Slot Buster

[Gemcityslayer]

[#0000ff][#000000]Nice fish![/#000000]
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[Gemcityslayer]

[quote TubeDude][quote Flyfishinglover]I think it that so many people are keeping the slot busters these days. Next thing you will notice strawberry will look like scofield this year. Catching 12-16" chubs at Strawberry soon [frown][/quote]

[#0000ff]I think it's that everytime someone posts a picture of a large fish they kept they get snarky comments from others...who can't catch big fish.

Regulations are in place to manage a fishery, according to studied fish numbers and fish growth potential. It is not your place to impose your own beliefs on the fishing standards of others.
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+1
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[campingfoool]

Nice fish and I agree with Tubedude.
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[remo_5_0]

Nicely done!
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[TyeDyeTwins]

Welcome to the club brother, you earned it. A slot buster at the berry is a highlight of anyone's season!
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[LakeDrifter]

Nice fish!! But there aint nothing wrong with snappin a pic and letting him go either!! You can still post the pic!![] Sad part is you used to go to the berry and catch a slot buster or two every trip, and it don't happen that often anymore. Wonder Why!![crazy] This isn't directed at you Bigbuck, that is a nice fish and you can do what ever you want with it! Congrats on catching it, that is quite a accomplishment these days!!!
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[Chuuk]

I can see why you dont post a lot. Be proud of that big, tasty fish. Hope to see more of your posts, with nice fish pics to go with them. @FFL, You are too young to remember the days when strawberry was nothing but a chub infested water, and they poisoned it to start over. If Chubs were going to over run the lake and "look like scofield" it would have happened by now. The slot is in place to allow the most aggressive chub eaters to stay alive and eat chubs. I guess shame on me too, cause I usually keep a few slot busters every year, because I cant resist the delicious taste of those big cutts. I guess I should stop shooting animals that I like to eat too, because then they can grow bigger and eat more grass and rake more trees with their horns.
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[utahgolf]

[quote LakeDrifter]Nice fish!! But there aint nothing wrong with snappin a pic and letting him go either!! You can still post the pic!![] Sad part is you used to go to the berry and catch a slot buster or two every trip, and it don't happen that often anymore. Wonder Why!![crazy] This isn't directed at you Bigbuck, that is a nice fish and you can do what ever you want with it! Congrats on catching it, that is quite a accomplishment these days!!![/quote]

I don't think it has to do with people keeping them, I think it has more to do with the dynamics of the berry right now. I would like to know why we don't see several big fish being pulled out ??? do they run out of food? Not many people catch and keep slot busters and with a reservoir that size there should be a ton swimming around to not make a difference from a few guys keeping some bigguns. Just seems like that place should produce quite a lot better fish. Now with the rainbows I think throwing a few back would help them or a slot on them but they are in there for put and take, so I understand that.
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[bigbucksmj]

I think there are more slot busters taken as well as released than people talk about. I personally have seen and know people that have already taken and released around 10 slot busters over the last 2 weeks.

People just don't talk about the big ones much.
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[4pointmuley]

Here is my slot buster. I caught last fall at Soldier Creek.
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[Littlebuck3333]

Heck that ain't hard to fig you the time they get that big they been caught fifty times on lures u got hang a big pice of meat
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[utahgolf]

I want bear lake size cutts at the berry!!!!
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[TROUTSLAYER47]

Great Fish!!!![cool] Got to at the haters.My first slot buster is hanging on the wall.
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[TubeDude]

[#FF0000]I don't think it has to do with people keeping them, I think it has more to do with the dynamics of the berry right now.

[#0000FF]You are on target. At the beginning of the current slot regulation program there were swarms of redside shiners and chubs of all sizes...all around the lake. Those of us who throw cast nets or minnow baskets had no problem catching plenty on any given trip.

Within about two years the average size fish caught by anglers rose from low teen inchers to over 18 inches...with more and more exceeding 20 inches. The cutts feed more heavily on the chubs and shiners once they get past the teen incher stage.

The next development was that the predator trout pretty much slurped up all the redside shiners. They also made some serious inroads on the chubs. DWR nettings were showing fewer chubs under six inches and those remaining were growing larger...and spawning each year...but fewer of their young were surviving the control of the larger trout.

At that point it took longer for the cutts to grow in excess of the slot limit. But the ones that made it grew even faster by dining on bigger chubs. It is not unusual for those who keep the bigger cutts to find chubs (and trout) up to 12 inches long inside them.

More rainbows have been planted by DWR to improve the odds of anglers having something to take home. Some guys just aren't happy with C&R all day...even for 50 or 60 cutts all in the upper slot range. Since rainbows are being planted in larger sizes (to escape the big cutts) more of them are surviving to respectable sizes. And there does not seem to be a lot of competition between cutts and bows for available food. Bows eat more invertebrates but cutts eat that stuff too when the minnows are not readily available. They have also been found to be eating more rodents.

Strawberry is a healthy fishery...far better than most other lakes in the west. The management plan is working. Not what everybody wants but there is no way to keep everybody happy.

And...Strawberry is becoming a bit like Scofield in one respect. There IS a population of BIG fish in there. Most anglers do not have the knowledge, experience or skill...or tackle...to specifically target the bigger fish. They are lucky to hook one and luckier still to land it.

The big cutts are becoming something like the big browns of the Flaming Gorge of old. They eat big when they eat and then eat nothing while digesting. Their feeding period might occur during a five minute window sometime after midnight...and might only happen once or twice a week. It is vain and foolish to expect to hit the lake during non feeding time for those big fish and to expect them to floss their teeth with the bitty bite jigs used by the majority of anglers.

Still, there are a few lucky anglers who get one of those big boys to yawn in front of whatever they are soaking and the fight is on. Someone lucky enough to beat those odds and bring a slot buster up through the ice without mishap is perfectly entitled to crow about it and invite his new fishy friend home to dinner.

There are plenty of bigguns that get a smooch and a quick release. Far more, I expect, than ones that get harvested. As with most healthy fisheries, Strawberry...under current management practices...is really not much affected by angler harvest. If anything it is probably a bit like Henrys Lake in Idaho and might benefit by more harvest. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the slot length were relaxed by a couple of inches for a while. If there is a bottleneck in the food chain and you reduce the number of competitors for the available food the survivors should have a better chance of leaping past the barrier. Hmmmm?
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[up2nogood]

[quote bigbucksmj]I think there are more slot busters taken as well as released than people talk about. I personally have seen and know people that have already taken and released around 10 slot busters over the last 2 weeks.

People just don't talk about the big ones much.[/quote]


I fish Strawberry a fair amount, and I don't weigh or measure my fish, other then if I think they are 24 or over, and I don't keep them. I just want to know personally how big they actually were and be able to tell my fishing buddies what they were if asked at the time or bragging rights for the day.. Have nothing against keeping a couple slot busters .

I don't catch a lot of slot busters, but they are there, and have caught a few. I have to say I would rather catch the 18-22's they seem to be the better sport fish. As you have said a lot of people do not talk about the big ones , but don't get me wrong I enjoy seeing, and reading about big fish, totally nothing wrong with reporting it. Personal preference .

Seemed awhile back there were a few on here that was getting excited if you will, and criticized these fishing reports on Strawberry, like it was their personal fishery. I'm sure that didn't do this forum any good nor the critical post on this thread .


Maybe someone can be more accurate on this, but I have fished Strawberry for over 40 years, early on not so much fly fishing ,but other methods. don't remember catching a lot of 20" plus fish, seems to me not a lot different then today, other then there seemed to be a lot more rainbows then, then what are showing up these days .
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[utahgolf]

thanks tube dude as always, that helped! I bet the best fish caught there in the next few years will be a massive rainbow! I'd love to see some more stocking or a slot on rainbows but I understand they are in there so people have something to take home. I am happy with what strawberry is although I wish those cutts had the food so we'd see a lot more bigguns in there that push through so there'd be a bunch of 24 inch fish swimming around and even some fish in the 27 and 28 inch range being pulled out.. I know there are a few in there but not as many as one would like.. but That's why there's other lakes to go to.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]There are some humongo 'bows in da Berry. Just like the big cutts, they are harder to catch and those who catch them don't always post it on some fishing forum. Here's a pic of a 17.5 pounder from a couple of years ago.

[inline "17# 6oz.jpg"]
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[utahgolf]

awesome fish!!! Yep that's what I'm talking about with those bows!
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[albinotrout]

That is a nice lookin fish. Keep on postin, don't let the nay sayers throw you off.
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[Charina]

Thanks TD for those thoughts. The chub-bashing is a bit odd to me - enough so that I got off the phone and onto the computer to comment - and here I find your post saving me so much time!

So many make comments about not wanting chubs to proliferate, yet, they are the base upon which large cuts grow. We need a healthy population of all sizes of chubs in strawberry!

The rainbows may well be contributing to any change in large cut production the lake has experienced. The rainbows more directly compete with the chubs for food. More rainbows likely means less chub reproduction, and therefore less food for the cutthroats.

I have read so much moaning about the chubs in Scofield. My youngest caught more chubs last month than the rest in our group caught those really thin young cuts. I've experienced it. But I'm glad to see the thriving forage base! Eventually the balance will tip where the cuts and tigers are eating more chubs than can be produced, and the old long-lived adult chubs will die off (two decades from now?), and the 'balance' may be lost, but until then, the ride is going to be great!

The berry, so far, has maintained a pretty good balancing act. No need to ensure there are so many cuts that not a single chub can survive to adulthood. The goal is to keep them in balance, not to decimate them. Allowing harvest of cuts above 22" (as currently constituted) just may be an important part of keeping that balance.
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