# Strawberry 6/4



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

I went to Strawberry on Free Fishing day with my wife's family. We rented a pontoon boat out of the Strawberry Marina and it was probably the only day that 7 out of 8 of the people on the boat will be fishing this year. 

We trolled through Chicken Creek north until we ran out of water under us and turned towards the Knolls. We trolled through the knolls and up around them to the ladders. We made one pass at the ladders and headed back towards the marina across the lake. 

I used a lucky craft golden minnow, a jointed rainbow rapala, white tube jig behind a dodger, a rainbow Krocodile, and a double pink hoochie behind a nickel crushed pink dodger. Since we were on the rental boat instead of my boat, we had no downriggers and I was stuck with lead line. I started each lure at 5 colors and then after 5 or 10 minutes, I reeled up a color until the lure was back. Since we didn't have rod holders, I slowly let the rod go back to slow down the action on the lure and pulled it back up - kind of a sideways jigging. 

Other folks on the boat used flatfish in various colors, shad raps, pop gear and worms, wedding rings, triple teasers, and a few others. 

We had no fishfinder and I didn't bring my GPS so I don't know exactly how fast we were trolling but I think we probably were doing between 3 and 5 mph for most of the day, especially when the wind got behind us. (It was too fast but there wasn't really much I could do about it).

Weather was cold. I was glad to have a sweatshirt under my carhartt. When the wind picked up, it stayed fairly cold and I kept my hood up on my sweatshirt for almost the whole morning. 

We finished our 6 hours at 12:30 back at the marina with probably less than a half a dozen hits and no fish. 

It surprised me that Strawberry was fairly empty on free fishing day. There were a bunch of people fishing on the shore in various places but there were only a couple of boats out there. The water was pretty stained or at least not as clear as I remember from years past. 

What's the story up there? Is it just too early in the season? Is the water still too cold for fish to waste energy on chasing a lure?


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

This is a tough time of year up there. With no ice left on the lake, the fish have spread out, and are no longer concentrated. The murky water may have something to do with fish not being as active, but they'll still bite. You just have to slow down your presentation. Jigging and slowly bouncing along the bottom work best this time of year, and having a finder to locate the fish and structure are an important part of a slow presentation. I would bet that once the water warms and clears up, the fishing will improve. The fish will be deeper, but more of them will actively bite.


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## americanforkdude (Sep 13, 2007)

Don't feel too bad, we fished it the other day and no luck either. Wind was terrible the day we was there. We fought it and fought it. Should've just came home. Pretty disappointing trip.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Thanks guys. I'm not used to not being able to turn fish. I'm 10 hours of trolling into the year so far and I have 0 fish to show for it. -)O(- 

This is my worst showing in a long long time, probably since I got a boat about 10 years ago.

Just brutal.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

That's really rough, man. I'm sorry FG and the Berry, of all places would snub you like that.

Tough deal for sure.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Thanks LOAH. You're always there with a kind word.

I'll break the snap sometime. I've got more trips coming up. Maybe it is just the price I have to pay karma to pull a nice Mac out of the Gorge.


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## sparky00045 (Apr 1, 2008)

I have an idea sense the gorge is out of chubbs for the maccs to eat, lets set up nets and catch the chubb in the berry and take them to the gorge and let them spawn there and grow, it would help both waters???


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

That is too bad to hear after so much anticipation of getting back home! I will be up there next weekend and we have figured out a pretty good formula that has worked fairly well for late June/early July, I will let you know how it goes!


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Dodger said:


> What's the story up there? Is it just too early in the season? Is the water still too cold for fish to waste energy on chasing a lure?


This is easy to explain.....you've lost your touch Gollum!!


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

sparky00045 said:


> I have an idea sense the gorge is out of chubbs for the maccs to eat, lets set up nets and catch the chubb in the berry and take them to the gorge and let them spawn there and grow, it would help both waters???


Actually, there are chubs in Flaming Gorge already. They are on the extreme north end of the reservoir and they are kept in check pretty well by the predators in the lake.



Huge29 said:


> That is too bad to hear after so much anticipation of getting back home! I will be up there next weekend and we have figured out a pretty good formula that has worked fairly well for late June/early July, I will let you know how it goes!


I know. I am feeling it. I had some pretty high hopes for this season while I study for the big exam. Hopefully it will happen.

Absolutely let me know how you do this weekend. The boat went in for some work but if it is done by the weekend, I may be up there myself. While I've been gone, I've come home once a year to get to the Gorge and I've done fairly well on those trips, usually in mid June. I'll be heading up there probably a week from Thursday to keep up my yearly June 16th fishing adventure. I've caught a fish every June 16th since 2002 so I've got a streak to keep alive.



.45 said:


> This is easy to explain.....you've lost your touch Gollum!!


You know, precious, the simplest explanation is usually the right one. -^|^- Yes, precious, it is. How we loves and hateses the fisheses.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Sounds like you just need to ditch the boat and get some fast action on Currant Creek's shorelines to remind you what catching is like. 

The Dr. says, "Take two trout and call me in the morning".


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

You read my mind. My jeep just past emissions and I was thinking about Currant Creek this weekend.


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## quakeycrazy (Sep 18, 2007)

Dodger said:


> You read my mind. My jeep just past emissions and I was thinking about Currant Creek this weekend.


Current Creek is fishing very well right now. Anything in gold should work well.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Thanks QC. I saw your report and it got me thinking about it. I'll let ya'll know.


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