Fishing Mantua Reservoir is one of my favorite places to go and catch bass. One really cool dude hired me for a day to take him out and teach him a little about bass fishing, so naturally I took him to Mantua Reservoir. We had a great time. The fishing wasn’t white hot, but we caught some serious fatties. At the end of the day, we figured we caught about 14 bass between the two of us. Here’s the logistics of where we went, what we used, and how we got “Kraken” bass fishing Mantua Reservoir.
It was a lot of fun to finally get out on a boat fishing Mantua. The dude that hired me to take him out on his boat was also a real stud. We had a good time together. Here’s what transpired while we were out trying to “Krak” some bass. This report contains the conditions we faced, places where we found the fish, and the baits that worked the best for us. Hopefully, you can take something from this post to help you in your bass fishing excursions.
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Here is what conditions where like fishing Mantua. We were on the water from about 7:45 am – 3:30 pm on Monday, May 23rd.
Air Temperatures were cool around the low 60’s until late afternoon. Calm 0 – 5 mph winds, with more wind later in the afternoon. Partly Cloudy Skies.
Lightly Stained, Visibility about 5-7 feet.
60 Degrees.
High, Lot’s of flooded trees, and brush along the banks.
We met up at 6:30 am and headed out to Mantua fishing for the morning, and created some memories both of us will never forget. Every trip for me leaves a lasting impression, and I always learn so much. This trip was no exception. We were practically the only boat out on the water, and the scenery was awesome. The guy with me caught his personal best Largemouth, and I was privileged to be a apart of it. Here’s how our day played out on the water.
We started the morning off with a little tutorial session, and we got lined out to start plugging along the banks. During the tutorial session, I was demonstrating how to throw a spinnerbait, and I hooked up on a trout! It was crazy. Once we got squared away, I started throwing a swimbait trying to cover water. My friend was throwing a weightless texas rigged senko up into the cover along the bank. Pretty quickly I hooked up on one with the swimbait.
I was surprised we weren’t getting bites on the senko. I knew we were around fish after I “Kraked” the first one. I pulled a senko out as well and started going to work along the banks too. Finally, we got bit. The bass we caught was sitting underneath a longer than average branch on the corner of a point. We kept to the plan of throwing senko’s and moved along the banks.
We spotted a big bass cruising shallow, and my friend made a few casts with his senko around the area.. Then I heard him say, “I got one!” The bass came to the surface, and had a huge head. I was freaking out. It was a pig. It wound up being my friends personal best so far. We put a scale on her and she came out at 3.9 lbs. It looked like she had just finished spawning. Here is the picture of the toad!
The rest of the day my friend caught a couple more flipping a senko up along the flooded cover. We also kept moving around and trying different things. Along the rocky banks we switched to soft plastic texas rigged craws and a jig, and we wound up picking up a few on those as well. Plus, a swimbait picked up a couple more bass. Here’s one of the ones I picked up on a swimbait sitting out in about 8 – 9 feet of water in the grass.
We ended the trip with about a dozen bass caught during our time fishing Mantua Reservoir. Plus, the majority of our fish were in the two pound class or bigger. We had several misses which would have up’d our totals. What was interesting from this trip is even though the water was cool at 60 degrees, it looked like the fish had finished up spawning. A lot of the bigger bass were thin through the belly where they had dropped their eggs. Plus, their tails where hammered from fanning beds. I was surprised we didn’t see any spawning beds with male bass guarding the fry. Maybe we should’ve tried looking around a little harder for them. Bottom line, it was a great trip fishing Mantua Reservoir.
Here is a map of the places we fished, and what transpired in those areas.
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We mixed it up and threw quite a few different baits. Hands down though these were the top baits to produce fish for us.
A green pumpkin 4″ senko
is what we got the majority of our bites on. We texas rigged the senko weightless on a 2/0 offset gamakatsu worm hook
. The key for fishing the senko was to let it soak long and good. The bites were extremely subtle. We’d just bomb those senko’s out, and let them fall to the bottom. Every bite was when the bait was just laying on the bottom. It was kind of interesting. I wonder if it was because we were riding the back of a cold front. It might have turned the bite down a little for us. Still though, we caught em. We just had to be super patient.
The first bass of the day was caught on a 4″ Keitech Ayu Easy Shiner
. It proved to be a solid bass catcher the rest of the day as well. We rigged it up on a 1/8 oz darter jig head
. The key was to swim it slow and low. Crawling it along the bottom seemed to be where I got the most bites. The light weight keeps it falling super slow. I felt like this was the jam for getting bites. We used a spinning rod and reel with this swimbait set up. The 1/8 oz weight is ultra light, so a spinning rod helped us get good distance out of our casts with this bait.
We fished a 3.6 Keitech Green Pumpkin Fire Crazy Flapper
several different ways, and it hooked us up on a few bass. Flipping the crazy flapper into cover on a strike king structure swinging head
caught us a bass. The crazy flapper set up on keitech casting jig
caught a solid bass. In addition, we also set the flapper up on a finesse texas rig. The finesse texas rig got a few bites, but we weren’t able to connect on them. The key was to crawl it slowly. They definitely were in a slow style mood on this trip.
All-around fun trip for me. Truly appreciated the support of the dude who hired me for the day. I now consider him a friend. Fishing flat out builds relationships with whoever you go with. Whether it is friends, or family it always brings you closer. My number one goal is to help you experience the magic of the outdoors chasing bass. When you hire me for a day to tag along with you, I’m always trying to teach and show you stuff you can do on your own to catch more bass. Reach out to me through my contact page, and let’s go try and get into some bass. Not all days are lights out, but every time you learn and grow through the process.
Fishing Mantua Reservoir didn’t disappoint. We didn’t clobber the snot out of them, but we caught some good sized bass. I hope you can use this information to go catch some yourself. Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog for all the trip reports and tips to keep you “Kraken” Bass!
As Always,
Stay Stoked!
The links above and below in this post are affiliate links were you can pick up baits, rod’s, reels, line, and anything else I used to “Krak” some bass on this trip. Krakenbass receives a small percentage of the sales through these links. I only use links to baits, and gear I personally trust and know work. I put these links to make them helpful for you, and not for the small amount I make for the sale of the products. I hope these products can help you “krak” some bass! Thank you for your support.
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2 Responses
Kb, what is the bait you have on this report when I look at the link for the Texas rigged crew
Thanks
If you scroll down to the middle of the post, there is a section titled “Baits for Fishing Mantua Reservoir” the soft plastic craw is described there. We used a Keitech Crazy Flapper.