# Strawberry



## Billy Mumphrey (Sep 5, 2012)

I heard 2nd hand that Strawberry is ice free and people are launching fishing boats. Some of the reports online are to the contrary but I've also felt like they were a week behind. 

Anybody know what the conditions are at Strawberry? Can we take the boat up?

Thanks.


----------



## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Historically its had open sections but not ice free until around May 24th. Its usually fairly consistent about that 3rd week in May. We've not had super warm weather thus far to speed the melt... but its always possible I guess for it to be iced off.

I wish they would put a user driven Webcam on Strawberry like they have on Jordanelle that users can pan around and zoom in... that would be amazing for checking Strawberry weather conditions

PS: I've launched my boat on Strawberry before on a seemingly ice free day, only to hit a ice sheet further out (dead calm water, ice was thin but super clear... didnt notice it until we hit it... luckily we were still going slow)


-DallanC


----------



## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

I've heard there are areas you can fish from shore but boat fishing is a ways away still.


----------



## Elkdude (Oct 25, 2014)

I was up there yesterday. I guess you could launch a boat if you don't mind hugging the shore and going in small circles. Soldier creek has the most open water that I saw, though I didn't venture to Strawberry bay marina. Unless it gets really warm I bet it's the first part of June before it's ice free.


----------



## phantom (Sep 13, 2007)

they post updates on their facebook page.


----------



## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

Drove by this morning and can report first hand that there are in fact open patches of water. Personally, I would not launch a boat just to have to avoid icebergs but to each their own...


----------



## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I remember back a few years ago before we had year round fishing when everyone was betting if Strawberry would be open for opening weekend on the first Saturday in June. 

Even when it had ice on it around Memorial Day weekend it was clear by the next week. 

Once a good wind comes up that ice will be history.


----------



## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Critter said:


> I remember back a few years ago before we had year round fishing when everyone was betting if Strawberry would be open for opening weekend on the first Saturday in June.
> 
> Even when it had ice on it around Memorial Day weekend it was clear by the next week.


Clarks Camp!!! Ah those were the days, the 2nd greatest "Opener" in Utah.

-DallanC


----------



## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I think that the fishing opener even reviled the deer season opening. 

People claimed that you could walk across Strawberry by stepping from boat to boat. But it really wasn't that bad, there were a few openings.


----------



## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Critter said:


> I think that the fishing opener even reviled the deer season opening.
> 
> People claimed that you could walk across Strawberry by stepping from boat to boat. But it really wasn't that bad, there were a few openings.


Hahaha do you remember the corn "sling shots" sold at the store there in the shanty town? You could hear people peppering the water at 4am getting their "spot" ready.

Corn was always a lousy thing to chum with though... the old original Skippy dog food in the cans... that stuff was _amazing_, or so I heard

/innocentwhistle 8)

-DallanC


----------



## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I remember watching folks out in their boats throwing corn out by the hand fulls up around the river channel. I even remember moving the markers that some had set out marking the channel so that they would be fishing in all the moss. 

I do miss all the old boat houses or small stores where there was always a lunker of a trout hanging above the counter that was caught out of the reservoir. You always saw them up at Schofield, Deercreek, Strawberry, and all the rest of the waters. 

Those were some fun days freezing your butt off catching fish then going home to dump them off and going back to catch some more. For you youngsters there was not only a number limit but also a pound limit of fish that you could catch.


----------



## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

DallanC said:


> Clarks Camp!!! Ah those were the days, the 2nd greatest "Opener" in Utah.
> 
> -DallanC


YUP!!! Clarks camp, Badger Bay, Mosquito Bay, East portal, the old camp Strawberry and the Café. Best hamburgers I can remember.

What about the Café off hwy40 just as you'd turn into the "The Berry"? Cant remember the name of it but the gigantic cinnamon rolls...&#8230;&#8230;&#8230; Oh my He!! I'm getting hungry. I think it was Bobs???? Help me out here.:shock:


----------



## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

taxidermist said:


> YUP!!! Clarks camp, Badger Bay, Mosquito Bay, East portal, the old camp Strawberry and the Café. Best hamburgers I can remember.
> 
> What about the Café off hwy40 just as you'd turn into the "The Berry"? Cant remember the name of it but the gigantic cinnamon rolls...&#8230;&#8230;&#8230; Oh my He!! I'm getting hungry. I think it was Bobs???? Help me out here.:shock:


Just remembered: grin::grin: BILL"S CAFE.


----------



## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

My dads old plumber, many many years passed on now, used to get roadkill deer and tie rocks to them and sink them in various places out on strawberry to attract fish. That guy caught some amazingly huge fish. He mixed up his own attractant baits, sadly he took some of his best "recipes" to the grave with him. He'd also get milk jugs filled with blood from the local slaughter house and freeze them solid, then hang'em off the boat to chum as they melt.

Doesnt seem like modern folk push the envelope like that anymore like the old timers did, or maybe modern folk arent that creative anymore.

That said... I'm still *really* sad that skippy dog food changed their recipe. Homemade gummie's made with the secret sauce still work great though.


-DallanC


----------



## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

I remember the low laying fog in the early morning at the "Berry". Dad was a troller, pop gear and worms. He always used a "trolling board" off the back of the boat. We would be there before daylight so dad could rent a boat...a dry one with maybe only an inch of water in the bottom...big old flat bottom wooden boats. Dad would hang his pride in joy 5hp Elgin motor on it and we'd get out there in the trolling lanes and fish 'till noon, or 'till the wind came up, whichever came first. I guess he was an early "elitest" cause he held the "corn throwin chummers" in disdain.
Not too uncommon was a nice 4-5 pound Rainbow. 
As the sun started to come up I remember loving to see the little Damsel flies skittering across the surface. They would sometimes even land on your pole.


----------



## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

My wife showed me a dwr Facebook post I believe that a wind storm came through yesterday or the day before and blew the ice almost completely off the strawberry side. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

Any of you "Old Timers" (I'm one of them) ever catch a Brook Trout? Dad would head to Badger Bay out of Clarks Camp and fish with fly's just out from the spring. I never caught one, but he hooked a #3 one morning.


----------



## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

taxidermist said:


> Any of you "Old Timers" (I'm one of them) ever catch a Brook Trout? Dad would head to Badger Bay out of Clarks Camp and fish with fly's just out from the spring. I never caught one, but he hooked a #3 one morning.


Yes, and its mounted on my wall. Caught it right in clarks camp straight out from the spillway.

-DallanC


----------



## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

That was one fun thing with Strawberry back in the 60's and 70's, you never knew what you were going to bring in. We fished a lot along the Strawberry River channel and the moss beds. Caught a lot of cutthroat and rainbows. Out of Clark's Camp in a rental boat rainbows and good size brookies.


----------

