Utah-The Berry

I was finally able to go fish in my native waters among my kin.  Ah Utah…the land of great natural beauty and some impressive fisheries.  My wife and I took the weekend to visit with our families.  It was a great time of catching up.

My dad and I decided to pull the boat out for a day trip.  We set our sights on an old friend, Strawberry Reservoir.  The ‘berry’ produces a lot of great fish.  Big cutts and bows are found in her depths, as well as some great kokanee.  We arrived to a beautiful serene morning.

The fog was just lifting, though some remained in the narrows until the sun crept higher into the sky.

We were employing a fishing tactic that I’m not very familiar with. That is, trolling with downriggers.  As a guy who likes to walk creeks, hike to small lakes, and kick around in a float tube…it was hard to sit still and wait.  Luckily we didn’t have to wait long.

The cutties came quickly.  The slot limit on the Berry has done well for the cutthroat, though we didn’t get any slot busters (23”+) today.  The fishing slowed and we moved on to another part of the lake.  Here we got into the kokes.  I honestly don’t have a lot of experience with kokanee salmon.  However, I can see how one would get addicted to them pretty quickly. 

They fight HARD…

My brother Nick had his pole bend over and line scream from his reel.  The result was a 20”+ koke.  I’m pretty sure it made his day…heck it made all of our day.

Some thick fish up here...

More soon followed…some pretty good ones too!

Such a cool fish.  I was very impressed by their strength.  As you can see some were starting to turn pink in preparation of the spawn, but there were some silver bullets too.  We didn't even get a picture of all them.

A few more cutthroat came to play before the looming wind and lightning forced us off the water.

It was a great time with my dad and brother.  Wish I could see them more.  I love where I  live in Colorado, but man sometimes I miss those Utah fish.

Life is short, live it well.