Fishing Forum

Hey all,
My brother Derrin and I left last Wednesday night 5/15 and headed to Vernal to stay at the fabulous Americas Best Value Inn. We got up before daylight and headed to Pelican Lake on Thursday morning to try for some basses. It was a little slow starting, but the weather was great and water temp was warm and we couldn't figure out why the catching was so slow. Around noon the switch got flipped on and it was excellent fishing for the rest of the day. Around 2:00 p.m. a little storm rolled thru so we pulled off the lake and waited the hour for it to pass, then went back out and fished till dark. Total for the day...54 LMB for me, with 4 Bluegills, and 65 LMB for my brother. Biggest was a 18", 3 lb. bruiser my brother caught.
We went back and stayed in our excellent motel that night again and hit it hard the next morning, Friday. This time we went East from the boat ramp and the fishing was on from minute one. Calm, warm and perfect conditions! On Friday the wind started at about noon and never let up, and we finally pulled off around 6:00 when we lost all line control...but the fishing never really slowed down! We ended Friday with 47 LMB for me and 12 Bluegill, and 41 LMB for Derrin and 6 Bluegill. Total for the 2 day trip was 229 fish, and only 22 of them were Bluegill! All the rest were Large Mouth Bass.
The cool thing about this year was the quality AND the quantity of the basses. All healthy, and 6 out of every 10 were OVER 12", with at least a third of everything we caught going into the 13" to 15 1/2" inch range. A few larger fish were caught, but a LOT of 15" to 15 1/2" fish were caught. We fished heavy into the reeds and anywhere you could aim and hit water would yield you a fish, and then the trick was to drag it across the weeds to release it!
One of the funnest and most productive Pelican trips I've ever been on, and I've been doing it for years.
We stayed in the motel again Friday night but just got up and came home as we were BEAT! Will post a few pics later.
Randy
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Not sure if there was something in the air or what but my nephew and I also fished Pelican Thursday and Friday same as you and Fish or Die. Also had similar results as far as bass numbers and caught some nice quality sized fish also. That wind Friday was murder for us in our float tubes so we cut out by 1:00. My nephew was the only one to fish for bluegill and he found good numbers in about 6 ft of water. There were a few pushing in to the shallows prepping for the spawn.

Waiting to see those bass picks.
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So do the gills not live in the shallows all year? Every time I've been there around this time of the year the bluegills have been sort of a given, this year they were mostly nowhere to be found. What kind of stuff are you looking for in 6' of water?

BTW we caught most of our bass in the 3-4' stuff at the edge of reeds
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Not sure what is happening to the bluegill. There still appears to be plenty in there but while we had a tough time catching them through the ice, others caught plenty. The water has been murkier and I suspect the gill are scattered more. Shallow is relative as you know at Pelican. Where we were on the east side they seemed to be just pushing in to the shallows (1-2 feet). The bluegills my nephew caught were out in 6 feet. In the murkier water I suspect they will likely try to get shallower to spawn where the water is clearer and the sun has more warming affects. We simply found the bluegill by mistake while catching bass so he switched to try for them. They were tight to the deep weed edge and in pockets along that edge. In years past when I l have fished for spawners I would look for any pocket or hole in the weeds on the inside edge of the reeds exposed to the sun.

Most of our bass were caught in the 6 to 7 ft water along the deep weed edge and deep inside the weeds though we caught plenty in as shallow as 2 feet.
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Pics added.

The Bluegill were hard to find compared to previous years. We were having so much fun with the basses however that once we each caught a few for our annual game count purposes, we put the bluegill rods away and focused on the basses.
We found the bluegills in the little "ponds", which are embedded within the reeds. Average depth where we found them was about 3 to 4 feet. With the Bluegill rigs deployed (worm on a small jig under a little bubble) next to the reeds in these little ponds, 2 out of every 3 fish caught were small BASS rather than Bluegill! We even caught a few larger bass this way. That's a fun fight on an ultralight!
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Thanks for the report. Pelican is freaking awsome. Did you happen to get a water temp? Did you notice any bass on beds?
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Water temp Thursday was 67, by saturday morning and after much rain and wind my finder read 63.

The one big female I caught had spawning marks on her tail but that was it
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All the big females we caught were spawned out already.
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Thanks.
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Randy, looks like you had another great trip out there. Still fondly remember our trip, but we didn't find the numbers you found this time.
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I was out there Thursday evening fishing off my kayak. I wasn't catching the size of fish you were but the bite was consistant. I also was fishing the reeds, casting a drop shot rig in about 10-20 inches and dragging it out. 2nd year in a row hitting it this close to the spawn, I think it'll become an anual event. good times!
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