Slot is working fine at Strawberry

[Kent]

Three of us fished Strawberry today, exclusively vertically jigging for cutthroats and rainbows. We caught 59 (all rainbows, except for 59 cutthroats) and 6 (they were measured, not just eyeballed and called over the slot) were over the slot. Almost all of them were really heavy fish.
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[Theekillerbee]

Sounds like fun!
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[brookieguy1]

Sounds fun, except for the lack of rainbows. The over the slot cutts sound good though.
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[sliverslinger]

Great trip!
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[DKStroutfitter]

I like the slot limit there.
It's fun catching trout that are in the 18" and over size.
Slot limits offer this kind of action.

I just with that I lived closer to Strawberry.
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[Joe_Dizzy]

[quote brookieguy1]

Sounds fun, except for the lack of rainbows.

[/quote]

Do you guys think it's just a matter of tactics regarding the (lack of) mixed bag rainbows/cutts?

The Cutts in Strawberry are much more baitfish-oriented, especially as they get larger. Rainbows however will have an insect-heavy diet their entire lives... which usually keeps them more shallow-water oriented.

I mention this because I fly fish at the Berry a couples times a year (spring and fall) and I'm usually hitting about 70/30 mix of cutts to rainbows (60/40 prior to this year).
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[lovetofish]

It's always a fun day when you get into them like that. The best fishing of the year at Strawberry is just around the corner (Sept,Oct,Nov). There are however a few places that hold better populations of Bows.
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[a_bow_nut]

We found plenty of rainbows while trolling in the narrows to hide from the wind.
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[chinook]

Excellent!!! Nice day fishing for you guys. It has been awhile since I have jigged with tubes or anything else. I kind of miss doing that. Yesterday I saw from Strawberry Marina that someone caught a very large cutt. I believe they said it was 27 inches. And, they said they caught it trolling in 20 feet. See, it is possible to catch a big one trolling. Just not as likely.

Thanks for the update.
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[Kent]

[quote chinook]

It has been awhile since I have jigged with tubes or anything else. I kind of miss doing that.

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I miss doing it also and it has only been two days.[]
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[Anglinarcher]

[quote Joe_Dizzy][quote brookieguy1]

Sounds fun, except for the lack of rainbows.

[/quote]

Do you guys think it's just a matter of tactics regarding the (lack of) mixed bag rainbows/cutts?

The Cutts in Strawberry are much more baitfish-oriented, especially as they get larger. Rainbows however will have an insect-heavy diet their entire lives... which usually keeps them more shallow-water oriented.

I mention this because I fly fish at the Berry a couples times a year (spring and fall) and I'm usually hitting about 70/30 mix of cutts to rainbows (60/40 prior to this year).[/quote]

I think that this is a big part of it, but Rainbows do start to switch over to baitfish once they get about 16" or so, so that is only part of the answer. Some of the biggest crawfish I have ever retrieved from a fish stomach were from big Rainbows, not smallmouth bass, not largemouth bass, not walleye, and not cuts, but Rainbows. With Strawberry so filled with Crawfish, that may explain the imbalance in caught slot buster cuts to bows.

I have had a far greater ratio of slot buster Cuts then Bows then you, so ....... I have some to learn in that matter.

[Anglinarcher]

[quote lovetofish]It's always a fun day when you get into them like that. The best fishing of the year at Strawberry is just around the corner (Sept,Oct,Nov). There are however a few places that hold better populations of Bows.[/quote]

Also a great point. Bows and Cuts do overlap, but they have different preferences so it is quite possible that the Slot Buster Bows are simply in different places then the Slot Buster Cuts.

[night_flyguy]

Don't most rainbows get harvested long before they get to 22" since the slot doesn't apply to them?
I wish there were more big bows but they're put in there for people to take home. I'm fine catching big cutts though. Here's one that gave my 5 weight a good workout.
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[MBM1969]

When vehicle jigging are you anchored or just driffting?
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[Kent]

I assume you were replying to me. I believe you meant vertical jigging when you wrote "vehicle jigging", but I fish it both anchored up and slowly moving using the Minnkota looking for active fish. On rare occasions, I will just let the wind move me, but rarely does the wind blow the exact direction I want to go. If it is really windy I may just let the wind blow the boat and then I am wind trolling with jigs. On Saturday, we anchored up (using the Minnkota until 10:45 AM, when the wind came up) and then anchored up using the anchor to hold us more or less in one place.
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[Joe_Dizzy]

[quote Anglinarcher]

I think that this is a big part of it, but Rainbows do start to switch over to baitfish once they get about 16" or so, so that is only part of the answer.

[/quote]

Agreed, but a lot can depend on the strain. The Kamloops area strains for example... those buggers will be 5-10 pounds and still preferring to fill up on midge pupae versus baitfish. It's just how they evolved.

Having said that, I don't think these are the types of rainbows dumped into Strawberry, but I could be wrong.
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