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Took the day off work and hit the Gorge yesterday. It was just a day trip starting at 3:00 a.m. and arriving home at 9:45 p.m. (long day). It was the only day that my brother and I could work our schedules out to take. It had been a few years since I've been up and had never targeted the macks. We both love to jig for fish, especially ice fishing, but have spent a lot of time at Bear Lake jigging deep water, so we decided to give it a try. What a fun day. Nearly every point or hump that we tried had fish on it, at least they showed on the finder, but not all were willing to play. We ended up catching 17 macks, but nothing over 4 lbs. We also had 6 or 7 that just came off after the hookset. We each missed our share of hits, man they can be fast and sometimes nearly imperceptible. We each had 1 heavy fish on, mine with heavy head shakes on the hookset then taking drag at a terrible rate, but both just came unbuttoned. We found fish from 65 to 105 ft, and caught fish at every level, although the most agressive ones were at 65 to 75 ft deep. We caught fish most of the day, only having one lull period.
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Sounds like a fun trip. I hope they are willing to play when I get up there in a couple weeks.
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We're heading to the Gorge over Labor Day, and I don't think I'll have a real hard time getting in to the bass there, but I was wondering what to use for the smaller macs? I was thinking about getting some 1 oz. jig heads and fishing around 50-60 feet early in the morning. We have a depth finder, but not a fish finder on the boat we're going on. I think the bass will be pretty easy on stick baits and reapers and stuff like that. I would like to get in to the macs and see how that goes.
Any tips from anyone would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
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LOOKS LIKE YA FUN. WHAT COLOR AND TIPE OF JIGS WERE FISHING? IM HEADED UP THE 12TH. THANX
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Smallmouthchaser--use some 4-inch tube jigs to rip the smaller macks; a light color like white or glow, and a dark color like brown or dark green. As was posted above, nearly any point from 60-100 feet holds small, cooperative fish. There's also a bunch of big ones in Linwood right now, but you won't catch 10 or 20 or 30. If you get a couple big ones in there, you're doing good. There's small ones in there too, but the pups are easier to fool someplace OTHER than Linwood.
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We caught most on white/pearl tubes. We caught a few on different colors, but nothing on dark colors (not without trying). We used anywhere from 5 inch down to 2 1/2 inch tubes with 3/4 oz to 3/8 oz heads. The small fish really liked the smaller sizes. I'm sure others who fish it more would have better info than I do. We also added a little sweetener to it to help them hold on for just a little longer.
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Sounds like you've got it down to me! Your good catch proves that. If it ain't broke, keep it up! And the "sweetener" does get more hits from the smaller fish, though in my opinion based on experience, it actually deters the larger ones.
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Thanks for the info. Bear lake fish will keep on hitting if you miss a strike and have a sweetener on it. I will have to try it next time. I did notice that if we missed strikes up at the Gorge, many wouldn't come back for a second time. Your info is really good on the Gorge and you have a great web site. Those fish make my mouth water.
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Great report!
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Smallmouth & Colton,
I'll be at the gorge also. Site 32 at Mustang ridge. Contact me if you can. We'll fish.
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] I will be there over labor day too. I leave Friday morning.