Strawberry 10-17-25

[Kent]

A little late giving a report but figured some may benefit from it.  Obfishkenobi and I fished Strawberry in the Renegade area.  The catching was constant from early morning until we quit around 3:30 PM.  As is often the case at Strawberry, I marked few fish on the fish finder.  I spot locked in an area that has treated me well, in the fall, in years past.  We fished one rod with a bobber (tube jig was only down ~3-4') and we then usually dropped one jig straight down.  Getting a bite on the bobber rig was a given, on every cast, and often almost as soon as the bobber hit the water. 

We caught four rainbows and two slot busters.  The largest we caught was at least 21" (we only measured one fish, and it was 21"). 

The wind was constant and approaching white-cap stage.  After fighting the wind for several hours, I moved us partially into a bay, which was a little protected from the wind and the catching continued.

Nearly all of our fish were caught on cut-bait chubs from Lost Creek.  Just before we quit fishing, I didn't want to open another bag of chubs, so I tried 1/2 of a crawler and also caught fish on them.  

It is fun to fish Strawberry in the fall, because it rarely disappoints and they fight much harder in the cooler water.

Another enjoyable outing with Shawn.

Thanks for hosting me Kent, as always it was fun, Kent keeps an accurate count with his clicker and his personal count for the day was 83 and I didn’t even try to keep count but was catching them at the same rate as him, so our total count was over 160 for the day, believe it or not it was not our fastest day, we have approached 200 fish in the past. Kent is a master of fall cutthroat fishing at Strawberry. I’m going back on November 1st. To put some kids on fish.

Shawn is too modest.  He caught way more fish than I did that day.

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Thanks for the report on this.  I'm curious about your rig.  Is it just a jig head in a 3" tube with a piece of chub meat?  Is it a fillet cut into strips the short way or is the body cut into steaks or something else?  I've never fished like this.

Shawn gave his perspective, and I will add mine.  I prefer 2 1/2" tubes and if I could only have one color it would be the whitest white that I could find.  I fillet my chubs, mix them in powder salt and vacuum seal them. When they are salted they never freeze solid; however, one must remember even though they aren't frozen solid they are still at zero degrees when they come out of the freezer (don't ask how I learned that lesson).  I use shears to cut the fillets in small chunks.  I have learned that it is better to use small chunks, sometimes two small chunks, than using larger chunks.  I hook more fish with smaller chunks and use less bait.  I don't pay much attention to which way I cut the bait, but narrow strips seem to work well.    

I tie directly to the hook (I never use a swivel to attach directly to the hook, but it is a good idea to use a barrel swivel between the main line and the leader).  I pull my leader so the jig hangs horizontally.  

If I am using a bobber, I prefer a slip bobber and this time of year they are often within a few feet of the surface.  If they are deeper, I adjust the slip bobber to let the jig drop deeper.  I also like to drop straight down, off of the boat, or I will try casting and bouncing or slowly dragging the jig back to the boat.  When they are high in the water column, like they are now, I will sometimes cast and immediately start reeling back to the boat.  At times, one method will work better than another.