Lessons from a week at Strawberry

[fishnotphish]

We were up at Strawberry last week from Monday to Saturday. We fished a lot of different areas and got the grandkids into a lot of fish. There are a lot of small cutts and bows that love the same rigs that the kokes do and we were constantly taking them off. It was fun for the kids as they were never bored but they didn't like having to release all of the slot cutts. We did manage to get a good number of kokes on certain days. We also learned some lessons along the way. The first lesson we learned was that even if you pay for the campground they charge $10 per day extra to launch your boat. None of the other places we have gone do this. If they are hauling in that much for launching boats they need to improve the ramps and make them much bigger to handle the crowds. One lesson we wish we could have taught the big cabin cruiser owners is that they shouldn't launch their monsters and leave them sitting on the small loading docks blocking the boat ramp. On Saturday there were two of the monsters just sitting there blocking the launch area during the busiest launch time. We also learned that if you go through the Narrows don't expect people to obey the proximity laws. For the week we were there only four boats obeyed the rule in the Narrows. Most just flew by at full throttle. We also learned that the kokes know when it is Saturday. My son in law could only come up for Saturday and we were out bright and early in the area where we caught the most during the week but we only caught cutts and bows. We also saw some fun stuff, we saw a couple of bucks swimming across the narrows, we also got startled when a twin engine jet came out of the Narrows flying very low and when he came into the Renegade bay he went into rocket ship mode with full throttle and climbed nearly straight up. One morning we went to launch and two older guys were trying like crazy to get their boat off their trailer, they were giving it a lot of throttle and kept backing it up deeper but still couldn't get the boat off the trailer. We launched and could hear a guy trying to help them out, he kept saying "it's still connected". He repeated it multiple times until finally the truck driver went out and disconnected the boat from the trailer. 
All in all a very fun week with decent weather and many willing fish.

I apologize in advance about the rant. Please skip if you've heard this one before (most of you have).

I know we must have a hundred threads on this topic, but I am continually disappointed that they charge the same or higher rates year after year and decrease services. At the main marina, they have one set of restrooms open (with those absolutely ridiculous push button water sinks and completely empty soap dispensers) and the fish cleaning station is roped off like a high profile crime scene (I rarely use the cleaning station anyway, but I have to assume all the fees go to something). They don't want you cleaning fish in the campgrounds, either. So what are you supposed to do? The restrooms on the north side of the parking lot are locked. The water spigot near the marina restrooms is locked. I guess we're paying increased prices to continue to use the boat ramp, but little else.

The payment is really a soft contract, is it not? In exchange for your fees, you will have access to use the facilities and the fish cleaning station, restrooms, etc. If they are not able to fulfill their end of the bargain, should they not reduce the fees? What incentive do they have to open additional restrooms or the fish cleaning station if they still collect the same amount of money and now don't have to stock or maintain those amenities? Where is the accountability for the money we pay?

I know it's just a rant. It goes nowhere. I'm sure that by contract the campground management firm is supposed to have those things working, but what happens if they don't? The whole process is buried many layers deep in bureaucracy, arcane policies, and a general lack of transparency and accountability. </end rant>

I love to fish at Strawberry.