Got my bi-weekly fix of smallies & perch at Jordanelle today. Fished from 6-10am. Cloudy & refreshingly cool early, then approaching Bake City. No topwater or crank fish along eastside shady banks. Best smallie a 17"er, once I switched to grubs. Avg smallie used to be 10-12". This season the avg is more like 6-8", and that's the consensus of a LOT of guys. You think you're fishing Deer Creek. Has me concerned. Got some 10" perch, but had to jungle fish them out of the bushes. Dink smallies everywhere, even beating them to the bait. Can't wait for fall.
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Get use to it, when the limits are changed this new year all the lakes will be that way..
That is why they call it small mouth fishing cause they will be small...
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No offense intended ---- and I'm trying to pose this as politely as possible --- but why don't the bass guys take home a 6-pack of little smallies each time like I do? I understand & appreciate the catch-and-release concept, but this couldn't hurt at all, particularly this year. The DWR folks out at Pelican specifically suggested that bass trmt fisherman out there deep-sixing the 10-11"ers would help immensely. Those fish make for some easy cleaning and great fillets.
Would be interested to hear how many anglers are taking home 6.
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i think you might have just opened a can of worms... let me get this started for you.... if i decide to do it (does not happen very often) ill keep a limit of bass no matter what size they are (following the regs of course for said lake), even if i manage to wrestle up one that goes over 5lbs out of powell for example.
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Am I missing some trick to catching 6 10-11" smallies on a given trip?
I guess in answer to your question, I am not taking home 6 SM from a trip to Jordanelle, but it's not necessarily by choice.
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Well, you converted me back in your fishing class to frying up fillets, I'll tell you that much. In fact, you are responsible for my love of fishing at Jordanelle, and you started me ice fishing. I think I still owe you an old hand auger.
I take home a 6 pack of little small mouth and as many decent perch as I can bring out of the weeds when I have the rare opportunity to fish anymore. Fish fry is my favorite. I rarely fish for slimers anymore.
-Snoodle
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This is a few thing to look at about Jordanelle and other lakes that have bass along the Wasatch front...
1. The number of fisherman that fish these lakes...
2. The hook mortally to the bass...
3. SM bass only grow about 1 1/2" to 2" per year till they reach about 12" then the average is about 3" per year ...
4. You need small bass to grow into big ones, and to feed the bigger fish as well, take away the small fish and how do you get the big ones...
5. The average fisherman (bass fisherman) that is should catch 15 to 20 bass of all sizes on a good bass lake....
6. You can not have too many bass in a lake like Jordanelle, they can not stunt they can not over produce, unless man kills of the minnows or food or take out the bigger bass..
The DWR does not manage for bass or any fish but trout wipers or Tiger Muskellunge...Those are the only fish they raze and plant...
I'm not for all C&R all the time on all waters, just the ones that get or can get fished out by fisherman...( What I mean by fished out is fished down so all you get is small bass like East Canyon is)..
I'm not talking what the law says you can do or keep...When I go to a lake to fish I go to catch fish not look at the trees or deer or anything else I want to catch fish, not just a limit cause I don't keep them most of the time but wile I'm fishing I want to keep catching fish that is why I go to a lake...
I go to the lakes I think I can catch the most fish and bigger fish of the kind I want to fish for, and the fish or bass I keep today is one less I will catch tomorrow..
This is why myself and other bass fisherman do not keep bass on some waters but will on others like Powell...
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One thing you can THANK smallmouth lovers for is the bucket biology transplant concept they have undertaken, smallmouth can be found in every body of water except your toilet tank, better go check.
Another core belief is that no one should harvest the precious little fishes that were so hard to move everywhere. TASTE GREAT - 11 inchers are perfect size for the kitchen, follow the REGS, something they failed to do
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[quote bassrods]Get use to it, when the limits are changed this new year all the lakes will be that way..
That is why they call it small mouth fishing cause they will be small...[/quote]
Bassrods please be more specific.
Perchinski has a great question that we have failed to answer... if there is an answer... what is happening to the larger smallies in Jordanelle? I fish two days a week at Jordanelle and last year (my second year bass fishing) I caught more than my share of 15"+ smallies and this year they have been few and far between. Is it the moon? Is it the unusual spring we had? Or is it cyclical? Like I said above there might not be an answer but I have noticed a change in size as well.
I am for keeping a limit of smallies as they make great fish tacos!!!
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Its forage, water levels, and structure. The big fish are staying deep. There is no need for them to come shallow cuz the baitfish are deep too. Water levels have been way down til runoff the last three years. Then, the water is held high for about 4-6 weeks and then dropped rapidly. Except for the Rockcliffs, there isn't much live cover around the lake. there are little baitfish at the mouth of the river, but not many year classes in the 2-4 year range. No feed shallow. No bigger fish shallow. The perch have crashed and the trout spawns are looking bad the last few years. Smallies are also eating their own. The hay days of Jordanelle are most likey over. It was fun while it lasted.
Btw, I eat cows!!!! Bass are toys and Trout are food. Smallies should be loved!
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Seriously where do you fellers come up with this stuff? It's July unless you get the right weather it always stinks in July. It will pick up starting this month and be good in Sept.
Most folks can correctly assume the C&R regulations have no impact whatsoever on Lake X. C&R regs are good for a certain period of time, but once the fish are established harvest is a valuable tool. Time to quit blaming the DWR for everything.
But to answer the original question; Most bass anglers don't want to clean the fish. Fishing is pure entertainment for them.
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Pure entertainment indeed. However, It does not bother me at all if somebody keeps their bass limit out of Jordanelle. Every year I catch more smaller fish than I do big ones. I've got my spots where I do well on big ones but those spots are getting more specific on baits, water level, temps and clarity. It's not like it used to be. Despite what some think, keeping a limit of bass out of Jordanelle is a good thing. Keep your legal limit of fish under 12".
I like fishing Jordanelle but the forage and cover for bait fish is dying off and the only way to improve big fish is to keep the numbers of small bass limited in quantity. Perch have no problem slurping down young of the year bass or perch, bass slurp down the same.
I find it ridiculous that one would think that more small bass would equal more big bass, I read that somewhere else I think. There is no shortage of small bass in Jordanelle. There is a shortage of bait fish for them to feed on. The DWR has proven that there are a lot of 10-13 year old Utah chubs in the lake but the small ones get eaten so fast that they don't grow up to reproduce.
I'm all about catch and release but I'm also all about common sense. Some of you might not recognize this, referring to the 'cookie jar' but this is what it's all about. Too many small cookies and not enough room for the big ones.
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I guess since I fish there 1 or 2 times a week during the summer, I can throw my 2 cents in.
1. "why don't the bass guys take home a 6-pack of little smallies each time like I do?"
I started doing this on occasion 2 years ago, but a majority of the time, I still don't keep any and it is mainly due to not wanting to spend the extra time to fillet them. I even threw back a chunky perch tonight, and I dearly love to eat perch. LakeXtackle is right on about the pure entertainment too.
I do recognize that harvest like you do is helpful at lake X and am glad it is being encouraged by the DWR. (I still favor a slot though for the big ones[
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2. "This season the avg is more like 6-8", and that's the consensus of a LOT of guys. You think you're fishing Deer Creek. Has me concerned."
It has seemed to me that the majority of what me and my friends have been getting have been in the 11-13 inch range, with good catch rates all summer. I haven't noticed a spike in dinks. We also have been getting a few nice ones as well on most trips.
What I have noticed is that there seems to be a notable drop in 15-16 inchers. This may be due to a period 2 years ago when the 11 -13 inchers at that time were becoming skinny and may have had a die off. The smaller and bigger fish seemed to do fine during that time. It seems like this year, the better fish are either 14-14 1/2 inches or 16 1/2-17+.
I would also say that the fish health this year has been good. All age classes seem to be fat and well fed this year. So I guess I'm not too worried at this time myself. If those fish started becoming thin, then we'd have a bigger problem.
3. RE"6. You can not have too many bass in a lake like Jordanelle, they can not stunt they can not over produce, unless man kills of the minnows or food or take out the bigger bass..
The DWR does not manage for bass or any fish but trout wipers or Tiger Muskellunge...Those are the only fish they raze and plant... "
Do you seriously still believe this stuff, after statements like this have been repeatedly discredited by the DWR and others, and the biology of places like Deer Creek have shown them to be false?
Do you know the definition of Raze?
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When I give my answers I have those who want to attack on what I say instead of giving there own ideas, so I wonder if some of them are some of the ones I have called on for poaching...
Like Tommy said, this year the bass are deeper then years past....Why?? It could be cause of the poor spawn the bass and perch had this year...
Or the late spring with the water resizing and falling so fast, or the long cool spring???
All or any of the above named could be why but the one thing the bigger fish want and look for is food, find the food they are eating and you find the bigger fish...
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well said fsh4fun05. Out of tremondus respect for our bass guru Bassrods i won't mention fish tacos anymore!!! You are my guy Bassrods, if i promise not to keep any fish when I go up to the Gorge this fall will you give advice?[blush] That is on bass and not slimers?
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At the Gorge I keep bass some times...
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