Any one have any news on Pelican? Wasn’t there a tournament there this weekend? Were anuy of you in it? How was the fishing? I’m thinking of going out there this weekend! Thanks…
There is lots of small bass (too many bigger bass are being kept) lots of blues,
others have posted about it …
Here is a link form one of the tourny guys.
I’m not too sure about the bigger bass being kept with the parasites and all but the fishing is top notch. Yes, there was a tournament there last weekend. I came in fourth place with a kicker big fish at 2.10. top weight weight 14 lbs+ for two days was the winner. I weighed in at nine even, pretty tough to find fish over 12" with some weight.
North end where the dirt road is, opposite side of the boat ramp, fish in/outside the reeds with anything Texas rigged weightless/weedless, sometimes a weighted hook will drop in the pockets easier. For bigger fish think green…[;)]
Thanks for the good info! Congrats on doing well in the tourny 
The biggest fish are done with the spawn. Move off the shoreline and out of the tules. Search offshore grass with a rattlebait and swimbait. I don’t mean 1/4oz mini-traps or 4" swimbaits. Throw the regular sized rattle trap or the LVR500 by Lucky Craft and a 5"+ on the swim. Let’em sink and ripp’em out of the grass.
Next month you can move back into the thick tules and throw a frog or buzzer, but the big ones are offshore right now. Remember: little baits = little fish.
True: little baits equal little fish, usually. I caught a bluegill on a 5" swimbait so you can never keep the little ones away at Pelican. The fish are definately moving outside the reeds, as soon as the moss starts rising they will be in mid-lake areas…however, being back in that thick nasty crap that nobody fishes near the shallows is where the bigguns are untill the water gets too warm. You may not be able to throw big baits but a 5" senko will do the trick. Right now, think green…hint, green vegetation makes great cover for big bass.
We differ in opinions on where the bigger fish are LakeX, not trying to argue with you. I caught my last keeper outside of the reeds so they are spreading out. Pelican is an awesome place, throwing topwaters at 5:00 pm still caught fish.
No arguement here Fun4. There is always exceptions to the rule, I try to play the percentage game. I’ve always got better fish offshore at Pelican in the later half of May.
If you can find one of those deeper offshore grass matts left over from last year it can me mined for some serious greenfish.
I tried finding one of those off shore matts, other than the obvious stick-ups I couldn’t find anything growing more than two feet off the bottom in 7+ feet of water. Pelican took a pretty hard winter and lost alot of vegetation not that it won’t take more than a couple weeks from now to build back up. By then water temps and damsel flys will have the bass feeding voraciously. Buzz baits baby!
We’ll have to hook up on the water sometime LakeX.
I fished there last year and caught many bass between 3.5 to 5.0 pounds. I also caught at least forty very tiny bass. They would sit in the shade beneath the boat and smack your lure on literally every retrieve. If the little bass weren’t smackin your bait you weren’t catching anything big either. We caught some bluegills and green sunfish(at least 20 in an hour) but did not know about the worms until we cut 'em up. Let me tell you, that first gill I cut up made me want to puke.
[;)] Years ago I kept some some bass out of there because there were so many small ones and I had the same reaction…“what the heck is that?” Looked real close and it moved! dry heave. ‘They’ say they are ok as long as they are fully cooked but I don’t think I could stomach it.
yuk! good idea for everyone to stay away from Pelican Lake!
What do you think of the carp that is in there now???
Could you see them???
I talked to some guys from Colorado and they said they saw some carp…ya…right. Next morning I spooked one that was atleast 10 lbs. and I could hear and see them spashing in the shallow reeds making more carp babies 
. Too bad, I don’t know where they came from but I’d sure like to see them gone. Unless Pelican has a winterkill the only way to get rid of them would be death to all fish.
Maybe it’s time to get some bowfishing going on out at Pelican… 
Carp have been in Pelican for many years. But, so far the predators have managed to keep them at a “manageable” level. They probably contribute more in forage (carp fry) than they destroy, but that can swing the other way quickly and the carp could destroy a lot of the aquatic vegetation that makes Pelican so productive.
There are also some channel cats and bullheads in there too.
The only resizons the lake is muddy in places is the carp + they are eating all the moss in some areas witch hurt the blue gills and bass, carp have never helped any like or fishery in this state…
I don’t think so..This is why…
Carp fry grow too fast to work for food source for most of our fish,+ they muddy up the water and keep other fish from having as good of spawn as they should…
carp eat the moss and grass that other foods for fish live in and make it hard for the fry to hide in…With carp all we get is a lose lose fishery…
I know there were carp in Pelican as early as 1982. Killed some with a bow.
And, the water gets muddy every spring because of runoff. There is seldom any mud in the summer and there are always plenty of weeds…and bugs.
Small bluegill eat carp eggs…and small carp. Bass eat the heck out of carp fry until they get too big. But, by then they have put a pretty good dent in the population.
Not every lake that has carp is overrun with carp. They live a peaceful coexistence with the other fish in lots of lakes. Only when they get out of balance…like in Utah Lake…do they upset the ecology.
How about Powell? How about Flaming Gorge? How about Deer Creek? How about Starvation? If there are enough predators doing their job, the carp establish a level and there are no problems. It gets scary when we see them massing in the shallows in the spring, but after that nature takes its course and the overall survival rate is not bad enough to worry about.
They treated Pelican about 15 to 20 years ago and until about 4 years ago no carp was found in there…
In deep lakes carp can get along with other fish and not mess up the lake but lakes like Utah and Pelican they are bad…