Ice Fishing is Coming Soon

Ice fishing is just around the corner! If you are looking to fish at Strawberry Reservoir before the ice comes, you better hurry. With many day time high's below freezing temperatures, the ice has already started forming around most edges.  

I went fishing with Terry and Daniel. Fishing reports have been mixed at Strawberry lately. From my experience, fishing has slowed down quite a bit. If you fish long enough and move around, you can find fish. This fishing trip we only had a couple hours to fish. I started out catching a nice cutthroat on a Lucky Craft Pointer. 

Terry was reluctant to use a Lucky Craft Pointer until he watched me catch a fish with one. Then he caught a nice rainbow trout. After Terry and I each caught one, Daniel switched to a Lucky Craft Pointer and finally was able to catch a fish. Daniel caught a nice rainbow trout as well.

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

Lately I've been catching most my fish in shallow water, between 2-10 feet deep. The water at Strawberry Reservoir is super low this year so you can access areas that would normally be harder to get to. However, I have noticed lots of seaweed around the shorelines. As you reel in your lures, reel in a little quicker as you get closer to shore to avoid snags! 

Where have the cuts gone?

Cool temperature (24 degrees F), fresh snow, thick fog, perfectly calm water, few people on the lake, but no cutthroats. It was the perfect day for fishing but for whatever reason, I just couldn't catch any cuts! I'm not sure why, but the last few weeks at strawberry reservoir the cuts seem to have disappeared. All I've been catching are the recently stocked rainbow trout. 

I did have a monster cut follow my lure in one time, probably could have been my new record! 

I caught three rainbows using my favorite Lucky Craft pointer.

I caught five more rainbows with the Kastmaster lure above. This lure seems to be money when it is cloudy.

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

My favorite Lucky Craft Pointer lures are on sale right now at the Scheels in Sandy, UT. They usually cost $16 at every different fishing store, but I found them $9.99 at Scheels this week. An employee said they bought too many so they dropped the prices to sell them! I've never seen them at this price before!  They are leaving the shelves quickly!

Lure on Fire

I went to Strawberry Reservoir again last week with hopes of catching more big cutthroats and possibly a red kokanee Salmon. Fishing was really good, and often times my lure was on fire, but I didn't catch any cuts or kokanee.

I started off using a new lure from Cabelas but didn't have any luck. I had several fish follow my lure in each time so I decided to switch to my favorite Lucky Craft Pointer, 3" version. The photo above shows the 5" version. After I switched to the Lucky Craft, I went 3 for 3 catching three rainbows on my first three casts. Within, 30 minutes, I had reeled in 7 fish. One was a real nice fat rainbow. As the day went on, I caught more and more fish!

 I met fisherman Dan, his daughter Mikayla, and fisherman Wade while fishing. Fisherman Dan and Mikayla showed me one of their favorite ways to catch trout at Strawberry after catching a nice rainbow.

They rig their line up with an orange water bubble placed above a swivel. Above the bubble about 6" away they placed a sinker and finished it off by putting power bait on the hook. They cast out the line and let it sit until a fish finds the end of the line.

Fisherman Wade and fisherman Dan said sometimes they come to Strawberry and don't have any luck with lures but will catch tons of fish with the power bait method. 

Fisherman Dan introduced Power Bait trout attractant to me. Dan said they add this to the power bait and usually catch a lot more fish. I have never used trout attractant so this is something I'll have to try in the future!

JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

It can be fun to try new lures. I recently discovered the Cabela's Fisherman Series brand. I have yet to catch a fish with this after one day of fishing, but am very optimistic about it after an extremely large cutthroat followed this in one time. The reason I bring this lure up is it has a 60 day 100% money back guarantee. If the lure doesn't swim straight or you don't catch fish with it, then you can get your money back!