Chicken Creek East

Strawberry Reservoir has finally frozen over! This last weekend I had the opportunity to fish Strawberry with fisherman Jason, Shane, and Shane's two brothers. 

When I arrived to Chicken Creek East, the parking lot was full and I found a complete tent village of ice fisherman already on the ice. I had never fished Chicken Creek East before so I was curious as to why everyone would flock to this portion of the lake.

 Shane and his brother's got the early start on the lake. When Jason and I met up with them we found they had already caught some nice cutthroats. One of Shane's brothers even hooked up with a fish that pulled his fishing pole right down the ice hole into the lake! After hearing Shane's report, I felt pretty optimistic we would have a great fishing day!

We found a spot in 13 feet of water. Right off the bat Jason and I noticed a large cutthroat cruising underneath the ice near our bait. This went on for about thirty minutes or so but we were unable to catch the old timer. This spot was cool because we were able to see the bottom of the lake very clearly!

As time went on, Jason and I still hadn't caught any fish so we moved to about 20 feet of water. We fished this spot for a while, but were met with negative results. I checked with Shane and his brothers and found they continued to have success at about 7 ft deep. So, once again, Jason and I moved our tent to another spot in about 9 feet deep. 

Being closer to shore proved to be the difference! Jason hooked on to a nice 18 inch cutthroat. 

Then I finally caught one! This cutthroat was a healthy 19.5 inches.
 I ended up catching a nice fat rainbow to finish off our trip. Even though we didn't catch record numbers of fish, it was nice to get out and enjoy some fishing while surrounded by some beautiful scenery!

 JOE'S TIP OF THE DAY

We learned fishing close to shore made all the difference. Shane stayed near the shore the entire time and consistently caught fish. Once Jason and I moved close to shore, we got in on some of the action as well. At Strawberry Reservoir, location makes all the difference!