Fishing Forum

I thought I would take my son out of school friday to go fishing and wondered if anyone had heard anything about Mantua in the last few days. Its either there or Strawberry.
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The trout Fishing looked to be good as I seen numerous fish get boated. I only managed one bass before I got called to pick up my son from school due to a concussion falling off the slide. Oh well next time. Good luck, water temp 49.5-51.4 and stained only about 10" of visibility
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Mantua SHOULD be picking up right about then. The bluegills love the shallows on the west shore especially this time of year. If the weather stays clear and warm at all like this it will be.

I'm frankly tempted to try it tonight, but with my defeat at UL last night. I'm going to fight the urge as long as I can, to be sure. [blush] Any day now.

My best trip last year was about a week from now, where we just killed big gills in the flooded trees and cattails, and the weather wasn't as warm as right now.
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[:/]hope your son is ok!
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Thanks for the replies. I'll let you know how we do. I hope your son is ok too Triton.
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So, the answer is, yes, Mantua fish can be caught. But how old is your son? I gotta say, tonight was about as hard as bluegill fishing is gonna get. The fish were shallow, tight to the brush, spooky, and fussy. They are sunning on the surface and any splashing or visual giveaways and they leave.

Basically any bobber or sinker was enough to set em running, and I ended up catching all my fish by making casts as long as I could with a small hook and tiny chunk of worm, no float, They ignored anything moving or big. Other anglers reported that yesterday and day before was actually better.

So, if your boy is big enough to cover ground, or you can wade, or have a little sneaky boat, go to Mantua. What I did for 10 gills today was a lot of work, ut the sun was going down already. I bet midday would actually be best.
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Funny - they must just be settling into their spots. Swear once they've stomped their grounds it'd take a grenade to get them OFF a bet! I've met Bass I had to taunt into taking a bite by bouncing a worm or jig in their face - literally - try to push them off till they were so pissed they just HAD to bite back.

I found last year downsizing my offers helped. But that was later at the end of spawn time. Right about when there had been a big die-off.
10 inches is a nice gill as they go.

Beds
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Yeah, not on beds yet. Just sunning. But the best is yet to come.
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My son is 17 and we do have a sneaky little aluminum boat with an electric motor. He's a fanatic for bluegill so your updates will get him excited. In the past when they have been hugging the brush we have threaded about an inch and a half to 2 inches of worm up to the hook eye with no weight or bubble or anything else. We feed out a bunch of line and flip it up under the trees and have done pretty well for both bluegill and bass. I caught a couple dozen worms out of my yard last night so we are good to go. thanks for your posts, I'll make sure to sneak up on them rather than running in full bore. If I can remember to take my camera, I take some pics (assuming we don't get skunked) and post after we're back.
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I know this post is late but here is a secret for spring Mantua Bluegill. My boy and I fish that lake about 3 times a week. In the spring time the best bait I have found to use is live crickets. The ones you can buy at the pet store for food for your lizard. I have used worms and they work well. sometimes the gills will peck at the worms because they have seen a thousand of them by the time spring is in full swing. But they can't help but inhale those crickets. We just fish them 2 feet or so under a tiny bobber. South Fork Hardware in Brigham City sells the crickets. they seem to not work as well as soon as the gills go deep. Then it is jigs and worms.
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