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Smallie 14 — Postimages) We made a couple of passes through the area and found no more takers so we headed up to the dam in the dark. We tried everything in our boxes. A little before 11 P.M. we gave up on the trout. Either we couldn’t catch trout, they were shut down by the cold front, it was the curse of the full moon or there just weren’t many in the lake where we had fished. The sonar supported the latter guess. Since the moon was bright, we decided to work some rocky areas near the ramp to see if we could find a walleye. We started working different kinds of crawler rigs, I had one dead-sticked just off the bottom while I rigged a second rod and something remarkable happened, I got a hit! We had almost forgotten what that looked like. Of course I missed it. Examining the crawler when it came up I guessed it was one of the smalleyes that Starvy has so many of. But it was a hit! I decided to try dragging the crawler slowly along the bottom. I tossed it a short distance from the boat and halfway it I got as solid thump. I thumped back and was into a fish with more weight that the bass I gotten just before dark. “This is going to be a nice walleye” I thought and then the fish came into my headlight and it was another bass! This one was 16”, and the first smallie I ever got night fishing!
Since the crawler rig was getting hit and Jon didn’t have nay rigged, I handed my rod while I finished rigging another similar set-up. First cast he got a walleye about 10” and just as I got done rigging mine he got another one 11. We took challenge pictures of both, even though they weren’t very impressive. 2 down! An hour later we were had gotten no more fish and were about to fall asleep. I worked us slowly back over to the ramp and on the way, I got an eye, all of 8” long.
We called it a night and while we enjoyed some warm food back at the cabin we decided that we would not pound Starvy in the morning, but we would head over to the Berry and find out if it was the fishermen or the trout that caused our failure. Day 2: My first introduction to fishing at Strawberry was just last year in September. My friend Doug from Az was visiting family in the Salt lake area and asked me to go on a trip up there. He surprised me when he said: Let’s meet at Heber about 9 A.M. You don’t have get there early to catch trout at Strawberry in the fall. Armed with that information from my first successful trip, I told Jon we would sleep in a little on Saturday since we didn’t get to bed until well past midnight Friday. He couldn’t believe it, I always got him up before dawn to go fishing! We launched the boat at renegade around 10 A.M. and put the gear in the water only a few hundred yards from the ramp. I put a fire tiger flicker shad on one rod and white tube jig on the other. Jon put out pop gear on one and a darker tube on the other. Ten minutes later he got a small cutt on the pop gear and before he got it in I had a fish on the crankbait, that fish was 19” and a bump for me in the challenge. 3 down! Before that spurt ended we got 2 more cutts 16-18”.
15 minutes later we had a similar spurt and got 3 more nice cutthroat. I turn Jon and said: “Something feels different about the trout fishing today. Maybe it wasn’t the cold front or the moon yesterday and maybe we can still catch trout!” I was a beautiful day with no wind until around 12:30. 90 minutes of fishing and we had topped 20 fish and Jon had just landed a 20” cutt. 4 down!
The fish were a better grade than my few previous trips up there, most were 17-19” and feisty. We lost count at around 30, but the catch rate stayed consistent until our 3:30 P.M. departure so estimated we released over 50 cutts. Jon also got one fat 16” rainbow. My first trip to Strawberry in my boat was in November of last year. On that trip I told Jon my goal was for us to catch and release 40 plus trout and see at least one 3 pounder. We fell a little short of the total and the biggest fish was bow just over 2 pounds. Today, we got both the total number and got to see one over 3 pounds. It was about 1 P.M. in a moderate wind. We had been catching nice fish in the 18-20” range for about half an hour when I hooked one on a tube jig and said: “This feels like the best fish of the day Jon.” It took about twice as long to get it to the boat and when it started the rolling thing, I said: “Wow that is a good fish!” Jon netted it and when it was in the boat he said: “That is a great fish!” It turned out to be just over 22” and just under 3.5 pounds, first slot buster Cutt I had ever seen. That was going to help a lot in the challenge! 5 Down!
We were having a blast, but decided to call it a day around 3:30 P.M. since we were both exhausted from the late night Friday. It sure was great to get most of the fish we had targeted for the challenge and to get some trout fishing success after the failure on Friday. Thanks for the great detailed report. At the Berry where you trolling the whole time or did you stop and jig your tubes? It was really fun catching them on tubes under a slip bobber for us last Friday, the fish where so aggressive attacking our bobbers and watching multiple fish following the hooked fish into the boat. If the hooked fish came unbuttered, you could stop reeling and immediately hook up again. Kent and I are going back again this Friday and are excited that the conditions are similar to last week, overcast and breezy that kept the bobber bite on all day. Normally once the sun comes up above the ridge the shallow bite dies down and you have follow the fish down. Thanks for your report as well! We trolled almost the whole time. 1 to 1.3 MPH but really light jig heads to keep them near the surface. When the wind blew in the early afternoon, we ran over to a shore spot with a mudline and put the boat on spot lock. There we cast to the shore, but never got a tap. I’m excited to try the slip bobber method. I’ve used them for lots of other things, but not for tube jigs. I’ll anxiously await your repor! [/quote]
