Fishing Forum

[cool][#0000ff]Looked at my fishing logs for 2008 and saw a big hole. Hadn't fished Mantua yet. Thought we would git 'er done before iceup and headed up the road in TubeBabes vehicle after dropping mine off to get the 4X4 fixed.

Launched on glass about 9:30 AM. Air temp 30 and water temp 42. Just as we were kicking out into deeper water a "local" came hauling his tricked out duck boat down with a wheeler. Couldn't believe how many attempts he made to get a straight launch run on the ramp. Heard him shoot twice later and then he came in a left. Only saw a few birds flying.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Nothing on sonar for quite a ways out. Once we got into 17 feet of water we started seeing isolated fish on the bottom and quite a few suspended at middepth. The bottom fish turned out to be dink perch and I suspect a lot of the suspended fish were planter trout. At least we got a few and had a lot more hits of the same caliber.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We kicked almost all the way across to the pointy hill on the east side, stopping to vertical jig whenever we saw "evidence". Picked up some bitty bows on bubble and fly rigs while dragging the flies behind us. Also got several on various jigs. Biggest trout might have been 13". Big whoop. Ditto for the rat perch. Biggest perch was about 8". [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]One of the reasons I wanted to hit Mantua was to try some of my new "Rinky" jigs. Made up some "altered mold" jig heads that are designed to present a "horizontal hold". Some come out with three round lobes..."Fat Rinkees". Others are made on small tube jig heads and are flattened to present a wider profile..."Flat Rinkees".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We tried a variety of different jigs, and tipped with both worms and perch meat. As it turned out, we both caught a high percentage of our fish on the "Flat Rinkees"...either glow pale perch or glow chartreuse glitter...with worm outproducing perch meat. These little jigs are designed to be fished vertical...and they hold horizontal. That is ideal for finesse and dead sticking. Most of our hits came on a deadstick presentation and most were very light. It was almost like ice fishing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It had been absolutely calm until just after noon. Then a light westerly breeze came up and in addition to being cold, it made our style of fishing very difficult. We could not maintain a vertical presentation and caught more slimy green algae off the bottom than we did fish.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Kicking back in, we tossed out the flattened jigs behind us and semi trolled. Dink trout liked that and we hooked several. I also hooked the only bluegill we caught all day...not big but much prettier coloration than normal for cold water fish.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water level is still down a bit. The deepest spot we registered on sonar was about 19 feet. It is usually over 20...up to 22 or more at full capacity.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Never did see any real schools of perchkind. About the only fish on sonar were singles, doubles or small groups that did not stick in one place very long. The perch have either thinned out or they were hanging where we did not look. Also, disappointed in the size of the perch these days. Nobody really whacked any of decent size last year. That is one of the reasons we did not hit it more than once. Better places to fill a basket with eatin' size perch.[/#0000ff]
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looked liked a great day even with the dinks. thanks
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Mantua USE to be one of my favorite lakes. Up until some back yard biologist decided to add color (the perch)
I could pull 24" + rainbows out of there not to mention some 14" bass. The Bluegill were as big as my hand. I could deal with the wave runners and boaters because they couldn't go in the weeds where the fish were.
But is in my opinion has been destroyed as far as the BLUE RIBBON fishery it could have been. The ice fishing also didn't help.
I know I sound bitter and maybe I am, because what was once a small trophy trout lake has turned into a community pond.
Sad all the Kamloop disappeared, but it was a HOT summer and it is a shallow lake/pond.

Great report however, Pat. Your pictures are about as close as I will get to unless some major changes put it back the way it was.
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[cool][#0000ff]That poor little lake really has been through it. I have seen many changes over the years. It has been poisoned and restocked several times...and each time the bucket bozos trash it again.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The kamloops were great while they lasted, but were not really meant for that kind of lake. A few did well and grew big, but they could not spawn and stressed in the warm waters of summer.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Don't hold your breath about it returning to anything that would keep you happy.[/#0000ff]
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