Frustrated!!!

[Boatiac]

I went to Mantua today, didnt do real bad. Caught 6 bucketmouths about 8"-10" in length. Covered the north and eastern shorelines. Caught them using a chrome single blade willow leaf spinner. All were caught as soon as the lure struck the water. Last year when I went there, I was using soft baits (of which I now know I wasn't supposed to use)and couldnt keep them off. Water temp today was 70.5 - 74.2. I tried to do a search for any Mantua threads in hopes of finding some more info on baits, techniques, and the best places to search for bucketmouths in Mantua. I searched 100 + posts (got frustrated and quit) from the results and found NOTHING concerning Mantua.

So, I'm sure you guys have covered this dozens of times already, and I apologize for asking again.

I know that the lake was poisoned a while back, but with the growth rates on lrgmths, and even considering the short growing season, shouldnt there be lrgmths bigger than what I was getting today?

Considering Largemouths. What would be the primary colors to use at Mantua? And what would be some of your lures of choice for Mantua? With the water temps what they were today, should I have gone deeper? With the plant growth thats there should I consider jigging? I did try a couple cranks off the point in deeper water.

I dont post much but I lurk frequently, I know there has been posts on Mantua, but danged if I can find them w/out going thru 100's of other posts that dont even pertain. As with other posts I have done I really appreciate any help you guys can or will give me.

TIA

Mike (Boatiac)

COOL, went from worm to fish, does that mean catching will be better???????? LOL
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[Hellsangler69]

Are you refering to soft baits as plastics . If you did good on plastics just make sure they are not scented or salted . I never have fished Mantua , so not much help on that lake . good luck and tight lines
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[Hellsangler69]

Mantua Search ::::::::::::::::::::

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=43546;search_string=Mantua;#43546"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=43546;search_string=Mantua;#43546[/url]

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=45415;search_string=Mantua;#45415"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=45415;search_string=Mantua;#45415[/url]

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=45118;search_string=Mantua;#45118"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=45118;search_string=Mantua;#45118[/url]

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=43429;search_string=Mantua;#43429"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=43429;search_string=Mantua;#43429[/url]

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=40800;search_string=Mantua;#40800"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=40800;search_string=Mantua;#40800[/url]

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=40431;search_string=Mantua;#40431"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=40431;search_string=Mantua;#40431[/url]

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=34601;search_string=Mantua;#34601"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=34601;search_string=Mantua;#34601[/url]

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=32715;search_string=Mantua;#32715"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=32715;search_string=Mantua;#32715[/url]

Some may not be about bass but you can check them out . Just trying to help . Tight lines
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[PREDATOR]

Boatiac, heres a little history for you. Before the poisoning, mantua was northen utahs premiere largemouth water. Not many people knew it. You could go up on a saturday and have the lake all to yourself sometimes. The bass were bigger then. But the chubs were the main food scource.

Then they decided to plant trout in there and the chubs were the competition so they killed them off and thats when the new regs came into play. They pulled a bunch of bass out of the lake and put them in the pond on the east side during the poisoning. Then put them back into the lake when they stocked the trout. A lot of fish died that were still in the lake. The new regs were catch and release only on the bass, and artificial only. So what you have is a small group of medium size bass left, producing a grundle of smaller bass in the past couple years. In fact they produced so many small ones that they reinstated the ability to keep bass this year.

Unfortunatley the bass will eat the trout. I have seen many a large bass tossed up on the dike to rot by trout fishermen who consider the bass a threat to the new found trout fishery.

So, to answer your question the short way, yes you should be catching bigger bass than you are. You would be had there not been trout planted in there, but you probably wouldnt know about it without the lakes major increase in popularity, due to the trout.

On the up side, there is now a new food scource in there, and all those small bass will one day grow big. mantua is such an excellent lake for largemouth due to the cover of submerged trees and weeds, and shallow depths, not to mention the health of the lake in supporting bait fish populations.

So in the future look for the bass size to increase but also expect the popularity and pressure to continue to increase.

99% of your bass anglers fish the east side of the lake. It is to your advantage to learn how to fish the other areas of the lake for the bass while the pressure on these areas is still low.

There are some big ones in there right now. My biggest from last year was six pounds, and this year I have gotten a few nice ones as well. [center][/center] [center]This ones not too bad.[/center] [center]For colors, I like darker colors. Theres a lot of snails and small crustaeceans living in those weeds and the trout as well as the bass are feeding on them. [/center] [center]everyone is going to have thier favorite techniques and lures, but the bottom line is they all will work. [/center]
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[Scooter]

Boatiac, I fished Mantua for 3 days over the holiday and caught several bass in the 2 to 6 pound class. I found we caught the smaller bass on spinner baits and crank baits and caught the larger on the bottom or close to, with plastics. Pred is right that the east side gets pounded by the bass fisherman. But find something new that everyone else is NOT throwing and you can do well over there. Other wise do some exploring and you will find other locations holding many bass. I have 2 or 3 other locations that I'll take to my grave that hold bass. Seek and search Grass Hopper and you will Find. Stick with darker colors and be prepaired to clean alot of moss and grass off your baits, but you'll be pleased with your out come.
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[Boatiac]

Thanks Hellsangler69

Did you manually go back through the posts or do a search? I have tried once again to do a search, I am trying to narrow the search down as much as it will let me and I just keep getting posts that dont pertain to Mantua at all and other states. Am I spelling it right, maybe I better check a map for sp.

Thanks for the info Scooter and Predator. I am so green to the art of Bass fishing that at times I can get pretty PO'd and ready to chuck it all! (oh would that PO the wife, with all the "I gotta have this" stuff, invested) :-)

I went to Sportsmans today to look at the "clean" soft rubber baits, there really isnt a large selection, most have some sort of scent or salt in them. Most of the "clean" soft baits were grubs or tubes, niether of which I have much experience at yet. I am becoming comfortable with rubber worms and rigging those, and have done fairly well at other lakes going after smallies. Any hints????

Thanks again for the info, and TIA to those that may be willing to chime in.
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[Hellsangler69]

I did a search for Mantua , but there are tricks to the trade in that game . Keep trying and it will work . If I could remember what all I done I would pass it on . But the little boxes you need to change everything from what comes up in them . As for spelling , I could of miss some due to spelling . LOL Tight lines
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[neveronsunday]

[#ff0000]Dare I say it again? Flatfish have been incredible for me there. especially in the south-east corner. AARUUGGGHHH!!! I can't believe I said it out loud again! [/#ff0000]
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[IceFishingGod]

At least you didn't say on the humps in the SW corner with Carolina rigged purple Yoyo's. Then people really would have been mad!

IFG