Strawberry is slowly starting to freeze over, with a lot of the bays frozen with fishable ice. However, as of New Year's Day, the entire reservoir had not capped. Conditions on 1-1-25 were calm and 5 degrees when we took off from the truck on our snowmobile before sunup. We made the 12 mile trek by snowmobile to Renegade. We parked our snowmobile near the shoreline and pulled our sled out to the ice capped bay.
We drilled dozens of holes in the area that is shaped like an arch with gradual increases in depth out to 45 feet in the middle and topping out right before we hit the ice line. Hole depths were between 15-45 feet. Starting in shallow in the 15 foot holes and side scanning with the Garmin Livescope revealed fish were milling around in the 20-30 foot depths, cruising at mid-water depths. We moved to those holes and ended up camping in these for hours.
Fish came through mid-range and from above with a few fish even appearing just below the ice where we could see them bite when looking down the hole. Solo fish would not give the bait and aggressive charge and bite on the first approach, and would need some convincing. But, when a school of 2-3 fish entered the screen, the competition heated up and it was usually the first fish that got to the bait that didn't waste any time committing to a bite.
Tube sizes and color varied, from white, pink, and chartreuse and jigs from 1/16 oz. up to 1/2 oz. tipped with wax or meal worms were working. For the lightest jigs (1/16 .oz and less) we used the Black Magic i which doesn't weight down the titanium indicator and for anything heavier, we were using the Finesse - a fantastic lightweight rod that gives you a lot of play with cutthroats. I experimented with a size 4 Rattlin' Rap, which brought fish in, but the trout weren't feeling that presentation so I switched back to the tube and the bite resumed.
The wind picked up in the afternoon and the bite started to slow, so we pulled up and headed back around 2 p.m. We caught around 30 fish with some decent fish approaching slot-buster status.
Strawberry has some very fishable ice right now 6-8 inches, but be careful and test the ice before walking or even considering driving a vehicle on it. And, a friendly PSA for all those headed up - with daily snowfall and some road maintenance ending for the winter months, do not drive off unplowed roads and it's best to travel with chains, shovels, traction boards, tow strap or all of the above. Good luck our there and leave some feedback in the comments where you are finding good ice around Utah this year.