fight all that slush and not catch any fish. Thanks for the report Kent.
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Time to get the boat out Kent!The conditions at Huntington were pretty bad alright,ifthat was the way it was going to be icefishing,I would give it up.We will have to try Huntington this summer.
Mike
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Yep my new-to-me Porta-Bote is going to get acquainted with Huntington this year.
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Hey Kent, What time of the day did you head start fishing? Was it already slush at that point?
Thanks
Dave
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We started fishing at about 7:15 AM (after taking about 20 minutes to hike to the first place we fished). Yes, it was already slush then. The ice is not freezing at night up there anymore. We were able to fish several ice holes that were already there by simply scooping the slush from the snow that fell overnight from the holes. The slush was worse in the late afternoon when we left, but there was plenty first thing in the morning.
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Three of us have gone up the past 2 weekends, and the fishing is still fabulous! I don't know that we'll go again, as the ice surface lost about 8" over the past week, and has softened too. The thing about the slush though, once you get out to your spot, you kind of pound the area down and things are great. 2 weeks ago we used snowshoes going back, but just walked out on a great surface. This weekend was brittle going out, and a slush pot heading back to the truck. But man, was it ever worth it!!!
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Kent,
Half of me is  I couldnt' go with you, and the other half is relieved. Thanks again for the invite. Sounds like a rough trek in and out. Sounds like I'll have to look forward to my next ice fishing trip with you in December or January. Glad you did get out though. We'll have to get out with Billy again soon. Did you take any pics?
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Hey Tony, it is all good, just some trips are better than others. No pictures taken this trip. BTW -- we fished the exact same place that you and I fished with MGB on your first ice-fishing outing.
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