Last Boating Trip of 2009 at the Berry

Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Weather: Foggy morning then clear and calm

Moon Phase: 77% Moon

Location: Strawberry Reservoir

Water Temp: 39 degrees

Bait: White tube jig tipped with minnow or worm

Who Went: Phil, Troy, Me

The picture above is what it looked like at Strawberry Reservoir when we showed up on Friday. It was about 20 feet of visibility at the most. Lucky for us I have a gps and we were able to navigate the lake just fine by following the gps maps on my lowrance fish finder. This picture shows how important the gps was for going through tight terrain with no visibility. The red lines indicate our traveling path. We had nothing to go off other than electronics! Crazy!

Phil and I heard some good reports about the Renegade area so that's where we started fishing. Phil's cousin Troy started out with the hot hand and started landing fish immediately, and soon after Phil and I started getting into the mix. The fish Phil is holding was around 4 pounds.

This fish I caught had some plastic surgery gone bad...

We caught fish all morning in complete fog and calm water. It was cold, but with no wind the conditions were bearable. The fog didn't start burning off until around 10:00 and once it did we realized that we were not the only boat in the area. There was a boat next to us that was reeling in what looked to be a very nice fish. We motored a little closer and watched as they landed a very nice cutthroat. They yelled over to us and asked if we had a scale they could weigh the trout with, so I brought mine over to them in hopes of getting a better look at their nice fish. I took a picture of it, but it was from a distance and doesn't do the fish justice. It weighed just under 7 pounds. After Renegade we went on a journey fishing every corner of the lake. We never found anywhere that was extremely fast fishing, but we seemed to catch a few at every stop. We went a little ways into the narrows and in one spot had to trudge through some thin ice. I was a little nervous about scratching my boat, but it ended up being fine. The narrows were gorgeous as usual, but the fishing was slow. I have never seen the lake this calm and it lasted all day long! In one little bay near the marina I landed this nice fish that went just under 5 pounds.We ended the evening fishing the last hour of daylight in the back of East Portal Bay near the marina. The fishing picked up and made for an exciting finish with me and Phil fighting for the crown of most fish caught in a day. Phil went on a three fish run and tied it up making it very interesting, but then I caught two insurance fish right before dark to seal the deal. I ended up with 18 fish on the day and Phil at 16. Troy didn't keep track but he was probably close to both Phil and I. It was a great way to put the boat into hibernation for the winter with one last successful trip. Now it's on to ice fishing...