Weather: Warm, 80's, slight breeze
Who Went: JJ, Me
Another successful Strawberry trip with lots of Cutthroats being landed. The story of this trip was the beautiful weather and scenery that I always enjoy on this high mountain lake! We took a few snapshots from behind the boat just as the sun was about to come over the mountains. This pic shows exactly why I love the outdoors. We gazed at the scenery on the boat ride over to one of our well known and successful spots and when we got there we had this beautiful landscape to welcome us. Finally after all the ooh's and ah's we got down to the actual fishing part.
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!
This is a lake that just can't be matched by any other. It's size, scenery, and wonderful fishing make it one of the best trout fisheries in the country. Lucky for me it's right in my backyard!
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!
The one lake in Utah that has always seemed to get the best of me is Jordanelle Reservoir. I have listened to story after story about how Jordanelle produces the biggest Smallmouth in the state along with some of the biggest Brown Trout. I have spent countless hours on this water only catching enough fish for a small fish fry. Don't get me wrong, I have had some okay days at the Nelle, but more times than not I have been humbled. Today was a different story! We didn't put any state records in the boat, but we did catch a lot of bass ranging anywhere from 3 to 16 inches. Phil had the hot hand for larger fish catching most of our fish over 12 inches. 
When the catfish finally slowed down a little, it gave me a chance to throw a jig for a minute. I threw it into some thick brush along the rivers shoreline and pulled out this little Bluegill.
I kept throwing the jig in hope of a possible Largemouth or a Walleye but it wasn't to be. I had a few more Bluegills hit but a 3 inch jig was to big and made it hard to set the hook on these tiny fish. I went back to catfishing and continued to catch mud cats with ease. around 11:00 the catfishing started to die and the temps were approaching 100 degrees so I started my journey back to the truck. On my way back I saw some surface action in some brush and it didn't look like carp. I tossed my jig in to find out and instantly hooked up with a white bass.
I let this one go and tossed in again and hooked up with another White Bass. I was throwing into really thick brush and I soon lossed my last two white speckled jigs. I replaced it with a black with blue sparkle jig. The bass wouldn't touch it! So with no more white jigs I called it a day. It was a great multi species day on the Jordan River and I achieved my goal of avoiding the Fourth of July masses.