Tuesday morning came around and I didn't have to work, so I planned to go to Palisades and fish a few waters through the Sanpete valley. As I was leaving for the trip I received a text from my brother Danny Adams, asking me if I could go fishing at Strawberry. Well, I of course said yes, since I have been trying to get with him on Strawberry for years and turned around to prepare for a great day. Met up with Danny and Ryan at 9 am and made our way to Strawberry Lake looking for Kokanee. Danny is a great Kokanee fisher and I want to learn how he targets the Kokanee at the Berry.
Arriving at 10:30 we launched and made our way to his fishing lanes that he has marked on his finder. Danny runs a 19.5 ft Smokercraft rigged for Kokanee. Two electric down riggers on each gunnel and a third holder for long lining with lead lines. Sweet setup! His finder was heavy with GPS marks of the many catches he has landed. Starting to troll we put on some Rocky Mountain Dodgers and squids that have been successful in the past and started. We were running 6 poles all at different depths and color combos to figure out what they are wanting in this early season trip. Ten minutes into the run and Danny gets a hit, he misses it but we have an indicator. A few minutes later I get hooked up on one and reel it in, at the same time Ryan gets one on a lead line and begins reeling it in. I land the first of the day! Nothing big but it is a beautiful Kokanee Salmon. A picture and release and reset of the pole. Ryan is still playing his catch in, he works it in for a few minutes only to lose it right at the boat. Kokanee have super soft jaws and if you muscle them, they break away easily.
We fished the morning, only getting these three strikes and one catch. Ryan finally hooks up one on the down rigger line and lands a small cutthroat trout and again a quick picture and release. It is early afternoon and the wind comes up out of no where and white caps surrounding us. We make our way back to the marina in hopes that it will block the wind enough to stay on the lake. Strawberry is not one to mess with in the wind, big boats have seen there doom here in the winds.
We get back to Strawberry Bay and sure enough we are protected from the heavy wind and have a small ripple rolling. We fish the bay for a good hour or two and then Danny hooks up on a nice fish. He finesses it to the boat and lands a nice 2.75 lb Kokanee Salmon. Making the day worthwhile in the catching category, fishing was excellent all day. A few pictures and this one lands in the ice chest for dinner. We fish over this spot a few more passes and get nothing. The wind had calmed down, so we move back out to the open lake, to Danny's way points. We fished for another hour and then call it a day not getting any action on anything.
We trolled through massive schools of what we thought were Kokanee most of the day. The early season and water temperature kept them lethargic and not too active. We changed colors often from pink, green, red, orange and blue to entice anything to hit and were running at 20 - 25 feet in depth most of the day. We would see fish swim up and look at our offerings but they wouldn't hit it. The day was great and stories were told and new stories were formed from the days activity. We loaded up and were on our way home by 4 pm that afternoon with smiles and good memories of a good fishing day.
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