Mantua 1-1-05

[fishhunter]

Who's headed to mantua on the 1st? Should be lip rippin! LOL where ever you go, and best wishes for a great fishin New Year.
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[mateo]

I'm planning on it.
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

I hate crowds and I would bet there will be tons-o-people out there. However, I love perch and bluegill more than I hate crowds, so I will be there with bells on (and live bait on too!) if the ice is safe. It was 45 degrees today up there, yikes. Any reports on the ice conditions?
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[fairwayphilly]

I'll be there, although there will be a direct correlation between the time of my arrival and the number of cocktails I had the night before. I may need a little hair of the dog to keep my alert and fishing. I'll bring the vodka if someone else brings the bloody mary mix.
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]I'm going fishing, I'm just not sure where yet. Maybe there! I was going to St. George, but my granny is still not feeling well and doesn't want to get the baby sick, so ice fishing here I come!!!
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[bugln4bulls]

[] I am plannig on going up there with my son,MGB, and a buddie of mine. B4B
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[PerchPile]

I'll be there. I drove by Echo on my way to Park City Monday. There were quite a few fishermen on it around 9:45. When I returned about 1:00 there were only a few down on the north-east corner. I figure the catchin must have been bad and they all went home. At this point what choice do we have? Melmeadows is a 5 to 6 hour drive. I just want to catch some perch!!! O- by the way I have a friend that works with a lady that swears they used to catch perch out of the Gorge. But I have no proof. Somebody must have put heaters in Rockport. It's taking forever!
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[CBR]

Just got the OK from the misses. Anyone leaving from the SLC area that might be able to let me carpool with them? I have an ice shelter which may come in handy.

I have never been to Mantua but am anxious too.
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[CBR]

Geoff, Looks like I am able to get out for the new year. Mantua?
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[barfuss]

Im hoping to be out there. I hope the weather gets a little colder.
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[PREDATOR]

Bear lake fish guy, use caution.
I have been fishing it, and the ice conditions are less than desirable, and gettting worse daily.
I live less than 10 minuets from there, and so its my hole when i want to hit the ice for a couple hours.
The ice has been changing in thickness greatly.
There is now a slim 3 inches of ice on most of the lake. The ice has vertical cracks running through it everywhere. The vertical cracks go from the top, to about 3/4 of an inch from the bottom.

The rain is not going to help. It has been warm, and that is just softening up the ice even more.

I guarantee someone is going through the ice up there saturday. Probably a couple people.
Why?

Beacuse they arent aware of bubbler locations.

This bubbler is capped off, and the visual part of it is only a 2 inch diameter. But there is only a 1/4 inch thick ice sheet for three feet surrounding it.
if you step within three feet of this small hole, you are going swimming.
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If you lay out flat, stay back a ways, and tap the surrounding area with your ice scoop, you can break away the thin ice and expose the bubbler like this.

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You can now start to see some of the bubbles, and get an idea of the thin ice.

Tap away at it a bit more.....
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You now have a very large hole, and you can see, it wouldnt take much to go through the ice here.

Amazing since ten feet from here you have three inches of ice. But I have seen it on mantua when you had eight inches of ice, and there were still open pockets that were just visible as depressions in the snow until you broke the very thin ice on them, and exposed the bubblers.

Never fish mantua without a rope to throw to someone. Its low elevation, and the bubblers dont make for the friendliest of ice fishing coinditions.

Keep in mind that just because you fished it last week, and the ice was good, that you need to check before going into the deeper water, and always, even if the ice is plenty thick, keep your eyes peeled for bubblers.

That being said, heres a couple pics from this weeks fishing.
The fish are still being caught without bait, but once the bait restriction goes off, the fishing should be red hot.
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Now for a look at the perch mantua can produce.
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That being said, see you up there. But be careful.
if you happen to see me, and decide to pay a visit, approach with caution. The area I will be fishing has five good bubblers in it. At least there is five that I know of.
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[CBR]

Thanks for this post. I hope everyone reads it. It has educated me quite a bit and will help keep me safe.

Lets hope that this snow storm puts some layer of snow on the lake so it gets colder and stays cold.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

*crosses fingers*
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]Craig, I totally want to go up there and nail the Perch, but after Predator's post, I'm not sure[pirate]. It's supposed to dump snow in the valleys on Friday, and maybe a little bit on Saturday. I don't know if that will make the ice better on Saturday or not, but we can always drive up there and see. Personally, I think Mantua is the only place a guy could get to icefish on Sat. that doesn't have 4wd. Maybe we should decide for sure on Friday. The cool thing about Mantua is that the perch limit is 50, and it's the first time bait is alowed, so we should be able to NAIL a bunch of them, IF THE ICE IS SAFE. Since 500 people have viewed this thread, it makes me wonder how many people will be up there Saturday...1000? Hopefully the snowstorm will keep some of the wimps at home[] Let's just kind of take a wait and see approach. If on friday the ice looks crappy, and we're not sure of the road conditions, we can always go to your "secret cutthroat location" in the valley, right?[]
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[FishingCoach]

Thank's, that's some great information. I've noticed a lot of "bubblers" up at Bear Lake and they kinda freaked me out. I just stayed as far away as possible. As for fishing Mantua on Saturday, I'll be the second person on the ice...if the first person doesn't fall in.
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[maddawg]

How bout you send the GPS coordiance of those bubblers to me so i know where to go fishing come spring

Maddawg
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[CBR]

Yeah, do tell.
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[maddawg]

I don't know if you knew this CBR but there was once a stick in the water exposed just enough at the right time of year that if you knew were to cast you would hook a Rainbow everytime. That stick was not there this year. Sad Sad Sad[]
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[CBR]

HAh! Now you're going to have me looking around for a stick all day. Thanks.
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[maddawg]

Sorry bout that

Maddawg
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