Fishing Forum

Took my two oldest boys to Mantua on Saturday. Launched the boat at about 7:30 a.m. and ran across the lake and found a nice hole in the weeds. We started catching fish immediately by dropping small tubes and grubs right over the side of the boat. My kids had a blast just watching over the side and hooking the fish that were swarming the bait. We caught bluegills, perch and bass. Some of the perch were very nice with the biggest going 11". Some of the bluegills were nice too, but they were a bit more picky. It seemed that the perch would eat anything you put in front of them. We tipped the jigs with worms, perch meat, or just dabbed smelly jelly on them. It really didn't matter, they liked it all. My 8 yr old got big fish of the day with a 14 inch bass. We must have caught at least 70 fish, taking home about 20 of the bigger perch and bluegills. We ended up moving to new holes in the weeds twice and having the same luck. Seems like everyone was catching fish. Great place to take the kids. (Even big kids like me.) Only stayed until 11:00. My 5 yr old said his arms got tired of catching fish so he didn't even fish for the last hour.
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I took my 7 year old up there on friday and we were bank fishing. Caught plenty of fish, but nothing over 5". Had a hard time finding a spot along shore where there was an opening in the moss. Had a hard time finding hooks small enough for the baby gills to get in their mouth.
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We used 1/32 to 1/16 oz jigs just to try and keep the smaller fish off. Don't know how many we would have caught if we would have used smaller hooks. It was amazing to see how many small ones we would catch anyway. I don't know how they got the hook in their mouths.
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I have been fishing there a few times in the past week. It seemed as if the bite has slowed a bit for the larger gills.

I have taken the kids out in the boat a few times and caught a bunch of perch and gills. I kinda get tired of all the little fish and the fish that swallow the bait whole so I have been using larger jig heads to help keep them from swallowing it. Lots of fast action and tons of fun for the kids.
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