Ice Fishing at Strawberry Reservoir

4:15 a.m. sure arrives early on a winter day.  Never the less, I woke ten minutes before my two alarms (phone and palm pilot) were scheduled to go off.  I needed to leave by 5:00 to meet Kevin at his house at 5:30, a half hour drive away.  I quickly got dressed in my cool, insulated camouflage pants and ate a few bites of a green spinach smoothie for breakfast.  After brushing my teeth, I grabbed the night crawlers, wax worms and meal worms and a sandwich out of the fridge and threw them all in the ice fishing bucket. 

Let me describe my ice fishing bucket.  The night before the trip I rigged the bucket with two bungee cords around the outside.  This would hold my three ice fishing rods and two ladles.  Everything else I was bringing, besides the agars, would fit in the bucket.  This included hats, sunglasses, gloves, extra reels, water bottles, jigs, hemostats, clippers, fishing regulations, map of the reservoir, Kleenexes, and granola bars. As Rob (Kevin's Father-in-Law) put it, the whole enchilada. 

First thing after leaving Kevin’s house, we had to stop at a convenience store to pick up some breakfast and movies.  We watched Planet of the Apes on the drive there.  This made the time go fast.  We arrived at the reservoir just after it got light.  You would have thought there was a tail-gating party at the marina.  The parking lot was jammed full, people everywhere.  There were snow-mobiles, ATV’s, all kinds of trucks, everyone wearing their favorite Cabela’s winter clothing.  On the ice, same thing; including ice-fishing tents. 

Since the Marina store was open, we hit the restrooms before hopping on the airboat and taking off.  Despite the crowd, it is nice having an indoor bathroom to use before a day on the ice.

We started out fishing at the Marina like everyone else there.  I pulled out the power auger and gave it a few pulls trying to get it started.  It usually starts right up, no problem. 

This year it didn’t seem to want to start.  Kevin came over and used some starting fluid on it and it seemed to want to start but then would die.  Then we noticed some oil/gas mixture leaking from the carburetor onto the ice.  The plastic tubing must have had a crack in it.  This is why I carry a spare hand auger.  I started drilling a few holes for everyone to use.  Boy, this is a good workout.  The ice was about twenty inches thick.  It took between 40 and 50 turns of the auger to drill through. 

I set up Britney and Grace (Kevin's nieces) with a pole each next to the holes closest to the boat.  I set up mine a little further away toward the shore. 

The water was 12 to 20 feet deep.  I placed a paddle bug with a wax worm on each of our lines.  We tried all depths.  After a while a little voice said “Howard, it’s time for breakfast”.  Wow, I didn’t expect this.  While I was keeping the poles baited and in the water for me and the girls, Kevin, Scott (Kevin's brother) and Rob were cooking breakfast.  I gave Grace a piggy-back ride back to the boat since she had made the long walk through the deep snow to come get me. 

For breakfast they cooked sausages, scones with honey-butter, hash browns and hot chocolate.  It was sure good, hot food out on the ice. 

After fishing a bit more, the game wardens came by and checked our licenses.  Then we decided to head to the Narrows and fish where there was more structure.  This was a good choice because immediately we started getting hits. 

Kevin caught the first fish, a nice 19-inch cutthroat. 

I caught another 19-incher and then a smaller cutthroat of about 15 inches. 

Again I was called over to eat, lunch this time.  Wow, I have never eaten so well on a fishing trip in my life.  This time it was beef and pork bratwursts, baked beans and rolls. 

Right before packing everything into the boat and leaving, Rob caught the biggest fish of the trip, a 20-inch cutthroat.