09-18-2023, 03:18 AM
Figured I'd pitch in here instead of starting my own thread.
My 5yo son and I hit the state park to fish off the Provo boat harbor docks, looking mostly for white bass. It was about 2pm, hot and sunny. I landed 1 fat healthy adult around 12" on a white double curly tail grub on a 1/8oz chartreuse jig head right next to the reeds by hopping it along the bottom. After that I was having trouble getting that jig down to the bottom where I figured the larger adults were, because it kept getting intercepted by dinks in the 3-6" range on the way down.
Switched to a dropshot with a #6 hook and Gulp! 1.5" shad in a sparkly grayish color, about 18" up from the dropshot weight. Landed two more adults on that and a few more juveniles as well.
My son got one juvenile but he was really insistent on fishing with a bobber and a worm, so that's all he caught yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't bring my cooler, so everything went back into the lake.
He was kinda bummed we didn't get to keep anything, so I took him back out again this afternoon at around 4:30. Hot and sunny again. This time we both went straight for the dropshot with a #6 hook and Gulp! shad rig that worked well yesterday. Action was immediate and fast. I got a juvenile on my first cast, and he was hooking dinks basically every cast despite, I think, not quite fully grasping the concept of keeping the line tight and dancing the bait without reeling it in. Didn't seem to matter, and he was having the time of his life reeling in bass after bass and then happily releasing them back into the water, saying "bye fishy!"
He ended up getting the only adult today, a 10-incher or thereabouts. We bled it and threw it on ice to take home. I switched back to that same white double curly tail, just on a hook instead of a jig head, and still rigged above a dropshot. Hoping to entice bites from some larger fish. Caught 6-7 more tiny guys on it, and missed a LOT more bites (probably tiny guys who couldn't quite get their mouths around the whole bait/hook). This time it didn't seem to much matter where we casted. Near the reeds, out into the open areas of the bay, or up against the docks, there where white bass biting everywhere.
So the fishing is hot, but the ratio of eatable-size bass to juveniles is pretty low. Not sure what else I could do other than maybe upsizing again to try and weed out more of the dinks.
As it happens, he was all excited to eat the fish for dinner, so I filleted it when we got home, breaded it up in some panko, and fried it in oil nice and crispy. He had one bite and said it was "bad, but not too bad" which means I got to have a couple of tasty white bass fillets for dinner
My 5yo son and I hit the state park to fish off the Provo boat harbor docks, looking mostly for white bass. It was about 2pm, hot and sunny. I landed 1 fat healthy adult around 12" on a white double curly tail grub on a 1/8oz chartreuse jig head right next to the reeds by hopping it along the bottom. After that I was having trouble getting that jig down to the bottom where I figured the larger adults were, because it kept getting intercepted by dinks in the 3-6" range on the way down.
Switched to a dropshot with a #6 hook and Gulp! 1.5" shad in a sparkly grayish color, about 18" up from the dropshot weight. Landed two more adults on that and a few more juveniles as well.
My son got one juvenile but he was really insistent on fishing with a bobber and a worm, so that's all he caught yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't bring my cooler, so everything went back into the lake.
He was kinda bummed we didn't get to keep anything, so I took him back out again this afternoon at around 4:30. Hot and sunny again. This time we both went straight for the dropshot with a #6 hook and Gulp! shad rig that worked well yesterday. Action was immediate and fast. I got a juvenile on my first cast, and he was hooking dinks basically every cast despite, I think, not quite fully grasping the concept of keeping the line tight and dancing the bait without reeling it in. Didn't seem to matter, and he was having the time of his life reeling in bass after bass and then happily releasing them back into the water, saying "bye fishy!"
He ended up getting the only adult today, a 10-incher or thereabouts. We bled it and threw it on ice to take home. I switched back to that same white double curly tail, just on a hook instead of a jig head, and still rigged above a dropshot. Hoping to entice bites from some larger fish. Caught 6-7 more tiny guys on it, and missed a LOT more bites (probably tiny guys who couldn't quite get their mouths around the whole bait/hook). This time it didn't seem to much matter where we casted. Near the reeds, out into the open areas of the bay, or up against the docks, there where white bass biting everywhere.
So the fishing is hot, but the ratio of eatable-size bass to juveniles is pretty low. Not sure what else I could do other than maybe upsizing again to try and weed out more of the dinks.
As it happens, he was all excited to eat the fish for dinner, so I filleted it when we got home, breaded it up in some panko, and fried it in oil nice and crispy. He had one bite and said it was "bad, but not too bad" which means I got to have a couple of tasty white bass fillets for dinner