Fishing

For the people who fish for bass at Jordanelle?

I would like to know how you think the new regs are working??

1. Are the bass bigger or smaller then years past?

2. Are you getting more bass or less each trip??

3. How many of you have got bass over 20" this year??

4. Is the fishing better or not??

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Bassrods likes to fish for bass using Mojo lures and Weights, and Parasite Weights.
Practice CPR...Catch, Photograph and Release.
Utah state C&R record 23.5"
Tight lines....

KEEP THE DAMN SPEAR HUNTERS OUT THEN AND ONLY THEN DOES THAT LAKE HAVE A CHANCE

I only fished there once so can't answer your questions. Sorry. However it seems people don't take bass out there to eat because of the heavy metal warning. (smaller fish have less mercury content than a big one) Heck even the twins won't help and eat some small fish there. The only bass that were taken out of there was all (many) of the big ones by spear guys wanting to get the record. Also I think it is poor management to generalize the whole state, besides jordanelle and sand hollow, with high hopes of thinning out some some small fish at jordanelle. I watched too many big largemouth get tossed into buckets by guys sinkin a nightcrawler. We will have to just wait and see how much effect the rule change had on our lakes. I will be one of the first to get out on the water come spring and I'll let you know what I think then too.......well actually I will probably keep quiet about it all until the horn is blown.

OK Cliff, I'll bite. This could be a worthwhile discussion.


1. Are the bass bigger or smaller than years past?

For me, there were fewer small bass than recent years past, the 10-13 inch class was very strong, there were plenty of 14-16 inchers, and the 17-18 inch class was about the same as years past with several of these. No monsters though this year. So the answer is fewer dinks and fewer bigguns, but more strength in the middle.

2. Are you getting more bass or less each trip??

My fish counts were the same as last year with an approximate average of 20 fish per evening/half day trip. Low of 10 fish and several trips over 30 caught.

3. How many of you have got bass over 20" this year??

I did not get one over 19" this year. First time in many years. But I did get good numbers of 17's and 18's.

4. Is the fishing better or not??

It wasn't better but it wasn't worse either. Overall, the outings have been about the same. It was a good year, but fewer dinks and fewer giants were seen.


So Cliff, how do you answer your own questions?






I caught you a delicious bass.

Aw shucks you are right on that one! Guilty as charged!!! That is why I avoid that fishery so far. I hear you can eat 2 packs of cards worth a month and others say it doesn't matter at all you can eat to your hearts' content. I say Nay, Nay!

Even my spear fishing buddies freaked out when I told them about the Murcury content. I would not even accept their donations of bass from that lake. Hey that is a few less spear gunners out there now.

I am sure UtahGolf would appreciate fishing with me there as I would release all my bass.
He wouldn't have to bring so many tissues, ha, ha, ha!



-TDT (AKA Spike's Pike)

"Like you were gonna marry a carp and put in a tank or something, let it wear a pink dress, and have coffee and conversations with it." - harlin

 
I don't think the new reg's have been long enough to show much of a difference
yet. give it 2 more years.

Too soon to say really. My guess is the overall size will increase, but so far it's just a guess.

I lost a BIG one the other night. Broke my heart.

For the people who fish for bass at Jordanelle?

I would like to know how you think the new regs are working??

1. Are the bass bigger or smaller then years past?
Smaller.

2. Are you getting more bass or less each trip??
More but they are mostly under 10 inches!

3. How many of you have got bass over 20" this year??
I haven't got a 20 from jordanelle before.


4. Is the fishing better or not??
Better for catching, $hi**y for size.

- CBR (BigFish Utah)

You ask what I have done??

At the first of the ice off I did good for bass up to 19" but only two..

The numbers of bigger bass is down by five to ten bass over 12" per trip with NONE over 20" this year..

This is the first year so far in more then 9 years I have not got bass over 20" at Jordanelle, in the 9 years the lowest in the past was 22 for the year with 49 the most in one year..

I have been fishing other lakes, and some have bigger SM bass this year over Jordanelle...

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Bassrods likes to fish for bass using Mojo lures and Weights, and Parasite Weights.
Practice CPR...Catch, Photograph and Release.
Utah state C&R record 23.5"
Tight lines....

OK, that's interesting.

Now, let me ask one more question before we start to draw conclusions.

1. For those of you that target perch at Jordanelle, how did you do? How did it compare to previous years?

And I'll start. I didn't target them much at all this year, but the numbers seemed to be down from previous years and they didn't seem to show up where I fish until much later in the year. (Perhaps not a surprise with the weather pattern) Additionally, it has seemed that perch numbers at Jordanelle have steadily declined over the past few years.





I caught you a delicious bass.

I have found more perch then before..

But I have found other lakes with more and bigger perch..

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Bassrods likes to fish for bass using Mojo lures and Weights, and Parasite Weights.
Practice CPR...Catch, Photograph and Release.
Utah state C&R record 23.5"
Tight lines....

Imho.
I think that the best time to hit the big ones would be early in the year. Now that brings up the fact that this was not a year, that you could fish in the past. Due to the fact that the spring, and on going water levels are not what we are use to at all. So with that said did you get any over 20" early, those fish did not all die between last fall and this spring, or did we miss them. The regs could not have killed that lake through the ice, and the hundreds of 20+" fish did not all die due to rod or spear in a few months. now with all the water we have had, that would lead me to believe that all species had a huge spawn and plenty of cover for the fry to hide in. this should= tons of food for the year. I have fished more then one lake that gets in the funk. Were you could swear all the brutes are dead, then a year or two later you whack um again.
bass grow the fastest in the first few years, the older they get the slower they grow. so the size classes you might be missing are probably from a poor spawn,for that year class.
as you all now I am a bass lover, freak, hugger,cpr, tourny guy or what ever else you might call me, so I hate to see bass die as much as anyone. but I do also think that the cycles of these lakes play a bigger problem on the fish population then we think.

This is the first year I've given Jordanelle any attention. I love it! Maybe this goes without saying but the average size of smallies is way bigger than DC bass. I think the biggest one I got this year was 16-17", the rest in the 12-15" range, but very consistant. A 20-30 fish day is very do-able(sp?). Perch were thick, but small. They seem to like the shade of the boat.

I keep pretty accurate fishing logs...and a subset of logs for each water and each species. I have seen Jordanelle dropping off since the winter of 2007 to 2008.

Much of the downturn in smallmouth fishing is directly related to the big perch "disappearance" in the spring of 2008. Prior to that time the smallies fed heavily on small perch...and even some pretty good sized perch. It was not unusual to have big smallies chase small perch to the surface as you were reeling them in.

I heard there was a virus both in Rockport and Jordanelle that winter that killed off a high percentage of the perch. That resulted in a drop in the food supply for the predators that relied on perch. They had already put a big dent in the chub population of Jordanelle but now that was about all they had to live on. No crawdads. Jordanelle needs a large population of crawdads.

I fish for all species but I do "lower myself" to fish for smallmouth occasionally. And I do pretty well for a float tuber. I caught quite a few 17 to 21 inch smallies prior to 2008. Then my largest dropped to about 16". And since the perch were fewer too, I pretty much pointed my tube toward other lakes the last couple of years.

Back in the heyday years everybody was catching lots of big smallies. It was a world class smallmouth fishery. Then BOOM. In less than a year it all went south. All lakes have cycles. And it ain't just anglers who create them. Poor anglers catch a biggun once in a while but not nearly enough to deplete the lake. Most bass lovers toss all the bass back and until recently we couldn't keep any over 12" anyway.

Can't blame the new regulations for something that has been spiralling downward for several years. And even if the fishing gets better...or worse...the new regulations are likely to have much less effect than Mother Natures ups and downs.

Small mouth only grow about 2" to 3" per year till they get to about 8" to 10" depending on food..

And my best guess on 20" bass in the Nell would be 100 to 200 at best any year, and the count by one of the DWR people that checked about 60 to 90 bass over 20" was removed by spear alone..

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Bassrods likes to fish for bass using Mojo lures and Weights, and Parasite Weights.
Practice CPR...Catch, Photograph and Release.
Utah state C&R record 23.5"
Tight lines....

20 or 30 fish days may seem good but 60 to 100 bass was better..

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Bassrods likes to fish for bass using Mojo lures and Weights, and Parasite Weights.
Practice CPR...Catch, Photograph and Release.
Utah state C&R record 23.5"
Tight lines....

I guess now I'll give my inflation adjusted 2 cents on the conclusions of our informal little poll. I'll add a couple more observations as well. I suppose this is the fun part huh?

1. It does seem that there have been fewer large bass caught this year. Why? Cliff obviously suggests that harvest is the cause. It's possible, but I'm not so sure. There could be multiple causes, including the water levels, improved perch spawning this year, a natural die off, and more possibilities. We may get them again next year. One thing I looked at closely this year is how fat the bass are. I found the 16-18ers were quite fat and in good shape. Unless they are all harvested, they will be 19-20ers next year. I found that most of the fish I have caught at all classes were fairly fat and in good shape.

2. Our survey did not seem to indicate slower fishing. We are still getting them there in good numbers. There is disagreement on how many better ones there are, but there are still plenty of fish in the system that are being caught.

3. I am relieved to hear you guys found some perch this year. TD mentioned the perch die offs. The first one was actually in 2005.
http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...?post=202722;#202722
There have been one or two since and generally I do feel they have slowly declined generally from former abundance.

I do believe that a declining perch population has contributed to the declining number of trophies. However, it would be hoped that the higher water this year will help the perchkind. At least we can hope.

4. The question that this thread is undoubtedly about is if the new regs are harming the fishing. I will agree with Utwalleye that it is too early to tell. The next few years, will be telling though, especially if we have improving perch and water conditions. (full disclosure, I did not favor the change, still don't)

5. How many big fish got harvested this year? Well, no records have apparently been caught and published in the papers. I haven't seen very much harvest of big or little fish when I have been fishing. Nobody is putting pics of dead 20's up on BFT or other sites.

Bassrods wrote
" and the count by one of the DWR people that checked about 60 to 90 bass over 20" was removed by spear alone.. "

Interesting, a report I received (admittedly secondhand) from a DWR guy was that they have checked almost no very big ones. One 19 incher was speared and checked and the message boards went afire here. Where are the pics of all the 20's? Cliff, do you have a name of who you talked to that told you this? This isn't another "DWR put in the crayfish at Jordanelle"/"smallies at East canyon", is it?

Anyway, happy fishing all and It'll be fun to have this conversation next year after a full year of improved water depth at Jordanelle.





I caught you a delicious bass.

most of the fish this year were small. we fished it about 8 times. biggest was 16 inches. we caught a lot of bass but nothin for size. we did have a lot of perch batting at our stuff and we could even see them, so I think the perch are on the rise. just no bigguns to be found. we caught a lot bigger bass up at PV than the nelle.

RE: Even my spear fishing buddies freaked out when I told them about the Murcury content. I would not even accept their donations of bass from that lake. Hey that is a few less spear gunners out there now.

So your saying your friends won't kill a fish and waste it? Good on them for that. If only everybody would do the same. There is too much of that goin around in the huntin game and it's too bad that it has to come to the fishing side. Its hard to believe that fish dont get mortally wounded by the spear guys only to die and feed those crawdads!

I agree with you Cliff... the fishing has slowed within the last two years. Yes, I too had 50+ fish days with larger fish a few seasons ago. I don't think I was even close to those numbers this year and smaller fish. My largest smallie this year has been 19.5" and was caught in May in 47 degree water and in 30' of water. I probably had three fish over 16" this year at Jordanelle which was not typical a few years back. I caught more fish in one day over 16" at Echo than I did all year at Jnelle.

Hopefully it is a cyclical thing and we get our fishery back.

In any lake the size of Jordanelle or Pineview Deer creek there is only a few of the bigger bass or any fish, but we need the small one to feed the bigger ones..

No lake can stunt on its own, but fisherman can make them look like they are by catching out the bigger ones..

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Bassrods likes to fish for bass using Mojo lures and Weights, and Parasite Weights.
Practice CPR...Catch, Photograph and Release.
Utah state C&R record 23.5"
Tight lines....

The new regs has took a lot of the bigger bass out, maybe not with the pole but the spear and pole..

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Bassrods likes to fish for bass using Mojo lures and Weights, and Parasite Weights.
Practice CPR...Catch, Photograph and Release.
Utah state C&R record 23.5"
Tight lines....

Cliff, you have to be kidding. Any lake in Utah can stunt on its own and many have done so. Even the carp and white bass have stunted in Utah Lake. Also, do you really think the spear fisherman and anglers caught and kept all of the large fish within a couple weeks of the regulations being changed? I have a hunch that, for the most part, you would have been catching the same size of fish at Jordanelle this year with our without the regulation change.


“How would your life be different if…You stopped making negative judgmental assumptions about people you encounter? Let today be the day…You look for the good in everyone you meet and respect their journey.”
-- Steve Maraboli

RE"Cliff, you have to be kidding. Any lake in Utah can stunt on its own and many have done so. Even the carp and white pass have stunted in Utah Lake. Also, do you really think the spear fisherman and anglers caught and kept all of the large fish within a couple weeks of the regulations being changed?"

C'mon Kent, he's not kidding about the stunting part. No use arguing the point with him. We've all tried, multiple times.

As for vast numbers of 20 inch smallies being whacked by the spearos and checked by DWR personnel, I am sending an email to them (DWR) tonight. I'll let you all know what the reply is when it returns.





I caught you a delicious bass.

No the bigger bass may not be all gone but the numbers are way lower then they was..

Some people think there was hundreds of big bass..

When in real life we may of had less then 5 bass over 23" and less then 30 22" to 23" and maybe 50 at 21" and 60 to 70 at 20" and that could be an over guess-ament..

And sense the bigger bass will die off first from lack of food and old age taking off just a few will hurt the fishery..

Four years ago from my count I got a bass over 20" one out of two trips fishing, out of the last nine years the lowest year was two years ago with one in five trips over 20".. But this year I have made 38 trips to Jordanelle with NONE over 20" and only two over 19"..

But I did see 7 bass all over 20" that was killed by the spear in two days and seen the spear people on three other days at Jordanelle..

To me it all adds up... Fisherman alone, maybe not (but the spear) there is no release alive..

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Bassrods likes to fish for bass using Mojo lures and Weights, and Parasite Weights.
Practice CPR...Catch, Photograph and Release.
Utah state C&R record 23.5"
Tight lines....