Tubin' the Berry

Strawberry used to be one of my top destinations, but I've spent so much time checking out new spots this year that I only went a couple of times. With the ice coming soon, I realized that my time to float it was running out fast.

At first I couldn't decide between the ladders or the cliffs by the dam, but my heartstrings always tug me toward those cliffs.

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It was a great day to be there. Blue skies, sunshine, calm waters...Oh yeah, and some fishing.

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Surprisingly, I only got one hit off of the fly rod and I missed it. Several flies were tried, paired with several different droppers, and all the while I was getting hits on the bait rod. Most of the strikes evaded me since I was paying full attention to the fly rod, but I ended up dragging in a couple of rainbows, dead drifting a worm.

The lures were also getting strikes, some of which I could clearly see from above, but none of those ever came to hand either. It was still refreshing to get out to my favorite spot on the Berry and reel a couple in.

It would have been handy to have some minnows, but I didn't get any for this trip. There were a couple of lunkers hugging the shoreline that most likely would've cooperated for a free meal. :twisted: They sure didn't want anything else I had though.

There was still plenty of time for fishing and it had been over a year since my last visit to the Strawberry River, just below the dam. When I first got back into fishing, I used to go there quite a bit with a good friend. It's a fun place to flick a lure.

With the trusty Blue Fox on, my second cast provided a gorgeous brown:

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Very colorful.

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A couple more came and went, nothing big, and then I hooked up with a great fighter! I couldn't keep from whooping a bit while this brown took to the air four times in about 20 feet as I pulled it in. I've had jumpers before, but this one was ridiculous with the airtime it got. What a riot.

Before I could get a pic, it shook loose of my grasp and the hook and that was the last I saw of it. Great fish. Good size too. Best guess would be 17 or 18. It was noticeably bigger than the rainbow.

While walking up and down the banks in the spill bowl, I couldn't help noticing some freshly formed ice next to some seeping springs. The moss in the area was still really green and healthy which provided some nice contrast. Again, I got pretty trigger happy, but the ice was just too photogenic to ignore:

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Check out the crazy patterns scoring some of the formations:

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So cool. I'm really glad I went in for a closer look.

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It's a nice time of year if you can get past the temperatures. Speaking of ice, the die hard ice fishermen will be happy to see these:

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Yep, that's ice...Afternoon ice, even. I noticed it on the way in wondering if it would last all day and it certainly did. It's coming.

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Happy Fishing, Humans.

nice!