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Tomorrow I will head to my favorite fishing spot, Strawberry Reservoir, and troll for rainbow trout and Bonneville cutthroat trout. I prefer trolling rather than bait fishing because less damage is done to the fish, increasing the chances for survival of released fish. If the fish swallows the bait, then there's a good chance the fish will die if you throw it back. Fish rarely swallow a trolled lure.
The lake has been stocked with cutthroat trout in hopes that they will feed on undesirable trash fish such as chubs and suckers. When cutthroats get to a certain size they pretty much snap at anything that will fit in their mouths, making them an excellent predator. Unfortunately this snapping reflex makes them easy to catch, and it becomes difficult for the fish and game department to maintain an optimum population of predators in the lake. Consequently they have asked anglers to release all cutthroats within a certain size range. You can keep a certain number of planters, which are new fish that haven't reached the predatory size, and you can keep the old, worn-out fish.
I like to fish for rainbows. They are more difficult to catch than cutthroats, but they are beautiful, and they put up a good fight. And you can keep the rainbows. A nice rainbow in the four to six-pound range is the ultimate payoff for a day on the water.
After catching a rainbow, that's all you want to catch, and the cutthroats become a nuisance. Sometimes it seems that you can't keep the cutthroats off your lure. I've had days where everyone in the boat has caught and released at least eight cutthroats each. I've found that cutthroats range freely over the entire lake, whereas rainbows like to congregate near underwater structures. My favorite place to troll is over a submerged streambed on the south side of the lake. The rainbows congregate down in that depression in the lake bottom, waiting to ambush anything that swims by overhead. I steer the boat in a zigzag pattern up and down the length of that submerged stream.
I like to troll with a 2-ounce lead weight and popgear , trailing a "wedding ring" spinner rig. This is a single blade spinner with a shiny little bead that gets the fish's attention. We put half a worm on the hook and we're in business.
It's fun when trolling to pass another boat that is bait fishing for cutthroats at anchor, and to hook up a fighting rainbow right there in front of them. They all whip out their binoculars to see what we're using, and we bring the fish in on the far side of the boat, out of their sight.
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