03-17-2013, 04:04 AM
Took Friday off and went fishing with my wife. We arrived at Strawberry Bay about 7 am. The parking lot was empty. Temp was 18 degrees. We turned around and drove back to the turn off just west of the check station and found a place to park off the road. Unloaded the snowmobile and then rode the 7 mile trip to Renegade. Found 1 small spot where the asphalt shown thru. We arrived at Renegade and started fishing about 8 am. We fished in 16 feet of water for about 20 minutes but didn't mark any fish on the vex's, so we moved out from the ramp and fished just beyond the buoys in 26 feet of water. My wife caught 1 almost immediately. I drilled another hole about 12 feet away. She kept marking and catching fish, I saw a couple, but never hooked up. She won't bait her hook, so I kept her in bait and she kept catching fish. I had a couple of bites , but by the time I rushed back to my pole, the fish were gone. I finally drilled another hole in line with her about 20 feet to the side and started marking fish. Finally caught a couple, so the day was not in vain for me. We packed up and left at "noon thirty". Had another appointment we had to get back for at 4 pm. Fishing was really starting to heat up when we left. Would have liked to stay, but it just wasn't in the cards. She ended up with an even dozen, I ended up with 2. They were a mix of cuts and rainbow. Took home 4. Gave one to a widow women who lives close by. The biggest bow was 18 inches, the other 3 were 17, 15 and 14. Biggest Cut was 20 inches. Caught 2 that size. Temp was 42 when we arrived back at the Truck at 12:45 pm. The day was a perfect "blue bird" day. We had the whole bay to ourselves. Saw no one anywhere fishing along the ride back to the truck. Found no slush. Ice had a hard layer of snow on top. Not sure how thick it was as it was hard to the ice. Bottom of ice was 22 inches below the top of the crust. I suppose you could say the ice was 22 inches thick. The lake was quiet with no cracking going on. Probably not going back out till next winter. I think the fish would have continued to bite all afternoon and we would have easily doubled our catch. Looked as though no one has been over to Renegade for some time. But, with the temps and snow melting, it is hard to tell.
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