Bass Fishing Sand Hollow Reservoir - Utah

This week Shifty and I set out for Sand Hollow. This trip was a two nighter and we fished with Greg Giacomazza "His Way Bass Fishing Guide Service" out of St. George Utah. Shifty set it up wanting to get to know the lake better. I thought it would be fun to learn from a guide that has fished the lake for the past 15 years. Before guiding Greg was in law enforcement and fished the FLW Tour in the Delta Region of NorCal. Greg was an absolute joy to fish with and very knowledgable in technique and tackle.

We pulled into St George Tuesday evening and readied ourselves for the early morning wake up call. Having to be at the dock at 6am we decided it would be best to drive and stay an extra night. We woke up at 5 and got ready to go. Shifty wanting to use his gear and I wanted some instruction with my bait caster we loaded and headed for Sand Hollow. We arrived at the gate around 5:50am and waited for them to open up at 6. They opened the gate and we drove to the dock. Just as we parked Greg pulled up with his 21 foot Ranger in tow. He quickly launched and was ready to go in a few minutes.

We left the dock by 6:30 and headed to our first spot. An area we had not previously fished and we started fishing with a big swim jig and trailer. Greg set us up with his gear and he put out a line as well. As he fished he gave pointers and directed us to do what he was doing. He gave us pointers on how to work our lure, line, and pole angle. I was on the front deck with him. He made a few casts and said here take my pole. He already had a fish hooked up. I reeled it in and released it. He traded me back poles and made a few more casts all the time teaching me what I needed to do for a strike. A few minutes later he said trade me poles, I smiled knowing he had one hooked up and I reeled the second fish of the morning. Shifty was working from the back deck and doing what Greg was telling us to do. He hooked up a couple on the jig and then went to an underspin jig and got a couple. We fished all morning and into the early afternoon with Greg we ended up catching over 30 Largemouth bass. We used various techniques and lures. I ended the day with a few fish on my own pole. Greg set up my bait caster and we worked a spinnerbait across the bottom. I fished it for a while and then went back to the jig and Greg used my pole and in a couple casts he hooked up a fish on the spinnerbait, just goes to show knowledge is priceless. I did what he explained to me to do and he did the same technique and landed a fish in just a few casts. Shifty and I traded spots and Shifty ended the day out on the front deck and caught quite a few Largemouth bass for the morning.

We headed to the North dam and fished in an area that we were familiar with, I was at the back of the boat working a jig. I cast my line into an area I had caught fish before and as I cast the line did the nasty and a rats nest ensued. I thought to myself this is when I'm going to catch a fish.

Sure enough, as I am working to get the line straightened out I felt it. The tug of a hookup. I work quickly to fix the line and try to get the tangle fixed and the fish is going nuts. Greg finally realizes I have a fish and a mess and tells me to just reel it in and we will fix it after we land the fish. I land the fish get a picture and Greg fixes the line quickly.

We fished areas of the lake we had not fished before and Greg told us why we were fishing the areas and what to look for when fishing the lake. He showed us techniques and lures that we had not thought about and how to use them. The knowledge gained was well worth the time spent with him on the boat. We capped the morning off at 1:30pm and thanked Greg for a wonderful experience!

We loaded up with smiles on our faces and headed to St George for rejuvenation, we stopped at Viva Chicken for lunch, good food and fun service. We went to Sportsman's Warehouse and bought more stuff we didn't need. We made a pit stop back at our hotel the Quality Inn Washington - St George North, Shifty stays here whenever he travels to Sand Hollow to fish, friendly service, clean rooms, and they have electrical outlets for charging the batteries on your boat. After a short rest, we loaded back up for the evening fish.

We left for Sand Hollow around 4:30. We parked at the West dam and walked down to our usual spot. We fished the evening trying some of the techniques we learned earlier and did our normal techniques that we knew would catch fish. I threw crankbaits and swim jigs and Shifty worked his drop shot and jigs. The riprap of the dam is tricky and sometimes costly losing cranks is never fun but I catch fish using them. I ended up with 6 fish, 3 Largemouth Bass and 3 Crappie, Shifty ended with 6 as well. We each had a 7th online but lost them at the bank. The coolest catch I had was a Crappie, I was reeling it in and all of the sudden a Largemouth Bass came out of nowhere and hit the Crappie trying to eat it, it was amazing and to watch it and another Largemouth Bass follow the Crappie all the way in was crazy! The sun was setting and the bite had turned off so we called it a day and headed back to St George, got dinner, and called it a night.

 

 

Thursday morning came early we woke up at 5:00am packed and loaded the truck and on the road by 5:30am. We arrived at the lake as they were opening the gate. The wind was howling! It had the flags standing straight out from their poles and whipping hard. We watched as Greg and his client for the day call off the day and left. We also watched a few brave soles launch and head out into the white caps and watched the spray of each crashing wave go over the bow and sides of their boats. We decided to fish from the bank and maybe see if the winds calmed down later in the morning. We hiked over to the North dam and fished the cliffs and riprap of the dam for the morning. Shifty was on fire he caught 13 fish on various baits all slow retrieve style. I caught a few as well using crankbaits, swimbaits, and spinnerbaits. The wind never really subsided and we fished until the bite stopped for the morning. We packed up and headed for the truck. We loaded up and were on the road by noon. We had a fun outing and caught over 60 fish for the two days. Learned some new areas of the lake and new techniques.