Strawberry Ice-Off!

With the recent news of some open water at Strawberry, my family and I set off to test our luck.  The latest reports had me worried that there would be a lot of competition for the slim openings, but luckily, the holiday had most people occupied enough to stay away.

Our first stop was at an inlet where quite a bit of open water glistened.  The bay was really shallow, but we found a spot worth fishing from and almost instantly, I had the first catch of the day on my crankbait.

No reason to measure that one.  Back it went.  Casting right where the inlet flowed into the lake, I got two really good fish to hang on long enough to tease me into thinking I’d get to pet them.  Nice colors on those, but alas, they escaped me.

A short while later, my wife got a pretty good one, right in the lip using a minnow.

We didn’t measure that one either, but it was pretty close.

The wind picked up and more people came to invade, so we decided to try another spot.  Driving around to the Soldier Creek side, there was hardly any open water visible and I wondered if my desired spot would still be locked up.

Luckily, my spot had just enough open water to do some casting.  Unfortunately, the fishing was dismally slow and we couldn’t get anything to even follow our offerings.  Having hiked into the spot with all of our gear and a couple of kids, we decided to wait it out for the possibility of catching a lonely straggler or two.  I was sure the spot was good enough to warrant the wait, as it’s becoming my go-to at Strawberry.

After a couple of empty hours and plenty of boredom complaints from the kids, Sonia hopped up and started cranking on something nice.  Her favorite worm/bubble rig enticed her very first slot buster!

Way to go, chica!

*Strawberry Reservoir has a slot limit for cutthroat between 15 and 22 inches.  All cutts in the slot must be immediately released.*

Weighing just under 4lbs, it stretched out a little over 23” and made our day.  Once again, Sonia out-fished me in size and numbers.  This must be her year.  That’s fine with me.  It’s nice to see her light up when she’s got a big one in her hands.

She caught a scrawny little hatchery bow awhile later while I continued to try for my hog.  The best I could do was to get a take on a minnow and have my line break at the knot.  Win some, lose some.

I’d already told myself it was a good day and it was time to go when I finally got something to stay on a hook.  It was a runt planter, so I called James over to reel in for me before we released it.  He needed some action by then anyway.

It was great to see some open water at the Berry again and I’m super proud of Sonia for staying persistent and catching her first slot buster.  Good times are here.

Happy Fishing, Humans.