Black Friday at Strawberry - Printable Version

Black Friday at Strawberry - Printable Version

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Black Friday at Strawberry - Piscophilic - 11-29-2022

I know this sounds unbelievable, but I took the BBL somewhere other than Utah Lake! My buddy Doug had introduced me to Strawberry in late September this year and I had had a blast. The cat contest was over and the Provo Harbor had a little ice on it so Jon and I loaded up my boat and headed for the Berry.

I had to drop Julie off at physical therapy at 7:30 so we didn’t start fishing until about 10 A.M. The conditions were great with water temp was just over 38, glassy smooth surface, and air temps around 40. Conditions didn’t change much all day. Jon has fished up there a lot more than I had so I told him my goals for the trip were to learn several techniques that worked, bring home limits of rainbows for his smoker, and see a 3 pound trout. You know the old saying: 2 outta 3 aint bad.

There were about 20 rigs in the lot at the main ramp when we got there. We started over by Haws and strolled our way toward Renegade. Jon fished the deep side of the boat with one rod on pop gear and a worm and the other a dodger and a maggot. I put one rod out with a crank bait and with the other I cast tube jigs toward the shore. All my offerings were sweetened with a bit of crawler. Jon had told me that his hardware would attract a lot more attention than my offerings and he was right. He had five fish hit before my first hook up, he did let me reel one in when he had a double though Smile

It was really exciting to see all those fish hit and watch him land a several. The coloring on some of those cutts was gorgeous in the bright sunshine. Jon had released 4 slot cuts before I finally hooked one on the crankbait. It was also a small cutt. Just after that I hooked a nice fish on the tube jig, had it on for about 10 seconds, and it came unbuttoned. A theme that became all too common as the trip went on. I did find a nice one on the crank later.

Right after I lost the first good fish, Jon hooked up on the pop gear with a nice one. It was a fat bow 18 ½” long. If I rounded up, that would have been the 3 pounder for the day, but as it was it was well over 2 pounds.

We did some wide s-turns as we worked our way around the lake. The depth varied from 10 to almost 50 feet. Jon continued to get fish on every 5 to 10 minutes and landed about half of them. My crank produced a hit about every 20 minutes and most of them stuck. Most of the fish came when the boat was in 20 to 30 FOW.

By noon we had landed about 15 cutts and 3 bows, all released except the 2 larger bows. We did get several sub-slot cutts, but had decided before the trip we only wanted the fat rainbows for the smoker.

After we had solidified the virtues of trolling, we stopped off the end of a point that seemed to hold fish and dunked bait below the boat with 2 rods while we cast tubes all around with the other 2. I hooked a couple more nice fish on the tubes that didn’t know how to hang on, and Jon caught several on his. I had checked my hooks and they were sharp. Jon finally said: “I think you need to set the hook harder” I guess all that time using circle hooks on cats had left me a little out of practice for the “Bill Dance” type of hook set. I started landing a few more after that.

We were having a blast! It wasn’t the crazy fast fall fishing we had heard about, but they came regularly and were good tugs. The mountains weren’t quite as pretty as when they were showing off their fall colors in September, but the Ospreys, the Bald Eagles and the striking blue sky made up for it. The day was spectacular and the famous strawberry wind was nowhere to be found.

After a few hours anchored we realized that we were not catching quite as many as we had strolling, and the bows were completely absent, so we picked up the gear on ran back over to an area that Jon thought might produce more rainbows. It was a good call. I had switched one of my rods to a dodger and worm during the changeover and we hadn’t had the gear in the water 5 minutes when I got a nice rainbow on the crank bait. I was still trying to unhook it when my dodger rod went bendo and a twin bow came aboard.

We thought we had found them, but that was it for 20 or 30 minutes. In the next hour we ran into several schools of cutts, and then Jon got another bow over 17 inches. We just needed one more.

The sun was sinking fast toward the western mountains and we started putting some of our layers back on. Just after the sun disappeared, Jon got another 17 on his dodger. We made it just in time!

For the trip, we landed about 6 fish/hour with some spurts and some slow times. All the gear we tried produced something, but the hardware got the most hits. We generally trolled at 0.8 to 1.5 mph and most of the fish came about 1.1.

There were some iced over spots in the backs of shallow coves, but the majority of the lake was still clear and the ramp was completely clear.

What a blast! I’m not going to say I’m converted, nothing at da berry pulls like a big ole cat, but it was a blast and I will consider it during the times when catching kitties is slow or un-available. As most of you already knew, it is a beautiful location with lots of fish to catch and sights to see.

P.S. Jon brought some smoked trout over and it was great!

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - SkunkedAgain - 11-29-2022

Wow great story Jim, that sounds like a blast... Thanks for a fun read and I was a little surprised to see you at the berry.. Nice job... Jeff

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - Kent - 11-29-2022

Well done. I likely missed the great fall fishing at Strawberry this year.

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - Piscophilic - 11-29-2022

(11-29-2022, 05:04 PM)SkunkedAgain Wrote: Wow great story Jim, that sounds like a blast... Thanks for a fun read and I was a little surprised to see you at the berry.. Nice job... Jeff

Thanks Jeff! I used to fish for a lot more species, but I have a hard time letting go of UL because it is almost always productive, the fish are large and it costs fishing time and money to venture out to other spots.

(11-29-2022, 06:46 PM)kentofnsl Wrote: Well done. I likely missed the great fall fishing at Strawberry this year.

Thanks! You still have a few weeks this year from what I saw. BTW, I watched several guys nailing the white bass at your spot last week. Did you get in on that?

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - SkunkedAgain - 11-29-2022

I know what you're saying I'm sort of stuck on Cutler myself, but once winter hits I broaden my roaming area, guess it has to do with more time to get there and back in the winter when I have a little more time... Plus it's a lot of fun to catch different things and refresh my weaknesses.. Later Jeff

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - fishydoug@gmail.com - 11-29-2022

Hey buddy, So glad you made it out one more time before white out! Already looking forward to having more fishing adventures with you next fall....:-)

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - Redrebel - 11-30-2022

Good job! Glad to know that there may be soft water for a little bit longer.

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - Dirtydangler - 11-30-2022

Thanks for the report! Love the berry. Can’t wait til it’s capped.

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - Piscophilic - 11-30-2022

(11-29-2022, 10:22 PM)fishydoug@gmail.com Wrote: Hey buddy, So glad you made it out one more time before white out! Already looking forward to having more fishing adventures with you next fall....:-)

Thanks Doug! I'm looking forward to it as well. Maybe we can even have an adventure somewhere else before fall.

(11-30-2022, 12:38 AM)Redrebel Wrote: Good job! Glad to know that there may be soft water for a little bit longer.

Thanks RR! I wouldn't wait too long. Once surface temps reach 38 or so it can harden very quickly. Good luck if you do get up there.

(11-30-2022, 07:54 AM)Dirtydangler Wrote: Thanks for the report! Love the berry. Can’t wait til it’s capped.

It shouldn't be too much longer. I used to do some ice fishing but not the cold gets too me more. I go out on short trips once in a while but I doubt if I'll go back up there when it is iced over. I'll look forward to your reports when you do get up there.

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - liketrolling - 11-30-2022

nice
I have not been there after I stopped fishing for Kokanee, (did not want to catch another Cut) after all we got fishing for Kokanee this year.

Was hoping to go to Strawberry Dec. 1st but the weather does not look to good. it is hard getting out of the house,

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - Piscophilic - 11-30-2022

(11-30-2022, 07:17 PM)liketrolling Wrote: nice
I have not been there after I stopped fishing for Kokanee, (did not want to catch another Cut) after all we got fishing for Kokanee this year.

Was hoping to go to Strawberry Dec. 1st but the weather does not look to good. it is hard getting out of the house,

Thanks LT! I have always enjoyed your reports from your kokanee exploits. Keep them coming....when you do get out there.

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - Mooseman75 - 12-03-2022

Jim it's almost as much fun to read a berry report as a UL report but there is still something about your catfish reports that ring home and maybe that's because I too don't mind a trout occasionally but I prefer the whiskery fish. Plus I like the closeness of utah lake and not having to drive much lol. But it's still a great report and great pictures.

RE: Black Friday at Strawberry - Piscophilic - 12-03-2022

(12-03-2022, 01:59 AM)Mooseman75 Wrote: Jim it's almost as much fun to read a berry report as a UL report but there is still something about your catfish reports that ring home and maybe that's because I too don't mind a trout occasionally but I prefer the whiskery fish. Plus I like the closeness of utah lake and not having to drive much lol. But it's still a great report and great pictures.

Thanks Justin, I too look forward to another year of chasing cats. Hopefully this winter ends as wet as it started!