Mantua Morning 5-25-06

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]TubeBabe and I launched our Fat Cats at the ramp about 6:15 AM. Lonely except for a bajillion pelicans, grebes, terns and gulls, all gathering a fish breakfast. Water temp was 62 at the ramp and 65 at the buoy line. Warmed to 68 before we got off the lake at noon.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The weeds are growing in the warming water, but the fish are not yet swarming like they will after the water passes 70 - 75 degrees. Couldn't find any cooperative fish in the shallows. Moved out past 15 feet and began to see stuff on sonar. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Just after 6:30 I heard someone hit "high C" and then a splash. TubeBabe claimed she was hooked up to a nice bass. Nice, yes. Bass, no. Turned out to be a 20" rainbow that went 3.6 pounds. Nice start. First fish and biggest fish of the day.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I kept changing depths, lures, bait and presentation. Finally got a couple of small bluegills. Then, I got into an area with a lot of perch. Went 5 for 5 on medium sized ones and then zip for awhile. Found more from time to time, but they were in small pockets and it was easy to drift off them. Shoulda had my marker buoys. Making an X on my tube or on the water didn't help.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe kicked over to the fish holding area and we had slow but steady action on gills and perch. Ended up catching about 60 or so perch and maybe 15 bluegill. I also got one chunky bitty bass to the tube and lost another that was quite a bit larger. Never did fish aggressively for the bass. Just kept throwing small tube jigs and caught all the species on small plastics.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We used several colors, but smoke sparkle, white and "confetti" worked best. Toward the end of our day we got a few on brown with chartreuse tail. Tipped with both worm and perch meat. The meat caught the most and the biggest. Also stayed on the hook best.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Most of our fish came in 12-16 feet of water. Saw lots of fish on sonar in deeper water but they all had their little mouths closed. We could sometimes look down in the clear water and see the schools of perch surround our jigs. Often they would just bump the head (with the eye on it) and would not even munch the meat. It was worse than ice fishing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There were several boats that hit the lake after we did. They all moved around a lot, which told me that they were never really on a pattern.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A bothersome breeze came up about 11. It made it tough to fish finesse style and we quit getting fish, so we got out and boogied.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Still not hot action for kids yet. Maybe another couple of weeks.[/#0000ff]
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[Theekillerbee]

Sounds like a fun morning at Mantua!
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[Kraizee_Skot]

[font "Times New Roman"][#ff4040][size 3]Sounds like you two had a great day at Mantua. The real question is, where did you guys get the time machine? I wish I could fish tomorrow this morning.[][/size][/#ff4040][/font]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Takes a lot of the guesswork out.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Slip of the digit.[/#0000ff]
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]Nice report, TD! Sounds like a nice relaxing morning. You two were very smart to get out on the tubes before the masses go fishing this weekend. That's pretty cool that tubebabe got a nice troutski to stretch her string amidst all of those fun little panfish. Gotta get me some of those little salt and pepper colored plastics. Wonder if they make them in 1 inch Charlie Brewer sliders. I'd think those would be perfect up there at Mantua on a little 1/32 oz jig head.

I'm sure glad I now only live about 40 minutes from that little gem of a lake. I plan assulting it quite a bit between now and October. Bluegills and perchies....YUMMY!! After I get done getting the new house in order, I plan on getting out on my tube again, but I may need a break from the home in a few weeks. Think I'll call in sick from work in a couple weeks to take advantage of the kittie spawn at Lincoln...I'll be giving you a call then.
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[JAB2208]

Dude,

Quick question for you. Do you rig that jig below a bobber or use a bubble? I want to hit Mantua this weekend and wondering which method seemed to worked the best. Thanks in advance!
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Hey Geoff, I do not envy you the chores of getting your new dwelling properly set up. But, I am sure you will really enjoy it once most of the work is done. There is always going to be something to do. Hopefully you can prioritize your "net spendable" time to allow more quality time on the water.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The "confetti" color I mentioned is not "salt and pepper". It is a clear plastic with flecks of red and blue in it. Several plastics manufacturers make it, but I don't think it is available in the slider grubs. They do make a lot of good colors for up there though. They have a brown with black specks and a green with brown and gold that are really good colors. I also use a lot of the smoke sparkle up there. Bass really like them and so do the big gills and perchies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe got her rainbow on a tubejig with blue sparkle head and clear sparkle tail. We use that everywhere. It is a universal "hot" color. I have taken lots of Willard Bay fish on that color. I often fish it for crappies but end up catching walleyes, wipers and catfish on it too. It is what I caught my last two wipers of the year on last year, while fishing for late crappies. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]By the way, the kitties are almost through spawning at Utah Lake. From now on they will be cruisin' and munchin'. Just about time to get out there and have a couple more of them wrap you up in your own line.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Keep in touch and let me know when you have a hole in your schedule. We will tube Willard or Mantua.[/#0000ff]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I prefer to cast and retrieve or to vertical jig them over the deeper spots. But, the bobber technique works well too. You can hang a small jig with worm on it, or just fish a small piece of worm or perch meat below the bobber next to the weeds. Sometimes that is the best way to catch more fish than "salad". Those weeds can be frustrating when they grow right to the top of the water.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The fish have not really worked up into the surface water layers yet as much as they will when the water warms just a bit. Once they become surface oriented, you can see them cruising over the tops of the weeds and around the shoreline wherever there is a break in the vegetation. That is prime time for flyrodding, or for a bubble and fly. The trick is to get to the larger fish before the small ones swarm your offering. That usually takes fishing deeper, with bigger jigs.[/#0000ff]
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[BurlSwift]

That is a chubby little B-gill, sure would be fun to catch those all day.
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[Rocesman_99]

Hi guy's i'm new here. Ive caught over 13 bass last sunday out there off shore. One pretty nece bass probley went about 2 pounds I got her off her bed. My problem with fishing there is the fact that every bass I caught over 14 people would expect me to keep??[mad]. I love to eat bass but I wont keep them in such a prime bass fishery such as mantua and I for sure wont keep them when there spawning. That's why I wish I could find a site where you know its a C-R site. But you cant. I would just rather keep 50 perch and cook em up. Thats the tastiest fish every anyway's. But I was wonndering what's the limit on small mouth bass out there. It cant be a very good large mouth fisherie with 8 billion small mouth in there so I might go do some damage on the smallie's depending on the limit. Thanks fisher dudes and fisher chicks.
roce
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]Thanks for the plastics tips. I've never tried the blue with clear sparkled plastics. Gonna go get me some, and I need to get me some of that Electroflect metalic blue paint from Barlows soon! I've got a dedicated little room in my garage for jigmaking, etc. Can't wait to put it to use this summer! I'll call ya in a week or two...
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I'll freely admit to being a bluegill junkie. I have caught just about every species of fish in North America...fresh water and saltwater. I have taken fish and sharks in the several hundred pound range. But, I still get stoked just playing with those little scrappy battlers on light spinning tackle or flyrods.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You want chubby? Take a look at this male and female caught on a flyrod from Pelican Lake. Both were about 11 inches and weighed well over a pound each.[/#0000ff]

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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Welcome aboard. Congrats on the bass catchin' last week. That is a great little lake for shore fishing, if you can find a spot not choked by the weeds.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Mantua does have a few smallmouth, but the largemouths are much more common. No need to worry about hurting the lake if people keep a few. Actually, there are probably too many bass in there. Well, not really, as long as the bluegill and perch population stays as hefty as it is. Lots of food.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Catch and release is always a matter of personal choice. There is no doubt that selective harvest will keep a lake healthier, but Mantua can definitely stand some thinning on the smaller bass. It is probably better to release the larger spawners, to keep the big fish gene pool healthy. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It is unrealistic to expect that any fishery in Utah will ever be 100% C&R. First of all, there is no water that is in sufficient danger of overharvest to warrant it. Second, the cooler crowd would riot on the steps of the state building. Too many folks that believe they have to take home fish to justify the money they spend on a license. DWR has done a pretty good job of putting in slot limits where some regulation is necessary and it seems to be working for the most part.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I'm with you on the perch. Better eating than bass. If you can bag a limit of 50 perch, and make it through the filleting process, you really have some fine eating.[/#0000ff]
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[BurlSwift]

Holy crap! Those little fatso's are so chubby their heads aren't even touching the rock. That's awesome!
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