We launched about 7:30. It was 21 degrees with a breeze and a few gusts, but I have been on much worse.
We went to Bryants Fork (I guess that is what it is called)
Headed North and was getting into fish out of the gate. Most in the 30’ to 40’ area and FAST strips.
BIG FLIES also.
I used a Bright Pink Woolly Bugger dropper on all set-ups and although no takes, I do think it was an attractor.
We were there for 4 hours and 16 fish all over 20". Some very thin.
My bags are 21" long:
Flies of choice were 4" Sex Dungeon in Black and White / Brown Egg Sucking Sculpin by Kelly Galloupe
Fly Goddess: Strawberry was one of my favorite spots to take my Stepdad when I visited Utah. His health had deteriated to the point he did not want to flip a fly any more so we ended with our feet proped up on a boat using the infamous Power Bait. One of the last fish caught was a large Cutt which we quessed at close to 5 lbs. A Strawberry local told us that the cutt was a Bear Lake Strain Cutthroat. I don’t remember if that cutt looked like the ones in your pictures or not as that was 15 years ago. Shortly after that fishing trip Pops passed awy and I will always miss him.
Thanks for the pictures they are nice reminders of days gone by. Are your cutts the Bear Lake strain?
OH MY GOD you went to the hillbilly country of Utah and survived. You are so lucky to make it back in one piece. ROTFLMAO Strawberry is a excellent resevoir. I have a lot of relitives up in fruitland and dueshane. I always knew there were some big fish up there. When the wife was a kid many many moons ago she hooked into the fish that scared her from ever catching any big fish. I have fished some of the creeks up there as well and caught some nice (but skinny) browns. ONe of these years I will have to take the wife up there to visit her mom (buried in the fruitland cemetary) and maybe hook up with the two of you for some fishing on the resevoir. Very very nice fish on the serious side. Looks like you had a good day on the water.
The lake I was fishing today also had a water temperature in the upper 40s, which I think is extremely warm for this time of year.
Winter temperatures vary a lot from place to place. Anchorage is one of the warmer places in this area. The weather here has been weird the last few years. The last two winters were a little on the cold side, but not as cold as it used to be. Before that it didn’t get below zero for a few years and they had to cancel the dog sled races several times because it was too warm in February.
It generally gets cold here in October. November often has subzero temperatures. The trusty Milepost says that the average temperature for Anchorage for January is 14 degrees. The average temperature for July is 58 degrees. The record low was -38 degrees in February of 1947. The record high was 86 degrees in June of 1953. The Milepost says that a record of 41 days of 70 degree temperatures or higher was set in 2004. That record might have been broken this year. There were only two days over 70 degrees in 2008 when there was a late spring and an early winter. Some lakes were frozen on October 15, 2008 when I tried to fish them.
It ways that the average snowfall is 69 inches per year with snow on the ground typically from October to April. It hasn’t snowed down here yet, but there was a lot of snow on the mountains. It has been unseasonably warm in the 50s here the past few days so the snow that was on the mountains has melted.
Hopefully I’ll be able to fish until at least Thanksgiving!!!
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
60’s in the summer … 70’s is real nice.
teens and single digits in the winter … below -10 is considered pretty cold around Anchorage.
We’re coastal so it never gets real cold or hot.
Fairbanks and points interior though run from 90 to -60
