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I had an OK day today (1/17) out on Strawberry out from the marina. We fished first in 15' and saw nothing, then moved to 20'. My dad caught a 22 1/2" cutthroat (hard to tell in the photo, the ice rod is 36"+ long) on a white paddle bug.
Overall it was slow. We saw lots of fish on the finder, but most would come in, take a look at one of the baits, and then disappear.
We tried white and green paddle bugs, medium and small ratfinkees in various colors, various ice flies, meal worms, wax worms, and bits of nightcrawler, with and without shrimp smelly jelly.
Anybody have suggestions for turning the lookers into biters? I was using 4 lb Vanish Transition and P-Line fluorocarbon line, so I don't think that's scaring them away. I tried down-sizing and then got fewer lookers. I don't really have any tricks up my sleeve for finicky fish.
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Saturday I tried small, medium and large. Tipped with everything but wax worms (didn't have any or I would have also tried them). I had my best luck tipping a 3" white glow tube jig with cut bait and tipping with shrimp also worked. Had some luck with meal worms, crawlers and tipping with Powerbait. Zero luck tipping with cured salmon roe. Most of my hits would come after I saw one on the fish finder and then actively jigged my bait. Caught most down about 18' in 23' of water. Caught several watching them bite while looking down my ice hole in a dark tent.
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I recently had similar experience. I did end up with close to 25 fish but I had over +100 "lookers" on the finder . Never really figured out what the wanted. Fish finders can be so frustrating in that regard lol. I tried a ton of different color/bait combos but the best seemed to be chartreuse green/earth worm.
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I should have tried a tube jig. I didn't have any glow tubes with me, but I did have a kind of a pearl color I could have tried.
I've never tried shrimp (just shrimp smelly jelly). I'll have to stock up on tubes and a variety of bait next time.
Thanks!
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I didn't have nearly that many lookers, maybe 40 or so and only 4 that made it onto the ice (total between myself and one other). I still haven't found a spot that seems loaded with fish. But it was enough that I would have been happy had a few more bit.
They were clearly seeing my baits, moving into view and going to the right depth. And some came back and took a second look with aggressive jigging.
I got away from the crowds, but maybe the area was hit hard the day before (Saturday).
Thanks!
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Well its frustrating when i have had days where i have only marked 30 fish and caught almost all of them. Then i mark a 100+ and catch 25. I would play with these fish for 5 mins or more, then not bite it. Seems like when there was more then one fish on the finder i could trigger a bite. Then the singles would just chase it or stare at it and nothing. Maybe the competetion from the other fish is what triggered the bite. I dunno... lol
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Sounds like my Saturday trip to strawberry. Lookers but few takers. Switched from wax worms to meals worms and that helped but it was still a tough day on the hard deck.
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Cowboy Up!
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I would advise you to get away from the marina if at all possible. that area gets so much pressure , I think the fish get leery of any bait . if you do that I think your luck will dramatically improve.
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Strawberry is notorious for being like that. Sometimes the cutts will hit almost anything you drop down and other times they will refuse almost everything. It can be maddening that way, but also if you are marking fish and keep at it, you can often either figure out ways to get them to hit or the switch will turn "on" and it will be hot. The key though is that you are getting marks/looks. If you are not, then a move is indicated.
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I fish the bay a ton, usually do pretty good. But when I was out yesterday it was very slow, once we finally got settled and had the underwater camera down, we saw A TON of fish, but hardly any would even bite. Out group finished with about 20-25ish. But way too slow, too many lookers, not enough takers!
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I wasn't really at the marina. According to a quick google maps measurement I was nearly 3/4 mile away from the marina parking lot. Not that far, but it wasn't exactly easy pulling a loaded sled through the snow.
There were a few people around, but nothing like the crowd right at the marina. Would you suggest I go even farther?
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This did the trick for us on Saturday 1/16. [font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Palatino Linotype"]Had a very successful day on the berry. The cutthroat were crazy for the white 2.25 glow Troutsman Fat Tubes with wax worm. Even had some guys with us using paddle bugs in white and they did ok, but not as good as the tube jig. Most action came on bottom, but had some good action at 16 -18ft too. I was in 22 ft. and when I had my bait at 16ft I could get them to come up, but didn't typically take. I found that my best action came from having it on the bottom already and caught a lot this way. I would do a lot of erratic jigs to attract the fish and end up with doing a bounce off the bottom and pulling it about an inch or two off the bottom, so when they came over I could dead stick in front of them and they would take it. Give that a try next time you are out. That seemed to do the trick for us. They were taking white glow tubes more than paddle bugs or other bait as well.[/font]
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[quote ru22dizzle]
[font "Palatino Linotype"]I would do a lot of erratic jigs to attract the fish and end up with doing a bounce off the bottom and pulling it about an inch or two off the bottom, so when they came over I could dead stick in front of them and they would take it.
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Another approach that will often work is to keep doing the active jigging when they come over. The active jigging attracted them and they will often hit if you keep doing the active jigging.
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