Strawberry 6/22-25

[obifishkenobi]

The struggle continues, I spent 4 days on Strawberry circling with some good boats and got 0 kokanee well over 100 Cutts under 15" 30 in the slot and 30 12-19 inch Bows. I covered a lot of ground starting Thursday at SC then going to Renegade, Hawes, Bear Paw, the Island and Mud Creek. Eventually I got word of a Rainbow bite and circled on a spot for 2.5 days catching Cutts and Bows, once I gave up on Kokanee. I had a bunch of great folks in my boat this year and I encourage you all to post a report of your day with me with all the details and picture.

[wiperhunter2]

Wow, that had to be disappointing, not getting any kokes, still nice to get out with friends and family and enjoy the time on the water. Great pics too, snow still in the background of the group pic. Did you happen to notice what the overnight air temps were up there?

[obifishkenobi]

Wow, that had to be disappointing, not getting any kokes, still nice to get out with friends and family and enjoy the time on the water. Great pics too, snow still in the background of the group pic. Did you happen to notice what the overnight air temps were up there?

39 air temp in the morning, I think part of the issue this year is the Thermocline has not set up as Robert pointed out it is 54 degrees at the surface and 52 at 25' the kokanee are scattered both vertically and horizontally.

[Cowboypirate]

It is hard to belive a zero koke run for you. The berry seems a rough go for everyone. I can confirm some koke action at LC and I know you are pondering a trip there. I dont think the size will blow you away but the bite should be decent

[JArner]

Had a great time on your boat, I’m disappointed in myself for not taking any photos. Will try to write up a post later today.

[wayno945]

Had a great time on your boat, I’m disappointed in myself for not taking any photos. Will try to write up a post later today.

Same here. Had a great time on Thursday fishing with Shawn and company. Myself and family had similar results on Friday and Saturday. No kokanee, mostly smaller cutts. Did you keep using your "sparky" rod Shawn?

[BROWNBAGGN]

I too was up on the Berry Saturday. Fished SC and Mud Creek with 0 kokes landed or jump and released. (nothing is better than watching a koke jump) Surface temp was 58 deg and could not set up the thermo cline on the finder. The stained water didn't help either. AT least the "W" kept at bay for the most part. fished from 10 to 20 feet with extra long let outs. The only fun was like you, letting out a surface pole and landing lots of Boots (Cuts). It is going to be a short koke season this year...........

[Fisharefriends]

I was with Shawn on Thursday and I can say his lack of Kokanee is certainly not for lack of trying!  He threw everything at them and covered a LOT of ground (well, water).  Still a really fun time with great company. The really strange thing that happened that I am still trying to figure out is a incident on the boat at the approach of a thunder storm.  We were trolling and had a graphite rod that we were not using in a metal pole holder. We started hearing a clicking sound coming from the base of the pole in the rod holder. When we touched the pole it was hot to the touch and seemed to have a electrical shock coming from it.  Shawn put on a rubber glove and grabbed the pole out of the holder and set (threw) in on the floor of the boat. We saw a small spark arc between the real and the pole when it hit the floor.  Shawn said the pole was hot to the touch.  The clicking noise stopped the second the pole was removed from the holder.  So...Was it the static electricity from the storm being picked up from the graphite rod and shorting out on the metal holder and boat?  Anyone ever experienced anything like that before? 

[obifishkenobi]

I too was up on the Berry Saturday. Fished SC and Mud Creek with 0 kokes landed or jump and released. (nothing is better than watching a koke jump) Surface temp was 58 deg and could not set up the thermo cline on the finder. The stained water didn't help either. AT least the "W" kept at bay for the most part. fished from 10 to 20 feet with extra long let outs. The only fun was like you,  letting out a surface pole and landing lots of Boots (Cuts). It is going to be a short koke season this year...........

You couldn’t find the thermocline because it has not set up yet the service temp in the morning is 54 and 52 down at 25 the kokes are spread both vertically and horizontally in the column very tough to target. We a few hot days and predict the Koke fishing will get a little more consistent. I know I wasn’t the only one who got blanked I was circling the same area as the Kokanee Kids boats for 3 days and talking to some other really good fishing friends who also blanked on kokes.

[wiperhunter2]

I was with Shawn on Thursday and I can say his lack of Kokanee is certainly not for lack of trying!  He threw everything at them and covered a LOT of ground (well, water).  Still a really fun time with great company. The really strange thing that happened that I am still trying to figure out is a incident on the boat at the approach of a thunder storm.  We were trolling and had a graphite rod that we were not using in a metal pole holder. We started hearing a clicking sound coming from the base of the pole in the rod holder. When we touched the pole it was hot to the touch and seemed to have a electrical shock coming from it.  Shawn put on a rubber glove and grabbed the pole out of the holder and set (threw) in on the floor of the boat. We saw a small spark arc between the real and the pole when it hit the floor.  Shawn said the pole was hot to the touch.  The clicking noise stopped the second the pole was removed from the holder.  So...Was it the static electricity from the storm being picked up from the graphite rod and shorting out on the metal holder and boat?  Anyone ever experienced anything like that before? 

I think that's exactly what it is, static electricity from the storm, there have been other members that have reported the exact same thing when using graphite rods. Graphite poles act like a lighting rod during a thunder/lighting storm.

[obifishkenobi]

Had a great time on your boat, I’m disappointed in myself for not taking any photos. Will try to write up a post later today.

Same here. Had a great time on Thursday fishing with Shawn and company. Myself and family had similar results on Friday and Saturday. No kokanee, mostly smaller cutts. Did you keep using your "sparky" rod Shawn?

I think you should tell the story, you noticed the very shocking development.

---

I was with Shawn on Thursday and I can say his lack of Kokanee is certainly not for lack of trying!  He threw everything at them and covered a LOT of ground (well, water).  Still a really fun time with great company. The really strange thing that happened that I am still trying to figure out is a incident on the boat at the approach of a thunder storm.  We were trolling and had a graphite rod that we were not using in a metal pole holder. We started hearing a clicking sound coming from the base of the pole in the rod holder. When we touched the pole it was hot to the touch and seemed to have a electrical shock coming from it.  Shawn put on a rubber glove and grabbed the pole out of the holder and set (threw) in on the floor of the boat. We saw a small spark arc between the real and the pole when it hit the floor.  Shawn said the pole was hot to the touch.  The clicking noise stopped the second the pole was removed from the holder.  So...Was it the static electricity from the storm being picked up from the graphite rod and shorting out on the metal holder and boat?  Anyone ever experienced anything like that before? 

A detail we noticed later was the inside of the rod holder is plastic insulating the rod from the boat, I think when I pulled it out and put it on the metal floor of my boat it got grounded or discharged into the boat. We where watching lightning on the ridges south of us and took it as a sign to pack it in.

[wayno945]

Had a great time on your boat, I’m disappointed in myself for not taking any photos. Will try to write up a post later today.

Same here. Had a great time on Thursday fishing with Shawn and company. Myself and family had similar results on Friday and Saturday. No kokanee, mostly smaller cutts. Did you keep using your "sparky" rod Shawn?

I think you should tell the story, you noticed the very shocking development.

---

I was with Shawn on Thursday and I can say his lack of Kokanee is certainly not for lack of trying!  He threw everything at them and covered a LOT of ground (well, water).  Still a really fun time with great company. The really strange thing that happened that I am still trying to figure out is a incident on the boat at the approach of a thunder storm.  We were trolling and had a graphite rod that we were not using in a metal pole holder. We started hearing a clicking sound coming from the base of the pole in the rod holder. When we touched the pole it was hot to the touch and seemed to have a electrical shock coming from it.  Shawn put on a rubber glove and grabbed the pole out of the holder and set (threw) in on the floor of the boat. We saw a small spark arc between the real and the pole when it hit the floor.  Shawn said the pole was hot to the touch.  The clicking noise stopped the second the pole was removed from the holder.  So...Was it the static electricity from the storm being picked up from the graphite rod and shorting out on the metal holder and boat?  Anyone ever experienced anything like that before? 

A detail we noticed later was the inside of the rod holder is plastic insulating the rod from the boat, I think when I pulled it out and put it on the metal floor of my boat it got grounded or discharged into the boat. We where watching lightning on the ridges south of us and took it as a sign to pack it in.

This pretty much covers it. It was pretty freaky when a rod started popping a few inches from my ear! I thought I was hearing things at first. I let it shock my finger twice just to be sure. I've never seen a fishing rod do that!

[FishfulThinkin]

I was with Shawn on Thursday and I can say his lack of Kokanee is certainly not for lack of trying!  He threw everything at them and covered a LOT of ground (well, water).  Still a really fun time with great company. The really strange thing that happened that I am still trying to figure out is a incident on the boat at the approach of a thunder storm.  We were trolling and had a graphite rod that we were not using in a metal pole holder. We started hearing a clicking sound coming from the base of the pole in the rod holder. When we touched the pole it was hot to the touch and seemed to have a electrical shock coming from it.  Shawn put on a rubber glove and grabbed the pole out of the holder and set (threw) in on the floor of the boat. We saw a small spark arc between the real and the pole when it hit the floor.  Shawn said the pole was hot to the touch.  The clicking noise stopped the second the pole was removed from the holder.  So...Was it the static electricity from the storm being picked up from the graphite rod and shorting out on the metal holder and boat?  Anyone ever experienced anything like that before? 

I did. I was fishing renegade bay a few years back and it got real gray and strange feeling as a T-storm approached. I was in a 14' Crestliner alloy boat and some real weird things started happening. First our lines and poles started vibrating and singing like a downrigger cable does but we had no riggers. Then I grabbed the tiller of the motor and got shocked just like you would if you grab a spark plug wire on a running motor. Then we were getting shocked the same way touching the metal boat. Not super painful but tingly enough that it was uncomfortable. Then we heard some guys in another boat yelling and screaming Holy Sh** so we got the heck off the water and hunkered down until it passed. So much static electricity in that cloud that I was sure we were seconds away from getting toasted by a giant lightning bolt. However, it never did fire off and no lighting cracked while we were there.

[Dan.beckstead@gmail.com]

The struggle continues, I spent 4 days on Strawberry circling with some good boats and got 0 kokanee well over 100 Cutts under 15" 30 in the slot and 30 12-19 inch Bows. I covered a lot of ground starting Thursday at SC then going to Renegade, Hawes, Bear Paw, the Island and Mud Creek. Eventually I got word of a Rainbow bite and circled on a spot for 2.5 days catching Cutts and Bows, once I gave up on Kokanee. I had a bunch of great folks in my boat this year and I encourage you all to post a report of your day with me with all the details and picture.

Wow! Sorry no Koks but that’s a lot of fish! What worked best for you to catch the cuts? I’m taking my kids up Thursday and hoping to get some. I wish I could have got up there 2-3 weeks ago.

[MWScott72]

My dad and I got to fish with Shawn on Sat, and what a great time! On the lake at about 5:30am and the hunting and fishing stories didn't stop until we parted ways at about 2pm. Always a good time when you can sit back a re-tell stories and re-live the memories associated with them. Even if the kokes didn't cooperate it was still a great day. We started out catching smallish cuts, but then Shawn got a report where bows were being caught, so we motored over to the area around 10am to try and boat a few for the smoker. It took us about an hour or so to narrow down the area, but we finally figured it out, and each time we passed over the spot there would be a hook-up or two. We even tripled up once! Would we have liked to land some kokes, sure, but I'm an equal opportunity abuser, so if the kokes aren't willing, I have no qualms beating up on the cuts and bows! It was a great time, and I was to see it end, but honestly, if we'd stayed on the water any longer, I would have probably spontaneously combusted. Didn't put any sunscreen on, and this fair-skinned guy was red as Maine lobster on his face, neck and arms. First good burn of the season, but it was definitely worth it.

To finish this off, my wife and I cooked up a few bows last night...sweet and smokey rub on a cedar plank. Delish!!

[obifishkenobi]

The struggle continues, I spent 4 days on Strawberry circling with some good boats and got 0 kokanee well over 100 Cutts under 15" 30 in the slot and 30 12-19 inch Bows. I covered a lot of ground starting Thursday at SC then going to Renegade, Hawes, Bear Paw, the Island and Mud Creek. Eventually I got word of a Rainbow bite and circled on a spot for 2.5 days catching Cutts and Bows, once I gave up on Kokanee. I had a bunch of great folks in my boat this year and I encourage you all to post a report of your day with me with all the details and picture.

Wow! Sorry no Koks but that’s a lot of fish! What worked best for you to catch the cuts? I’m taking my kids up Thursday and hoping to get some. I wish I could have got up there 2-3 weeks ago.

We caught everything on standard koke gear, squids and dodgers, Rocky Mountain Tackle Stuff mainly.

---

My dad and I got to fish with Shawn on Sat, and what a great time!  On the lake at about 5:30am and the hunting and fishing stories didn't stop until we parted ways at about 2pm.  Always a good time when you can sit back a re-tell stories and re-live the memories associated with them.  Even if the kokes didn't cooperate it was still a great day.  We started out catching smallish cuts, but then Shawn got a report where bows were being caught, so we motored over to the area around 10am to try and boat a few for the smoker.  It took us about an hour or so to narrow down the area, but we finally figured it out, and each time we passed over the spot there would be a hook-up or two.  We even tripled up once!  Would we have liked to land some kokes, sure, but I'm an equal opportunity abuser, so if the kokes aren't willing, I have no qualms beating up on the cuts and bows!  It was a great time, and I was to see it end, but honestly, if we'd stayed on the water any longer, I would have probably spontaneously combusted.  Didn't put any sunscreen on, and this fair-skinned guy was red as Maine lobster on his face, neck and arms.  First good burn of the season, but it was definitely worth it.

To finish this off, my wife and I cooked up a few bows last night...sweet and smokey rub on a cedar plank.  Delish!!

It was really fun fishing and being able to watch memories being made all weekend by all of the folks who joined me. I really enjoyed your dads stories about fishing and hunting and every time you would say "dad it is your turn, get up " You guys are my kind of anglers.