Any Strawberry Reports?

[joatmon]

I fished out of Chicken Creek East last Saturday, hitched a ride with a friend south about 1 mile. Fished in 6-54 feet of water. Biggest fish (20" cutthroat) was caught in 6 fow. Fishing was hot early (first fish caught at 6:54 am, less than a minute after getting first hole in). I caught most fish in 20 fow or less. I did catch 2 rainbows to go along with a bunch of cutthroats. I caught quite a few on a very light green jig and a few on a red ratfinkee. I started with shrimp, but tried a few worm varieties to keep the bite going. Nightcrawlers were the best of the worms, followed by meal worms. I caught a few, including my longest, on my jigging jawjacker using a chub minnow on a quickstrike rig.

There was 2" of fresh snow on top of 3" of older snow on top of 14-16" of ice. The only slush I had was on the first hole where I cleaned it out a little too aggressively and spread a bunch of water around the immediate area. That firmed up after a while.

I left at 10:15 am and the walk back was getting a little soft. I did okay following my friend's snowmobile tracks back as that was a little firmer. I'm guessing slush could develop later in the day, especially on a clear sunny day.

Good luck and be safe.