[size 1] Hit Mantua again tonight with Majja. lots of fun, a little slower than last week but still did well. I had 18 bluegill and 2 perch in 2 1/2 hours. I think Majja had about 12 or 13 Gillies, and I know he let about 6 or 7 small bass back into the lake. They were hitting good on white curly tail jigs with white glo jig heads tipped with perch meat. I'm not sure what Majja was using, I couldnt keep up with his bait changes [
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Thanks for going with me again Majja, I really like that place.
Almost forgot, there was a sign saying the res is closed on the 21st for little valley days [/size]
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[cool][#0000ff]I sure do love that little lake my own self. I especially enjoy launching right at daybreak and watching the sun gradually light up the whole valley. There are always lots of different birds and plenty of fishies to keep you busy.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There is one suggestion I can make to help make your fishing easier. Sonar alone is not enough. Nor is visual reference in the weeds. That stuff all looks the same after awhile. When you find a productive hole, with active fish, you should toss over a marker buoy. Having a close visual reference can really help you stay on the fish. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]it is amazing how far and how fast you can drift off a good spot...even when there is no breeze. TubeBabe and I have had spots where as long as we fished within a few feet of the bouy we got fast bites...but if we moved even a little ways in any direction we got nothing. Those fish do school up in the holes in the weeds and you need to fish where the fish are.[/#0000ff]
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[black][size 3]The use of a marker buoy is a real good idea. I have used them at the Gorge mack fishing, but haven't used them on my toon, but usually carry one.[/size][/black]
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[size 3]I did a little testing while fishing a large open bay at Strawberry. I have a small hand held GPS unit that I hung around my neck, and because movement in a toon is so slow, the readings are very accurate. I was able to keep on a spot over deep water, where there was no real good spot on the shore for reference.[/size]
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[size 3]I also used it for "kick trolling" in my toon. By looking at the "tracks" shown on the GPS, I was able to retrace my route where I had made hookups. Not only was it fun, but was quite productive.[/size]
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[size 3]It was also a good learning experience. The kick trolling gave my fly an appealing erratic action, better than the usual steady trolling speed.[/size]
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[cool][#0000ff]No doubt about it...GPS is the best way to quickly locate those honey holes. But, once you are on the spot, it is easier to watch the visual reference (marker buoy) than keep ckecking the GPS.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Trolling a fly from a float tube is definitely effective. In fact, on some waters, like Jordanelle, it is not uncommon for tubers to drag a fly behind the tube on plain mono, with spinning rigs, while moving along and using a second rod for casting to the shoreline with plastics for smallies. The twitchy and irregular movement of the "long leadered" fly can produce some awesome strikes. Sometimes the action on the flies is so good and so consistent that you put up the plastics and just play with the feathers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A couple of years ago I ran a contest on the Utah Board...on float tubing. One of the questions was "What is a float tubers' distance cast...with a flyrod?". The answer was something like "Making a short cast from the tube and then stripping out a lot of line as you kick backwards." Believe me, I have used that technique to good advantage on several waters...especially when the prevailing "breezes" made it tough to work with very much line.[/#0000ff]
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Yea it was a blast. I was ever changing trying to find what worked best for what. And this is what I found. All bass caught on a 1/16 oz glow jig head with an Ice cutter in Predator. About half the bills caught on white of the above jig. Also caught several on a red head with red and chartruse tube. And one caught on a TD jigging spoon in Chartruse with red hook tipped with shrimp. I kept 10 for tacos tonight. As for over all I caught 7 bass and lost 3 at the tube, and about 16 total gills as I let some of the little ones go. And than there was this A**hole that went right in between Luke and I and ran over our little marker bouy, we were only about 50 ft apart, and he mad eye contact with both of us. I am hoping I can pull the hull numbers form the photo to report his butt. All in all a great trip. here are the pics I took.
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Wow Matt, i was there with you and didn't even know you had caught a 10 inch gill until I saw your pics [
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