16th Day of fly fishing – May 24, 2024 Strawberry Reservoir
Brought the Hyde Montana Skiff home to Sandy, UT in anticipation of May/June trips in the local area. Strawberry was first up! Planning on the Green River and a few other places to follow. Also, I have been having fantasies of fishing the stillwaters with a trolling motor, but have been hesitating on pulling the trigger on the expense. Yesterday’s trip added to my justification…..
Woke up before the alarm at 4:40am. Grabbed coffee, made lunch and packed some drinks and fininshed loading the car. I made it away beofre 6am, looking forward to my first day on “The Berry” in 2024! Launched and was on the water before 8am. Yes! Got out and the water was calm as you can see in the image above. Today was going to be a topwater and streamer kind of day! I had already rigged my Scott G2 3wt for dry flies. However, as I begin rowing toward the middle, I noticed very few bugs on the water and consequently, very few rises. But I was not to be denied! Or was I? I rowed out to where the fish were rising and made some excellent shots, right at the rings. However, I soon realized that these fish were all one-and done risers, coming up just once and not returning. This realization corroborated with the reality that there weren’t many bugs on the water. Due to my stubbornness, it took me awhile to acknowledge that fact though. Finally, I put my 3wt down and picked up my streamer rod, which is my 7wt Scott Meridian, loaded with Cortland Streamer Max line. The line has a long sink tip and it really gets the fly down fast! I had already burned an hour dinking around with the dry fly and it was time to get down to business.
My first fly choice was the Creamsickle Jig. It was not full sun but enough to warrant a lighter color. Besides my midnight fire balanced leech, the Creamsickle was one of my most productive patterns at Strawberry. After dragging it around for over 30 minutes with nary a tug, I decided it was time for a change. Going completely opposite, I went for black. I had a big articulated black fly that also had a lot of red crystal flash. Black and red is another combination I have used successfully at Strawberry. In fact it is my “go to” color combo in the fall. Almost immediately, this pattern worked. I had multiple eats as I was rowing along and finally one connected and stuck. I landed a beautiful Cutthroat!
Now that we are here, eight eats in and just connecting on why I want a trolling motor. The answer is NOT becasue I’m too lazy to row around for 4 hours. I’m really not. I love rowing! What I don’t like is missing fish while I’m rowing. When you are fishing streamers at Strawberry, you have to cover a lot of water, unless you just happen to be parked on a big pod of fish! To cover water without a motor, means basically trolling using the oars and with two hands on the oars, your rod just sits there propped up. Every time you get an eat, you basically have to drop the oars and pick-up your rod. Also, the best action on your streamer requires that you strip your fly, which you can’t do when you are not holding your rod.
I was watching the float tube guys and they use their fins for propulsion, or they have a trolling motor which accomplishes the same thing so they always have their hands available to hold the rod. I have a float tube too and love it for this reason. They have “hands on” for setting the hook and also for stripping the fly. But when fishing dry flies, float tubes are a little lacking in speed and maneuverability. So, the solution? A trolling motor for my drift boat that also enables me to keep my hands free. The unit I’m jonesing for has a fob that will hang around my neck and will wirelessly control the motor’s speed and direction. This is great on so many levels! First for streamers it enables me to bein front of the boat while the motor is in back. I don’t need to be back there to control speed or direction! While we are moving slowly, I can be up front casting and stripping. This approach benefits me in two ways, first, with the rod in hand I can connect on a greater percentage of eats. Yesterday, I had 12 eats and only two fish! Those are terrible odds! Second, when dry fly fishing, and this is what I really want it for, I can be holding my rod as I’m approaching a rising fish, getting more and earlier shots off. I wil also get there much faster than if I were in a float tube. Standing in a drift boat is always an advantage over sitting in a float tube. You can make longer, more accurate casts from the boat. If yesterday did anything for me, it really validated and helped me cement in my mind, my reasons for wanting a trolling motor.
Like clockwork at 11:30am, the wind really began to pick up. There is only one good thing about the wind, it gives you a drift!! I can stand cast streamers, stripping while the boat is moving downwind. So I made a couple of passes but wasn’t getting more eats. My theory is that the fish start the day near the surface. If there are insects on the surface, they will rise to eat them, but they remain high in the water column while it is calm on the surface. The fish I was picking up on the streamer were only 5-10 feet deep, where as the bottom was 40 feet deep or more in some places. Once the bite is off, it could be that they have gone to deeper water, or they may just be more active early.
Anyway, it was an excellent day on the water! You can see the early calm in the picture above. But also, now i believe I have the justification I need to pulll the trigger on the trolling motor!
