# Pelican 5/20-5/21

**URL:** <https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/pelican-5-20-5-21/41241>\
**Category:** Utah Fishing General\
**Created:** [May 23, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/pelican-5-20-5-21/41241 "2004-05-23T00:35:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![leaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@leaky](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/u/leaky)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/pelican-5-20-5-21/41241/1 "2004-05-23T00:35:27Z")

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Hii folks,

Let’s see, where do I start. Temp.s were 76-78/49-51 (Vernal), windy/brezzy, dry, water temp.s about 60deg.( best guess since I don’t have a thermometer). Fished from our tubes about 1/2 day each. Took turns with my buddy so we could take care of each others goldens. The dogs had a great time!!! Fishing was tough for us!!! I manged to catch my limit plus a few more (releaed) of bass each time and about 1/2 doz blues on a black 3" pulse worm and 1/64 oz. jig head. Ate the first limit for dinner! YUM,YUM. Most of the bass ranged from 10 1/2 - 12 1/2 with a few at a little more than 13. My buddy didn’t do quite as well but as he said, he had a great time. All fish were close in next to the cattails. Tried a little in deeper water but no success. From our observations, nobody was doing any better in their bass boats. Can’t speak for the boats out in the middle. Fishing was tough, not nearly as active as I expected, but it just made it more worthwhile. Water level was about normal and higher than I expected considering the drought conditions.

Puzzeles/questiones:

1. Why was it so tough? Expected hotter action! Blues still deep, why? The temp.s seem to ber similar to last year and we killed em. Didn’t see any visually like I normally do?? Is it possible, I’ve lost my touch?? Anyone with more accurate water temps.?

2. Practically no mosquitoes!!! Normally we are eaten alive this time of year/temp. Did they do some spraying? Of course it’s graduation weekend and all sorts of partying Fri. night with al lot of boats the 22nd.

3. Fished the west side. Wrong place for some reason.?

Ok Kayotte - I expect an input or at least some comments!!! Where were You?

[crazy]Leaky

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**Author:** ![leaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@leaky](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/u/leaky)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/pelican-5-20-5-21/41241/2 "2004-05-24T14:29:46Z")

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Bump???

Leaky

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**Author:** ![PrinceFisher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@PrinceFisher](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/u/PrinceFisher)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/pelican-5-20-5-21/41241/3 "2004-05-24T16:04:34Z")

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Went over the weekend with a friend who has fished Pelican for several years now. We tried all the standard, and even some not-so-standard, lures and baits for LMB and gills and had little success. We caught a few small LMB and about half a dozen gills, but all things considered–I wouldn’t say that the fishing was worth the three-hour one-way drive. We fished from about 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and we caught about 2-3 fish per hour throughout the day.

Don’t know if I’ll be headed out there anytime again soon. Way too many boats for such a small lake. There were so many boats, we couldn’t get into some of the places we wanted to fish. If I’m going to drive that far, I might as well head to Lake Powell or some of the other southern lakes for bass.

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**Author:** ![porta\_homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4bbf92/32.png) [@porta\_homer](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/u/porta_homer)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/pelican-5-20-5-21/41241/4 "2004-05-24T16:17:02Z")

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Your reports seem to be consistent with what we found two weekends ago. But majority of our fish were caught out in the middle. Caught the bass on senko wacky rigged, and a few gills on flies behind sunken bobber, but we had to resort to worms on jig head before we really started to catch the gills.

Leaky, have you been to mantua lately, that seems to have been kind of slow as well.

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**Author:** ![RiverRat77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@RiverRat77](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/u/RiverRat77)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/pelican-5-20-5-21/41241/5 "2004-05-24T18:50:59Z")

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This is a little scary… I planned on heading out to Pelican in June but I don’t know if it will even be worth it… I wonder why all the boat traffic?? I’ve been out there several times for the past two years and it hasn’t ever been swamped with boats… Hmm. Every time I’ve gone, I’ve just slayed the bass and blue gills on Berkely plastics. This is really strange that nobody is catching fish. Has anyone really had any good success out there this year or has it just been mediocre for everyone? And if Mantua is that same way, then it might not be worth the trip up there either. Hey Leaky, is Mantua as far as Pelican from SLC or is it closer? I might take a trip up there and then hit some side waters if it isn’t fishing well. Sounds like something is throwing off all the bass waters around the state… Everywhere anyone goes, Pelican, Mantua, I -80 ponds, the local ponds…all sound like tough times for the bucketmouth crowd. Sorry to hear that…but hopefully the smallies will start picking up around the SLC area and then the fun can really begin.

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**Author:** ![leaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@leaky](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/u/leaky)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 12:28am UTC](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/pelican-5-20-5-21/41241/6 "2004-05-25T00:28:17Z")

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Hi guys,

I’ve learned a little info. since my original post.

First - there was a Junior Bass Tour. that weekend which explains the traffic. Several didn’t even catch a fish in the 6 hrs of fishing. Apparently we did good.

Second - Tom Pettengill (DWR) provided me a response as follows:

Water is still too cold for the bluegills to really be spawning. About  
two weeks ago when we had a brief spell of warmer weather the bluegills  
started to move into the shallows on the North side (across the lake  
from the boat ramp) but cold, windy weather shut off the spawn and  
pushed them back out. I have been in the Uinta Basin the last two weeks  
and it has been colder than normal with lots of windy weather. I think  
that’s also the reason the bugs aren’t bad yet.

Sooooooo - There it is, hope it helps. Good fishing.

Leaky
