Life is Good

Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Weather: clear skies, 80's, afternoon breeze
Who Went: JJ, John, Me
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.

When it finally started to slow down we cruised across the lake to the island near Chicken Creek East, one of my most productive spots based on passed experience. Not even one fish was caught! This shows what I know. We didn't stay long and we found ourselves with the rest of the world at the back of Strawberry Bay. We figured with that many boats in the area it must be good. We caught a few fish here but it wasn't enough to fulfill my greed so we moved on. I decided to cruise back across the lake and back into the narrows cause JJ and John had never been in there before. It was absolutely gorgeous and that's where we spent most of the afternoon.

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.

When we would find a school of chubs we would drop our jigs right below them and would usually pull out a cutthroat or two. We continued to look for chub schools along this steep shoreline and consistently landed cutthroat with this method.

We also saw a sight you don't see to often on Strawberry Reservoir and that was some recreational boaters. With the hot weather in the valley I can't really blame them.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 kokanee at first but I think it was just a different looking cutthroat. It was really silver and had a blue back unlike most the cutts that have a dark black back and a lot of color and spots on their sides. It also had teeth unlike any cutthroat I have ever seen and no cutthroat markings. I'm still not positive on what species it is but after looking at the DWR handbook it sure looks a lot like a Bear Lake Cutthroat. The Cutthroat planted in Strawberry are the Bonneville Cutthroat. I don't know, but it was different looking!

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. JJ took control of the leader board and took a 3 fish lead that I couldn't recover from. He took honors for fisherman of the day! 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!