Strawberry ICE OFF!

Moon Phase:

Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Weather: sunny, clear, 50's

It's one of the most popular times to fish Strawberry Reservoir. When the ice recedes back far enough to allow you to cast out to the edge, but not too far to where you can't reach the edge with a long cast. Something about these conditions seem to produce a lot of fish and some of the largest fish you will catch all year. So the conditions were almost perfect and we were there to take advantage of it. The only problem was that the fish didn't want to cooperate with the plan. We threw everything at them but the kitchen sink, with no success. Between me, JJ, and Ed, I managed to pull in the only fish of the day by drop shotting a gulp minnow in black shad color. This fish was one of the weirdest Cutthroats I have ever caught. I started reeling him in and it felt like I had on a log. There was no fight in him at all! Then once I got him about 4 feet from shore the life came out in him. He started reeling off line like he was an 8 pound bass. I would let him run and then get him about 4 feet from shore again and zzzzzzzzzst there goes my line. After about 4 of these I finally landed him and it was a nice 3.5 pound Cutt that was 22 inches long. I'm really upset about it to because I completely forgot to get a picture of this fighter. Ugh! So the only fish we caught all day and no picture to prove it! We ended the day by driving to the Soldier Creek side and finding no fish there either. We did get some good pics overlooking the Strawberry River, but the fishing was not what we expected.