Hit Mantua around noon till 3. Road the wind and snow out and ended with 10 bluegill and 1 13" trout. I was about 80 yards out from the boat ramp using a green glow in the dark tear drop tipped with a wax worm. No need to worry about the ice there is plenty. Last time I use a hand auger! Time to invest in power.
Any reports of bigger fish coming out of there this year?
Anybody hit over near the inlet yet (SouthEast corner)? I’ve always done well for the 'gils over there, but haven’t heard any reports from over that way…perhaps it’s time to do some investigating…
Iv’e had great luck there before also, but this year has been slow for me at mantua. To many weeds? If you look down your hole the weeds are thicker than I ever remember seeing.
It’s been a slow year there at mantua for some reason. Too much fishing pressure over the last couple of years? who knows.
Geoff I’ve been out there a couple more times since you came up, but with minimal success. My boy caught a real nice largie at about the same area we were at earlier. On new years day I was out toward the eastern side, and we were marking them on the radar all morning long. Would they bite? heck no!
Frustrating to say the least.
I’m going to try Hyrum this weekend.
You are right…it’s too much catch and release pressure on the gills at Mantua. These are the finickiest gills in the entire state. They study the bait like bass before inhaling or usually, turning around and leaving. They simply will swim right by without looking at your offering. EXTREME finesse tactics required during ice now and only a few willing gills…not worth it. Population-wise the lake is entirely fillled with gills…numerous gills over 8 inches. It’s like Cabela’s fish tank times a billion, but these fish won’t bite. Well until spring anyways. They get more aggressive then, but I’m going to remain ambiguous cause it took me years to figure them out with no tips from anyone whatsoever.
Well said, Richard.
I have only fished Mantua with regularity for the past 3 years. That first year really spoiled me! Then this slump happens.
I don’t know what the record is for bluegills in this state, but I’ve caught a few hogs out of there measuring 9"+ and some around the 10" mark. That being said, there is also wayyyy too many ‘dinks’ in that lake.
Last summer, Tubedude and I threw around the idea about ways to make that fishery better- one idea we liked was planting more ‘predator fish’. Maybe some walleye or some pike would be interesting indeed. But would that eliminate the trout that are in that lake?
I’d say the species population in Mantua breaks down more-or-less like this: Bluegills 70%, Perch 20%, Largies 5%, Trout 5%.
The state record Bluegill was caught Mantua. I think they originally planed for that lake to be a blue ribbon trout fishing. A friend told me that they stocked the lake with DolyVardens (something like that suppose to be some super rainbow on steroids)but the trouble as you know is that its a small shallow lake. Pike in Mantua would be great. Wanna take a trip to Yuba? [;)]
I’ve never been to Yuba…sounds fun.
The big trout you are referring to are the Kamloops. They planted them in there years ago, but I doubt there are any left. They got pretty big. Tubedude probably has more info on that.
Yep. Kamloops. A fast growing and hard fighting strain of rainbow from British Columbia. A few survived and got big and feisty in Mantua, but the lake is too shallow and gets too warm in the summer for kamloops. They were allowed to die out and did not reproduce.
**Over the years DWR continually tried to maintain Mantua as a trout pond. But, bass and bluegills did much better. When the perch showed up it was game over. Now they still plant bows and cutts but the trout are only a small part of the overall fishery. But, DWR does take advantage of the tremendous warm water fishery. They use it as a hatchery and rearing pond for bass, bluegills and perch for their community pond stocking and for getting fish for the annual State Fair Kids Pond. **
Heavy harvest doesn’t hurt the lake. It is overpopulated with spiny rays anyway. Lots of food for them in there, but they do become overcrowded. In fact, a big part of the reason why the fish in Mantua are sometimes tough to catch is that they have too much natural food. The weed beds produce grundles of snails and aquatic insects. And, the spawn of perch and bluegill form clouds of food in the summer. There are actually “boils” on the surface as bluegill, bass and even perch glut on the abundance of little fishies. And, many of the larger fish you catch through the ice are stuffed with 1" fish fry…perch and bluegills. It just is not as much competition for food in mantua as it is in many of the “mud bowl” reservoirs that never develop good weed beds because they rise and fall so much every year. Mantua stays fairly level in water depth and has thick weed beds throughout the lake.
So what do you think: plant some wallies or pike in there to help even things out?
[:)] Thanks for the info TubeDude
Ya I kind of laughed to myself when they planted the Kamloops. The Kamloops natural food is Kokanee salmon, which just aren’t found in big numbers in Mantua.
The winter of 97 we fished mantua hard and caught alot of 24"+ trout. Its been ten years, but I’m sure they were Cutts. It’s been downhill for the trout ever since.[:(]
Mantua already suffers from overpopulations of fish that tend to overpopulate. Walleyes and northerns are definitely not good candidates for that little pond. Just a teensy bit out of balance and POOF…you have an even worse problem.
If I were to recommend anything it would be tiger muskies. Wouldn’t take too many to make a dent in the ranks of the gills and perchies. Since they do not spawn, they could not get out of control and would provide some C & R only fishing in the meantime.
**I love that little lake. **
That would be awesome indeed, to catch Tiger Musky’s out of that lake. Or in other parts of the country: Gators!
Sorry, but my response to tiger muskies is a VEHEMENT NO! lol. I like the abundant panfish…the tigers virtually destroyed the crappies at pineview. Sure there are few ginormous crappies that break records at pine, but the numbers are so few, they are not really worth fishing for anymore. It was better in years past when it was “stunted”… at least there was some kinda action. They even ate the bass up for years, but these smallies that survived and the few lmb have finally evolved to outrun the muskies to have a decent population comeback. No, please leave Mantua alone…hahaha. I would personally estimate the bass ratio much higher though…up to 30 percent or slightly more is lmb in Mantua. I’ve had plenty of catch and release bass outings that can see as much as 40 fish landed and released per day. I usually only fish for about 3 hrs or so a stretch. On certain days, those bass are everywhere. If you know what you’re doing. And mantua bass by far are the dumbest bass in the entire state. They readily bite any standard bass gear. Most don’t pause to study lures but inhale right away. But I like dumb fish cause i want action. Fast action. I’m not a patient person. I spent most of my summer at Mantua this year, lol.
I believe what limits the winter bite to a great extent are those thick weed beds that develop during summer. It is unavoidable that they die and decompose in winter making Mantua very anoxic. This could explain the frequent mid-morning bite on the lake when photosynthesis and oxygen production fires up in the still-living weeds. Also perhaps why many of the most active fish are up off the bottom and decomposing matter.
Yes you are right on about the state record 2lb gill. That is from Mantua. I doubt the current population will ever acheive that kind of size. There are plenty of 8-9 inches and 10’s even. But the girth and width of these gills are much less than fish from Hyrum or Utah lake. I think that genetics may be a problem at Mantua. The gills in the lake before they did rotenone simply had superior size genes. These gills since the rotenone came from new brood stock…I think it was from Red Fleet. They are just built smaller and have less width and girth for their length. Pelican’s the place to go for a trophy. And yes, the Kamloops are all died out now. That water is waaay too hot in the summer for good trout survival. Trout are planted in small numbers and there are a few nice ones to be had. I would say they are less than 1 percent of the population. And yes, they are eating tiny bluegills not plankton. Did a personal stomach content analysis on a fat mantua rainbow I was curious about. Did not see any perch or bass eaten. The perch are eating bluegills as well.
shhhhhhhh![;)]