Bass Fishing Mantua Reservoir

After a good cleaning, draining and drying of the boat and a little Clorox to ensure the cleanliness of the Fish Steeler, Thursday morning Shifty met me at the house and we loaded up the Fish Steeler and headed for Mantua Reservoir. Mantua Reservoir is a small reservoir in Sardine Canyon on the way to Cache Valley. The reservoir is not large but holds some nice largemouth bass, along with bluegill, crappie, and trout rainbow and brown. We picked up Kelly in Salt Lake and made our way to Brigham City were stopped and we got some snacks and breakfast. We will find a different stop next time, not too good of a choice for breakfast where we stopped. We made it to the lake at sunrise and the air was crisp and the lake was glass.

After getting all the tackle on the boat we made our way across the lake to where the hot springs are located and supposedly all the bass. We started fishing, Kelly was working a topwater jerk bait, Shifty was working a spinnerbait and I started out with a medium diving square bill. After a few cast we all changed up Kelly to a frog, Shifty to a buzz bait, and I went to a shallow crankbait. I am not a bass fisher, but the crankbait worked and I pulled in the first fish of the day.

They promptly changed lures to crankbaits. I fished the shallow crankbait for a few more cast and got nothing else on it. So I changed to a couple other lures getting nothing and then put on jointed Rapala and the third cast with it produced the second fish of the day. Neither of which was anything to brag about but I was catching. I fished the jointed bait for a while and nothing else again.

We fished the bank area for a couple hours, changing baits, presentations depth's you name it, and nothing. Shifty and Kelly went to the bottom and worked worms and grubs. Shifty put on a curly tail grub jig and sank it to the bottom. he worked it for a few seconds and bam!

A nice hit and hook up. He got it to the boat and it was a nice 2 lb largemouth bass. We got a couple pictures and video shots of it and released to fight another day. We continued down the bank and Shifty continued to work the grub along the bottom and a few minutes later he had another nice hit and hook up. He got that one and we thought for sure it went 2 lbs and Kelly said nah 1.5 lb so we weighed it and sure enough 1.6 lb.

We released and kept fishing back up the bank. Again changing colors types and presentations trying to find that one killer bait of the day. I changed out to another shallow crankbait and on the third cast I caught my third of the day, again just an itty bitty but it was the third one for me putting me back in the lead.

Fished for another few minutes and getting nothing. It was a one-hit-wonder day for me and my lures. We played around until noon on the bank and caught nothing else. We shot across the lake to the dam and fished it for an hour and getting nothing we called it a day. Kelly got a couple hits but didn't land anything, Shifty definitely had the biggest bag of the day and I had the most. We stopped at the Burger Bar in Roy for a burger and it was delicious. Great day on the pond with Shifty and Kelly.