Weather: clear skies, slight breeze, high 30's
Moon Phase: 100% full moon
Location: Haws Point, Strawberry Reservoir
Bait: 3" white tube jigs and pearl white whatta crickets tipped with carp minnow or meal worm
Ice Conditions: 10" thick with 6" of snow on top
Who Went: JJ, Ed, Dave, Me
All the ice fishing reports at Strawberry have been pretty grim this year, with an occasional success story. We wanted to go there this weekend, but did not want to produce another poor report. I figured that most of the reports are from people fishing in places like the marina, where everyone gathers loudly and competes with themselves for fish. We decided to take Dave's four wheeler to try and escape the masses of people fishing around the marina to see if we could find some active fish. It was a gorgeous morning as we arrived at our destination, Haws Point. As Dave went back for the others I started drilling a bunch of holes to check depths. I soon found a ridge that dropped from 22 feet to 33 feet and felt good about it. By this time everyone was to the spot and we began to fish! I started it off by going on a run that I felt couldn't be beat. I had 11 fish total, and an 8 fish lead by 9:30. This is where the wheels fell off!
Dave and JJ went on a huge run. Dave started throwing fish on the ice left and right. JJ was the same, and even Ed had caught four!
Me? I just sat there with no fish showing on the fish finder, and a blank stare on my face! Dave had his new fish finder going and was loving it! By 11:30 I was looking up hill at both Dave and JJ. Dave had caught around 15 and JJ was at 12! I must have moved to 10 different holes trying to find one that would be more productive, but it never happened. Then Dave and JJ started mocking me by taking a break from fishing to go sledding behind the 4 wheeler. It looked fun but I was determined to catch up in the fish total!
Then Dave mocked me again by telling me that since he had the lead he was going to fish shallow for a while and try to catch a monster rainbow.
He never did catch the monster, but I never did catch up either! By the end of the trip Dave led the way with 18 fish, JJ came in with 14, Ed with 4, and I finished only catching one more for a grand total of 12! All our fish were within the magical slot limit and they were all cutthroats. This trip taught us that getting away from the masses equals catching more fish! Here is a picture looking from Haws Point over towards the opening of The Narrows! Someday I will get to ice fish in there!
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