03-26-2006, 01:38 AM
It has been a decent ice season for me but my huge regret was that I had only been to Strawberry once this year on the hard deck. Time to fix that. I got there about 8:00 Am. The slush is all that was advertised, but if you follow the snowmobile trails it isn't too bad. I fished east of the marina. The weather conditions couldn't have been better. The ice and slush went all the way up to a standard ice drill handle, but the ice itself is kind of soft. The mighty 'Berry was at her most fickle today. From 8 to 9 AM it was smoking hot. Lots of fish on the finder and they were biting. It slowed down from 9 to 11 but I could tease a few bites and hookups, and after 11 AM it died. At this point, I moved around to other areas and found nothing in regards to bites or even fish on the finder. After a while, (and a short nap, loved that weather) I finally found a few fish at 28 ft., caught one, had a couple of taps that I missed afterwards, then they developed lockjaw. Time to go. The fish were all slot cutts and were all between 18 and 20 inches except for one that was 15 inches. I might have to brave the slush and try it one more time. There is so much snow on the ice that I don't forsee the slush freezing at all before ice off. Good luck if you go.
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