First ice trip this year was at Mantua. Caught 13 of these little guys. Very fun![cool] There are some fish there that are alot bigger. Joe had one on but lost it at the hole. My guess is it was over 24 inch. A much bigger Kamloop than this one.
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How was the ice? I put a leg through the ice twice last year at mantua so ive been a little scared to get back up there.
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The ice is at 4 inches or a bit more by now. We are 2 weeks earlier this than last for the ice.
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There was about 6 inches of bad ice when I went in last year. Out of the 50 or so people out there I was the lucky one to step on the warm spring
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In early season defiantly need to pay attention to ice quality. Drill a hole every now an then to test or poke at it with a pike. Last Saturday there was no slush or new snow. Just clear hard ice.
Sorry to hear you went in. Glad no harm came of it.
There is a warm spring exposed out in the middle.
Fish the edges, and test test test.
Take care[fishin]
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There are no more Kamloops in that tiny reservoir.
Lots of dink perch, planter bows, and a few 'gills though.
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I thought it was because I have caught several trout there that have all there fins. Hatchery trout do not.
So if these are not Kamloops are they just wild rainbows? Either way they fight much better than there hatchery brothers.
This "tiny reservoir". Has given me some very nice fish.
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Yeah, there are definitely some decent sized trout in there. The 16"+ are few and far between though. If you can get into one of those guys, you're one of the few.
I have fished Mantua for years, and I think I know that little reservoir better than a lot of fishermen. But once in a while you still get a surprise or two.
My question is, where are all the perch and 'gills? Seems like they've dwindled in recent years. I used to catch 9"+ 'gills on a semi-regular basis, and plenty of nice fat perch.
Me and TD were joking around a few years back, saying that it might be a good idea if someone stocked that reservoir with 100 or so Tiger Musky, to clean things up a bit.
Maybe somebody did just that. [
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I have noticed the Bass population is growing in size. Three pouders are common. Maybe thats whats eating the perch and gills. More likley its the little bank anglers that come here and cut there teeth on gills and perch fishing.[cool] Still would like to know about these bigger wild fishes.
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Been reading the internet stuff. Found out some cool stuff. They are hatchery fish. Went to DWR site and looked at the stocking reports. No mention of Kamloops in recent past. Lavaman seems to be correct. Damn![:/]
Maybe these are decendants of the old breed.
Either way, they are few. Not many left there. Hope those who are lucky enough to land one returns it to swim again.
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[cool][#0000ff]The Kamloops originally planted held up well for a couple of years and some of them grew big and feisty. But a drought year with low water and warm temps wiped them out. They are a fish of deep cold lakes. That is not Mantua.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Since then DWR has planted regular hatchery pet rainbows...and there ARE some decent cutts in the lake too. Not many, but a few.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fish with bright healthy fins are not necessarily wild fish. Even the "finless Freddies" planted by DWR will regrow healthy fins once they are removed from the concrete raceways and planted in more natural surroundings. There will still be some evidence of fin damage for a year or so but by the time rainbows grow over about 16" they can look, act and taste like wild fish. However, I have seen some 5 pounders that still had ugly fins.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Since DWR increased the trout limit from 2 to 4 they have been stocking more rainbows. This increases the odds that a few will survive the happy harvesters long enough to get some size to them. There were quite a few fish between 18" - 20" that came out of Mantua before ice up and I have heard of several bigguns either lost or iced since then. The chance at getting a larger fish almost makes up for the downturn in the perch and bluegill fishing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]But, Mantua is definitely one of those lakes with the 90/10 factor...90% of the fish are usually in only about 10% of the lake. You really have to be good...and lucky (good and lucky)...to drill a hole right on top of an active school of fish. And, they tend to move around a lot more once the weed growth dies down and the lake becomes just a big mud-bottomed bowl. You can be on the fish for a half hour and then zippo for the rest of the day...if you stay there.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are no secrets or magic formulas. You have to give each spot a few minutes to produce and then search another area. Some days you never find fish. Other times you get in a productive area and every hole produces fish...until the next day when you come back with your buddies and you all blank.[/#0000ff]
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I thought it was because I have caught several trout there that have all there fins. Hatchery trout do not.
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It has been my experience that with the exception of the brood stock that are occasionally planted, almost all of the planted rainbows have all of their fins when they are planted.
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Are we talking about mantua?? I caught at a minimum 50 rainbows over 16 inches out of mantua last winter through the ice, not to mention numerous decent bass. I do agree that the bluegill are running a little small lately, though I did catch a few 10 inchers. Biggest perch was 11 last year caught by my 4 year old daughter
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[quote kentofnsl][quote toadly]
I thought it was because I have caught several trout there that have all there fins. Hatchery trout do not.
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It has been my experience that with the exception of the brood stock that are occasionally planted, almost all of the planted rainbows have all of their fins when they are planted.[/quote]
[cool][#0000ff]Newly planted trout...such as this one...DO have all their fins. But some or all of them are rubbed down by crowding in the concrete raceways. Some of us affectionately call them "finless Freddies".[/#0000ff]
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[inline "FINLESS FREDDIE.jpg"]
[#0000ff]Once they have a chance to swim and feed in open water their fins often grow out into "normal" shapes...like this fish that is probably a year or so from the hatchery.[/#0000ff]
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It definitely makes a difference if the fish was planted as a "catchable" or smaller. The larger the fish (catchable -- longer in the raceways) the more likely it will have fins rubbed down.
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Dude, there's plenty 8-9 inch gills in there but they don't bite good on the ice. Whereas the 4-6 inch bite like crazy. I just learned to lower my expectations on size once winter arrives. There is one place that will have larger fish but it took a long time on that little lake to figure it out. That lake is far from little once you walk across it haha. I won't bother with it much till at least mid Jan.[
] Mantua is not productive at first ice. I got better options right now haha. Think south of there about 100 miles or so. haha.
Absolutely there are plenty of the decent sized 'gills still in there, but not as many of the bigger ones like there used to be.
And I will tell you that they *do* bite good on the ice. I usually catch more and bigger fish during winter months, than I do during the summer. But that's just me.
I've had much more success there at Mantua early during the ice season, than say....February. So I guess it's all just 'relative' and depends on the fisherman.
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