Fishing

Anybody hit Jordanelle lately? Are the bass shallow yet? What's the water temp? I assume the fish are lock jawed right now due to the lack of post from there?

  I was there Sunday, got a late start so I missed the first light bite. I won't beat around the bush, fishing sucked. Talked to some other friends that I saw up there and it was the same thing-dinks and they had to work for them.


WaveFishing.Com

I appreciate it. Man Jordanelle is something else. It might not be until August before the bite turns on, eventhough all the fish are small.

The bite has more than likely already happened, we had a 40 or so fish day there 3 weeks ago. Nothing over 14inches though with the majority being 10. Went on the 4th and caught 10.

Yeah it'll be interesting with the weird weather and the water levels. Last year we had our best success at Jordanelle in August for the smallies.

There was an actual weigh in tournament that 4 fish could be weighed and 7.6lbs won. Second 4.8... Really good fishermen and even they couldn't find the bigger fish. It's tough at Jordanelle.

Driving by it a couple times this week and it was PACKED. Like I've never seen so many boats on a water. May just all be rec boats but still impressed



Greater Love Hath No Man, Than To Lay Down His Life For His Brothers

That is surprisingly low. I expected much higher weights. I really haven't cared for Jordanelle the last few years. The largies have gotten harder to find. 10 years ago I could catch at least 5 largies in a day out of there. Now I'm lucky to get a couple a year.
SELECTIVE HARVEST

I'm thinking the fish are just becoming really selective. It would be interesting to go diving in there like Marinespear and see what is down there. Sounds like it is more than surprising. The youngsters we are all catching are not in the know yet, but it sounds like the amount of pressure will wisen them up real quick. But who know's?

Nothing deep, dark and mysterious about Jordanelle. It is one of the newer lakes in Utah and is going through the same aging process all lakes do. At first it was full of structure (trees and brush) and nutrients. All species reproduced well and grew big and fast on the abundance.

For the first few years there were swarms of chubs and grundles of perch. Plenty of food for smallmouths to get big...and lots of them.

Then the predators (smallmouths and browns) ate up a high percentage of the chubs and three years ago there was a big midwinter dieoff of perch. The food supply has been much less for smallies since then and it has shown up in the numbers and sizes of smallies taken.

Takes a lot of available food to grown large bass. The problems are not related to any DWR regulations or overharvest. The changes in the limits came well after the big decline in bass sizes were an established situation. There are still some good sized bass in the lake, but not the sheer numbers of fish over 20 inches and girthy. They just aren't getting the same amount of food.

Right now the bass are behaving like they always do in summer. After spawning the shallow water temperatures climb above the comfort level of smallies and they drop down to cooler and deeper waters. You can still catch them if you can find them. Drop shotting is a proven method, but deep vertical jigging with plastics will work too. Takes a good sonar to find the fish and a sensitive touch to pick up on the sometimes very light bites.

In years past I have done well vertical jigging small grubs in 20 to 25 feet of water on the flats just west of the personal water craft launch. But you gotta be there early or be prepared to make a lot of noisy new friends.

So it really isn't the DWR's fault?

My inlaws are camp hosts up there so I've been there off and on for the last week. Done some bank casting with kastmasters from the East side with zero hits the last few evenings. Last Thursday some camp neighbor kids gave me about eight perch they caught at the PWC dock(which your not supposed to fish from) using snails they gathered from the rocks. First time I've ever seen a perch caught out of there but they were good eatin's. The water levels are going down about two feet a night based off beached pwc's. Hoping to get out with my portabote to do some trolling the next few days before the masses hit on Saturday for the Lake on Fire fireworks thing they do every year.

Silly. Of course it is all DWR's fault. They should have anticipated the normal decline in a new lake. They need to be planting more bass, chubs and perch...and dumping in Christmas trees all over the lake to replace the trees and brush that are rotting away. They have plenty of surplus funds left over in their budget so why aren't they doing that?

DWR knows full well that they are at fault for the drop in size and numbers of bass at Jordanelle. But they retain me to act as their PR shill to divert attention away from them. Well worth it too. I get to be the first to read the reports of new trout plants in the community ponds. You know how much that means to me.

I've followed these Jordanelle posts for a while and pitched in from time to time, but figured I might give my 2 cents and a little update.

Due to some other projects and work related travel, I only got up there a couple of times early in June, but I've hit it weekly more recently. here are some observations from the trips.

1. A buddy and I both caught a 15+ incher (smallie) on our last trip (he got 2), so there are still some good ones there, but as many of us have noted, this is acutely down from even last fall. There are doubtless multiple causes for this that we all have hashed over, but considering that I was catching bigger fish into the very end of the season last year, and they haven't "shown up" at all, so to speak this year, I'm more inclined to believe the lake had a possible die off or the bigguns are deep,inaccessible and hard-to-catch, as opposed to that they were all harvested out last season.

2. Total numbers of bass are still good, but down from previous years.

3. The perch are finally coming back and nicely IMO. On my last trip, I lost track of how many perch I caught on a standard bass dropshot rig and some were nice sized. I even decided to invite a few home to dinner as good ones kept showing up. I haven't had this much perch action in several years. There seems to be plenty of minnows in the shallows now.

4. Most bass are fat and in good shape, but a couple we caught recently seemed a bit skinny. This surprises me with all the available food where they were caught. (disease? parasites? other?)

5. My success at Lake X has often revolved around weedbeds. This year, and unlike other years, the whole bottom of Rock Cliffs and other areas is covered with millfoil weeds. Both perch and bass love this stuff and the margins. It could be that there is so much habitat for bass to hang out now with the weeds that they don't need to congregate in certain spots anymore where astute anglers can go ring up a 30 fish evening.


IMO, Jordanelle will never be what it was 5 years ago. We all know this that want to be intellectually honest. However, if the perch are indeed coming back some, and maybe nature is "thinning the herd" on the smallies, then if water conditions allow, I think it will still have some good days in the future, especially if more normal seasonal patterns return. Hath, go hit it and let us know how you do. You may do just fine.





Simon Peter saith.........I go a fishing. (John 21:3)

Things that can be done:

1) Make the six big cuts( 3 in the north end and the 3 in the Provo arm)-NO WAKE ZONES.

2) Put artificial structure in those no wake areas. The DNR, Fisherfolk, and water folks should contact the people who did the structure at Lake Havasu.

3) Find a way to put nutrients into the lake. Not easy. Affordable or legal, dunno.

4) Stop whinning and make it a worthy cause. Rally the troops that hangout there. There are always federal funds and special interest groups that can help. Get everyone on the same page.

5) If you build, it they will return

Damn I miss Lake X


San Diego