Jordanelle Smallmouth

[salmotrutta]

Hello everyone,

First off I would like to thank everyone on this site for all the help. I am an avid reader of the this board, I just don't get out fishing as much as I would like; and unfortunately I post to this site even more rarely. Your help in learning how to fish Willard Bay has been invaluable. I was able to go twice this year to Willard. One was a 25-30 fish day, the next week I got skunked!

This weekend I am going to be able to get out again. I would really like to fish Jordanelle for smallies, but don't know where to begin. I have searched the site and have found a few reports, but very little how-to advice. Any help, for someone who knows very little about bass fishing (except for wipers), would be greatly appreciated. We will be fishing from a boat. We will also have some kids with us, so if the bass fishing is slow I'd also like any insight on how to catch perch.
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[utwalleye]

You should be able to get alot of help on this one, there's alot of guys that fish for smallies at jordanelle here. they can be caught alot of ways up there. top water pop'r works good, buzz baits also work good. senkos, hula grubs, jerk baits, are also great baits.
just work the shore lines in and around the the weed lines and rocky shore lines and points. As for the perch, just drop a nightcrawler you should be able to find them all over the lake. once you find a school, use just a 1\4in. piece worm. your kids will have a blast catching them. I took my 1 1\2 year old grand daughter a few weeks ago and she caught her first fish, a 13in. smallie. hope this helps. later chuck
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[salmotrutta]

Thanks for the info. Any tips on easy but effective rigs for a first timer? I keep reading about drop shotting. It sounds easy to rig up and fairly easy to fish - cast, let it drop, retrieve slowly. I am sure there is more to the technique than that, but do I have the right idea?
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[doggonefishin]

One of the easiest but highly effective rigs a first timer can use is the "wacky" rig. You just purchase some plastic worms or senkos. ( Think green or brownish shades for Jordanelle.) some larger hooks size 1-0,0,1,2, and put the hook in the middle of the bait, then cast it out and let it drop. Slowly retrieve the bait along the stucture once it hits bottom. Soooo simple but deadly. "Texsposed" rigging requires a certain type of hook, but is just as easy to fish. I will let one of the bass pros that do more dropshotting elaborate on that more, but the goal of it is to have the weight stay (nearly) stationary on the bottom, and render action to the suspended bait via your rod. It is not so much of a cast and retrieve type of fishing. On the home page of BFT, there is an archive where you can read how to tie and fish some of the rigs you may have read about.
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