White Bass and a Jordan Surprise.

[TroutBumDave]

Thanks to JazzPerch and his infinite Jordan River knowledge, I've been able to get into a crap ton of White Bass over the last week. It has been so fun and easy, that my five year old daughter caught a dozen, and even my two year old managed to catch a few. (I just cast it out for them, they did the reeling and hook setting) Right now they're taking just about anything that looks like it's not a rock or mud. We caught them on poppers, pheasant tails, back stabbers, glo-bugs, wooly buggers, clousers, and even on crazy charlies. (I was bored, shoot me) As far as spinning gear goes, they took any and all colors of spinners, tube jigs, road runners, etc. Pretty much every color worked, but white and chartreuse seemed to be the most appealing to them. Of course worms worked, but we soon realized that we didn't need worms and that they took jigs happily with nothing tipped on them. My personal best was 18 casts in a row with a small silver popper. It got so absurd that it got to the point that if only one fish was on, I'd let him swim around a bit until my other fly/jig got hit. Doubles all around!



I read in another thread about the WB in Utah Lake looking weak, but that isn't the case in the river. The majority of these fish looked great, and 80% of them were in the 9 to 12" range. Most were fat and healthy. Yesterday I dropped my 5 year old off at school and took the 2 year old over to the river (we have two hours to fish before we have to pick up the older one) and we were able to bring 60 whities to the bank, and we kept 42 of them. 15 were cut into catfish bait and frozen while the rest were filleted and cooked up for fish taco's last night. That is my first time ever eating a white bass, or anything out of the Jordan River -- and I'm digging it. My fingers and hands are shredded, but it was worth the hours of slicing slabs.

To top my week, I managed to pull this beauty out of the masses of white bass:







The sickest and weakest looking brown trout I've ever had the misfortune of catching. I'd heard rumors of trout in there, but have never seen one or known anyone that had caught one. If you hadn't either, consider yourself now in the know!

And to finally end this lengthy bag of crud, I wanted to post the following:



That is not me. However, that pole on the ground is mine. I put a small white bass on there to see if Mr. Kitty might happen by while I was slaughtering WB. The place where that guy is standing is where I was fishing when he walked up behind me and asked if I was catching anything. When I said yes, he replied (as he started to tie on a spinner), "Mind if I squeeze in here?" He then proceeded to tell me all about how there just aren't any BIG white bass in the Jordan anymore because people just harvest too many darn fish. [crazy] I had to just take a few steps back and bask in his amazing fishing/knowledge prowess. You'll note that there's no way that two people can stand where he is and fish that particular section of water, but that didn't stop him. He stayed right in that spot until it got dark, then loaded up his gear and trekked out with his chain-smoking buddy in tow. I was also lucky enough to enjoy his commentary; every other fish he caught was nice enough to hold up, show me, explain to me why certain colors are working this time of year, tell me all about how delicious they are, and how healthy these fish seem to be. How did I get so lucky?
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[FishingLunatic]

Interesting man..I've only caught a few decent white bass in my experience on the jordan. Also, props on the trout haha. I'm familiar with most of the jordan caus I jog trails and look for spots on the way back but I'm actually not sure where u guys are at. I do know that spots with islands and near those white rocks the guy standing by your pole is on tend to be good somewhere near there. I'm usually just a traditional worms guy and I'v honestly had a really crappy month on the jordan but up untill then I was consistantly catching the type of fish that I intended on catching. I know how to fish it fairly well as well. The main thing is if u aren't getting any, go somewhere else...Fish in ther are almost always hungry so if u aren't getting any there's probably none in there. Also look for anywhere that isn't straight, particularily islands I mentioned before. With the jordan its really not so much about the bait as it is being where the fish are which u obviously were where bass were!
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[fish_fear_me2]

Sounds like you have been getting into the whities, I am not sure why but Utah Lake and the Jordan seem to attract those anglers. I have been ice fishing at the pumphouse and had guys drop into my second hole , even had one hit my fishing partner in the face with his pole as he tried for a hook set. Amazing!! If you are catching fish it seems 2 feet is not to close. At some point I have to quit being polite.
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[Jazzperch1]

nice job troutbum looks like its still producing for you good, ive probly kept 50 out of there in the last 2 weeks and you took a few and ive seen people with stringers leaving, that hole is just stacked with whities and a sickly brown[:p]. But i know what you mean about people there thinking they can come right on your lap just cause your catching fish. i think that guy might have been the same dude i saw but maybe not he came up the first time i was ever there and said "hey thats my spot", nice and loud and almost like he was gonna cry so i said back,first time here man. so he proceeds to fish on the rocky bank and cast his lures right at my feet on the sandbar, i was getting them every cast on the fly rod and i watched him cast his lure 5 times in a row with no bites and he had this look of frustration on his face and turns to me and says in a panic "what color are you using, and i said doesent matter and he also proceeded to tell me the reason he cant get a bite is becuase he is reeling agiainst the current and not down with it, that had to be the dumbest thing i ever heard especially when its a WB frenzy you can throw a bare hook in for em and it doesent matter. I remember my dad saying to me, is this guy serious cause he's lucky we already had caught a ton of fish or he might be taking a nice swim.[]
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