I just thought I should share a little information. This is a nice site for finding where the hot spots are. My father and I went fishing before the BYU game on Saturday at Strawberry. We fished about 200 yards behind the lodge. It was windy and we had a hard time keeping warm. I caught 10 cutts and my dad caught 5 (I have a 2 pole permit). We used green paddle bugs with meal worms.
My Dad has only been on Strawberry a couple of times (we are from SE Idaho). We like to catch Kokanee up there and we were wondering if anyone catches Kokanee through the ice or otherwise on Strawberry.
From what I have heard not many salmon are caught thru the ice at the berry in the winter. I am not saying it doesn’t happen but I think it is rare.
Does anyone catch them in the summer?
Yes, people do really well for the kokes in the summer. Most I know troll deep, back in the narrows! I have never caught one at the Berry through the ice and have never heard of anyone that has but Im sure it’s possible, just not too likely! In reply to your other post about the Gorge, we have been doing really well this year around the Buckboard area for Macks and Burbot. We havn’t caught any Macks over 5 pounds but they sure are fun! Fish any where from 40 to 80 feet, and keep moving til you find the fish! The kokes I think are pretty tough through the ice up there. I think they move around to much to locate through the ice. You might have a few go through at any given moment, but then they are gone and off to new water! If you have a fish finder and you see fish trolling through at mid depth, then reel up and you might luck into some kokes! We have been doing this but all fish were still small macks and the occasional rainbow! Hope this helps, good luck!
A good friend of mine caught a huge koke at the berry in the narrows ice fishing about 3 years ago but that is the only one i have heard of through the ice.
I caught a kokanee through the ice two years ago. It was early in the ice season and we fished CCW. It was weird because it was still bright red and had the big hook jaw. I don’t know if it was spawning late or what. I assume it spawned late and was able to make it through a couple more months. It didn’t fight real hard so I think it was on its way out. I caught it on little glow in the dark white tube jigs. We also caught tons of cutts that day too.
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Yes, people do really well for the kokes in the summer. Most I know troll deep, back in the narrows! I have never caught one at the Berry through the ice and have never heard of anyone that has but Im sure it’s possible, just not too likely! In reply to your other post about the Gorge, we have been doing really well this year around the Buckboard area for Macks and Burbot. We havn’t caught any Macks over 5 pounds but they sure are fun! Fish any where from 40 to 80 feet, and keep moving til you find the fish! The kokes I think are pretty tough through the ice up there. I think they move around to much to locate through the ice. You might have a few go through at any given moment, but then they are gone and off to new water! If you have a fish finder and you see fish trolling through at mid depth, then reel up and you might luck into some kokes! We have been doing this but all fish were still small macks and the occasional
rainbow! Hope this helps, good luck!
Thanks for the info.
So I assume that going for kokanee on Strawberry would require a down rigger. Bummer.
Would it be a problem fishing at buckboard without a snowmobile or 4wd?
Sorry about the late reply. No it is not a problem to fish Buckboard without a 4 wheeler or snowmobile. We always just walk to our locations. It can make for a long walk sometimes depending on where you go but there is usually not much snow up there so its easy walking! Just be really careful around the ice breaks. If the wind picks up the ice breaks can open up depending upon wind direction, and if it gets warm in the middle of the day the ice breaks can get pretty soft.