Fall at the Berry

Fishing Time: 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Weather: Windy, Windy, Windy, sunny, clear, 50's
Moon Phase: 80% Moon
Location: Strawberry Reservoir
Bait: White tube jigs tipped with minnows or worm
Who Went: Phil, Mike Zenger, Me

I only had to work a few hours on Friday so I called my cousin Phil to see if he wanted to make a late morning run up to the berry. I think he was pretty excited about the phone call and so the plan was made. Phil's buddy Mike Zenger also wanted to go and the smack talk of who would catch the most fish began before we even got on the road! We got up there around 12:30 and were welcomed with gale force winds! We headed through the white caps past Mud Creek Bay and back into Strawberry Bay where we started our day. On the first drop of the day I missed two good hits and I had no idea that I was about to put on a clinic on how "not to" set a hook all day long! Zenger caught the first fish to start us off and the smack talk started to get good. Phil also started catching fish as well, but I was still fishless! We also ended up fishing at Chicken Creek East, and the back of East Portal Bay without much success. The weird thing was we actually got a decent amount of hits throughout the day but just didn't land many. I was the worst missing hit after hit, but Phil also missed quite a few and Zenger some as well! With about an hour left of daylight, Phil had a slight lead on the fish count and Zenger was right behind him. I was in last place with 1 fish and about 30 missed hook sets! It was frustrating to say the least! The wind was still whipping so we decided to hide behind the mountain over at Haws Point and try our luck there until dark. It ended up being a good choice. The wind finally died down and we started catching some fish. Unfortunately we only had about half an hour to do it until dark. Phil and Zenger continued to battle for supremacy while I stayed at the bottom. The final tally was 9 fish for the winner Phil, 8 fish for Zenger and 4 for me. The weirdest part of the trip was that we never found any areas where we continually saw fish on the finder. Even when we started catching them at the end, they were not showing up on the finder. We just couldn't find any good concentrations of fish! We had a blast though and want to get back up there before winter sets in, so I'm sure we will!