"My name is Matt. My friend Chris and I went to Strawberry with our float tubes this mourning (Aug 17, 2003). We got to the Soldier Creek side and were on the water at 6 am. As soon as Chris cleared the moss bed he started to cast a Jakes Spin-a-Lure. His 4th or 5th, cast fish on, but it wasn't the trout he thought it was. It was a 15 inch long 11 1/2 inch around smallmouth bass. After a day of catching a bunch of 21 1/2 inch cutts, a few small cuts and 1 big bow we went to show the DWR."

Here's a response from Roger Wilson, DWR's Strawberry project leader:

For your information, we attempted to locate smallmouth bass with electrofishing equipment last Thursday on Soldier Creek. We were unable to sample any bass, and it is evident that they are present in sufficiently low numbers to escape detection at this time.

This is the 4th reported catch of bass in the last 2 years, all on the Soldier Creek side.

We have been engaged in a smallmouth bass evaluation over the last several years. It is my opinion that smallmouth will not successfully reproduce in Strawberry because of the extensive starvation period (the cold water period during which bass will not feed <10*C), and the slow growth rate of young-of-the-year fish produced by natural reproduction.

The literature suggests that the young bass would have to reach a length of 8-9 cm to survive the first winter. Our growth predictions suggest that they would only reach about 4 cm, well below the necessary size. However, this evaluation is continuing, and we will make a more formal recommendation in the near future. The occurrence of smallmouth is not a great concern at this time.

My biggest concern is that anglers may illegally introduce a species that poses a serious threat to our sportfishery at Strawberry.