We decided to skip work today and chase some early fall Cutthroat at Strawberry Reservoir. The last trip to Strawberry resulted with some uber fast fishing putting more than 30 fish in the boat. Our expectations for this trip were set accordingly. After a breakfast sandwich from the One Stop and a seamless boat launch we were on our way across Strawberry Bay. We could not have picked a more beautiful day to hit the water.
Not two minutes after we set the down riggers we made our traditional net scramble. Instead of setting the net out on the deck we always have a way of leaving it tangled with a bunch of other gear under the bow.You would think we would learn our lesson by now.
Last visit we were able to find the fish at 30' to 35' and we couldn't keep them off of the spoons but this time we found them active in only 15' of water and they were attacking the worms as we pulled them about 8" behind a Kokanee style dodger.
If at this point it appears as though I am getting out fished by my "deck hand" its only because I am getting ready to make a run of my own.
At the time we got a little caught up in numbering the fish we caught by holding out the appropriate number of fingers but now that I look at the pictures it looks like we are holding up a bunch of gang signs. It began to get a little confusing once we landed more than five fish.
Most of the the fish were in the 16 to 17 inch range with one that was about 20. I didn't get a picture of the big one because I decided to use my boat-side no-hands release technique. Really, it sounds hard to believe but I am very good at letting fish off the hook with out even touching them or removing them from the water for that matter. It happens all the time.
After birds-nesting one of my reels Adam hooked a decent sized Cutthroat. Being the kind person that I am, I offered my assistance by cutting the line free from the spool and handing it back to him. He looked confused until I suggested he should start pulling his fish in. If he had not been out fishing me at the time I probably would not have increased our trolling speed while he fought his fish.
We ended up with just over 20 fish in all. Not as productive as the previous trip but not bad either. We pulled out of the water as the after noon winds started making things a bit choppy. We had accomplished just what we had set out to do. We were able to head back to reality feeling refreshed and fulfilled with another week of work ahead of us.
