Hey some exciting news to report. The Strawberry Bay Rainbow trout tagged fishing contest is back on again this year up at Strawberry Reservoir. Hi, I’m Adam Eakle, KSL Outdoors, tonight we are going to show you how to target those rainbows. We are going to show you some of the prizes that you are going to get if you catch one of those tagged fish, including another beautiful Crest Pontoon boat. Let’s go hit the water.
We are excited about having another contest at Strawberry.
This is the third rainbow trout tagged fishing contest to be held at Strawberry. Last year if you remember.
You’ve got a boat dude! 256 Come on up!
What do you think? Oh my gosh.
Sam Hendon from Sandy caught a tagged rainbow at Strawberry. His name was drawn from a hat and Sam and his family took home this brand new Crest Pontoon boat. This year, one of the grand prizes is again a beautiful Crest Pontoon boat. The rules are the same, but you should have a greater chance to catch a tagged fish this year.
The rules are there is no registration fees, you just come and fish. The tagged fishing contest started Memorial weekend on Saturday and will go through Oct 31st.
12 inches.
We are going to do the tags a little different this year. The DNR wanted to work with us to help us increase our catch rate on these tags so we are going to put two hundred of the tagged fish in first. With all five of the grand prized tag fish. We did that before Memorial weekend and then we are going to do another two hundred the first of July, to see if we can increase the catch rate on those.
So the most effective way to catch rainbows on Strawberry is we like to put a couple of small BB split shots about 18 inches up from a 14 size treble hook.
Use a rainbow, garlic Powerbait. A good way for kids to be able to fish so that the fish has got the bait in it’s mouth, so it’s easy to hook up, easy to set the hook and pretty good success for young kids.
There we go.
Early in the season like this you want your bait to sink a little slower so those fish have a chance to grab it because they are suspended.
sweet! That’s the size we are looking for.
We’ll tag a lot of this size of fish but then we’ll have some fish 22-24 inches. They will be catchable, some nice fish.
Yeah we’ve got some pretty cool grand prizes. We’ve got a really nice fishing boat donated by Crest boats. We’ve got some cash donated by One Stop down in Heber, we’ve got Sportsman’s Warehouse. They are donating a lot of gift cards.
We’ve got a power sport. we are not exactly sure what it is going to be, probably a four wheeler or snowmobile or something like that.
What do you got? I don’t know.
We also have hundreds of other prizes that range from a hundred to five hundred dollars.
Rainbow!
We feel like it is a really good opportunity to get people up here. We just want to draw people to the area, we want to bring people to the lake, get people up fishing. We really enjoyed last year, watching all those prizes being given away.
Whoo! We’ll take those.
so everybody is a winner if they catch a tagged fish.
The yellow ones you are entered to win the remainder of the grand prizes that are not caught.
and then yeah we’ll have a closing ceremony up at KSL where we’ll…
257.
Draw all the grand prizes for the winners and giveaway some of the other prizes as well.
I do it because of course I have a passion for Strawberry Reservoir, I have a business out here but I love the reservoir. I’ve been here for 30 plus years working and it’s a way to give back. I’ve been successful for so many years. We have such good customers and I just want to give back.
Well check out that what 21, 22 maybe inch. Just about 22 yeah. Yeah that’s a beautiful rainbow Enoch. What did you get him on? I got him on PowerBait actually. Nice good looking fish, will be good for the smoker. It sure will be. You said that you come up for these tag fishing contest but never caught a tag. Been coming up here since 84, love the lake, love the people that own the facilities. Never caught a tagged fish. But that is ok, I keep coming back and trying. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Hey we are going to show you what those tags look like in just a moment, coming up. But first let’s check out this week’s, Klymit quiz question.
The cutthroat trout found in Strawberry Reservoir is the Bear Lake or Bear River cutthroat trout native to Bear Lake and the Bear River drainage. These cutthroat were put into Strawberry Reservoir to help control the population of Utah Chubs and they are doing a pretty good job. But, our Klymit quiz question tonight is. What sub species of cutthroat trout is native to the Strawberry drainage? If you know the answer, log onto our KSL Outdoors Facebook page, give us a like and give us the correct answer. We’ll then randomly select and announce a winner on our Facebook page. The winner is set to receive a Klymit Static V Sleeping Pad. From our friends and new partners at Klymit. Remember Klymit, comfortable, rugged and lightweight. KSL Outdoors will be right back to Strawberry Reservoir.
I think it’s going to be tremendous and people are going to catch a lot of these fish.
Welcome back to KSL Outdoors, we wanted to show you exactly what these tagged rainbow trout look like. So we’ve come to the fish trap at Strawberry to watch Alan and his crew tag and release these fish.
What we do is we have, it’s called a dart tag. Just a plastic tag we insert right in the back of the fish, right near the dorsal fin.
the tag number is 1024.
it’s very easy to see, once you catch the fish. Most people even see it before they even get it to the boat and get excited because they see that tag sticking out of the fish.
We are doing yellow and red tags this year. If you see one of those red or yellow tags, you’d better hold onto that, it could be worth something.
Alan will tag and release…
And that one’s 15 inches…
Three hundred and ninety five yellow tagged rainbow trout, along with five red tagged rainbow trout.
The grand prizes this year are red tags. Yellow tags are usually a smaller prize but even those tags are worth something at the end of the contest because whatever grand prizes were not giving away they get put into a drawing for those grand prizes. Every tag can be a winner.
It’s pretty much going to be run the same way it has the last couple of years. If you catch one of these tags, take it down to the marina stores and they’ll take care of you down there and get you set up on prizes.
Big money fish right here. About 18 inches on that fish.
Yeah we got some great fish this year.
We were able to find a hatchery that had some of these larger fish and have been holding onto these actually for these contests and so we have a little bigger fish this year. Makes it easier for those fish to survive and also easier for people to catch them.
There’s your big money fish going right out to the reservoir. We are going to take him right out and let him go.
Last year Alan’s crew tagged 7 kokanee salmon, although none were ever caught during the contest. Alan did see one tagged kokanee return to the trap here on the Strawberry River. This year they plan on catching and tagging a few kokanee as well.
I know we’ve got a lot of people who like to come up here and chase kokanee, it’s been pretty good fishing the last couple of years. We are actually going to try and put a few tag into some of these kokanee. If we can catch a few kokanee here in the next few weeks, we’ll tag a few of those and who knows you might just catch that kokanee with a prize to.
So here goes a red one. Big money fish right there. He was happy to get out of there.
Now people are going to call you up and ask where do I go to catch a tagged fish. We put them lake wide. The Division was really good about that. They do. They do them lake wide. They do them so I don’t know. The DNR just goes out and they don’t want us to have any advantage at the marina. I know for sure they are out there. You’ve just got to go chase them. Hey don’t forget free fishing day on June 11th. So if you don’t have a fishing license you can get out and catch one anyway. Right. oh yeah. Hey back to the guys at Fish Tech for tonight’s fishing report.
Hey George Sommers here with Fish Tech Outfitters. We are talking about swimbaits for big trout. Specifically big rainbow trout. There is many different kinds and styles to use. I’ve got a few laid out here. The rig is really simple. Crane swivel or arrow swivel, a jig hook, preferably with a longer hook, and then the bait. There are some other options in Line Thru. The outfit is really simple to hook up. You’ve got your swivel to your main line, a little bit of leader twelve to eighteen inches and then your hook. The key is to put this on straight, so it swims right. When you are fishing it, cast to the bank and retrieve it real slow. A key way to to know how fast you are going is if you have a belly in your line when you are retrieving, you are going the right speed. Watch that belly, if it jumps, that’s a bite and you need to set the hook. If you are having trouble hooking the fish, where applicable, put a little scent on the bait. That will improve your hookups. I like to use the crawfish salt but there is many other flavors that are going to work just as well. For tips and techniques like these and many others, stop in and see us at Fish Tech Outfitters and now for tonights fishing line.
Welcome back to KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle. Well Memorial day is here, the tagged fishing contest is underway and the Hatch and Phillips families, well they are kicking it off right.
Hey we do have a great turnout for our pancake kickoff for the tagged fishing contest.
We are here at the kickoff of the annual fishing derby that we have sponsor each year for the entire summer. We have lots of our old time fisherman that keep coming up but we are inviting lots of new people this year. We are excited to see the families showing up now.
Man it’s ten thirty in the morning and we already have four tags in so we are excited. People are catching them already.
Alright. Where did you guys find this? Over by Haws Point and my son is the one who reeled it in. How cool is that.
9 year old Hunter Alexander decided to forgo breakfast and fish. He ended up catching one of the first tagged fish of the contest.
We’ve been fishing after these for three years and we couldn’t believe we actually caught one of them. first time.
You might win the boat buddy. Look at the boat you could win from this. That’s awesome, congrats guys.
Never been fishing before? Nope. What!
Not to be outdone, 11 year old Gentry Tanner caught not only her first ever fish, but tagged fish as well.
my first fish. and it’s a tagged fish! How cool is that! That’s really cool. Did you know what it was when you saw it? No i was just reeling it in and I was like guys get over here I’ve got a fish! And she was like it’s a tagged one and I didn’t believe her and i saw it.
Oh my gosh! Here you go. Will you do me a favor? Yes. Keep fishing. Ok!
and kids like Gentry and Hunter are exactly what this contest is all about.
Congratulate Hunter for winning a prize.
The next generation is also the focus of a new project at Strawberry Bay Marina that has been in the works for a few years now.
We think that this is a really overlooked opportunity. A crowned jewel really of Utah and we are excited to be able to offer some new buildings and things here to bring on some different opportunities for families to come up and make this part of their lives. There just isn’t enough outdoor things and some of our young people just aren’t having opportunities to experience what some of us old timers have.
The old Strawberry Bay Marina lodge and Store have been around since the early nineties. They were built by Paul’s late father Doug Phillips. After nearly three decades of providing memories for thousands of Utah families, the Phillip and the Hatch families have big plans.
We are planning a huge event center here. That will accommodate not only businesses for their businesses retreats but family reunions, weddings, those kinds of things. We’ll be building a huge, new restaurant, new lodges, different facilities available for families. We’ll even have things like a gun range up here.
It’s going to be bigger and better and more services available to people. More services for big groups, more services for families. I mean family reunions are getting big in Utah and we’ll have the venue to take care of huge family reunions. It’s going to be awesome. And to have this lake as a setting to do it on. It’s just going to be unbelievable.
Construction is still a year or more away, but the hope is to continue a tradition of family and friends at Utah’s most popular trout destination. Time for tonight’s Utah Field Guide.
What do we got, rainbow? Rainbow.
The rainbow trout is one of he most prized sportfish for Utah anglers. In fact, it was our state fish from 1971 to 1997. The rainbow trout is not native to Utah, but it is native along the Pacific Rim from California to Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Since the mid 1800’s the rainbow trout has been introduced into every state in the United States and in at least eighty different countries on every continent except Antarctica. The Rainbow is also a popular sportfish in New Zealand. The first successful shipment of rainbow trout to New Zealand is thought to have occurred in 1883. It is believed that the 1883 shipment of trout eggs originated from trout eggs from Sonoma Creek in California.
Because the species is so popular with anglers and because most rainbow trout do not reproduce in the wild, the Utah DWR stocks millions of rainbow trout into Utah waters each year. Hundreds of thousands have already been stocked across much of Utah this spring. Your chance to catch one, free of charge will happen next Saturday June 11th as the DWR will waive all fishing fees for the free fishing day. No license will be required but all rules and regulations still apply. For more information about the rainbow or the free fishing day, check out our outdoors page at KSLTV.com.
Well the clouds are building behind us, so we decided to come into the lodge, grab something to eat. Looks like there is some rain maybe on they way. Let’s find out the recreation forecast by turning it over to the guys and gals in the weather department.
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