We had a great time fishing Currant Creek Saturday evening. We were surprised to find it was totally ice-free. The road around the reservoir was mostly dry with no snow or ice. It was washboardy, but that is normal. The boat ramp was open and usable.

We say snow beneath trees on the hillsides but none around the reservoir.

Fishing success was slow when we first arrived, about 4 pm. We talked to a group who had only caught one, on Powerbait. We tried various lures without and luck until the sun sunk low in the sky.

About 6 pm action picked up dramatically. We caught several very nice fish, rainbows, cutthroats and tiger trout. They were fat and healthy. The biggest was a brightly colored rainbow that was about 18 inches long and almost measured the same around the girth. These were nice fish that struck hard and fought well.

In all, I caught 7 and Kevin lost count but probably landed 6-7. It has been a long time since I've caught that many solid fish in a one-day trip. We hooked fish using various lures, Castmaster, Jake's, but the Pointer Minnow proved to be the most effective.

They will soon stock the reservoir; after that most people will catch small, planted fish. But it is nice to know there are larger, hold-over fish available. Each fish we caught was carefully released.

We saw dozens of deer at dusk in open areas around the reservoir.

As we drove by Strawberry, we saw that it had some fishable open water – but not as much as I had expected. Peak ice-off action there will probably happen about May 1.

- Dave Webb