Location: Otter Creek Reservoir
Weather: No wind, clear skies, teens
Who Went: Me, Hunt, Dave, JJ
We have decided to hit some lakes this year that I have never ice fished before and the first one on the list this was Otter Creek Reservoir. It was a jaunt to say the least! It was a 31/2 hour drive one way with good roads. We had snow packed roads for the last 50 miles so it took us 4 hours! When we got there we decided to stop at a place that was a closer drive than our intended destination! Lesson learned! I will not drive 4 hours again to stop short of where I want to fish! It makes no sense. Needless to say the place we fished first was not producing. JJ and Hunt each caught one fish! 
Finally at 12:30 we decided to make the move to the other spot. When we got there everyone was leaving the ice with their limits. One guy was even nice enough to rub our mistake in our face by showing us a 5 lb rainbow caught earlier in the morning! They said it was hot in the morning and now it was dying off! Doh! I will not do that again! We stayed there the rest of the day and ended up catching about 15 fish between us all. 
I really liked ice fishing Otter Creek but it is a long drive and if I did it again I would probably make a weekend out of it and stay overnight! The fish we caught were all healthy Rainbows and fought really hard! They seemed to like smaller jigs than the Cutthroats we are used to catching at the Berry! Most our success came using ice cutters and whatta crickets tipped with a worm.
With Christmas day dumping more than a foot of snow in the valleys and 2 feet or more in the mountains, it was probably not a smart idea to hit the road on the 26th to go ice fishing! But, being that it was the first ice of the year it would have taken a large earthquake to keep us away! We left early and still only got to Chicken Creek East by 9:00 a.m. due to road conditions being so bad! When we got there we noticed that the road going down to the parking lot had not been plowed and was covered by snow drifts reaching 3 feet high! We were about to go to the marina until a truck stopped and said they were just over there and they fell through the ice! We drove up to the ladders and noticed that the guys we just talked to had already trudged through the snow drifts and headed down the snowy road to the ladders parking lot! We watched as they tested the ice and once we saw they were good we followed. We weren't fishing until about 10 a.m. and the the wind was a brutal 20-30 miles per hour on top of temps already in the single digits. The fishing was good, but the conditions just wouldn't let us relax. We all caught a few fish with JJ catching the most with 8, but we only lasted until 1:00 when we called it a day and left! 
The last two years on this date I have had the best fishing days of the year. This year the weather didn't allow that to happen. It was still fun and there is always another day. We also got to try out JJ's new power auger that he got for Christmas and lets just say I'm in love!
We took off about 2:00 and headed towards The Jordan River at the Inlet Park warm spring to see if we could at least catch a fish before sundown. We got there with about 1 hour of daylight to fish. I have never been skunked at this hole, but today was one of those days! I think it was the only day all year that I have not caught anything! I guess that's why they call it fishing and not catching! We left at dark and I was very disappointed! We got blanked on a 9 hour day of fishing!
We also caught a few White Bass and it was amazing how nice the weather was! You would never guess it was December 12th! It's always nice to get out for a quicky and catch some fish!
Soon after, Phil landed another one and I was behind 2 to 0. I finally scored with this 
We caught quite a few White Bass and while none of the fish were huge, it was a fun twist to a windy day at Strawberry.
It was dinky but it was a Rainbow none the less! We continued to catch fish here for most of the morning including a few other small rainbows mixed in with a lot of Cutthroat! Once our spot started to die off we decided to head up to the bay where my dad and I saw that nice Rainbow the day before. We snuck in and started casting and instantly I had a hit but didn't hook up. Soon after JJ had one on and it was another small rainbow. This bay is definitely packed with some Bows! We fished there for about an hour and caught a couple Cutthroats along with JJ's Rainbow. Then we decided to do something a little different than normal and that's where the twist comes in. We ran all the way up to the Soldier Creek side and took a look around! We found an inlet off a deep bay and decided to go in and give it a try! This was the best idea of the day! We instantly started getting hits right after our jigs hit the water. When one of us would catch one and reel it in, three other fish would follow and you could just toss your jig in and they would hit it! It was lights out for two long drifts! 
Then came the idiots of the year! A group of 6 rednecks, dressed in Ute gear of course, came driving in on a pontoon boat and parked right in the zone where we were drifting about 50 yards from us! It's November and there is hardly any boats on the lake and they chose to park right next to us! They started catching fish and then it was over, they weren't going anywhere! We fished there as long as we could, trying to handle there hillbilly stories, and bizarre music, but it became overwhelming and we decided to leave! I thought about saying something many times but could tell that these were the type of guys that would have loved for us to say something to give them a reason to cause trouble. I still think they dove in on us like that just to see if we would do anything! Uggh! it's making me mad right now just thinking about it! It didn't matter anyway cause we still found more fish to catch along the walls of the narrows and we finished the day catching 49 fish! Just another day at the office!
I finally talked the old man into making a trip to Strawberry with me and we were right on time getting to the lake at 10:30 a.m. (old man time!) Not ideal, but being with my dad made up for it! We started out at the mouth of the narrows and this is where the catching began. I started it off with a couple Cutthroats that were small but they got us on the board! My dad followed by catching a nice 18-19 inch Rainbow, but couldn't quite get it in the boat for a photo. This area started to get slow and windy, so we moved back into the narrows and found a nice point just off a deep cove. We were able to put a few more Cutthroat in the boat including this battle with my dad vs. Cutthroat!
As I was reeling in this rainbow I noticed it had a follower. It was another Rainbow that I would guess was around the 5 pound mark. This got us excited and we spent the next 2 hours throwing everything we could think of at it trying to catch it! We came up empty handed and finally gave up and went back to catching Cutthroats. I think my dad had a good time and caught a few nice fish.
It's always fun when you get to fish with your dad and I hope I can get him out again! 
Once you catch a fish like this, the only thing on your mind is, lets get our poles back in the water and do it again! We fished for a few more hours with a couple missed bites and then my dad hooked up with a 4 pound Mack. Not exactly what we were looking for so no pic was taken and on with the fishing. Soon after, I got a hit, and WHAM! The fight was on again. This one fought very different than the 26 pound fish. Although it was an unbelievable fight, I was able to reel him in almost halfway to the boat from 80 feet, but then he decided he didn't like that and ran on me. Now it felt just like the 26 pound laker caught earlier. I finally got him right to the boat and snap! The hook came flying out of his mouth! I was really angry but it really doesn't matter! I was in it for the fight, which I got, and I would have let him go anyway. The only thing I am missing is a picture. Captain Jim said it was around an eighteen pound fish and that he is usually dead on within a pound or two of estimating the weight of these things, so that's what I'm going with! We fished the rest of the day with a few more hits but no hook-ups. We payed and thanked Captain Jim for his services and then we ran back to our cabin, grabbed my boat and we were back on the water within a couple hours! We had one hit from my boat all evening and it produced this 13 pound Lake Trout!
It was a gorgeous evening with an unbelievable sunset and I'm hooked on Mack fishing for life!
The next morning we got up early and were welcomed with a stiff breeze! This is exactly what you don't want while jigging for Lake Trout but we gave it our best anyway! I had one really good hit that I missed and that was it for the day! We had fished hard for 2 straight days with only a few bites, so we decided to travel up lake for the evening and try our luck at some kokanee fishing! We caught a few small kokanee and it ended up being a very beautiful evening! This is a trip I will never forget, and I have learned a special art in learning how to locate and catch large Lake Trout! I just want to be there right now!!!
We were moderately successful, each catching around 10 throughout the day! I was lucky to land this Cutthroat that was a hefty 4.5 pound fish that went 23 1/2 inches long!
I caught a few here and there but missed 80 percent of my bites. Not sure if it was because of how small the fish were that I couldn't hook them or if it was because I was just stinking it up! Probably a little of both. We ended the day by catching a couple a piece off a rocky point then called it quits. I also ended it with a phone call from Dave saying that we are probably owners of a new house, and now residents of Riverton City. It was another beautiful night to be on the lake fishing, oh, and to buy a home.
It's July and the temperatures are consistently in the hundreds now and the valley lakes had no appeal when planning this weeks fishing trip. We wanted to head up in elevation to somewhere with mountain scenery and cooler temps. What better place than Strawberry Reservoir. We arrived at 7:30 a.m. to temperatures in the low 40's. It was a little cold but felt great compared to the 80 degree mornings in the valley. It was a gorgeous day with sunny skies and no wind. We headed into East Portal Bay to start the morning and immediately John found the first fish. It was one of about 6 fish we caught in this area before moving on to new water.
We headed over to the mouth of the narrows and by Rainbow Island. It was here that we had the most success all day. We were fishing in 60 feet of water and the fish were suspended anywhere from 25 to 55 feet. we each caught 5 plus fish from this area.
We found a nice looking shoreline with a deep drop off and submerged pine trees all along the bank. There were a lot of small chubs swimming around and I figured there had to be some cutthroats hanging around this chub buffet.
After our excursion in the narrows we headed back to our spot by Rainbow Island to see if the fish came back. They were there but not in the numbers they were in the morning. We spent an hour just drift fishing our jigs in a light breeze picking fish up here and there. I caught one that looked very different than any of the other cutthroats we had caught. I thought it was a 
We were starting to run out of time for the day so we ran back into East Portal Bay near the Marina where we started our morning. 
This trip helped me to realize why Strawberry is one of my favorite lakes to fish and that I need to fish it more often. We caught a ton of fish with a few just over the slot limit, and it is beautiful up there with cooler temps and unbelievable scenery. Look forward to doing it again!