I have never been to Utah lake let alone fished it; I have also never fished for white bass. I’d like to try both this weekend. I would appreciate any advice about where to go and how to get there (from Layton), what to use (color, size, etc), bait, depth of water, time of day, etc. to make it a useful and productive trip? Thanks in advance for anyone willing to help me out!
You are asking for a lot of information in one thread. I am attaching a general map of Utah Lake, for reference. If you plan to fish it more, you should get one of the blue and white maps available in Sportsmans or other locations.
**The easiest and best places to find white bass (and other species) under the ice are the harbors…American Fork, Lindon and Utah Lake State Park in Provo. The latter is possibly the easiest to find and potentially the best bet for some fish right now. **
**To get to Provo Harbor, drive south on I-15 to the Center Street offramp in Provo. Go west until the road ends. You are there. On a weekend there will likely be other anglers so you will know where to fish. Some of the better fishing for bluegills and crappies will be right next to the docks, but schools of white bass might be anywhere in the harbor. **
The water is not deep…no more than about 6 feet. Lots of different lures and baits will work. Many whitie chasers just use a small nickle Kastmaster with a piece of worm on it. But, they will hit all kinds of little tubes and ice jigs…with meal worms, waxworms, etc. Probably one of the best baits, at times, is a small piece of flesh cut from another white bass. Walleyes and the occasional bullhead or channel cat like the bass meat too.
If you can find the white bass, it usually does not make a lot of difference what you serve them. They are competitive feeders when schooling and hit aggressively. If they get finicky, and you see them on sonar but not on your line, keep changing the size, color and presentation of your offerings until you find the pattern.
Watch the other folks that are catching fish and do what they are doing. Be respectful of others and don’t crowd them, but since the fish are in schools, you need to be in the same area if you hope to score. However, white bass roam around a lot, and you can set up in a good “highway” and they will come through from time to time.
Good luck and post a report.
Thanks for the information TubeDude. I tried Utah lake, doing what you suggested and caught 6 bass. Not too hot, but no one else was doing any better. I look forward to my first taste of white Bass!
Which harbor did you go to because I have been to Provo boat arbor 4 times and no white bass yet. I have caught crappie, bluegills and perch but no whities - which harbor has them right now??
Pelican Harbor is where I caught them. I spoke to other guys who tried the pump house, lindon, etc. and said they weren’t catching them. One guy said that Provo harbor was usually the best.
Where is pelican boat harbor??
Hey Jacksonman, quick question at provo did you pick up the crappie on the docks or out in the harbor?
Pelican Harbor is on the West side, past Saratoga springs. Drive to a street called Harbor Ave(?) or something like that, turn towards the lake. There is a small area that people fish. It has been fished out like; only caught a few white bass today (small ones) and a lot of small-med bluegill.
The lake is very shallow. In the harbors you will lucky to get 6 feet. The key to catching is to be very quite on the ice.
For years, I thought noise would spook fish under the ice. Well, sometimes yes of course, but not always. I go through the ice with a chisel, and right away as soon as I chip a hole out pounding as hard as I can, I will get a fish usually on the first drop and the hole will keep producing until the schools are gone. Usually this is about 6 -9 ft of water I’m fishing on in Utah lake. Of course a perch down in 30ft at Rockport won’t even notice u on top…unless your atv drops through the ice and sinks down to them. But I hear atvs float, lol.
Some years ago when I was living in South Dakota I ice fished a lot of farm ponds for perch, LM bass, crappie & ‘gills. Something I picked up on from other fishermen was that when the action slowed down, somebody would drill another hole or two. The action would almost always pick right back up. Most of these ponds were fairly shallow, 8 to 12 feet most places with the occasional 25’ hole by the dam.
Sometimes we wouldn’t even drill a hole but just take an auger & pump it up & down in a hole for 30 seconds or so.