Utah's No. 1 fishing water, Strawberry Reservoir, continues to be recognized for its great fishing, not only by fishermen here in Utah but also by fishermen and fishing groups outside the state.

The American Fisheries Society recently recognized Strawberry as the 2006 recipient of the outstanding sport fish development/restoration Project of the Year award.

The society gives out three awards in three categories on a national level for development/restoration, research and education.

This is, as Alan Ward, project leader for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, pointed out, a national award that is not easy to come by, "so we were surprised ... and honored."

In announcing the award, the society noted that the 17,000-acre reservoir is Utah's most important sport fishery. It also made note of the fact that it was treated in 1991, and that through intensive management by the DWR, it has been possible to "sustain a sport fishery unrivalled in North America."

The reservoir gets nearly 100 angler-hours of fishing per acre and provides an average catch rate of about one fish per hour, which falls in the area of excellent fishing. It also noted that current regulations protecting Bear Lake cutthroat between 15 and 22 inches have been able to control both the chub and redside shiner population and produce a cutthroat population where one in five fish is 20 inches or larger.

Ward said that gillnet surveys the past several years have, in fact, shown that there are some large cutthroat and rainbow in the lake.

"Right now we're getting some mixed reports. Some nice cutts are being caught in the shallows, and some are being caught in 20 to 25 feet of water," he noted.

"One bait fisherman caught a 7-pound rainbow fishing from shore near the Ladders."

He added that while setting up nets to trap some of the spawning cutts, "we saw several fish up to 26 inches."

The peak of the cutthroat spawn will be around the end of May.

He said anglers are reporting good success using Woolly Buggers and dark leach patterns in the shallow. Some of the float tubers have been vertically jigging with tube jigs and doing well in 20 to 25 feet of water. He has also had reports of fishermen catching fish on Rapalas.

This year, with the warm temperatures and low snowfall, the ice came off Strawberry a few weeks early, which caught some fishermen off guard. Usually, it's mid-May before they can cast into open water and float boats and tubes.