Strawberry 7-9-05

[MGB]

Fished strawbery today with FishingPro40. Launched the boat at 7:30 and headed over towards the ladders area where we did good last weekend. We hooked up with about 30 cutts and 1 bow by 12:00. A couple of the cutts where close to 22" and a couple where under 15". The fishing slowed down after that, only picking up another 10 cutts for the remainder of the day while trolling and jigging. The fish are deep and its hard to find any large schools of fish. We did find a couple later in the day but they where selective on what they wanted to eat.
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[bkidder]

thanks for the report. i went friday and we boated around 80 slot cutts between the 4 of us. pretty good! those things are a lot bigger and fatter this year than ive ever seen them. our fish were averaging around 18"! i remember feeling lucky to catch 4 or 5 that size or bigger. the slot limit is definately increasing the average size! also, we went through 4 dozen worms and not a single chub! we also caught a few on shiners.

was saturday a pretty good day as far as wind is concerned? we fished all day on friday. we werent too bothered by wind! it picked up a little bit, but not too bad. that is rare up there! pretty nice.
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[Hellsangler69]

Nice report . I didn't think you could troll slow enough to fish a flatfish . And it looks like a bow to boot on it . Frog color flatfish has caught me a few nice ones from there .
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[MGB]

The water was calm most of the day. There was a slight breeze that came up but it wasn't too bad nothing like the typical straberry winds that come up almost every day. 80 fish is pretty good fishing. All but ten of ours where caught on tube jiggs.

HA69 the times when we trolled it was because the winnd was too bad to verticial jigg. I needed to speed up the boat so I would have control of it. That was a cutt that took that flat fish.
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[Theekillerbee]

Sounds like another productive trip Mike. I'm glad the weather cooperated with you. Was your bow very big?
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[MGB]

It was productive the first half of the day but not very consistant the second half. The bow was small only about 7 or 8 inches, it was caught on a tube jigg tipped with a piece of red shiner.
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[fishnpro40]

[][]I haven't fished Strawberry in alot of years ( on the soft water), what a blast. Mike told me if he could find the fish it would be a good day and it didn't take him very long and we into a good size school, Some of the Cutts we cuaght were spitting up fish as we brought them on the boat some were 6 or 7 inches long.

Thanks again Mike for another great trip[][][][].
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[ARMY3up2dn]

MGB,

Heading to Strawberry this afternoon, taking the kiddies and in-laws. (YIKES) Any ideas / tips on hotspots for bank fishing?

Thanks!
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[MGB]

Most of the fish I have spoted has been in 37'-45' of water. I would find a shore line that drops off quickly so you could get your baits in the deep water.

Good luck to you and welcome to the site.
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[fishinfool]

Great report,I have to get up there with you and try some jigging.Do you ever try chub meat,like for mac fishing or is every thing down sized.
thanks for any info.
FNF
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[MGB]

I like to fish with 2"-3" tube jiggs and 6#-8# mono tipped with worm,chub or shiner just the right amount to fit the size of your jigg.

Mac fishing you would use 5"-6" tube jiggs with around 17# line and a larger ise of bait.

Let me know when youare interested in going and we will have to hook up.
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[Kent]

I'm not Mike, but I will also answer your question. I often fish a whole minnow at Strawberry, and it is surprising how large of chub one can fish with and still get bites. On average, one will catch larger fish with whole minnows, but it never ceases to amaze me when I occasionally catch a cutt under 15 inches long on a large whole chub. Last year my cousin caught a huge chub, while he was fishing a whole minnow. That was a first. At Strawberry one can catch fish with small jigs all the way up to jigs that one would typically use for macks.
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[fishinfool]

Thanks for the info kent,Is white jigs the norm or are other colors good to?
I have caught some fish up there on jigs but not as many as you guys do,It would be a blast to catch that many fish in one day up there,I have caught maybe 15 to 20 fish trolling and jigging in one day.
Can i get fresh shiners anywhere or do you have to catch them up there?
FNF
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[MGB]

I am not Kent, in the early spring dark is best but is the summer white,pearl,chartruse even yellow works good. Jigg fishing is the funnest. Find a school and vertical jigg it its a blast plus the fish have a good survival rate. Yeasterday all fish swam away unharmed.

Kent what is your shiner/chub ratio when you are casting your net? I did get 1 shiner yesterday but I have only threw my net on two different days catching 10-15 minnows each day, that was plenty for me.
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[fishwriter]

Probably a dumb question from a dumb person but how and where do you catch the bait? Shiners and chubs? Is there a possession limit on the bait?
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[MGB]

Its not a dumb question. You can catch them by the boat docks there could be other areas that I am not aware of. Kentofnsl is the expert maybe he knows other areas. In the early morings before there is too much boat activity you can see hundreds of them swimming in the shallows and close to the surface. I bought a casting net from D-mack and it works good. There are minnow traps you can buy, I never have used one. I seen some kids netting them yesterday at 7:30pm with a type of dip net. There must of been some bigger fish chasing them in the marina yesterday evening they where hitting the surface like they where running from something. I am not aware of any limit but you can not net and sale them with out a permit. Yesterday a gentlman made some comments that it was illegal to net them. The way I remember it is if cutts or rainbows turn up in your net you must release them.
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[Kent]

One thing I have learned fishing Strawberry is that if one jig, one lure, or one color works for awhile be grateful, because often after an hour or so, whether jigging or trolling, it will catch few fish; however, if I change to something else the new item will often immediately start catching fish. If one wants fresh minnows Strawberry is hard to beat. I usually net my minnows at the marina before I head out fishing. I have also netted them in The Narrows. I'm sure there are many other places that one can find them. The only problem with Strawberry is that the cutts have targetted the red shiners and they are now few and far between. It seems like a couple years ago I could catch 90% shiners (I prefer shiners to chubs), now I catch probably less than 10% shiners, and the ones that I do catch are often extremely small. There is no limit on how many non-game minnows that one can have in their possession; however, if you happen to keep a game fish you can receive a ticket. I have been checked a couple times to make certain I haven't kept any trout minnows. Most of the time I don't get any trout minnows at all, but there have been a few trips (seems to be in the fall) when I have netted a few trout. When I find one in the net I immediately return it to the water. I have had a few trips when I couldn't find any chubs or shiners to net, and I have had a few other trips when I have gotten over 100 minnows in a single cast of the net. If I happen to find a large school in water under about 2 feet deep it is prime netting conditions. It also works almost as well if the minnows happen to be near the surface in deep water. I have tried a minnow trap a couple times. I have caught a few in my minnow trap, but they work better if one is fishing from the shore, rather than trying to get the minnows as quickly as possible to be used in a boat.
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[bassfinder]

Nice pics thanks for posting!
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[Hellsangler69]

I fish from the shoreline at Strawberry and I can tell you that the chub are thick all over this lake .
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