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Hard to believe, maybe, but I had never fished Strawberry. Hey, I've only lived in Utah for 30 years; I'd have gotten to it eventually. But I got an invite from Old Coot and N.E.T.O. to go there. Who could refuse?
Our day started earl and brighty, with a launch at 7 am - and an air temp of 38° - for the brisk run to the north end of the 'Berry. As Old Coot predicted, the fish were scattered and uninterested in our offerings. But we gave it a diligent try before deciding to move.
We made a run to the Renegade and arrived at N.E.T.O's secret spot, marked cleverly by a flotilla of other boats, all hauling in fish. We managed to net something like 20 fish, all slot cutts except for one fat rainbow before the other boats left - taking the bite with them, apparently.
We had a great day, and saw an unusual sight, a school of bright red Kokonee, leaping dolphin-style quite near us. Too soon gone to get a picture, but awesome.
Great day, great guys, and I'm no longer a virgin.
Oh, forgot to say, as the new guy, I graciously allowed the other two guys to boat many more trout than I did. It was only fair.
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Nice report [cool]. I got to see the kokes doing their thing last year on the soldier creek side. Neat scene for sure.
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Nice report Rocky, nice of you to let Ralph and Randy catch most the fish[  ]. When the kokes are spawning you can see them at that fish catching station they have on the right, as you turn off the main road to go to Strawberry bay. Did you happen to notice what the water temp was?
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As much as I would like to take credit for saving the day...it was actually Ralph that made the suggestion to head down to the secret spot that nobody else knows about down at renegade. I'm afraid that if I had been the captain that trip we likely would have ended the day with a lot fewer fish than we ended up with! I had never seen bright orange/red kokanee frolicking on the surface of the lake like that before and was interesting to see that. We did stop at the kokanee display on the way out. I took a short nap in the truck while Ralph and Rocky walked down to where the kokanee could be seen as I wanted a nap more than I wanted to see the kokanee! Weather and company were wonderful and was an extremely enjoyable trip despite not catching 100 fish!
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I used to N.ot have E.nough T.ime O.ff to go fishing. Then I retired. Now I have less time than I had before. Sheesh.
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Curt, if the boat's sonar had a temp readout, I never noticed it.
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Usually when the temps start cooling off the catching turns on up there, I just figured that even though the air temps are cool over night, the water temp have not cooled enough to make a difference.[  ]
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I was up there yesterday also with my brother-in-law. We fished from around 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. Water temp. in the morning was 60.2 deg. The highest temp. I noticed in the afternoon was just over 62 deg. This was in Renegade.
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I'm glad Rocky took me up on the invite. Really enjoyed the trip. It was a real treat to fish with him for the first time.
That spot we fished over in the Meadows is one of my favorite holes. I kind of suspect that if we would have gone there first, we would have doubled our fish count. But, as it was, the bite stopped at about 10:30 and we had already spent most of the morning out north.
As I suspected, the fish aren't so concentrated in the deeper water as they have been this summer. But they haven't yet tightly gathered around the shores either. I think they are fairly scattered waiting for the temps to go down so that the edges are cool enough to chase chub. A month from now, the Renegade/Meadows area will be a great place for easy catching.
The only time I checked the water temp, was out at Renegade and the temp then was 62°.
Our biggest fish was only 21" ... no slot busters to impress our virgin with. We did catch one very nice rainbow that went home for dinner.
Most of our fish were caught on tube jigs tipped with chub and a few on expensive crank baits (one of which is still out there in a fish's mouth).
Beginning a month from now, I'll be spending most of my weekends down there.
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Well it sounds like a fun trip none the less, so I guess the temps need to be in the low to mid 50's for the fish to really get active? Did you try any chub tails?
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[quote wiperhunter2]Well it sounds like a fun trip none the less, so I guess the temps need to be in the low to mid 50's for the fish to really get active? Did you try any chub tails?[/quote]
Yea, for me, I prefer "low to mid 50s" ... the closer to 50° the better.
Didn't try any chub tail because I had already cut my chub and thrown away the tails before that thread the other day. I have however used them many times in the past and they are just not as "juicy" and fluttery as belly strips. I plan to keep them and bring them with from now on but probably won't use them unless I run out of the more juicy fluttery stuff.
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The Soldier Creek side is a few degrees cooler, but may be due to yesterday's rain. I measured 59 degrees in the bay just south of US40.
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You guys must have got pretty wet yesterday. We went out the main SC marina about 3:30 yesterday and it was 62.
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Wet on the outside, warm on the inside [ ]
Having good waterproof outerwear (and a flask of my favorite antifreeze) keeps me on the water in persistent rain.
I launched the pontoon early Sunday morning at the first put-in point off the SC dam road. I hooked a nice mix of bows and cutts on a variety of bugger/leech patterns in olive, red, purple on intermediate and type V full sink lines. I stopped counting after the first dozen and missed many hook-ups. Marked fish throughout the water column, but got bit mostly in the top 10 feet. Quite a contrast to the deep bite during my last few outings at the Berry. Hang on tight to your rods boys and girls - the fall pattern is starting!
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Sounds like we got the better of the two days on Saturday, great day . We fished the Strawberry side.
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So, what is your "favorite antifreeze"?
I'm of the Gene Hill persuasion, that the "stronger waters" ought to be appropriate to the fishing. On a dry fly day, for example, the obvious choice is the dry martini. A two-handed Spey rod for salmon wouldn't be right without a nice Highland Scotch.
Spinning a tube jig with a chub chunk is less obvious, but one could do worse than a hard cider or a rye whiskey accompaniment. Chucking and worm and bobber from the bank just yells for a jug of moonshine. Bass fishing with almost any kind of gear is Kentucky bourbon time, without question.
As the great but late Mr Hill observed, beer has not been mentioned - because beer never needs to be mentioned. It goes along with fishing as intrinsically as a rod. (And in Utah, it may be correctly classed as carbonated water, anyway.)
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I will dig out my intermediate and give it a try. However I am still using Type II and Type VII in 40' to 50' and my arm is hurting[  ]. From doubles and every cast at times.
Use what works![cool]
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In reply to: 'So, what is your "favorite antifreeze"?'
I don't discriminate much among decent spirits. I typically adulterate my flask with a blend of whatever's on my shelf at the time, but it tends to involve a blend of sour mash, Canadian, and/or Irish. That may be sacrilege to the refined palette, but I enjoy it. The blend serves multiple purposes too. My old man always says, "Oh - I forgot to brush my teeth - hand me your flask...
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I am sorry we didn't know you were up here. We have been here since Sat. Morning. Oh and my flask, Knob Creek. Mmmmmmmmm
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