I’ve been waiting patiently for July to get here so I can start my annual weekly Strawberry fishing trips, and even though it’s not quite July I couldn’t wait any longer and wanted to test the water so to speak.
I wanted to launch at daylight, but my lazy cousin has this new stupid rule this year where he doesn’t get up before 5:00 on weekends…so we agreed to leave at 5:15 from his dads house…and we left at 5:30. In broad daylight. Me, him, his dad (my uncle) and my cousins girlfriend.
We arrived at about lunchtime it seemed like, but when I looked at my watch it was only 7:30. Launched and headed out to the first area by Mudcreek. We tried 3 holes, and all we caught was weeds. (Water is HIGH this year), and didn’t mark too many fish. About 10:00 we motored over towards the Knolls and didn’t do any good jigging, but did catch a couple casting…so instead of anchoring like we normally do, we drifted, and caught 15 fish in about 2 hours doing that. We would drift about 1/2 mile, then motor back to the starting point and do it again. Aarons girlfriend out fished him during this time and I thought that was way funny! Here was the first fish story:
Her: Aaron, I think I’ve got a bite…
Him: No, you are just snagged on the bottom…
Her: No, I think it’s a fish..
Him: Here, let me see what you’ve got…it IS a fish…reel it in!!!
Later on, she was telling HIM how to fish.
In reality, she is a much better fisherman than my cousin, and much better looking. [;)]
About noon, we decided to start heading home, but since Aarons girlfriend was up 3 fish to his zero, he declared that he wasn’t leaving till he caught a fish. While reeling in before heading to the next spot, I spotted a follower on his jig and told him to stop reeling…when he stopped, the fish hit and he finally got his first fish of the day! (pic…note the frazzled worn out look of relief on his face…!)
We then decided to hit one last spot on the way back, south of Mudcreek/north of the Marina, and it was ON for about an hour an a half!!! We caught another 15 fish there, anchored this time, with 1 fish at 23.5 inches, and 3 or 4 others just under 22 inches.
We had numerous doubles and even a triple here (pic), which might have been a quadruple, as just after I snapped the picture I noticed my red pole bouncing and have no idea how long that fish had been on. I caught it, but it was slight after the triple…so not an official quadruple.
We left the lake at 2:00, and had caught 30 fish total. Here were the counts:
Me: 15 fish.
Uncle Gayle: 7 fish, with one at 23.5 inches
Aaron: 3 fish.
Aarons girlfriend: 5 fish (Yes, she outfished him for the day!)
All were slot cuts except the one at 23.5 inches.
On the way out they had a massive checking station, where they went thru the truck and boat, all the coolers and checked all our licenses. The truck in front of us had kept 6 fish inside the slot, and from what I understand @ $100 per illegal fish…that would have been $600!!! Now that is an expensive fishing trip.
We were all good, and they mentioned to us that we had done better than most that day. Here are a few pics.
I’m glad that the Berry is finally on…the fish were not as exciting as the Lake Trout at the Gorge last week, but I’ll take it!
Here are some pics of everyone with a fish, and the triple.
Randy