Fishing Forum

Hit Mantua this morning looking for some of them nice bgills everyone has been talking about. Launched about 6:45 as the wind was kicking up a little so I stuck close to the launch area for a bit to see what it was going to do and it died off after an hour or so, no problem.
After casting a spinner and hitting a few bass in the shallows I headed out with everyone else to the channel. I was using a small grub tipped with wax worm and could see the gills looking at the thing, but not hitting it. (Side note, if you don't have good polorized glasses, get some. With my Smith's I could watch the fish around my bait in 10-12 feet of water).

Changed to a small painted jig head tipped with crawler and that did the trick. For the next hour or two I probably boated 20-30 gills all potential pan size. It warmed up about 10:30 and the bite slowed down so I kept 6-7 good sized ones for lunch and headed home.

FYI, Saw a sign that said Mantua will be closed for "Little Valley Days" July 21st.

Whit
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Thanks for posting your report, sounds like the gill catching is as good as ever. Was there any size to the bass or the gills you kept? Thanks also on the info about the lake being closed on the 21st. WH2
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WH,

The size of the gills I kept were very good, all on the large side and a couple of real pigs (as far as bluegills go). The bass were in the 10-12" range, but I didn't keep any of those. I would like to know the general consensus, should we be keeping a few bass out of Mantua? Will that help or hurt the fishery? I am not opposed to keeping a meal every once in awhile and LMB make for a pretty good fish fry.

Whit
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I'm no expert on what to keep or let go in that lake but I don't see how keeping a few of the smaller ones would hurt. If there are too many of them it could make them stunt and of course you can only keep one over 12 inches anyway. Just my two cents worth. WH2
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[black][size 3]Just my personal opinion, but I think that until a condition of over population, and stunting can be identified, they should be released.[/size][/black]
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[size 3]State wide, we are so short on good bass fishing, it would be good if large bass were available.[/size]
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[size 3]The DWR has regulated the bass fishing in the southern part of the state, and it's now possible to catch some decent size fish there.[/size]
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[size 3]The regulations on the SMB at Jordanelle seems to be working. The average size of the fish there is increasing every year.[/size]
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Regarding keeping bass at Mantua, DWR surveys indicate a great abundance of smaller bass. The limit (6 bass, but only 1 over 12 inches) reflects a willingness by fisheries managers to harvest some of this abundant population of smaller bass.
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