Mantua This Evening

[Pharticus]

Got home from work this evening to discover that my sister in law took my kids to SLC for something. Woohoo! Fishing sans refereeing/babysitting.

Ended up at Mantua after ruling out Condie Reservoir in Preston. I actually headed to Hyrum, but when I pulled up and saw folks packed like sardines to fit in there, I opted to head another 10 miles down the road...

I spent a little under 3 hours fishing - just working the north end, motoring through the muck in the shallows and trying to find bass in the trees.

Didn't have a lot of success. Ended up with 13 fish. 4 were LMB and the rest were BG.

I think I spent more time cutting salad off my lures and my prop than I did fishing. Seemed like the weeds were up to the surface in the entire NE section of the lake, too.

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[TyeDyeTwins]

Not too shabby. Still I wish Mantua was like last year, which was on fire for gills for months. I see a white spinner bait there.....I just got one tonight....1st ever spinner bait for me.
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[Pharticus]

[quote TyeDyeTwins]I see a white spinner bait there.....I just got one tonight....1st ever spinner bait for me.[/quote]
They're a great way to cover a lot of water fairly quickly, and seem to work in any condition, so long as you adjust your presentantion.
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[CoyoteSpinner]

Not a bad round for a quick get away. I do wanna try Oneida, one of these daze. Been thinking that Hyrum was probably getting hammered during 'popular' times.

Gotta say - standing in line at a launch ramp is not among my favored times.

I swear - you'd about need an airboat to access some areas off those weedbeds some years. Seen birds sitting on TOP of the water towards the inlet.
I've heard they do, been told they don't - but rumor was they dredged the middle of the lake to open up the deep zone for skiiers. Don't know what the truth of the matter is, but I do believe in the under-water ski course!

So - no slimmers today? Are the gills still on/off beds?

[Pharticus]

[quote CoyoteSpinner]So - no slimmers today? Are the gills still on/off beds?[/quote]

I don't think I fished in more than 18" of water the whole time, so no trout. In fact, I've never caught a trout in Mantua. My son pulled a 16" rainbow a couple years ago, but that was it.

As for the gills, the water was somewhat dirty and it was late enough in the day, I didn't have good visibility - so I can't say one way or the other... I will point out, though, since TyeDye brought it up, that I didn't target bluegill. Was trying bigger baits for the most part. The moments where I went for the bluegill, there was rarely a cast that I wasn't getting nibbled by either BG, YP, or small LMB.

The first bigger bass I caught barfed up a 3" skinny fish that was really pale. Decomposed enough I couldn't ID it (not that I was trying - I just saw it come up and out, then sink to the bottom of the foot deep abyss I was in), but I am assuming it was a small LMB. Mmmm, cannibalism.
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