The Morris Family: Fishing at Strawberry

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Fishing at Strawberry

Just a few years ago TJ's dad (Poppy, around these parts) started catching kokanee salmon while fishing at Strawberry Reservoir. He tells us "it's a disease" - he has become fairly focused on catching all the kokanee he can. Last year he put a decent chunk of money into outfitting his boat so that he can catch even more kokanee (and now I feel like every time I eat one of those delectable fillets of fish I'm eating the most expensive fish of my life). Poppy loves fishing and we really love Poppy, so we asked if he'd take us up to Strawberry to join him in the chase. We went up on July 5.

Nanny and Poppy - saints that they are - took the boat up on the fourth of July and slept overnight at the lodge so they'd be ready for us as soon as we made it up July 5. In spite of our intentions to leave at 5:00 we pulled out of the driveway at 6:00 and arrived to the lake right near 7:30. As we drove slowly through the parking lot, trying to remember where to go, we heard Reed exclaim, "Nanny!" He was, in fact, the only one of us that saw Nana standing in the parking lot as we passed her. That boy has some great eyes!

We spent a gorgeous morning out on the water, trying to figure out the perfect trolling speed (1.5 mph), the best depth for the lines (they seemed to be biting between 20-30 feet, though the fish finder never saw them at those ranges), the right lures and scents and spots on the lake. We had a great time and even pulled in a few kokanee (well, I never did - I refused to pick up the rod when there is a valuable fish on the line as I nearly always lose them). Reed got to pull in three cutthroat (we don't trust him with kokanee either ;) and seemed excited about that, but bawled when we had him go back for a picture and the fish flipped right next to him - that was unforgivable behavior from the fish.